Yes, Alabama Softball has a Patrick Murphy problem. But only he has the solutions.

Entering the 2012 WCWS title game against Oklahoma, Alabama softball coach Patrick Murphy had already cemented himself among the upper echelon of the sport. Alabama was one of the It programs in the country and Murph in its elite.

And it was easy to see why. The credentials were impressive. That year would mark his 14th season at the Capstone, for all intents and purposes a program he built. In that span from 1999 to 2012:

• Alabama had never finished below .500
• Went to the WCWS in his second season
• Won 50+ games 10 times in 14 years
• Never finished below 3rd in the Division, and never lower than 4th in the conference
• Murphy had been the 8-time South Region COTY; a 3-time SEC COTY; and would earn National COTY honors in 2012.
• Alabama had claimed four regular season and four SEC Tourney titles.
• In those 14 years, Alabama advanced to the WCWS 8 times.
• And record was simply exemplary: 744-198 (.789)

We know how that rain-soaked night played out, as Alabama stared down an equally talented Oklahoma team, and gritted its way to a small ball classic, 5-4, en route to the Tide’s first (and only) championship.

His opponent across the diamond was on par with Murphy in many respects. But, make no mistake: by most metrics, it was Patrick Murphy that had the more accomplished CV entering that game. The Sooners Patty Gasso arrived four years earlier than Murphy, and sported a .712 winning percentage in Norman. She had won a title already, but had just one in her 18 years in the dugout to go with just six appearances in WCWS in almost two decades and only four conference titles. Oklahoma was not exactly the behemoth that we know today. Very good, respectable program, but hardly an 800-pound gorilla. And, at best, Gasso was 1A, not the slam-dunk, best-in-the-biz coach she is now

Did you enjoy that moment?

A tornado-ravaged hometown, at a softball-crazed school, ate it up.

But it would be an inflection point for both programs.

Because that night would be the last time Alabama has even come close to such heights again. Why? Because Oklahoma decided to go from an elite team to the elite team. And, in 2011, after almost a decade of missing out on the WCWS (and after almost two decades on the bench), Patty Gasso revamped her coaching entirely, became deadly serious about recruiting bats, and then went on to become an absolute menace to the sport.

It was a conscious, deliberate strategy. And it paid immediate dividends.

Led by National POTY Ricketts, OU made the 2011 WCWS. They did it again in 2012, as Ricketts reprised POTY, and advanced to the title game. And, in 2013, with the nation’s best offense in tow, OU went on to claim the title they narrowly lost to the Tide. It was not overnight, though; it was the product of growth, of three years of change

And Gasso didn’t stop winning. Going into this year’s WCWS, OU has won 15 straight conference titles, and 15 of 16. The Sooners went to the WCWS again in 2014. They just missed in 2015, but that would be the last time (with the exception of the COVID year). In fact, Oklahoma has now advanced to the World Series every single season since 2015; 13 of the last 14 overall.

The Sooners are not content to just make an appearance either. They claimed seven national titles in that span, including a gaudy four straight at one point, with two runners-up since 2012. Only once has Oklahoma failed to win 50+ games since that loss to the Tide — the year OU “just” made the Super Regional. And Gasso’s win percentage the last 15 years? It’s sitting at 83%

After the stormy legend of Jackie Traina had been written, Gasso went from being a tad less accomplished than Murphy, to becoming the sport’s GOAT…simply because Gasso pivoted her recruiting and coaching towards developing offensive talent.

How talented? Well, 7 of the last 13 National Players of the Year have been Gasso products.

And she would mirror Saban in more ways than talent and bottom line too, namely in how she identified, hired, and cultivated talented coaches:

Seven former Oklahoma players or assistant coaches who were serving as head coaches at Division I programs, six of whom were at power-conference schools. This season, four of the SEC’s 15 programs were led by a Gasso protege or, in the case of the Sooners, Gasso herself. Each of those teams finished in the top eight of the conference standings.

