Darin Erstad Named New Nebraska Baseball Coach

The best thing I’ve heard anyone say is, “Well, it’s an improvement over Anderson.”

Well, so’s my 11 year old daughter or the guy in the Old Market with the aluminum foil hat eating toilet paper in the alley. Isn’t this the equivalent of replacing Bo with one of the new grad assistants if he left?

Baseball, more so than other sports, seems to have higher success rate with former players as coaches. And what better guy to get than the best player in your programs history?

And if you haven’t seen how much this guy cares about the program, and the university as a whole, where have you been the past decade? He will get it done. (Especially in the B1G, never seen a weaker baseball conference, year in and year out)

of all the clamoring for Scott Frost for the OC job. I didn’t get it then, and I still don’t.

I mean, when the second sentence out of your mouth is “I had no idea there would be so much interest in the position” you have a problem.

He proved in that one statement that he wasn’t doing his homework and had no intention of doing it after he was better informed. I am so effing sick of Tom running this athletic department as if we are some mid level nothing school. We don’t need to hire the diamonds in the rough. We can hire the best and the brightest. Are you really going to tell me that Erstad wouldn’t have stayed on as an assistant? And if he wouldn’t, what would that have said about his “commitment”?

I’ve heard that apparently Erstad told Osborne “pay me next to nothing, and get me the best assistants money can buy.” That’s all well and good, except that we’re going to have two assistants who are VASTLY more qualified to be doing the man they’re working for’s job. It makes zero sense.

And finally, before I have a stroke, people keep claiming that we always need “a Nebraska guy” for these openings. Danny Nee was the most successful basketball coach the program ever saw. Dave Van Horn was the most successful baseball coach the program has ever seen. Neither were “Nebraska guys” when they were hired.

Why can’t we do an effing national search like every other top tier program in the country?

Well I’m not pumped about this hire either. Feels too much like nepotism to me. I won’t be complaining if he gets us on a roll, but man something about this just doesn’t feel quite right.

I find it very disturbing how we praise baseball and basketball coaches for JUST getting to the big dance where anything beyond that is a bonus. To me that is encouraging mediocrity and has no place in a winning tradition. We should be fielding a superior top 10 team that at the very least gets to the World Series.

Can Erstad do it? We shall see. With 3 Gold Gloves, 1 Silver Slugger, and 2 All-Star Appearances, Erstad was a far superior player than Anderson ever was. I know good players do not always translate into good coaches but the knowledge Erstad gained from his playing career certainly will not hurt his chances of being a good coach.

Can’t say I’m happy with this hire. No proven track record, little experience with coaching.

This is freaking Nebraska. Look at our facilities, look to the support a winning team will command. And this is what we go with? Really?

I’m underwhelmed by this hire.

BUT I would absolutely be thrilled if Erstad turned out to be a natural and shoved it in my face.

That being said, if it does end up blowing up, it doesn’t mean that everything Ozzie has done is crap. And for comparison’s sake just between the two, Pedey was the one with experience & Dr. Tom was the no-experience hire and look who was far superior there. Still not saying I love the Erstad hire, but I do love him as a person and that shred of a comparison gives me a glimmer of hope.

BTW, JLew, I will always prop Pedey up to knock him down on occasion. I still enjoy watching the blood run down his smug little cheeks.

Baseball requires less transition from playing to coaching than any other sport. There’s a reason managers wear their uniforms – because even into the 80s (think Pete Rose) there was the possibility that coaches could insert themselves into the game. Why wouldn’t you want to hire the guy who’s just come from an incredibly successful career at the highest playing level?

It may not work out, but if Osborne says Erstad’s the guy, I’ll back his play. He’s handled just about everything else the way I’d like it handled (the lone exception being the continuing exodus of student seating to the hinterlands of the south end zone).