• You do not need to register if you are not going to pay the yearly fee to post. If you register please click here or log in go to "settings" then "my account" then "User Upgrades" and you can renew.

HuskerMax readers can save 50% on  Omaha Steaks .

2012 Husker Baseball - most anticipated season since 2006??

NUpipeline94

Recruit
2 Year Member
Hello Husker Baseball faithfull! I'm new to the HuskerMax BBS this year and hope to take part in many baseball discussions throughout the season. I was an undergrad & grad student on campus from '99-'04 and attended many Husker baseball games during my time on campus. I've also been to the CWS every year since '87, so needless to say I'm a huge college baseball fan.

I couldn't be more excited about the upcoming season. The last few years have been hard to watch as the Huskers have not been very competitive, but I have a feeling that that is about to change. Despite the Big Ten being a weak baseball conference, there is no reason the Big Red cannot get back to the success of the early to mid 2000s. I do not know what to expect from the team record-wise this year as Erstad, Sylva, and Bolt have not had the chance to recruit many of their own players yet. My main expectation for this season is for the players to play hard with maximum effort unlike the product that we've seen on the field at times over the last several seasons. I'm looking forward to (as Coach Erstad says) "chaos on the base paths". I'm sure we'll see lots of small ball with much stealing, hit & run, bunts, and manufacturing of runs (not to mention a very sound pitching staff under the direction of Silva) very similar to how the team played under the leadership of Van Horn & Childress.

Here's to a great inaugural season in the Big Ten!
 
Last edited:
I am really looking forward to this season. I like the coaching staff and am excited to see the type team NU will put on the field. I am expecting the team to reflect the way their coach played. Should be fun.
 
I am looking forward to seeing a team where the manager gets the most out of his players. I feel confident that Erstad can do just that.

I'm still down on playing in the Big Ten. It truly is the equivalent of the Sun Belt in football. The conference champion gets the automatic bid to the regionals (commonly the lone Big Ten representative) where they flop. No CWS champs since the 1960s (Ohio State, 1966). Heck, it's been 28 years since a Big Ten team even made an appearance in the CWS (Michigan, 1984).

I'll pay attention because I have a ton of respect for Erstad.
 
I am definitely anticipating the season and really looking forward to see what Erstad can do with the team, but I always anticipate baseball season! Only 18 more days!!!
 



I too am looking forward to change and seeing what can be done. But I am sad that from this point forward the ONLY way we will ever have national prominence is to win the league and fight through the NCAA tourney from a 3 seed or 4. Nothing we do during the season in the Big 10 will paid attention too. Unless we are able to schedule multiple nationally prominent teams a year.
 
I too am looking forward to change and seeing what can be done. But I am sad that from this point forward the ONLY way we will ever have national prominence is to win the league and fight through the NCAA tourney from a 3 seed or 4. Nothing we do during the season in the Big 10 will paid attention too. Unless we are able to schedule multiple nationally prominent teams a year.

Yep. And, we'll be so underprepared if we do make the NCAA Tournament -- as we will have faced mostly garbage competition to get there. And unfortunately, our non-conference slate is rather mediocre this season.
 
I too am looking forward to change and seeing what can be done. But I am sad that from this point forward the ONLY way we will ever have national prominence is to win the league and fight through the NCAA tourney from a 3 seed or 4. Nothing we do during the season in the Big 10 will paid attention too. Unless we are able to schedule multiple nationally prominent teams a year.

I think that the new Pac 12/B1G agreement is going to help significantly in that area. Obviously, that is not going to do it alone, but Nebraska has scheduled pretty well recently and I think that will continue with Erstad in charge. Another thing I think Nebraska has going for it in that regard, is a good relationship with many of the big 12 schools already in place (this year it is a 3 game series with K-State). Baseball seems to be one of the few sports where I think we can maintain that relationship and I hope we can further take advantage of that in the future. Overall, I think Nebraska is going to schedule well enough in the future, but it may be a challenge to get the rest of the conference to step up the the plate ;) . Hopefully, With the inclusion of Nebraska, the conference will start to take it a little more seriously.

Only 13 more days!!!
 
Yep. And, we'll be so underprepared if we do make the NCAA Tournament -- as we will have faced mostly garbage competition to get there. And unfortunately, our non-conference slate is rather mediocre this season.

Actually, I think the out of conference schedule is pretty good this year all things considered. It includes CS Bakersfield (41), Creighton (28), Kansas State (49), Cal (15), Gonzaga (31) all of which finished last year in the top 50 of Boyd's World ratings. Then you have Wichita State, Utah, UNLV which all finished between about 50-75 in the final ratings. Now, I don't know how all of those teams will be this year for sure, but Nebraska's preseason strength of schedule is 83 (last year it was 40 playing in the big 12). Considering how weak the conference is, 83 is not that bad for this year. Obviously, in the future I would like to the OOC schedule improve even more, but all things considered with changing conferences, I think it is a little difficult to schedule top schools so late in the game.
 
Last edited:



First of all, I want to see us as competitive and we certainly should be in the B1G. We will get an idea as to what kind of manager Erstad is in the non-conference games. I am hoping for positive results as I was excited about his hiring.
 
Last edited:
At the bottom of this article, Erstad addresses the schedule a little bit as well. From Jon Nyatawa in the OWH.

