NU Head Coaches - their first four years

[junior4949]

The story going around while it was going on, is that it was a cheer leader and another woman, plus there was some drinking issues supposedly. Frank was a Nebraska guy and was Pedy. I think both did the best they could at the time. Pedy is an a$$ for sure. Frank a pretty good guy, I have talked with him several times. Truly liked the guy. Was sorry to see Frank have to go, but water under the bridge now. I hope sometime he is invited back and we so something special for him. He lived for Nebraska, and the fairer side.

This is my problem with the "off the field issues" theory on Frank's firing. The story seems to change from person to person, like a game of Telephone. By the time it gets to me it's different, and when it gets to you it's even more different.

I've heard many, many theories. It seems clear there was something going on outside the scope of football, but what exactly is anyone's guess. Speaking strictly of football, Frank had let some things slip that didn't need to slip, and that certainly didn't help his cause. Add to that Pederson having a rather large ego and a desire to put his stamp on the program, and you have..... well, what we got in 2003.

Not to defend Steve Pederson, but I think if you asked around at the time, you would have found a lot of support for him among our other coaches. He was, from what I can gather, a reasonably well-liked AD. He made a lot of improvements for a lot of our programs, and a lot of the coaches had reason to be thankful to him. His cardinal sin, though, was mucking about with the football program. And that you simply cannot do.

I gotta agree with this. I think over the years there has been a fair amount of embellishment to the story. The contact I had within the AD told me Solich was having an affair with a woman inside the AD. Pud told him to quit, but apparently Solich did not. End of story. The student thing that always seems to get thrown in here didn't belong to Solich but rather Bohl.

Is this enough to fire a coach? I would think Carl's indiscretion with a booster's daughter-in-law could be construed as worse, yet he stayed on this season. Is this why he left for the Florida Atlantic job? I don't know.

The thing I would like to point out is the fact that having affairs isn't illegal. What is illegal is for someone to tamper with a witness and withholding state evidence. Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey accused TO of doing just that. Yet, TO is held in the highest regard by Nebraska faithful. This is why I find it very difficult to believe that Solich was canned for off the field indiscretions. I don't believe he was ever accused of committing an actual crime which leads me to believe he was fired for his job performance.

 

[kchusker_chris]

Was the mistake firing Frank, or was the mistake hiring Cally? Who were our first choices back then? I remember Cally being down the list but I could be wrong. Hypothetically - had Steve tacked on an additional million to that salary offer and gotten one of the bigger fish - we might all be thanking the Lord that Frank isn't still here. Unfortunately for Steve, he didn't know who he would be hiring before he made the fire. Big risk, big reward. Didn't work out well for him though.

 

[junior4949]

Dave Wandstedt was right near the top. We were doomed from the start with Pud leading the one man show.

 

[skersfan]

Wandstadt was the goal, but Miami renewed his contract, he was supposed to have been fired. That dropped us to Houston Nutt, another real winner. He turned us down and a number of others, Urban Meyers was one, that most wanted, but he made a very damning comment about going to work for a program that fired a 9-3 coach. But it was about talent on board, as his dream job at the time was ND, but went to Florida when offered by ND and Florida. Lot of names floated around, and then BC hit. Most were okay, but he his DC hire was an instant topic.

 

[knapplc]

The mistake was firing Frank when we fired him. Had he been fired the year before (2002, 7-7) after losing his final three games, the perception would have been very different. The fact that he was allowed to stay and overhaul his staff lends credence to the allegations that there were off-the-field issues leading up to his termination.

In a way, the promotion to Head Coach was the worst thing that ever happened to Solich. He was a good Assistant, not a good HC. He was a caretaker who began to lose interest in taking care of the team, and that's not OK around here. We had clearly slipped, but we weren't as abysmal as we were after his firing. We would have turned into Tennessee had he stuck around - a formerly-good team without much national impact, a name without substance. Osborne was loyal to Frank, and he hired with his heart, not his head. Or maybe Tom just isn't that good at hiring coaches. Hard to say. Certainly the one guy he did hire, Pelini, and the guy he basically hired (or STRONGLY suggested Byrne hire), Solich, haven't proven worthy successors to his legacy yet.

 

[Count 'Bility]

S I G H dedhoarse

 

[ladyhawke]

The story going around while it was going on, is that it was a cheer leader and another woman, plus there was some drinking issues supposedly. Frank was a Nebraska guy and was Pedy. I think both did the best they could at the time. Pedy is an a$$ for sure. Frank a pretty good guy, I have talked with him several times. Truly liked the guy. Was sorry to see Frank have to go, but water under the bridge now. I hope sometime he is invited back and we so something special for him. He lived for Nebraska, and the fairer side.

