“Gutless” isn’t quite the right word. “Chicken” maybe. Definitely “pathetic.”
First, some background: In the late 2000s, many local newspapers and legitimate news organizations teamed up with Facebook to attract readers to their stories. Fearful of losing readers who barely engaged with these stories, they began to cater to them. Anonymous users with pseudonyms, often politically or sexually charged, flooded comment sections and social media platforms.
Today, it’s rare to see anyone post even slightly provocative comments under their real name. The same people who accuse others of being keyboard warriors are hiding behind usernames like “Rod6275” and “3kgthog,” calling for someone’s job.
From examining this article, I discovered that the online forum Hogville, where chaos reigns, is still active. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been shut down like one of Kristi Noem’s dogs. Opinions continue to thrive, including the current call for firing Courtney Deifel.
Courtney Deifel’s Credentials
For those who use their real names, Deifel is the Arkansas softball coach. She just completed her ninth season and has led the Razorbacks to seven of the last eight NCAA Tournaments. Critics argue that she finished this season too early.
Last weekend, Arkansas hosted the Fayetteville Regional for the fourth straight year but failed to advance for the second consecutive year. This year’s exit was particularly disappointing, as the team went 1-2, losing to both the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds at Bogle Park. Some believe this failure is grounds for firing the all-time winningest coach in school history.
Certainly, not making it to the Regional final is embarrassing. No other team hosting over the weekend faced such a fate, and only one other team, Louisiana, missed the Super Regional round. But is it a fireable offense? It’s just softball. Calm down.
This isn’t a slight against softball but a comment on collegiate softball’s nature. Since becoming an NCAA sport, only four more universities have won the national championship than the number of years Deifel’s been at Arkansas. Only six teams have multiple national championships, and only three have more than two.
Softball is not like college basketball, where any March Madness-caliber team can reach the national title game if they get hot. It’s not even like women’s college basketball, dominated by the same 10 programs. Softball is even more exclusive. In the last decade, Oklahoma has won six titles, Florida two, UCLA one, and Florida State one. Florida, by the way, is one of only two SEC teams to ever win a national title until OU joins the conference next year.
Maybe the critics don’t expect Arkansas to win a national title but believe the team should at least regularly make the College World Series, right? Not really. Arkansas was one of the worst softball programs in the SEC before Deifel arrived and has never been to the College World Series. They’ve come close twice since then, which some consider progress.
However, haters focus on regression. They point to Arkansas’ lackluster performance in their season-ending loss to Villanova, as Deifel discusses below, and blow it out of proportion.
Like political extremists who are angry that women have jobs or wish certain countries didn’t exist, some people always view the glass as half-empty. They believe if things aren’t progressing, they’re regressing. This mindset has contributed to our current state, so it’s no surprise that Arkansas’ best softball coach, Courtney Deifel, is facing criticism from extremists in an extreme state, claiming she’s no longer fit to coach.
Arkansas Softball Regressing?
“She is a good coach, but that is all she is,” writes “Carrick” on Hogville. “I don’t want a good coach. I want a great coach who can help us win a National Championship. I think Arkansas softball needs a new head coach who can take us to the promised land. Courtney has proved she can’t.”
“Next year the conference is only going to get tougher while we are getting worse.”
This doesn’t mean Deifel is above scrutiny. Arkansas’ offensive stats have declined over the past three years, from a .318/.419/.594 slash line in SEC play to .245/.327/.397. Additionally, losing in their own-hosted Regional for two consecutive years isn’t ideal, especially in a sport where true national title contenders are clearly superior to the next-best teams.
Arkansas is firmly in that second tier and should expect to be competitive most of the time, thanks to Deifel’s post-COVID transformation of the program. However, as for the elite tier? No one really believes Arkansas is there yet or even should be.
