The season is over with 30 losses, sub-.500 conference and non-conference records and not qualifying for the conference tournament held 50 miles from campus. There’s no getting around giving it any grade other than an F. So…what happened?
It would be easy to blame injuries to pitchers and there’s no doubt they were huge. But the staff still finished with the third-best ERA in the league (or, at least, they were in that spot heading into today’s game.)
The offense definitely took a step back. The record in one-run games is well documented but for me the biggest problem was lack of consistency. Nebraska lost four conference series in which the one win was by seven-plus runs. In fact, in all eight conference series featured Nebraska scoring as many or more runs in one game as in the other two combined. And NU was held to three runs or less 20 times in 53 games--and went 1-19 in those games. That’s not going to get it done.
The most disappointing aspect, though, was the defense. It’s truly shocking how bad it was in 2022 after such a stellar 2021. Regressions almost everywhere.
So who/what is to blame for all this? Bad luck? Lack of senior leadership? Rob Childress? I have no idea. I’d love to hear opinions.
It would be easy to blame injuries to pitchers and there’s no doubt they were huge. But the staff still finished with the third-best ERA in the league (or, at least, they were in that spot heading into today’s game.)
The offense definitely took a step back. The record in one-run games is well documented but for me the biggest problem was lack of consistency. Nebraska lost four conference series in which the one win was by seven-plus runs. In fact, in all eight conference series featured Nebraska scoring as many or more runs in one game as in the other two combined. And NU was held to three runs or less 20 times in 53 games--and went 1-19 in those games. That’s not going to get it done.
The most disappointing aspect, though, was the defense. It’s truly shocking how bad it was in 2022 after such a stellar 2021. Regressions almost everywhere.
So who/what is to blame for all this? Bad luck? Lack of senior leadership? Rob Childress? I have no idea. I’d love to hear opinions.