This is my problem with the "off the field issues" theory on Frank's firing. The story seems to change from person to person, like a game of Telephone. By the time it gets to me it's different, and when it gets to you it's even more different.

I've heard many, many theories. It seems clear there was something going on outside the scope of football, but what exactly is anyone's guess. Speaking strictly of football, Frank had let some things slip that didn't need to slip, and that certainly didn't help his cause. Add to that Pederson having a rather large ego and a desire to put his stamp on the program, and you have..... well, what we got in 2003.

Not to defend Steve Pederson, but I think if you asked around at the time, you would have found a lot of support for him among our other coaches. He was, from what I can gather, a reasonably well-liked AD. He made a lot of improvements for a lot of our programs, and a lot of the coaches had reason to be thankful to him. His cardinal sin, though, was mucking about with the football program. And that you simply cannot do.

I gotta agree with this. I think over the years there has been a fair amount of embellishment to the story. The contact I had within the AD told me Solich was having an affair with a woman inside the AD. Pud told him to quit, but apparently Solich did not. End of story. The student thing that always seems to get thrown in here didn't belong to Solich but rather Bohl.

Is this enough to fire a coach? I would think Carl's indiscretion with a booster's daughter-in-law could be construed as worse, yet he stayed on this season. Is this why he left for the Florida Atlantic job? I don't know.

The thing I would like to point out is the fact that having affairs isn't illegal. What is illegal is for someone to tamper with a witness and withholding state evidence. Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey accused TO of doing just that. Yet, TO is held in the highest regard by Nebraska faithful. This is why I find it very difficult to believe that Solich was canned for off the field indiscretions. I don't believe he was ever accused of committing an actual crime which leads me to believe he was fired for his job performance.

Accused but was it ever proven?

 

[junior4949]

The story going around while it was going on, is that it was a cheer leader and another woman, plus there was some drinking issues supposedly. Frank was a Nebraska guy and was Pedy. I think both did the best they could at the time. Pedy is an a$$ for sure. Frank a pretty good guy, I have talked with him several times. Truly liked the guy. Was sorry to see Frank have to go, but water under the bridge now. I hope sometime he is invited back and we so something special for him. He lived for Nebraska, and the fairer side.

This is my problem with the "off the field issues" theory on Frank's firing. The story seems to change from person to person, like a game of Telephone. By the time it gets to me it's different, and when it gets to you it's even more different.

I've heard many, many theories. It seems clear there was something going on outside the scope of football, but what exactly is anyone's guess. Speaking strictly of football, Frank had let some things slip that didn't need to slip, and that certainly didn't help his cause. Add to that Pederson having a rather large ego and a desire to put his stamp on the program, and you have..... well, what we got in 2003.

Not to defend Steve Pederson, but I think if you asked around at the time, you would have found a lot of support for him among our other coaches. He was, from what I can gather, a reasonably well-liked AD. He made a lot of improvements for a lot of our programs, and a lot of the coaches had reason to be thankful to him. His cardinal sin, though, was mucking about with the football program. And that you simply cannot do.

I gotta agree with this. I think over the years there has been a fair amount of embellishment to the story. The contact I had within the AD told me Solich was having an affair with a woman inside the AD. Pud told him to quit, but apparently Solich did not. End of story. The student thing that always seems to get thrown in here didn't belong to Solich but rather Bohl.

Is this enough to fire a coach? I would think Carl's indiscretion with a booster's daughter-in-law could be construed as worse, yet he stayed on this season. Is this why he left for the Florida Atlantic job? I don't know.

The thing I would like to point out is the fact that having affairs isn't illegal. What is illegal is for someone to tamper with a witness and withholding state evidence. Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey accused TO of doing just that. Yet, TO is held in the highest regard by Nebraska faithful. This is why I find it very difficult to believe that Solich was canned for off the field indiscretions. I don't believe he was ever accused of committing an actual crime which leads me to believe he was fired for his job performance.

Accused but was it ever proven?

Of course it was proven, but Lacey never filed any charges. I mean TO did hand over the gun out of his own safe in his office. I don't know how much more proof there would need to be. TO admitted to interviewing witnesses. If you do a little digging via the internet, you can find several different articles. However, none of this is the point. I think most of us realize why he did it, and in some cases he did need to make a decision long before the player ever went to trial which is more than likely why he did interview witnesses. The point is TO didn't get fired for his off the field indiscretions. This leads me to believe Solich didn't get fired for his off the field indiscretions either.