After getting hired, he and his staff added California, a 2011 College World Series participant, to the 2012 schedule to help challenge his group. That series begins in March.
Next year, Erstad said he's working on a nonconference schedule that would include Texas, Arkansas, UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton. Erstad's approach: Play the best to be the best.
"I want to be in Omaha — 30,000 people wearing red, going bonkers in the stands — with 35 guys in red jumping on the mound," Erstad said.

Read the whole thing here http://omaha.com/article/20120203/BIGRED/702039817/1049#erstad-has-lofty-aspirations-for-nu
 
Actually, I think the out of conference schedule is pretty good this year all things considered. It includes CS Bakersfield (41), Creighton (28), Kansas State (49), Cal (15), Gonzaga (31) all of which finished last year in the top 50 of Boyd's World ratings. Then you have Wichita State, Utah, UNLV which all finished between about 50-75 in the final ratings. Now, I don't know how all of those teams will be this year for sure, but Nebraska's preseason strength of schedule is 83 (last year it was 40 playing in the big 12). Considering how weak the conference is, 83 is not that bad for this year. Obviously, in the future I would like to the OOC schedule improve even more, but all things considered with changing conferences, I think it is a little difficult to schedule top schools so late in the game.

That's not horrible -- but it's not all that special. I'm sure I've seen NU play tougher non-conference competition than that while in the Big 12.

Cal, Creighton, and Kansas State were the only three in the NCAA Tournament of 64 last season. Cal was the only one to advance past the regionals (and made it through the Supers for a CWS appearance).

The best the Big Ten could muster last season was a regional 4-seed for Illinois (who didn't advance).

I think we both agree -- as does Erstad -- that it will need an upgrade in the future.
 



That's not horrible -- but it's not all that special. I'm sure I've seen NU play tougher non-conference competition than that while in the Big 12.

Cal, Creighton, and Kansas State were the only three in the NCAA Tournament of 64 last season. Cal was the only one to advance past the regionals (and made it through the Supers for a CWS appearance).

The best the Big Ten could muster last season was a regional 4-seed for Illinois (who didn't advance).

I think we both agree -- as does Erstad -- that it will need an upgrade in the future.

No doubt it needs to get better moving forward, and it sounds like they are working hard at that. You are also correct that they have had stronger OOC schedules while in the big 12. But for the late scramble that they had to do last year (cal wasn't even added until after Erstad was hired) I dont think it turned out too bad. But like you said, I look for it to be better in the future.
 
I think scheduling will be tougher then people think though. We have had limited success at getting baseball power league schools to Lincoln in March/April. i.e., where is that Stanford return date?! And I just don't see how the Pac 12 Big 10 alliance will work in baseball. Actually I only see one way it could. There is no way that all Pac 12 schools will agree to at least every other year head to a Big 10 school location in March/April. After all, Nebraska is probably the best spring weather location in the big 10. It only gets worse. And facilities aren't all that great either. The only way I see it working is if they do something like match up a series of Pac 12 / Big 10 matchups say in Arizona at spring training sites in February. If they could string several match ups together that would be fun. But it almost has to be a neutral field thing. I don't know that our big 12 relationshiops are going to be that good. And what we really need are the ones that we could do mid week games with. So KState is a good start. Kansas and Missouri are probably the other two and they aren't always that good. OU and OKie state may be a little far for a Tues night game. BUt maybe not. I don't see us getting a big 12 texas school that often. Maybe with A&M in the SEC now, we could get a weekend series going with them. Maybe.

And how does all this lower level competition effect recruiting soon? And it wouldn't take much for Creighton (if they aren't already) to be a more desirable location for a player to end up. It will most years be in a better baseball conference. Or at least equal.
 

I think scheduling will be tougher then people think though. We have had limited success at getting baseball power league schools to Lincoln in March/April. i.e., where is that Stanford return date?! And I just don't see how the Pac 12 Big 10 alliance will work in baseball. Actually I only see one way it could. There is no way that all Pac 12 schools will agree to at least every other year head to a Big 10 school location in March/April. After all, Nebraska is probably the best spring weather location in the big 10. It only gets worse. And facilities aren't all that great either. The only way I see it working is if they do something like match up a series of Pac 12 / Big 10 matchups say in Arizona at spring training sites in February. If they could string several match ups together that would be fun. But it almost has to be a neutral field thing. I don't know that our big 12 relationshiops are going to be that good. And what we really need are the ones that we could do mid week games with. So KState is a good start. Kansas and Missouri are probably the other two and they aren't always that good. OU and OKie state may be a little far for a Tues night game. BUt maybe not. I don't see us getting a big 12 texas school that often. Maybe with A&M in the SEC now, we could get a weekend series going with them. Maybe.

And how does all this lower level competition effect recruiting soon? And it wouldn't take much for Creighton (if they aren't already) to be a more desirable location for a player to end up. It will most years be in a better baseball conference. Or at least equal.

Well, Cal is coming out here in March this year, and UCLA did last year. As far as the Pac/B1G agreement, I would not be surprised if the match-ups take place later in the year. Nebraska plays CS Bakersfield the end of April, and often has an open week with a non-con opponent around that time. I would think that the Pac/B1G would try to schedule their games around that time frame.
 

GET TICKETS


Get 50% off on Omaha Steaks

Back
Top