Texas reliever Josh Sawyer signs with Chicago Cubs
After five years at Texas and two trips to the College World Series, Josh Sawyer has decided to wear a new uniform.
Sawyer announced Tuesday night that he had signed with the Chicago Cubs, who used a 16th-round pick on him in last month’s MLB draft. Sawyer tweeted out the news in the form of a heartfelt farewell. MLB.com’s Jim Callis reported that the left-handed pitcher received a signing bonus of $125,000.
Sawyer was on UT’s postseason roster when it reached the College World Series in 2014. Sawyer started 11 times the next season. However, he was sidelined by injuries in 2016 and 2017.
Sawyer returned this spring and became the lefthanded arm that UT leaned on. Helaire and redshirt junior Lanard Fournette have combined for 362 yards and no TDs in their careers.
The quarterback race involving sophomore Myles Brennan, fourth-year junior Justin McMillan and redshirt freshman Lowell Narcisse blew hot and cold all spring, culminating in the spring game, when the offense wheezed and sputtered.
Now there’s a wild-card entry: Ohio State graduate transfer Joe Burrow is in the mix.
Finally, new Tigers offen- sive coordinator Steve Ensminger is installing a conventional pro-style offense after Orgeron’s one-year experiment of tolerating fired OC Matt Canada’s motion-filled schemes.
At this point, Orgeron doesn’t have a clue about how quickly the offense will progress. But here’s the good thing: Neither does Miami. Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said recently on a Miami radio show that he has been “piecing a lot of informa- tion together from a lot of different sources” trying to get a clear picture of LSU’s offense.
Diaz, Texas’ defensive coordinator from 2011 to 2013, has faced LSU twice — as Mississippi State’s defensive coordinator in 2010 and 2015. He’s 0-2 vs. the Tigers, but the Bulldogs were a last-second missed field goal away from beating LSU in the ’15 season opener in Starkville.
Back then, everything was clear-cut for Diaz.
He knew then-LSU coach Les Miles was married ’til contract buyout do us part to the I-formation. He had plenty of film of the Tigers’ returning offensive threats, including a running back sen- sation named Leonard Fournette. There wasn’t much guessing in formulating a game plan.
This time for Diaz and Miami’s video staff, LSU’s offense is a mystery with- out many clues.
Video of returning run- ning backs? Not much there.
Film clips of LSU quarterbacks? Diaz has been solely concentrating on tracking down clips of the 11 games that Burrow played for Ohio State, as well as Burrow’s last two spring games, when he completed a combined 29 of 44 passes for 500 yards and five TDs.
The one thing Diaz can watch is the eight games when Ensminger served as interim offensive coordinator in 2016 after Miles and OC Cam Cameron were fired following LSU’s 2-2 start.
But even then, Ensminger was calling plays from the Miles-Cameron playbook. There wasn’t time to install new schemes. Ensminger just had to go with the flow.
“It’s funny,” Diaz said in the radio interview with WQAM’s Joe Rose. “You can tell guys, ‘Hey, watch this film from two years ago, but there’s none of the players.’ You can say, ‘Hey, watch the film from this year, but only these players, and don’t watch the schemes or the plays.’ And then, ‘Oh, by the way, watch this guy in red and gray who will be throwing the ball.’”
Maybe Diaz should dig up and study some late-1970s game film of Ensminger as LSU’s quarterback slinging the ball around Tiger Stadium.
“We’ve got to be ready to roll Day One,” Diaz said. “Season openers usually have a lot more to do with you and making sure that you’re sound and your guys can get lined up. You’re trying to make sure that you’re ready to go in terms of your techniques and fundamentals because there’s no way you can completely predict exactly what your opposition will do.”
Maybe AT&T Stadium will provide LSU’s offense with mystical powers. The Tigers are 3-0 in the home of the Dallas Cowboys and have averaged 40.6 points in wins over No. 18 Texas A&M (in the 2011 Cotton Bowl), No. 3 Oregon (in the 2011 Advocare Classic) and No. 20 TCU (in the 2013 season opener).