to be completely honest, i probably pay more attention to baseball nationally than almost anyone on this board, so i'm not going to take offense to that because baseball is NOT football...Completely different monster. What coach do you think you are going to get to come in here now? What coach that you can say WILL take us to this "next level" you are speaking of?
2003 honestly surprised me that we got knocked out so early. SMS came in here and took it too us, they DID go to the CWS that year. Not a fluke, plus Anderson's learning experience year. (note, we went 14 innings with baylor, almost won the conference tourney if we pulled that out..)
2004 we did not have a good team, no surprise. MANY people started questioning the ability of Anderson and the decision to take him over Childress as HC.
2005 GREAT season by the Huskers. Flat out best season we've had. EVER. Sure expectations were higher than they were when we made it to the CWS in 00 so maybe beating a rice team here in Super's was good, but this honestly was a great season. 1-2 in the CWS w/ that back n forth game w/ ASU.
2006 started out with a lot of promise, very high expectations. However the team def. stumbled down the stretch, bounced back in the Big 12 tourney losing to KU in the championship game (great fluke w/ KU bein there btw), but continued that losing spiral they finished the regular season on in regionals by losing to Manhattan (solid Ace of staff) and then San Fran (which isn't THAT bad of a loss, good west coast team building a solid program). But still def a disappointing season, will not lie there.
2007 up and down season all around. Went down to Tempe (as a 3 seed) for the regional (VERY tough place to win) and got beat out of the gate by Riverside and then beat Monmouth, stepped back and smacked a very good Riverside team in the mouth 11-1, then turned to the night cap and stuck with ASU for a couple of innings before our lack of available pitching hit us and their solid offensive ball club stuck it to us.
2008. No expectations what-so-ever. We have Johnny Dorn returning for our pitching staff, decent defense, but no great offense returning. Lost Jeff Tezak, arguably our BEST offensive player for the season, and then lost Craig Corriston for much of the back stretch, and he barely was healthy in the big 12 tourney/regional. With both those players this team goes to a super, quite possibly even the CWS. Still played a great game losing 3-2 to a very under rated Irvine team. Irvine was actually the favorite in the regional, for those that didn't know. Their staff was down right nasty.
2009. Expectations probably the lowest in Anderson's era. No pitching at all. Erik Bird is the only pitcher returning with actual starting experience. However, there is hope. Anderson should have a solid offense and defense returning. Belfonte will either jump on over to center field to replace the void left by Nimmo, or Khiry Cooper could step in and play center field and leave Belfonte over in right, thus leaving Nick Sullivan, David Stewart, and Tyler Farst fighting and almost certainly splitting time in left. Kline and Mort will certainly anchor the left side of the infield, while Tezak will DH and be in the mix at 2nd. 2nd and 1st will be interesting to see who emerges.. I'm sure we'll see Tyler Rank get some playing time at 1st as he did last year. Someone will have to step up on the right side, unless someone shows great flashes at 3rd, and we move more over to 2nd.. Neer will catch. Like I said above, I would assume Nesseth will be the closer, but who knows with our staff what will happen. I'm sure anderson and newman will figure out something.
We have a pretty damn easy schedule set up next year. Take a look at this.
@ LA-Lafayette could prove tough early, they are a solid program that has fallen on a tough couple of years lately.. played a bit better down the stretch last year.
vs Cal State Northridge. Should be 3 maybe 4 wins against a California school, always solid. They aren't the greatest team but won't be a walk over either.
Then we open conference play @ texas tech, not a team that is overly difficult on the road. Much rather them than texas.
that week we play @ Arkansas. very tough mid-week games down there against Van Horn's crew, would be huge to get 1.
then we are home vs Okie St (looks almost certain they lose Oliver for next season, good team still, but at home.) @ OU, again another team I dont mind facing on the road. Home vs K-State, should be sweep.. Home vs Texas, they will be SOLID. home helps, gotta play them anyways. @ A&M. 1 of 3 would be amazing in this series. obviously that's not the goal, but i'd be satisfied with a win on either Friday or Saturday, Sunday wins are too blah once a team is up 2-0....@ KU, home v Mizzou, then a break in conference play at home vs Cal State Bakersfield, another easy weekend, but still, west coast schools are not pushovers.. then finishing up conference play at home vs Baylor.
if you look at how the big 12 is supposed to fall
@Texas A&M
vTexas
vOSU
vBaylor
vMizzou
We play 4 of the top 5 times at home. I honestly think Texas tops A&M also, but we'll see. Anyways, that could mean they are THAT much better than us and will beat us anyways, and we'll struggle against the bottom teams on the road and struggle all year, or, we'll be better than we expect, and be able to compete in these games because they are at home against. I hope it's the competing part.
Not trying to be an a$$ or anything either, just enjoy actually talking about baseball and it's tough to find people willing to talk about Husker baseball and actually know much about it..
And do you believe that Stoops should be fired from OU? I mean, he won the big one once, but he's lost 5 straight BCS bowl games. 1-5.
