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Program Changing Plays


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Osborne handpicking Solich was a program changer.

I have always believed strongly that had Osborne stayed another five years, he would have won at least 3 more national championships and that would have made him, hands down, the greatest head coach in college football history. There is NO QUESTION that Nebraska was THEE top team and football program in the country and recruiting had become largely a matter of selecting the top tweny three players, by position, that NU wanted and they would come. I recall Osborne once commenting that in one class in the mid/latter 90s, the coaches had identified the top 100 players in the country and made the decision not to take ANYONE who was not on that list.

 

That statement is nothing short of amazing. Now, I am sure that our coaches' opinions may have differed from many of the so-called gurus and pundits at the time but still, many of the country's best were contacting Nebraska and soliciting a chance to be considered rather than the other way around. Likely this is what Alabama and Ohio State are experiencing now. Both those programs are rivaling late 90s Nebraska in terms of recruiting power and status. They haven't managed to field the greatest team of all time but it is not inconceivable that either one could in the next couple years.

 

I would agree that Solich becoming the new coach was a program changer but that really would have been true with almost ANY other coach. The biggest program change was T.O. retiring. He went out on top but certainly had plenty of 'stuff' left in him as he followed by running for Congress and Governor suggesting he was not really ready to quit a high energy, high effort, lots of traveling and public events, etc. type of job. We will never know but I have always felt that there was something more to his retirement decision than we will ever know. I have no idea what and don't suggest anything negative but there must have been something more motivating his decision. Perhaps it was the challenges and ever changing nature of the social culture, dealing with all the social troubles and attitudes of the upcoming generations of players. ? Who knows.

 

Hiring Callahan and introducing the 'west coast offense' was also a program changer of huge impact for NU. In hindsight, neither of those changes look very smart now.

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