Link Gumbo 1/18/16

Frank Wilson wasn't the only big time assistant LSU lost last week. Assistant baseball coach Will Davis, who's been with LSU since he was a player in 2004, has accepted the head coaching job at Lamar. Lamar's legendary head coach Jim Gilligan is retiring after 38 years at the end of the 2016 season and it's unknown at this point if Davis will still coach LSU this season or join Lamar as a Head-coach-in-waiting. Like Wilson, Davis is highly respected by anyone he's come in contact with and Paul Mainieri has quite a task ahead of him to find his replacement.

A couple of the baseball preseason polls are out, and while they do vary wildly on a number of teams, LSU seems to be a lock Top 10 team to start the year. The Tigers are ranked 7th by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, 7th by D1 Baseball, and 5th by Perfect Game. Florida appears to be the consensus #1 team.

Also in Baseball news, a rule was passed at the coaches' convention earlier this month to finally allow drafted high school players to employ agents in negotiations with MLB teams without it damaging their eligibility. There was also talk of eliminating the 25% minimum/27 player cap scholarship restrictions at next year's convention.

Softball has also released it's schedule of games that will be televised or carried on SECN+ this year. The Lady Tigers will have 9 games on TV and an additional 14 home games on SECN+. Other SEC road games may also be picked up for SECN+ production by those schools, so the total could climb higher. College softball's growth in popularity over the last few years has lead to a boom in TV and streaming coverage of their games. It wasn't too long ago when LSU softball might have about 10 games filmed in total and now almost half the season is.

The Lady Tigers basketball team is on hard times this season, largely due to a glut of injuries that have left it's roster depleted. Coach Fargas reached out to the softball, volleyball, and gym programs to find any women who might be interested in giving them some needed depth and 2B Constance Quinn answered the call.

In Women's soccer news, 2015 Senior and Team Captain Natalia Gomez-Junco has joined the Mexican Women's National Team in their campaign for the 2016 Olympics.

Despite a bad night against Arkansas, Ben Simmons was again voted SEC Freshman of the Week.

NFL FIlms has released a wonderful profile video of Tyrann Mathieu, narrated by none other than Patrick Peterson.