Erstad gone

I totally get the wanting to retire thing but sometimes these guys make it sound like no one else has to work full time and that they are the only ones that "don't get to see their kids grow up"

I would venture (who remembers that store?) to guess that DE had way more downtime and the resources to spend way more time with his family/kids than probably 90% of the working population.  

Also, how much time can you spend with your family?  Shoot, if I was DE I would keep my coaching job and get a part time gig to spend even less time at home...hahahaha
I’m sure Erstad wants to be able to do what most of his former MLB teammates are able to do. They have a great life after baseball. They can live off their MLB money. Now Erstad can be a guest instructor or speaker at Spring Training.  He can go to Angels-fest and talk about his World Series victory. I’m sure Erstad was still looking for that competition after retiring from playing, but that desire for competition is hard to keep when he doesn’t “need to do it”. 

 
Here's the last 42 years of Husker Baseball for your viewing pleasure.

Only four coaches in that span.

K7YOTUg.png


This shows how important the coach is to a northern team in baseball - AD will go three for three on this hire.

 
The Erstad/Miles comparison works because both had a very generous amount of time to meet pretty fair expectations and didn't. Erstad had more success than Miles on paper, but there's a good argument that how much ability it took to achieve it was comparable because the competition in baseball (in conference) is dramatically lower than it is in basketball. Also, both seem to be good guys who love Lincoln and ran programs that were easy to respect and follow.

This was certainly unexpected and I wasn't at all at the point of thinking Erstad needed to go quite yet, but I'm also not too sad for the program. Glad for him that he knows what's important in his life and kudos for making that decisions (coaching as a profession naturally attracts a certain personality that is insatiably driven to compete and succeed and climb and that can really cost you a lot), feel for the players surprised and affected by the news and optimistic about the timing of the whole thing with Moos at the helm. 

 
And if the Big Ten was the 2nd ranked conference in RPI in baseball like they were in basketball (as opposed to 7th), you'd be more correct. 


Erstad won 1 Conference Championship due to both Minnesota and Michigan losing and Nebraska beating a very bad Penn State team. It’s not like Nebraska caked walked through the conference to win it they needed a lot of help to win the Conference. 

In 8 years at Nebraska resume in such a “tough” baseball conference 

1 Conference Championship

2-8 in Regionals

0-3 in B1G Tourney Championships

12-13 in B1G Tournament 

Missed the B1G Tourney in 18’ 

Never made it to a Super Regional 

Team batting average has went down every year after Bolt left I believe (2015-Present)

The ONLY reason people are upset about Erstad resigning is because he played Football and Baseball at Nebraska. Had he been some Joe Schmoe that had no connection with Nebraska, Husker baseball fans would be calling for him to be fired with his career resume at Nebraska


Erstad was not losing at historic rates for a historically mediocre program.

So no.

 
Erstad won 1 Conference Championship due to both Minnesota and Michigan losing and Nebraska beating a very bad Penn State team. It’s not like Nebraska caked walked through the conference to win it they needed a lot of help to win the Conference.  

In 8 years at Nebraska resume in such a “tough” baseball conference  

1 Conference Championship 

2-8 in Regionals 

0-3 in B1G Tourney Championships 

12-13 in B1G Tournament  

Missed the B1G Tourney in 18’  

Never made it to a Super Regional  

Team batting average has went down every year after Bolt left I believe (2015-Present) 

The ONLY reason people are upset about Erstad resigning is because he played Football and Baseball at Nebraska. Had he been some Joe Schmoe that had no connection with Nebraska, Husker baseball fans would be calling for him to be fired with his career resume at Nebraska 


People seem to think success just... happens at Nebraska. Like it's just generated out of thin air. It's not.

Much of our expectations are shaped by the move to the Big 10. People expected it to be such a weak baseball conference that we'd just waltz in and immediately be the big dog on the block. It turns out that doesn't just happen by default because of the big red N.

The Big 10 put 5 teams in the postseason this year. It's not a bad baseball league. We don't get to walk in and be the best team because it's a crappy conference. Nor because we're Nebraska.

The expectations of a lot of Nebraska fans have been wildly unrealistic for a while now. We got spoiled by TO in football and a few great years from Van Horn in baseball. Some people think that's the status we return to just by dint of being Nebraska. It's pretty silly and kind of smug in a way to look down on B10 baseball or football for that matter and just think we're better than them when we haven't earned it.

 
The expectations of a lot of Nebraska fans have been wildly unrealistic for a while now. 




But is that because of Erstad or because of Nebraska baseball's ceiling?

I agree that the expectations have been unrealistic, not just in baseball but in a lot of areas. But I'd argue Moos is showing us that the only reason those expectations have been unrealistic has because we've had B or C level coaches and commitment while expecting A level results. Moos is now giving A level commitment and resources. As far as I know this is really the first time our University has ever really done that.

 
Erstad was not losing at historic rates for a historically mediocre program.

So no.


Erstad had a worse record that the three coaches that preceded him. So while he was not "losing at historic rates", he was not better than the coaches that led the "mediocre program" before him. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Let’s hope Moos has an envelope with 3 names in his desk drawer that he’s been keeping updated for head baseball coaches. “In Moos We Trust”?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Erstad had a worse record that the three coaches that preceded him. So no, he was not "losing at historic rates". He, however, was not better than the coaches that led the "mediocre program" before him. 


I wasn't arguing that he was.

Although it's kind of a tough judgement to make about Anderson.  Overall he did much better.  But he took over on the heels of the greatest Husker teams in history.  He did well for several years but kind of ran the program into the ground his last three.  Erstad had to start at the bottom and build up while Anderson did the opposite.  So it's kind of the Frank Solich argument all over again - was he a good coach or did he ride the coattails of the great coach that came before him.

And Erstad was much, much closer to achieving your own personal benchmarks for the program than Sanders ever was.  So did he have better teams or an easier schedule to rack up wins?

 
I wasn't arguing that he was.

Although it's kind of a tough judgement to make about Anderson.  Overall he did much better.  But he took over on the heels of the greatest Husker teams in history.  He did well for several years but kind of ran the program into the ground his last three.  Erstad had to start at the bottom and build up while Anderson did the opposite.  So it's kind of the Frank Solich argument all over again - was he a good coach or did he ride the coattails of the great coach that came before him.

And Erstad was much, much closer to achieving your own personal benchmarks for the program than Sanders ever was.  So did he have better teams or an easier schedule to rack up wins?


I won't disagree with much of this; Anderson certainly took a downturn, particularly when DVH's recruits tapered off, and the momentum from the CWS trips had wained. And I think had Erstad stayed, his next two teams would have been his best two teams, in no small part to his recruiting efforts the past couple of years (I have heard that he didn't have the best relationships with HS coaches in the area in the early years of his tenure; it would seem his past couple of recruiting classes would point to those fences having been mended). 

 
Back
Top