Grade the season.....

[HuskerShark]

B-

[huKSer]

Anywhere from an A to an F, depending on what game inning you saw

[flatwaterfan]

Anywhere from an A to an F, depending on what game inning you saw

best answer

[MLB 51]

Anywhere from an A to an F, depending on what game inning you saw

I give it a C. The inconsistancy from inning to inning hurt us.

[tschu]

B-

 

Not a bad start for Erstad, he showed he has some great potential as a coach. The bats came around very nicely - very impressive stuff there. However, we had some inexplicable losses, the team rode negative momentum too much, and the lack of a Friday starter contributed greatly to that negative momentum I think. Tough to get it going on the weekend when you're giving up 6 runs every Friday. Give Darin a couple years, get the pitching solidified, and I think we'll be in great position to be competing for B1G titles year after year.

[VectorVictor]

B. Our three biggest hurdles were the lack of good pitching arms (though I do think we have an ace to lean on for next year, so that's a start), lack of consistency (as evidenced by the streaky hitting and streaky play--the Northwestern series as a case-in-point), and the team's tendency to not show up in the early innings (e.g. spotting opponents anywhere from one to a handful of runs in the early innings).

 

The first issue will be dealt with via recruiting, and from what I understand, we're doing a good job on that front. The second and third issues are mental awareness and toughness that will need to be addressed via coaching, as some of this is likely still residual mental 'gunk' from the Andersen regime.

 

Final word - Optimism. It looked to my untrained eye like we have a lot of the pieces in place. Let that percolate for a year and let's see what happens next year. I expect better things in 2013.

 

(Sorry Knapplc--didn't see your post before I wrote this--made the edit to acknowledge.) But the biggest thing about this season isn't summed up in grades--it's whether or not there is legitimate hope and optimism for the future of this team, and I would have to say that for the first time in a long while, we have both hope and optimism for the future in spades.