Bevo’s Daily Roundup: Softball America awards Texas pitcher Miranda Elish national player of the year honor

On Wednesday, Softball America announced it was awarding Texas Longhorns senior right-handed pitcher Miranda Elish the prestigious national player of the year honor. Elish finished 11-3 on the mound with a 1.25 ERA and .158 opponents’ average during the Longhorns’ 2020 season that was cut short due to the coronavirus outbreak. She also threw her second career perfect game against the New Mexico Lobos last month – the 11th in school history.

The Longhorns finished their shortened season with a 24-3 record and a No. 1 overall ranking by Softball America. Elish announced last week that she plans to return in 2021.

WHAT THE WISE MEN ARE SAYING ABOUT THE LONGHORNS

Austin American-Statesman: Bohls: Once and future rivals, Texas’ Schaefer, A&M’s Blair share competitive DNA

Sports Illustrated: What Denzel Okafor’s return means for the UT offensive line

247Sports: Texas staff adapting to ever changing landscape of recruiting

247Sports: Biggest concerns following UT president Greg Fenves departure

247Sports: The Flagship: Recapping a wild week in Longhorn nation

USA Today: Big 12 commissioner concerned about upcoming season

NEWS FROM ELSEWHERE IN LONGHORN LAND AND THE BIG 12

• Big 12 officials such as commissioner Bob Bowlsby are about to take a 10 percent pay cut, the Dallas Morning News reports. From the Morning News: “Iowa State made the first move among Big 12 schools, announcing $3 million in one-year salary cuts to coaches as well as the elimination of coaching bonuses. On Thursday, Bowlsby and the Big 12 conference followed suit, announcing the conference has implemented a 10% salary cut across the board in the conference office, including for himself, in an interview with ESPN. ‘We’ve eliminated all year-end bonuses and are formulating a reduced scope of operation plan that saves quite a bit of money, but we’re a relatively small operation,” he said in the interview. “Most of our resources are passed through to our members.’ Earlier in the week, Jon Wilner of The San Jose Mercury News reported that Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott will take a 20% reduction of his salary. The conference also announced layoffs for the Pac-12 Network.”

• Texas football offered their first 2023 quarterback earlier this week, Tad Hudson out of Cornelius, North Carolina, Sports Illustrated reports. From SI: “Texas is the first school outside of Hudson’s geographical area to extend a scholarship offer, but it’s way too early to know exactly where the Longhorns stand. We don’t even have a recruiting ranking in for the 2023 class yet. But if you want to know how important he could be to Texas going forward remember the Longhorns have only sent out three other offers in the 2023 class: receivers Jaden Greathouse and Brandon Inniss and running back Ruben Owens. Mike Yurcich has a proven track record when it comes to evaluating talent and if he’s this high on Hudson, Texas fans should be too.” As Burnt Orange Nation also noted earlier this week, Hudson accumulated seven offers to date, with regional programs like North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest already in the mix.

• 2021 four-star quarterback and Texas commit Jalen Milroe has been named an Under Armour All-American, 247Sports reports. From 247Sports: “The four-star Texas commit announced his intention to play in the annual post-season all-star game via Twitter Wednesday night. Milroe is coming off of a strong junior season where he led Katy (Texas) Tompkins to a playoff berth. Milroe completed 62 percent of his passes for 2,689 yards and 29 touchdowns, and added 378 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground in 2019. Milroe joins fellow Texas commits Billy Bowman and Ja’Tavion Sanders as Under Armour All-Americans, played every year in Orlando. Milroe told Horns247 that this is something he’s been looking forward to for his entire life.”

• Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy is catching heat after he said plans to get his team back on the field by May 1. “We have to have a plan, and the plan right now is for that to start on May 1,” Gundy said on a call with reporters this week, per 247Sports. “It might get backed up two weeks, I don’t know. I can’t make that call. If it does, we’ll start with the employees of this company, this building, then we’ll bring the players in, slowly but surely we’ll test them all in. Is it 100%? No it’s not a 100%, but there could be people that work in this building that maybe are older, maybe have some kind of underlying health condition, maybe they don’t come back, but the majority of people in this building who are healthy ... and certainly the 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 year olds that are healthy, the so-called medical people saying the herd of healthy people that have the antibodies maybe built up and can fight this? We all need to go back to work.” But the university nixed that idea, releasing a statement after the fact: “Everyone wants to return to some degree of normalcy as soon as possible. As for Oklahoma State University, we will adhere to the advice of public health experts who are making informed decisions in the best interest of the citizens of our nation and state based on sound scientific data. We will also abide by the federal and state mandates as well as Big 12 guidelines. We will not compromise the health and well-being of our campus community. This virus is deadly and we will do our part at Oklahoma State to help blunt the spread.” Gundy is entering his 16th season as the Cowboys’ head coach.