Perhaps most impressively, three of the coaches oversee programs that are competing in the super regional round of the 2025 NCAA tournament this week.

That list includes Florida’s Tim Walton, who “turned the Gators into an SEC power, with 12 WCWS appearances since 2008. That run was highlighted by national championships in 2014 and 2015, along with three runner-up finishes — in 2009, 2011 and 2017.”

So does it include Courtney Deifel, who at Arkansas “has won 358 games, the most in program history, and taken Arkansas to the super regional round four times. When she was hired, the Razorbacks had never advanced past regionals. Arkansas also won SEC regular-season championships in 2021 and 2022.”

Arkansas has now finished tied with or above Alabama in five straight SEC seasons. The Gators are so far ahead of the Tide it’s laughable. And we won’t even get into the myriad ways that the Sooners have eclipsed ‘Bama.

And that’s just her coaching tree in the SEC.

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Meanwhile, what has Alabama done since that night in Stillwater?

• A team that could routinely be counted on to be atop the SEC? It has been at there just twice in 13 years, and it shared one of those seasons with Arkansas — who were led by SEC Player of the Year, Alabama’s once-budding star, KB Sides.
• A team that you could pencil in for 50+ wins? It’s happened just three times in 13 years.
• A team that you could routinely count on being at least elite in the conference, the one that had not finished lower than 4th in the SEC the previous decade? It’s finished 5th or lower seven times.
• How many SEC Players of the year in 13 seasons? One — Bailey Hemphill.
• How many SEC Tourney titles? One.
• How many SEC COTY accolades? Two — and none in the last six years.
• How many bottom-half finishes has Alabama had the last six years, after having zero in the previous two decades? Three.
• Winning percentage the last 13 years? Flirting with 70%, and has been lower than that five times.

That lack of winning, of failing to put out a quality product, of going through the motions in a downward slide to mediocrity, is showing up with fewer butts in seats too.

Alabama, which had seemingly led the nation in attendance for almost two decades, was finally and definitively ejected from the cat bird seat this season, as fans simply did not pack the Brickyard as they once did.

Want to guess who dethroned the Tide?

You already know the answer:

What about a Murphy coaching pedigree? Surely, after almost three decades, he’s stocked the sport with quality new managers. Nope. Unless you really want to claim Kayla Braud here? Aly Habetz?

But perhaps the most damning of all is the sheer amount of talent that Alabama failed to use, to develop, that it let fester on the bench, that it mismanaged, that it allowed to be bullied into the arms of a competitor, or ran off because The Gut can’t manage a lineup card.

How bad is that record? In the past four seasons, Alabama has chased away two SEC Players of the Year, the AAC Player of the Year, and the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year…on top of giving away eight all-conference performers across the country.

Players get better when they leave Alabama. And there’s simply no way you can rebut that indictment. That is on the heads and consciences of the Alabama coaches and the coaches alone.

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The worst part is that you know already know why all of this malaise exists, the reason for the underperformance; we all do. It’s something we’ve covered extensively too here at RBR. It’s the offense. It’s always been the offense.

But of late, it’s also been fielding and base-running. And this season has added a new twist: some truly cromulent pitching at times.

We covered it two years ago, after another ‘Bama flameout. But much of what we wrote then sadly remains relevant.

The crux is that with the death of the slap bunt, Murphy’s preferred “chaos on the base paths” is simply not a viable way to win games because there is no chaos.

It is no coincidence that in 2019 (54th) and 2021 (39th), when Alabama was able to get on board effectively and snatch extra bases, that it also won the SEC regular season crowns.

But even that alone is not the sole key to the offense.

Power is also required — getting those tasty eephuses you can bury in the brickyard; the pitches that arise from the threat of the slapper. And there too the Tide has seen a power outage of late.

Last season, for a small ball offense. Alabama was about as good as you could want to be on paper. It led the SEC in pitching; it was third in BA at .310; it was third in hits; third in drawing walks; third in total bases.

