Nebraska baseball looking at throwing program, not staff changes for fix

(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Nebraska baseball head coach Darin Erstad said there won’t be any staff turnover after the worst season in two decades for the Huskers.

The Nebraska baseball team’s season ended on Sunday with a win. It was the 24th win of the year, against 28 losses.

Those numbers mark the worst record the Cornhuskers have posted since John Sanders’ 1989 team went 27-31. Over the last 40 years, the 24 wins are the lowest total for any season in which the baseball team played at least 45 games (they went 24-20 in 1998).

Despite a historically bad season (the athletic department is having too many of those these days) Darin Erstad is coming back. Not only is the head coach coming back, but on Monday morning, news hit that both of his assistant coaches are coming back as well.

As the Lincoln Journal Star reports, when the head man was asked about staff changes, he was quite dismissive. “That’s the easy way out,” he said. “Our guys are as hard-working as you’ll find, and they love the kids. They give everything they have.”

More from Nebraska Baseball

He added that if anyone was going to be fired, it should be him. While firing Erstad is likely out of the question this year, his quick dismissal of any staff turnover should give fans pause.

Injuries seem to be the excuse Erstad is going with as to why this season was so poor. He’s got a point.

The team dealt with injuries all season long. The team has dealt with injuries alot, especially to pitchers. Nearly two-thirds of the pitchers on the Cornhuskers roster have had debilitating injuries at some point in their Husker careers.

Erstad’s response on Monday was that the team is going to look at a new throwing program. He also said he and his staff are going to be looking at whether pitchers suffered injuries in high school when they are recruiting them.

That last part makes it sound an awful lot like the head coach just realized there’s an injury problem. History shows the injury bug isn’t that new.

The head coach pointed to what he terms “10 new arms” coming into next year. Those include pitchers coming off injury and new recruits.

Next: Nebraska Football will see effects of sports gambling even if it’s not allowed in the state

Whether the new throwing program is going to keep all 10 of those arms healthy is something to watch. It seems hard to believe Erstad could survive another historically bad campaign as the head man for the Nebraska baseball team.