Boy, does he ever have an uphill challenge to try and create a winning culture in Aggie baseball. I wish him well and hope good things are to come!

Nicholson is a very good hire under the circumstances, leaving a comfortable position at a strong program like Stanford. The school did the right thing hiring somebody with no previous affiliation to the program to make a clean break from the past.

Great hire. He will do very well here. Charismatic young coach with a great family. Wish him well. Big job to do but doable no doubt.

Blue referral? Played AAA, two time Sac State assistant.

Troll...probably yes, perhaps no...but why join this message board and begin posting under the name of AggieFinn2 while starting asinine topics like "Football is dumb?" This obviously hasn't won you much respect from the forum members here who enjoy discussing Aggie Athletics.

If you want to legitimately discuss Aggie sports without being a wiseass, then you're welcome to do so. If not, why waste your time here?

Comments from Nicholson:

“It feels great,” said Nicholson in an exclusive interview with The Enterprise. “I’m really excited to get this opportunity. I really enjoyed meeting with Rocko and the staff. I really love the people that are in place at Davis. Everything I know about the community is just awesome, and I can’t wait to be a part of it. I’m really excited to build something special. I’m super excited about it.”

“I’m just getting to know them,” Nicholson said. “The guys that are there are there because they want to be there. I know they want to make things better and that’s what I want to be a part of. It’s really wanting to build something and take pride in.”

“I like it,” said Nicholson of the Aggies’ diamond. “It’s got a great stadium, great place to watch a game.”

He spoke highly of UC Davis, which he described as “a beautiful campus.”

“It has a lot to offer for guys to develop,” Nicholson said. “Get them in the weight room and get strong.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/baseball-uc-davis-plans-to-hire-stanford-assistant-as-new-head-coach/

Totally agree on the outside hire part. It was absolutely necessary in this case.

Hopefully a Stanford coach knows how to pitch academics.

Wonder if we get those Carrell kids back? Probably no way. What a loss to the team and the community. If they did it would be a boon to the program. Not holding my breath.

I doubt they come back. They moved on to a larger and more succesful program.

The 2022 season is likely a lot more about finding useful players for 2023 and beyond than actually being competitive l. I don't think anyone expects Nicholson to win in the next 2 seasons under the circumstances, except maybe Nicholson himself.

According to the schedule the team has only six games to get ready for the Big West. That will be really tough. especially getting the pitchers stretched out to make the equivalent of traditional starts. Maybe he will handle it like major league spring training, where everybody only pitches one or two innings until they get stronger and define their roles themselves. Pitch them on a set schedule ?

I was thinking that the academics issue would help, as OK is not exactly noted for it’s academic prowess and the dad no doubt knows that. But yes, the lure of the “big time” programs looms large in the minds of young men. So, I agree, not going to happen.

According to the UC Davis website roster Nicholson has named two assistants-Andrew Ayers and Zack Thornton. Both played in the pros. Ayers has played and coached for Sac State, so he and Nicholson have probably worked together before, maybe as player and coach. A Google search says Thornton made it to Triple-A as a pitcher in the Mets' minor league system. Ayers played in Single-A for the Royals.

Looks like they really are making a clean break with the previous coaching staff so far.

Kind of hard to transfer back, at least psychologically...and kind of hard to transfer to a program that was struggling last year, was on life support for the off season and is going to continue to do struggle for a couple of years.

Still no roster posted for baseball. Most D1 teams will have a roster by now, including Cal, sac, OK, Stanford. Both Carrell brothers have made the team at OK (no surprise there). Nicholson has his hands full just being able to put a team on the field, much less coming up with a winning team. Recruiting must be a nightmare for the poor guy due to the mess he has to clean up. On the other hand, who really expects much this year anyhow?

UC Davis often waits until the last minute to post theirs. I read in the hazing report they are usually finalizing their roster right up to the deadline. What makes them take so long ? I guess the battle for those last couple of roster spots is either very competitive or very uninspiring.

I think Sac State gets their roster out earlier because they have a deeper pool of talent. They'd cut players UCD would probably keep.. Also they're on the semester system so if they make cuts earlier those players have a chance to transfer to junior colleges without having to sit out the season.

