Rob Childress shares how his approach to coaching changes in new role

Rob Childress is ready for some new responsibilities with Nebraska, as the Cornhuskers promoted Childress from his role as director of player development to pitching coach just last week.

On Tuesday, Childress spoke with the media, where he shared how he’ll approach his new role, and how excited he is to get started.

“Well before I wasn’t able to you know, coach the swing. Coach the delivery. I got to coach hearts and minds,” explained Childress, asked what he’s going to be doing differently in his new role. “You’ll feel like that’s my strength anyway. You know, now that I get the opportunity to be in the bullpen, and hands on with pitchers, I look forward to that.

“Try to continue to grow the depth and do our very best to keep the in-state kids at home. I know how much the University of Nebraska means to Nebraska kids. Going to the Midwest or when needed, and if we need to go to Nashville to get a skill player or a pitcher, that’s what we’ll do. That’s been the recipe for Nebraska football and Coach Osborne, and it’s certainly one that — that recipe, we took back when I was here before. We need to focus on it again.”

Alas, it’s evident Childress holds Nebraska as the standard of collegiate athletics, and wouldn’t rather be coaching for any other program.

Continuing, this marks the second stint as pitching coach for Childress at Nebraska, as he also served in that role from 1998-2005. He later became the head coach at Texas A&M, a position he held for 16 seasons. He helped the Aggies to a 622-336-3 record and two College World Series appearances during that span, but the school decided not to renew his contract after the team finished last in the SEC in 2021. 

That’s when Childress made the move back to Lincoln to take over as director of player development the past two seasons. There he rejoined Cornhuskers coach Will Bolt, who was an assistant on Childress’ A&M staff from 2015-19. 

Childress saw success in his past stint at Nebraska, as he was a part of three trips to the the College World Series. However, the Cornhuskers have not made it back to Omaha since his last season with the team in 2005. This past season they finished 33-23-1 but failed to make the NCAA Tournament.

Rob Childress has certainly worked for everything he’s accomplished, and he’s ready to help get the Cornhuskers back to the level he believes they should be at in his new role.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this article.