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Bye-bye at-large bid

Truehuskerfan

Athletic Director
May 1, 2003
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That pretty much settled it, barring an absolute miracle next week at Illinois. What a thorough and complete disappointment of a season. I really am stunned it has got this bad.
 
Yep. In addition to hitting this team has been lacking mental toughness since conference play started. Very disappointing and time for some soul searching.
Big year for Erstad next year-if he can't figure out what is wrong and get it fixed, we're going to sink into a perennial also-ran in the conference and watch as half the programs in the conference pass us up. All at a school with one of the premier facilities and some of the best support in the country.
 
Big year for Erstad next year-if he can't figure out what is wrong and get it fixed, we're going to sink into a perennial also-ran in the conference and watch as half the programs in the conference pass us up. All at a school with one of the premier facilities and some of the best support in the country.
I wouldn't hold your breath on Erstad figuring it out. We lose Our number 1 and 2 starters. Our closer....and the middle of our lineup. More of the same.
 
That pretty much settled it, barring an absolute miracle next week at Illinois. What a thorough and complete disappointment of a season. I really am stunned it has got this bad.

Purdue is one of the worst baseball teams in America at this level and yet they hold us to 1 run.
 
That pretty much settled it, barring an absolute miracle next week at Illinois. What a thorough and complete disappointment of a season. I really am stunned it has got this bad.


What a gutless hitting team this turned out to be. Now...we can now finally put all of this regional talk to bed. We would have gotten stomped in a regional anyway.
 
So I imagine if Darin likes his job at all, he has to be shopping for a new hitting coach after the season, right?
 
So I imagine if Darin likes his job at all, he has to be shopping for a new hitting coach after the season, right?

Are we sure Kirby is the issue? I'd imagine Erstad has as much say as Kirby does in regards to the hitting approach and development(in which Kirby has been here for only a year now.) I really don't think much will change if Kirby leaves or is replaced. Erstad is still in the dugout.
 
Are we sure Kirby is the issue? I'd imagine Erstad has as much say as Kirby does in regards to the hitting approach and development(in which Kirby has been here for only a year now.) I really don't think much will change if Kirby leaves or is replaced. Erstad is still in the dugout.

This is DE's offense.

Had a chat with a Fullerton fan who said losing Kirby was addition by subtraction. Also told me that Kirby was not the offense coach. His primary duties were recruiting and did poorly at that. Said that Kirby's career has been in and out of D1 baseball and mostly out. Kirby and Erstad are long time friends going back to Kirby's days in the ticket office in Anaheim.

This fan might just have an animus towards MK so take it FWIW.

I trust DE in these matters but, no doubt, this is Erstad's offense and this is what it looks like. And it looks like something is not right.
 
This is DE's offense.

Had a chat with a Fullerton fan who said losing Kirby was addition by subtraction. Also told me that Kirby was not the offense coach. His primary duties were recruiting and did poorly at that. Said that Kirby's career has been in and out of D1 baseball and mostly out. Kirby and Erstad are long time friends going back to Kirby's days in the ticket office in Anaheim.

This fan might just have an animus towards MK so take it FWIW.

I trust DE in these matters but, no doubt, this is Erstad's offense and this is what it looks like. And it looks like something is not right.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Silva....I can't imagine he will stay much longer. If any west coast teams come calling I would expect him to leave. I don't think he's furthering his career by sticking around under Erstad assuming he has aspirations to become a head coach.
 
Would HATE to see Silva leave, but I wouldn't blame if he does. He is certainly getting the job done. His pitching staff has been impressive, it is the lack of hitting and timely errors that have cost NU BIG this year.
 
This is DE's offense.

Had a chat with a Fullerton fan who said losing Kirby was addition by subtraction. Also told me that Kirby was not the offense coach. His primary duties were recruiting and did poorly at that. Said that Kirby's career has been in and out of D1 baseball and mostly out. Kirby and Erstad are long time friends going back to Kirby's days in the ticket office in Anaheim.

This fan might just have an animus towards MK so take it FWIW.

I trust DE in these matters but, no doubt, this is Erstad's offense and this is what it looks like. And it looks like something is not right.

This makes sense, I've always been under the assumption that VanderHook ran the offense out there, since his background was as a hitting coach.
 
Are we sure Kirby is the issue? I'd imagine Erstad has as much say as Kirby does in regards to the hitting approach and development(in which Kirby has been here for only a year now.) I really don't think much will change if Kirby leaves or is replaced. Erstad is still in the dugout.

I'm not sure it would help much, and I agree its pretty much Erstad's offense, but Darin isn't going to fire himself, so you have to start somewhere. My suggestion would be to get a new hitting coach, who has proven results in the past, then look himself in the mirror and get rid of the smallball stategy, especially early in games. Those are 2 things that can be done immediately as soon as this train wreck of a season is over.
 