What it did not have, though, was power: a deficit that doom the Tide in the postseason. In the same 2018 to 2022, the Tide went from 18th in HR per game to 249th — its highest finish thereafter has been 62nd.

Alabama has been an outstanding program in OBP. The Tide have excellent plate discipline and draw a lot of walks. Again, a small ball team has to be able to keep an eye on the strike zone. And, going back to the earliest cumulative statistics I can find, the Tide have never finished lower than 20th in the nation in on-base.

But getting people on board isn’t enough either. Just as the lack of a slapper has done damage to the stealing game, it has affected the Tide’s offensive output in toto. Because, the death of the slapper has seen the Tide’s double play percentage skyrocket. Alabama went from from one of the best in the conference (.62) to one of its worst (1.37).

Putting it together, you have a team that draws a lot of walks and can make contact. It gets on base. But it’s also one that’s running less effectively overall, and as a result getting fewer distracted pitchers serving up meat, as well as one that is hitting into a lot more double plays. There simply is no “chaos on the base paths.”

So, what’s the answer here? We touched on this before Regional play began, but more than a face lift is needed. The offense simply has to modern-up. That requires recruiting for power and coaching velocity hitting: exit angles, exit velocity, bat speed.

The name of the game these days is power on both sides of the diamond. And until ‘Bama gets on board, then even its best seasons seem doomed to fall short, as it is a team playing softball from a different era against those who are not.

Every word remains true, and is was particularly relevant this year, as the Crimson Tide was not in the top half of the SEC in a single offensive statistic. Not one.

Hitters don’t want to come here. And why should they? This is where careers go to die…or at least, where they go to become a launching point to a better outcome at a school who will actually develop them and use them properly.

Unless that changes, naught else will. Simple as.

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So, when people like Kirk McNair loudly proclaim that Alabama’s softball problem “is not a Patrick Murphy problem,” then there better be damn strong evidence to back up that claim. Because the evidence of the last 13 years simply does not support him. There is a Patrick Murphy problem.

But the better question remains: “Is there a Patrick Murphy solution?” We honestly don’t know, can’t even begin to answer it, because he has never tried to be anyone other than who he is is, to lean into analytics, to become serious about offensive baseball, to hire competent coaches, to let them develop the roster, to use evidence-based lineups, and to be a firm hand instead a House Mother.

It’s a multi-million dollar enterprise. He remains its CEO. It is not a sorority, or a Scout troop, or a sleepover, or a Church retreat. You don’t pick favorites. You don’t give Mean Girls license to fracture the locker room. You manage. It’s right there in the job title. You don’t bang your head against the wall of underperforming upperclassmen and then sideline promising young talent. Manage the game. Manage the program. Manage the players — you are not there to be a pal.

But all of this has to start with managing himself; with Murphy knowing his own limitations, and then taking affirmative steps to right the ship, to retain and use the young talent on the bench, to actually grow them as players. To bench poor players. To fire poor coaches. To burn the midnight oil and improve.

Mediocrity is always in league against excellence. An honest appraisal will show that this program has stagnated into such mediocrity, and is getting worse each season too.

Am I suggesting to fire Murphy? Not here. Has the game passed him by? Ought he retire? Only he can answer those questions. But I am suggesting that he has grown complacent and in the process let far hungrier, far more competitive coaches pass him by, as we all watch a once-proud program become just another average one.

Patrick Murphy has morphed into college softball’s Jeff Fisher: He is coasting on reputational fumes, winning just enough to keep the hounds at bay and the Cult of Murph alive. But those of us with clearer eyes see this exactly for what it is: unacceptable dividends paid by a program with almost limitless resources and a fan base with boundless passion.

So, Coach Murphy, do you want to win and win big? Do those young women deserve more than you are giving? Are you truly putting in all of your effort? Are you willing to become the proverbial old dog learning a new trick?

Only you can answer that. Because it is a problem, and you are the only one with the solutions…whatever those may be.

But if “just good enough” is the new standard, at least let us know. Because that seems to be the case in Tuscaloosa.

Roll Tide