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Rojo Breakdown: Huskers taking steps under Erstad

This chart probably says more about the changes in college baseball as a whole than it does about the two coaches - offenses was much more lethal during Van Horn's reign, and the changes have helped Erstad's teams post better pitching numbers.
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The better comparison to make between the two is how each team improved in its early years under its new coach. Van Horn's ascension came more swiftly - by the end of his third year, Nebraska had made the postseason twice and attended a Super Regional. Erstad's squad's can't boast that type of success just yet.
Each coach walked into a rocky situation. The Huskers went 54-62-1 in the two years before Van Horn arrived, and they went 57-52 in the two seasons before Erstad was hired.
There is one big difference between the two - Van Horn came to Nebraska with much more coaching experience. When he arrived, he already had 14 years of coaching under his belt, including three as the head coach at Northwestern State. Erstad was hired with just one year of experience, and that was as a volunteer hitting instructor the season prior. Erstad's learning curve was much steeper.
Comparing the careers of these two coaches is not an easy exercise, and there's a reason for that - their teams competed in different eras under different sets of rules. And stacking up anyone against Van Horn is going to be tough. Van Horn is one of the best in the business, and it wasn't a big surprise to see him achieve quick success at Arkansas.
But in examining the improvement Nebraska has made under Erstad compared to what it did under Van Horn, the early results are encouraging. The current staff has plenty of work to do, and they will be tested by a bevy of losses thanks to graduation (DeLeon, Michael Pritchard, Zach Hirsch) and the MLB Draft (Aaron Bummer, Pat Kelly, Monte Harrison, Jakson Reetz).
But it's not a mistake that NU has gotten better each year under Erstad. The new coach is building something in Lincoln, and if he has it his way, Husker fans could be watching their team in Omaha in the near future.
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