This all started 20 years ago

[HuskerMav11]

20 years ago, Tom Osborne retires and he names Frank Solich as his successor.

 

That never should have been allowed. I understand that loyalty was something that was important to TO, but Nebraska had the ability to go out and land any coach we wanted. Nick Saban comes to mind.

 

And we've never been able to recover since. The program fires Frank after a 9-3 season which set precedence for the next 15 years. No one in their right mind would want to coach a program with an expectation of never-ending pure-perfection.

 

The good news is: We no longer have the expectations. If we can find a coach that could get us to the B1G CCG, it'll be a success. It's the somewhat sad reality, but it's actually a good thing. We've been taken down a few pegs. 

 

So time to right the ship. First order a business is getting rid of that Ass clown Sean Eichorst. Next, Riley's tenure is up after this season. Then we go out and find a head coach that will promise conference dominance.

 

Until then, stay warm next to this dumpster fire.

[Toe]

Yeah, well, before that, Devaney named Osborne his successor, and it seemed to work out OK, didn't it?

 

And then Osborne's second time around, Perlman denied him the opportunity to have any say in who would succeed him, and we wound up with Eichorst.

 

S#it happens.

[Enhance]

Perlman was a bigger disaster for Nebraska athletics than TO's decision to retain Solich.

[corncraze]

We should have hired Alvarez as TO's replacement. If we did, we likely would have won another title.

[JJ Husker]

There might've been a better choice on staff than Frank. Frank may have adjusted to the role given a bit more time. But I don't think naming a successor from within was a mistake. In fact, going outside the family (Callahan) was by far the biggest mistake that was made. It took TO many many years to put that machine in place. It was reload, not rebuild. Today's landscape significantly shortens the timeframe in which to do it. The only reason even Tom was able to do it was by having a reasonable level of success along the way. It was probably easier to do it in those days as the Big 8 was pretty much ruled by Oklahoma and Nebraska but it is going to take the relative level of success we had in the 70's, 80's and early 90's to get it going again. It's going to be tougher that's for sure but a few cog's and the occasional conference championships is not out of reach. Make no mistake, that is the standard that will be required for any coach to have longevity here and they'll only get about 3 or 4 years to do it or show high progress towards it. I don't think it's an unreasonable standard, just a tough one. There are coaches that can be identified to have a higher propensity towards that goal.

 

And side note.....really? Hire Nick Saban in 98? That would've been crazy. Hindsight from 20 years later doesn't make that make sense. If that was the answer, why didn't Saban win all those titles at Michigan State instead of at Bama?

[HuskerMav11]

Just now, El Diaco said:

And side note.....really? Hire Nick Saban in 98? That would've been crazy. Hindsight from 20 years later doesn't make that make sense. If that was the answer, why didn't Saban win all those titles at Michigan State instead of at Bama?

 

To be honest with myself, it's complete hindsight and obviously somewhat of a foolish statement.

 

I think Frank was showing signs of improvement and was let go too early. I agree 

[Mavric]

51 minutes ago, HuskerMav11 said:

I think Frank was showing signs of improvement and was let go too early. I agree 

 

You know what Frank still has in common with Nebraska?  

 

Both still have their last conference championship in 1999.

 

If he can't even win a conference championship in the MAC.....

[dvdcrr]

3 hours ago, corncraze said:

We should have hired Alvarez as TO's replacement. If we did, we likely would have won another title.

Water under the bridge, but

Was he interested?

[HuskerMav11]

Just now, Mavric said:

 

You know what Frank still has in common with Nebraska?  

 

Both still have their last conference championship in 1999.

 

If he can't even win a conference championship in the MAC.....

 

"On November 16, 2006 the Bobcats secured their first ever Mid-American Conference East Division title and their first football championship of any sort since 1968 with a victory over the University of Akron Zips."

 

"The Bobcats returned to the post-season in 2009, posting a 9-3 regular season record and another MAC East Championship"

 

At least he can win their division. I'm not saying that Frank Solich is an elite coach, but I don't think the Huskers could win the MAC this year. We're at the bottom of the B1G, and there is no way in hell we'll compete in this conference. People used to joke about us "being Iowa"... We're not even Iowa anymore. A washed up program. A has-been. Like many of the posters on this board, we've peaked in the 90s.

[Enhance]

7 hours ago, unlfan said:

This whole thing started at the macro level of college football, not anything do with Nebraska administration.

 

Long story short, weight training programs across the spectrum are essentially identical. Lost advantage there. Virtually every single school has every game on TV. Plus Internet highlights. No longer need to go to the small group of schools on TV for exposure. Lost advantage there. Finally, general population shift out of Midwest to Southeast. Lost advantage there.

 

Add all those together, and Nebraska is just another program.

 

Sure, the Nebraska admins in charge didn't help, but I don't think they had any control of it anyway.

And all of those things are fine (even though people have been leaving the midwest since long before the mid 90s), but I don't think it excuses Nebraska's complete lack of significant hardware in the trophy case.

 

I'm not saying you're making excuses, to be clear. A lot of what you say has impacted Nebraska like it has other schools (if not moreso). I just also believe the university has made some critical and crucial mistakes along the way that have ultimately had a bigger impact than the things you mentioned.

[junior4949]

12 hours ago, unlfan said:

This whole thing started at the macro level of college football, not anything do with Nebraska administration.

 

Long story short, weight training programs across the spectrum are essentially identical. Lost advantage there. Virtually every single school has every game on TV. Plus Internet highlights. No longer need to go to the small group of schools on TV for exposure. Lost advantage there. Finally, general population shift out of Midwest to Southeast. Lost advantage there.

 

Add all those together, and Nebraska is just another program.

 

Sure, the Nebraska admins in charge didn't help, but I don't think they had any control of it anyway.

 

Along with all of the things you mentioned, we could add conference affiliations into the mix.  In all reality, I think TO retires when he did because of the formation of the Big 12.  We lost the partial qualifiers.  All the power shifted to the south.  All of the old Big 8 teams sided against us.  I don't think joining the B1G has done us any favors with regards to recruiting. 

[Toe]

13 hours ago, unlfan said:

 weight training programs across the spectrum are essentially identical. Lost advantage there.

 

According to Boyd Epley's measurements, the team is less athletic than it was 20 years ago. It's not just that others have gotten better in that department, we've gotten worse.

[BIG ERN]

"If you look at football around the country, to get by 41 years without a losing season, with one 7-7 season, is really pretty remarkable," Osborne said. "We maybe have painted ourselves into a little bit of a corner, where expectations are awfully high."

Frank was 58-19 here and 3 Top 10 finishes....

[ColoradoHusk]

I really don't care whether TO should have hired a different guy 20 years ago or if he shouldn't have even had a chance to name his successor.  Not saying it's not a worthy argument, but I don't know what this has to do with the state of the program under Riley and the current staff.

[Undone]

5 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I really don't care whether TO should have hired a different guy 20 years ago or if he shouldn't have even had a chance to name his successor.  Not saying it's not a worthy argument, but I don't know what this has to do with the state of the program under Riley and the current staff.

The thing is, naming Solich was really only the half of it.

I feel like our fan base is blind to the fact that Osborne locked in on Pelini when he was tasked with finding a new head coach as Athletic Director. In my humble opinion, Tom didn't exactly leave a legacy of doing well with the tough decisions post-coaching retirement.