Anderson, Childress turn focus to their players

In this weekend's high-profile Big 12 Conference series between No. 5-ranked Nebraska and No. 6 Texas A&M, it's obvious that neither of the coaches involved want the story to be about them.

Sure, it's an interesting angle. Rob Childress was the pitching coach for the Cornhuskers from 1998-2005 before taking over at Texas A&M in June of 2005. Childress and Nebraska coach Mike Anderson were very close as co-workers and continue to stay that way  --  as much as they can  --  now that they're competitors.

But now that it's year three of Anderson's Huskers and Childress' Aggies going head-to-head in their regular-season series, both coaches involved have essentially said, "Enough already."

"The first year, that was exciting," Anderson said, recalling when Childress brought A&M into Haymarket Park in Lincoln for the first time in 2006 as NU swept the rebuilding Aggies. "It's Nebraska and A&M right now. I really do feel that way.

"Rob and I are still close. We talk quite a bit. I'd say we talk more about families than we do about baseball."

Childress shared a similar view.

"This will be the second time taking a Texas A&M team to Lincoln and I'm looking forward to it being about the two teams that are both having great years instead of me going back and being a family reunion or something like that," said Childress, who is 2-5 coaching against Nebraska. "I know it's going to be a tough test. Nebraska has an incredible team. They play extremely hard and probably have as much depth and balance on the mound as anybody in our league, if not the country."

Texas A&M (41-8, 18-3 Big 12) comes to Lincoln riding a Big 12-record 15-game conference winning streak and owns a 2 1/2-game lead over the Huskers (36-8-1, 15-5-1) in the league standings. Two teams going at it toe to toe  --  that should be the story, Anderson said.

"I'm happy for our kids and I'm happy for his team  --  that we've both put our teams in good position," Anderson said. "That's kind of the approach this week."

Obviously, one alternate storyline is the remarkable way in which Childress has reversed the fortune of A&M's baseball program in such a short amount of time. The Aggies enjoyed the biggest turnaround in NCAA Division I baseball in 2007, going 48-19 and winning 23 more games than they did in Childress' first season at College Station, Texas, and have continued the charge this year.

Childress insists that A&M's resurgence comes as no surprise.

"In my heart of hearts, I saw it happening that quick," Childress said. "I hate losing a lot more than I enjoy winning. It was just a matter of us getting all our players in here and getting them all on the same bus headed the same direction and being committed to what we're trying to do as a group."

Anderson said he certainly hasn't been surprised by the superb job Childress has done.

"We both understand how competitive each other is," Anderson said. "It's the exact type of team that you'd think that Rob would be able to put together. I thought it would be a real quick turnaround."

Childress said he has great respect for the way Anderson has kept Nebraska's program going forward. Both were assistants under Dave Van Horn, who resurrected Husker baseball and guided the program to its first two College World Series berths in 2001 and 2002 before leaving for Arkansas after the 2002 season.

Anderson is 250-108-1 in his sixth season as Nebraska's head coach. He guided the Huskers to Big 12 regular-season titles in 2003 and 2005 and helped NU capture its first-ever CWS victory in 2005.

"Mike continues to do it year in and year out," Childress said. "I think, without a doubt, he's one of the best coaches in the country and he's got one of the hottest teams in the country playing right now, too."

Childress said he's essentially followed the blueprint that had been established at Nebraska, starting with Van Horn. The process continued on With Anderson and Childress essentially together at the controls in Lincoln.

"We've done the same things here at Texas A&M that we did for eight years at Nebraska and that's recruit the right players, develop them and ask them to go play with a chip on their shoulder and give a great effort and play hard," Childress said. "That's what Nebraska continues to do and that's what we try to do here.

"It's not about getting the No. 1 recruiting class in the country or in the top five  --  I couldn't care less about that. It's getting the guys that fit our system and love to compete, play hard and that's hopefully what you'll see this weekend is two teams that love to compete and play hard."

Two good friends will be going at it tooth and nail this weekend, no doubt. At times, here's guessing you might not even be able to tell that they're buddies at all. However, when the games are over, the friendship will undoubtedly remain.

"I keep in touch with him," Childress said of Anderson. "He's a great friend of mine and always will be."

Terry Douglass is sports editor for The Independent.