Friday, June 3, 2011

Erstad: More Bang For Your Buck

Caller, your on the air!  “Thanks, long time listener and long time caller, you know somebody is going to have to show Darin Erstad where the 3rd base box is, lord knows he’s never been there!”

I was shocked but yet not surprised by some of the fan reaction to Darin Erstad being hired as the new baseball coach at Nebraska.  The amount of negative was shocking considering Erstad is a Husker legend it two sports.   Usually legends walk on water (that's easy to do on the Platte River)

The arrogance of some Nebraska fans to actually believe that the baseball job is one of the best in the country has them upset they couldn’t land a “big” name. 

I have news for these fans, you got the biggest name you get, period.   You don’t need previous head coaching experience to be successful.  Tony Gwynn has done quite well at San Diego State.  Fred Hoiberg at Iowa State, I could go on and on.  Erstad has a competitive drive the led to a long Major League career.   He has strong name recognition, he obviously knows the game and if he surrounds himself with a good staff, the rest will fall in place.

Tom Osborne showed his hand early when he said Erstad needed to decide if he wanted to coach or not.  This means Darin was the #1 pick from the beginning and for the right reasons
  •  He knows the program
  • He doesn’t need the money
  • Name recognition
  •  The switch to the Big 10  (A bad baseball league
  •   He’ll never leave


If Erstad wins, he’ll stay.  Osborne touched on it in the introduction.  He doesn’t want Nebraska to be a stepping stone and with anybody else but Erstad that’s exactly with the Nebraska baseball job would be, like it or not.

I don’t know if I would call this a home run, but considering the circumstances, Nebraska got the biggest name for the best price with a great upside it was ever going to get.

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