Welcome to the new blog

I wanted to welcome everyone to the new blog format. The old blog hasn't gone anywhere and you can access it on the right side. Hopefully we can get the old posts flowing in here, but I'm not sure how that works.

You can leave comments on here. That's why I pushed so hard to change the format. The comments are still moderated and you have to register.

This is obviously still a work in progress, so bear with me as I continue to try to figure things out.

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Back to some real notes. HERE is the short story that ran in today's paper about coach Larry Blakeney being surprised and humbled by the field being named after him.

I talked to him about a few things. I started asking who all shined through spring practice. He's a huge fan of new safeties Brynden Trawick and Angelo Hadley, it seems. Trawick is a starter now. Hadley should play a lot.

They're counting on defensive tackle Emmanuel Dudley a lot, even though he missed spring with an ankle injury.

The progression of Kanorris Davis and Johnny Thompson at the nickel spot has really been good.

The future is bright for freshman quarterback Luke Barnes, but they hope that senior Jamie Hampton is well enough to serve as the backup so Barnes can redshirt and get some separation from starter Corey Robinson.

Troy's 2011 and 2012 schedules are complete. The 2013 has @Mississippi State and home vs. UAB as non-conference opponents. The scuttlebutt is that the athletic department is looking for an FCS opponent or two (not in the same year) that would bring a big crowd to come to Troy. I don't have any names.

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The baseball team is struggling right now, having now lost 2 of 3 to last-place Middle Tennessee. Sunday's loss was 4-0.

Can't really blame the loss of Drew Hull, who will have his Tommy John surgery next Thursday. Odd how a team went from getting 11 runs and 17 hits in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday to getting shutout twice in less than 24 hours.

Troy hosts UAB Tuesday at 6 p.m., a game I plan on being at. Alabama A&M comes to town Wednesday and Western Kentucky is in town this weekend.

The gap between Troy and the rest of the league has shrunk. Troy is 11-4 in league play. WKU and FAU are both 10-5. ULL and South Alabama are the next best teams at 8-7.

Here's the bad part, though. Troy's RPI has fallen down to 42, according to WarrenNolan.com, after losing 4 of the last 5. Losses to Middle Tennessee, who was above 200, really can hurt that. That RPI would still get Troy in a regional if it didn't win the tournament, but Troy doesn't have that many high-quality wins, so it can't afford many bad losses. Middle Tennessee (twice) was a bad loss.

The hope is that this is a typical midseason slump.