I share your concerns about putting the team together, but I think they'll be better than we expect. Nicholson has assembled a coaching staff with diverse experience and they'll be able to get more out of the players than Vaughn and co. He, Ayers, and Thornton all played in the minor leagues (and Ayers spent some time as a scout I think) so they have pro connections which should be good for recruiting. There have been quite a few games where I think Vaughn was simply outcoached.

Assembling the roster is a big task, but I don't think they'l just be raiding the club team and tryouts out of desperation. I believe the interim coaches were also tasked with recruiting, they may have found some good HS players who were uncommitted or JC guys who were eligible to transfer for Spring Quarter. Maybe even a player or two cut by another program cut before semester break ? Nobody who will amaze you but it won't be Artie Lange's "Beer League" either.

I am hoping against hope that when all is said and done (including the AS vote to eliminate or reduce ICA fees) the Edwards facility will lighten the burden of recruiting to UCD as it will be a one of a kind asset. I hope that BB will benefit from this as I think Hawk mentioned at the signing occasion for football. Also, LIGHTS!!! Please someone come forward and get this done!

The other day I was eager to see a baseball game this weekend, but D-I teams don't start play until 2/18, so that left community college and Division II/III. Basically slim pickin's. Looked at some of the N. and Central CA options' websites. Wasn't a surprise that Chico State had a big ballpark with lights, because I think that was built with the intention of hosting minor league baseball. But Stanislaus State now has ditched its sparse bleacher seating for a new grandstand with box seats and lights. Stanislaus State, the Division II CSU in Turlock nobody talks about, has beaten UC Davis to getting lights.

I wonder if it's not even just a money issue at UC Davis. Perhaps some people have complained that merely having lights for baseball is a Title IX problem because the male student athletes would be allowed to have more flexibility with their class schedules and practice times than their female counterparts who play almost the same sport. Even so other universities manage to get it done, so this seems to point more toward incompetent university leadership than stingy donors. I understand that LaRue Field now has lights, but they're just in the batting cages-is that right ? But the sports aren't equal. There's a reason (other than the amount of available land and money) that LaRue Field doesn't have 3,000 seats-there aren't 3,000 people in the region who give a darn about UC Davis softball and want to listen to silly songs and see weird pitching and 302 ft homeruns.. To be fair there aren't that many for baseball either, but there was probably more support back when the volunteers built the current stadium. If they knew what we know now Dobbins Stadium might have half its current capacity or less.

The problem for UC Davis baseball, barring radical changes will all be this:

The team doesn't win because people don't care, but the people don't care because the team doesn't win. And if they won people still probably wouldn't care.

Take this message board for instance. People spend hours scouring the internet for social media posts for a single HS football recruit who may ultimately have little to no impact on the program. All this discussion over what-so the team can go 7-4 and go to a playoff game and lose ? Why ? They care about football. You'll never see this level of fanaticism with UCD baseball.

Softball is blowing up at the NCAA levels. This is an article about how the TV ratings are for the NCAA softball vs the baseball at the World Series level. Softball is a great sport and has a large rabid fan base. https://justinsworldsb.com/tv-numbers-wcws-championship-crush-mcws-in-ratings/

Roster is up. 30 players. Some interesting new faces. Nathan Lemos is back. He pitched as a freshman for the Aggies but not since, and now he's a senior. An infielder named Luke Piazza.-wonder if he's related to Mike ? Only 16 players who haver played for the Aggies before. Leroy Yau is also a sports photographer for UCD. Looks like Kaden Hogan played for Long Beach State but transferred to Sierra College.

In addition to the seniors from last year looks like the Aggies also lost these players from the 2021 roster to transfers:

Zach Carrell-Oklahoma State
Brock Moffiitt-Northwest Nazarene (D II)
Adam Walker-Oklahoma
Jalen Smith-UCSD
Michael Campagna-San Francisco
Jake Spillane (pitching ace)-UC Irvine
Will Bermudez-Mt. Sac (JC)

Also Brett Erwin, who had already graduated and is not part of the group above, will be playing for the University of Maine this year.