I wouldn't hold your breath on Erstad figuring it out. We lose Our number 1 and 2 starters. Our closer....and the middle of our lineup. More of the same.
1) Pitching depth is the one thing we have plenty of.
2) Our biggest loss will be Lubach. Headley...kinda. Darby...not really. That's not "the middle of our lineup". We add Schlep to full time, Schrieber (who I think has real power in his swing) and Alvarado who can just hit. I also would like to see what some of the other Freshman can do with some at-bats.

Now, I do hope DE adjusts his offensive approach in the off season, but I think we'll be much better on offense next year.
 
1) Pitching depth is the one thing we have plenty of.
2) Our biggest loss will be Lubach. Headley...kinda. Darby...not really. That's not "the middle of our lineup". We add Schlep to full time, Schrieber (who I think has real power in his swing) and Alvarado who can just hit. I also would like to see what some of the other Freshman can do with some at-bats.

Now, I do hope DE adjusts his offensive approach in the off season, but I think we'll be much better on offense next year.


I blame you for this Skylar. You go to Baton Rouge, don`t invite me and then don`t bring any Tiger recruits back with you.
 
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I blame you for this Skylar. You go to Baton Rouge, don`t invite me and then don`t bring any Tiger recruits back with you.
That's it. I'm firing myself as Husker liaison to Baton Rouge :)

On a side note, I couldn't help but compare Baton Rouge to Lincoln. Town of about 220k. Near a bigger city (Omaha 600k, NOLA 750k). Tiny airport (2 terminals and 10 total gates, most of which were not in use when I landed/took off) where most people drive an hour away to fly. Etc, etc.

I actually was not a huge fan of the city. It's laid out poorly, there's overgrowth everywhere (I realize that's a product of the climate), the traffic is WAY worse than anything I've experienced in Omaha, which is much bigger.

But the LSU experience was awesome :)
 
That's it. I'm firing myself as Husker liaison to Baton Rouge :)

On a side note, I couldn't help but compare Baton Rouge to Lincoln. Town of about 220k. Near a bigger city (Omaha 600k, NOLA 750k). Tiny airport (2 terminals and 10 total gates, most of which were not in use when I landed/took off) where most people drive an hour away to fly. Etc, etc.

I actually was not a huge fan of the city. It's laid out poorly, there's overgrowth everywhere (I realize that's a product of the climate), the traffic is WAY worse than anything I've experienced in Omaha, which is much bigger.

But the LSU experience was awesome :)

Even though it is the state capitol Baton Rouge is all about LSU.
 
1) Pitching depth is the one thing we have plenty of.
2) Our biggest loss will be Lubach. Headley...kinda. Darby...not really. That's not "the middle of our lineup". We add Schlep to full time, Schrieber (who I think has real power in his swing) and Alvarado who can just hit. I also would like to see what some of the other Freshman can do with some at-bats.

Now, I do hope DE adjusts his offensive approach in the off season, but I think we'll be much better on offense next year.
Pitching depth and solid pitching depth are two different things. Burkamper has been okay...has he looked like a guy we can trust on Fridays for the future? No. King has been solid during the midweek...especially against a weak Creighton lineup. Is he someone who we can trust every weekend? Remains to be seen. Everything else is a question mark at this point outside Chestnut and Hoensee. I fully expect to lose Howell. Headley, Darby, Lubach is our 2-4-5 hitters. If you don't want to call that the middle of our lineup what do you call it? The meat of our lineup? Either way...who have we recruited to replace them? Alvarado can just hit? Well that explains his absence in the lineup. Brilliant move by Erstad leaving out a guy who can "just hit" in a lineup that is one of the worst in the Big Ten. Erstad doesn't trust Schlep to hit against lefties...will that change going forward? Everything is wishful thinking at this point. Perhaps our offense will be better next year....but I doubt its to the point where we need it to be. Not with how the current roster is assembled.
 
Of course you have to get on base first and some speed helps too, but the thing that just kills this team is the lack of any kind of threat on base. Purdue mostly ignored any Husker on base. You can't just look like your going to steal you take it every chance you get. We steal when we shouldn't and we don't steal when we should its just been a comedy of errors all season long. That has to be fixed and the only way to do that is to get a third base coach with experience doing it. This team needs to lead the league in stealing bases year in and year out.
 
Of course you have to get on base first and some speed helps too, but the thing that just kills this team is the lack of any kind of threat on base. Purdue mostly ignored any Husker on base. You can't just look like your going to steal you take it every chance you get. We steal when we shouldn't and we don't steal when we should its just been a comedy of errors all season long. That has to be fixed and the only way to do that is to get a third base coach with experience doing it. This team needs to lead the league in stealing bases year in and year out.
Straight chaos. We have 7 stolen bases this year in conference play. 7! That's not counting today...not sure if we had any. This coming from a team who has a coach that says his teams will be built around speed and straight chaos. Just further proof Erstads head is spinning.
 
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Ever since Ohio State and Iowa close losses, the team seems to have dug itself a hole-- and they keep digging. Erstad will get another year, he had a great recruiting class after the season was over last summer. Man, I hope things turn around. Today was not Husker baseball. I don't know what it was. Still, GBR!
 
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