DARREN MUELLER

We're trying a couple of different things. Sometimes, we slow things down and just kind of do more explaining. But, there are also times when we just try to put more pressure on them and just speed the game up a little bit, because that's how it's going to feel when they get there. They're going to kind of put that pressure on themselves a little bit. So, we try to try to attack them from all different angles.

You guys play a ton of big time opponents: Oregon, Maryland, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Auburn and Utah, how do you think that will help your team prepare for the conference season?

You know, I think we hope it kind of just slows the game down. Last year, we purposefully didn't schedule as heavily as other years. We just didn't have as good of a year as before. So, we wanted to kind of change our scheduling. And then, this year, we wanted to go back to what we did previously, especially with our team being as young as it is. We want to throw them into the fire and see what we can learn out there.

You have a lot of experienced players, but also a lot of young players that you are going to have to rely on during key points in the season. How are you using this valuable time in the offseason to prepare those younger players for that, especially with this being the ultimate failure sport?

When you play against those power five opponents, you don't know what it's like until you get in there. I think what we are doing is similar to what Dave Richman did with basketball this year. They played Arkansas and Kansas right away.

I imagine those big games allow you to shine a brighter light on the deficiencies that the team needs to work on to get where you want to be by the end of the season.

Yes, that's exactly what happens. What's happened in the past, and I'm assuming it might happen with this year's team, is the game will get fast for them early on when you're playing some teams that are ranked. It's about just taking that and learning from it. We want to get them to understand how important the mental side and the preparation are. Even the way we react to things is super important as well—the good and the bad. It's a balancing act trying to take the good and bad things. You want to string the positive things together you've done as an athlete, but you also don't want to get too ahead of yourself because it doesn't take much to bring yourself down by overlooking somebody.

What are some of the things you are doing to work on the mental aspect of the game? Are you doing things like meditation circles or what?

We've done that in the past. One example of things I've been working with someone on this year is a pitcher of ours who has been working on just slowing things down for herself. In the game, she really just gets amped up, she's got adrenaline going. We've worked on some specific things like even what she's aiming for. She's also getting to the point where she can trust her movement and understand that she doesn't have to try to just blow it by someone every time. That has been great for me to hear as a coach because she's been picking up on what we've been talking about.

That's just one example. Everybody has their own different thing so you try to just learn more about them and what you can do for each one of those people.

What do you think some of the strengths of this team are?

The pitchers have done a good job so far, but I think that's because we have two seniors— that helps in that aspect. The whole team is working hard. Since day one, it's just been