Expectations for the Nebraska Baseball Program

This is behind a paywall so can't post the full details but here is a quick snapshot of the candidates D1baseball put together.  D1 has big writeups on all the candidates I listed.

Rick Heller

Childress 

Bolt

Seely

Nate Yeskie-Oregon State asst coach

Ed Servais--ain't happenin but interesting thought

Dan Heefner--Dallas Baptist--would be an awesome hire he's built DBU into an absolute powerhouse.  He's gonna be really expensive as both OU and Baylor took runs at him but couldn't get him to sign due to assistant coach pay.  Money wouldn't an issue for NU obviously.

Matt Deggs--Sam Houston State--Coached under DVH at Arkansas and was also the hitting coach and crootin coordinator for Childress at A&M

Nate Thompson--current hitting coach at Arkansas

 
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I think Mike Anderson's tenure at Nebraska should be a good benchmark.

  • Averaged 15 games over .500.
  • One losing season out of nine (3 games below .500), and that can be attributed to injury or bad luck.
  • Finished 4th or better in conference about half the time (4 of 9 years).
  • Won the conference twice.
  • Four Regional appearances.
  • One CWS appearance.
  • Finished the season ranked five out of nine seasons (once in the top ten/four times in top 15).



That's a pretty decent tenure at a northern school.

I think where people were getting wore down with Erstad's tenure is that he never really had a breakout season, and he finished under .500 twice in eight seasons. By comparison, John Sanders finished under .500 twice in 20 seasons.

Anderson benefited from inheriting Dave Van Horn's excellent program, then faded at the end (finishing 10th, 9th & 9th in conference his last three years), but overall, his is a good example of doing a good job at Nebraska.

 
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To give an idea on salaries and what your dollar gets you...

Childress makes $800k (I incorrectly posted he makes $350k in another thread)

Kevin O'Sullivan at UF makes $1.3mm (top paid guy in the country)

Josh Holiday makes $600k

The Michigan coach makes $400k

Tim Tadlock at TT and the Louisville coach make about $1mm/year

Erstad made about $200k for comparison's sake...I think we can all safely assume Erstad was giving a big hometown discount.  

 
knapplc said:
I think Mike Anderson's tenure at Nebraska should be a good benchmark.

  • Averaged 15 games over .500.
  • One losing season out of nine (3 games below .500), and that can be attributed to injury or bad luck.
  • Finished 4th or better in conference about half the time (4 of 9 years).
  • Won the conference twice.
  • Four Regional appearances.
  • One CWS appearance.
  • Finished the season ranked five out of nine seasons (once in the top ten/four times in top 15).



That's a pretty decent tenure at a northern school.

I think where people were getting wore down with Erstad's tenure is that he never really had a breakout season, and he finished under .500 twice in eight seasons. By comparison, John Sanders finished under .500 twice in 20 seasons.

Anderson benefited from inheriting Dave Van Horn's excellent program, then faded at the end (finishing 10th, 9th & 9th in conference his last three years), but overall, his is a good example of doing a good job at Nebraska.
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That is a good benchmark.

A little tidbit ....Mike Anderson was my backyard neighbor before he left Greeley for Lincoln.

 
JJ Husker said:
That is a good benchmark.

A little tidbit ....Mike Anderson was my backyard neighbor before he left Greeley for Lincoln.
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I have gone to a youth baseball fundraiser event for Northern Colorado in Greeley the past 2 years.  It's called "Friends of Baseball" and is hugely supported by the Monfort family, who are Greeley residents who own the Colorado Rockies.  My friend's company has bought a table the past 2 years, and Mike Anderson has sat at the table next to us each year.  Mike gives an award named after his father, who was a longtime baseball coach in Eaton.

 
Expectations for me with the baseball program is being in the top 2-3 programs in the conference.  Compete and win some conference titles.  

I'm usually not a pessimist when it comes to Husker sports.  But, I honestly don't see how a program located where we are can become a national power when so much of the preseason and season you can't even practice outside.  You can't host home games.  You're playing good teams in the non-con.....never at home.

So, concentrate on winning the conference and hopefully that allows us to put a team together every once in a while that makes it to the CWS.

 
Cdog923 said:
In terms of a 5 year window: 

- Finish in the Top 3 of the conference 4 out of 5 years. 

- Make Regionals 4 out of 5 years.

- Top 2 seed in regionals 3 out of 5 years. 

- Make a Super Regional 1 out of 5 years. 

- No stupidly asinine series losses. 
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Fixed it IMO. You're gonna have games where s*** happens, but it shouldn't f*** up a whole series. I can see giving up a fluke game to Northwestern, or Penn State, or Sister Mary Immaculate of the Blind. But a whole series--nah, we should be better than that. 

 
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ColoradoHusk said:
I have gone to a youth baseball fundraiser event for Northern Colorado in Greeley the past 2 years.  It's called "Friends of Baseball" and is hugely supported by the Monfort family, who are Greeley residents who own the Colorado Rockies.  My friend's company has bought a table the past 2 years, and Mike Anderson has sat at the table next to us each year.  Mike gives an award named after his father, who was a longtime baseball coach in Eaton.
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I used to go to that Friends of Baseball event regularly in it's earlier years. A good friend and neighbor of mine was highly instrumental in getting that started here. It's a neat event. They usually bring in some pretty high profile speakers. Have heard a lot of good stories from some of the biggest names in MLB, and IIRC I think Brett Favre even spoke at one. He and d!(k were buddies for a time.

 
JJ Husker said:
I used to go to that Friends of Baseball event regularly in it's earlier years. A good friend and neighbor of mine was highly instrumental in getting that started here. It's a neat event. They usually bring in some pretty high profile speakers. Have heard a lot of good stories from some of the biggest names in MLB, and IIRC I think Brett Favre even spoke at one. He and d!(k were buddies for a time.
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Yeah, it's not a bad event.  I usually leave after the guest speaker, because the auction items don't interest me.  I have seen Vinny Castilla and Ryan Spillborghs speak the past 2 years.  Spilly had some great stories about him coming up through the minors and his years as mainly a 4th outfielder for the Rox.

 
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