Guy Chamberlin

A myriad of reasons. Including smear campaigns. Nope. The rumors about Frank Solich were true. He got a DUI within weeks of taking the Ohio job. The other rumors were true, too. Influential alums could have protected Frank better, but they thought the program was trending downward and Frank couldn't recruit. Fair or not, any Power 5 school had the last 11 years to capitalize on Nebraska's mistake, but didn't. Since Nebraska got lots of grief for firing a coach with Solich's stellar record, a smear campaign makes no sense. Nebraska didn't state it's rationale for legal reasons. They had no one better lined up. I think it all could have been handled better -- including not firing Frank at all -- but nobody smeared an innocent man. Wish you could get over that. There was no smear campaign against Bo Pelini either. Bo was an open book for the world to see and hear. In fact the athletic department enlisted a pretty aggressive PR campaign to warm up Bo's image after the 2013 season. The job was still Bo's to keep until Bo screwed the pooch in very Bo-like manner. Then when safely at his hometown school of Youngstown State, with friends and protectors in the administration, Bo went off on the YSU fans for only filling half their 14,000 seat stadium, publicly undercut the staff he was asked to retain, resumed his ref-baiting antics, and finished his 5-6 season by committing consecutive unsportsmanlike penalties that pinned his own offense back at its goal line after they'd been near midfield with a chance to win the game. A paragraph each dedicated to justifying the firings of Solich and Pelini is a good indicator about Mike Riley's lack of success. A myriad of reasons. Including smear campaigns. Nope. The rumors about Frank Solich were true. He got a DUI within weeks of taking the Ohio job. The other rumors were true, too. Influential alums could have protected Frank better, but they thought the program was trending downward and Frank couldn't recruit. Fair or not, any Power 5 school had the last 11 years to capitalize on Nebraska's mistake, but didn't. Since Nebraska got lots of grief for firing a coach with Solich's stellar record, a smear campaign makes no sense. Nebraska didn't state it's rationale for legal reasons. They had no one better lined up. I think it all could have been handled better -- including not firing Frank at all -- but nobody smeared an innocent man. Wish you could get over that. There was no smear campaign against Bo Pelini either. Bo was an open book for the world to see and hear. In fact the athletic department enlisted a pretty aggressive PR campaign to warm up Bo's image after the 2013 season. The job was still Bo's to keep until Bo screwed the pooch in very Bo-like manner. Then when safely at his hometown school of Youngstown State, with friends and protectors in the administration, Bo went off on the YSU fans for only filling half their 14,000 seat stadium, publicly undercut the staff he was asked to retain, resumed his ref-baiting antics, and finished his 5-6 season by committing consecutive unsportsmanlike penalties that pinned his own offense back at its goal line after they'd been near midfield with a chance to win the game. Within weeks of taking the Ohio job? Stopped there because the revisionism and innuendo isn't worth reading and replying to when the first basic fact is incorrect. Let's be honest: you stopped long before that. A DUI isn't innuendo. A fondness for young coeds is. That doesn't mean it didn't happen. I think I've been perfectly fair to Frank and Bo and history. Nothing will change your mind. I'm okay with that.

lol, your selective understanding of the history of Indians and American in general is not that surprising in the least. You do realize Indians attack each other, and eradicated the less powerful tribes, right? I guess not, it was all those evil white people! The Crow and the Sioux hated each other so much that they refused to team up to stop the white man about to eradicate their entire lifestyle. The u.s military actively exploited these kind of tribal rivalries. But the white man was responsible for the genocide of the native American population. Why do you keep assuming a less savory victim excuses any action of the perpetrator?

If I'm on the wrong end of an argument with Marko Polo and Husker Psycho, I know I'm doing something right.

A myriad of reasons. Including smear campaigns. Nope. The rumors about Frank Solich were true. He got a DUI within weeks of taking the Ohio job. The other rumors were true, too. Influential alums could have protected Frank better, but they thought the program was trending downward and Frank couldn't recruit. Fair or not, any Power 5 school had the last 11 years to capitalize on Nebraska's mistake, but didn't. Since Nebraska got lots of grief for firing a coach with Solich's stellar record, a smear campaign makes no sense. Nebraska didn't state it's rationale for legal reasons. They had no one better lined up. I think it all could have been handled better -- including not firing Frank at all -- but nobody smeared an innocent man. Wish you could get over that. There was no smear campaign against Bo Pelini either. Bo was an open book for the world to see and hear. In fact the athletic department enlisted a pretty aggressive PR campaign to warm up Bo's image after the 2013 season. The job was still Bo's to keep until Bo screwed the pooch in very Bo-like manner. Then when safely at his hometown school of Youngstown State, with friends and protectors in the administration, Bo went off on the YSU fans for only filling half their 14,000 seat stadium, publicly undercut the staff he was asked to retain, resumed his ref-baiting antics, and finished his 5-6 season by committing consecutive unsportsmanlike penalties that pinned his own offense back at its goal line after they'd been near midfield with a chance to win the game.

Oh absolutely. Things had gone stale for at least two seasons at OSU. But he still would have retired a legend in Corvallis, given a program with precious few legends. If he fails at Nebraska, that's likely what he'll be remembered for.

Agree, the other Power 5 schools certainly haven't clamored for our unjustly fired coaches. But surely there's some truth to coaches -- and coach's agents -- being concerned about the expectation level at Nebraska. It's always sexier to turnaround a lousy program with low expectations, or revitalize a legacy program coming off a bad season or two, but it's a harder sell to inherit a 9 win team, knowing you have to do better immediately. There are probably easier campuses to recruit to than Lincoln, and nicer places for your wife to live. So if good coaches have choices -- and they do -- they might not put Nebraska on their list. But there's certainly a reward for the coach who wants to refurbish Nebraska to greatness, and plenty of resources at his disposal. The coach we need will know all about the expectations and pressures at Nebraska, and take the job precisely because he likes the challenge. He may already be here -- Mike Riley could have retired as a legend in his hometown. Or he may be the young coach we need to recognize before he gets hot and in demand. No there's no truth to that at all. Well this thread started with a Big 10 coach making that claim, so you may want to stretch your mind around some truth as opposed to no truth.

I don't think you are going out on a limb with that prediction of a top 25 ranking since it would include Oregon, but staying there for any length of time would seem unlikely. And with all that I shudder to think we would be giddy to get in the top 25 "yee haw" there are some posters that are enjoying the huskers not being ranked. it gives them a lot to bitch about. yee haw!!! Enjoying that , are you kidding! But for us fans that were around when we competed at the highest level and were ranked in the top 10 quite often (and I don't mean in the 90s', this is a bitter pill to swallow. For those that have never experienced it, I can see where you have a more (meh) attitude. I went to my first Nebraska game in 1966. Tom Osborne will always be "the new guy" to me. So your perspective isn't quite so precious, young fella. Ummm... Bob Devaney was our coach in 1966. He coached Nebraska until 1972. young fella... psycho.....try reading his post again. it doesn't say what you think it says. Bob Devaney was the "new guy". He's the one who started the entire decades long winning streak, and he's the one who hired Tom Osborne. Devaney replaced the previous coach who's last season was 3-6-1. Bob Devaney's first year at Nebraska he took the team to a 9-2 record... and he did that entirely with the previous coaches players. ​Devaney's second season he was 10-1... third season 9-2... fourth season 10-1. ​Devaney was the equivalent then... of Ohio State hiring Urban Meyer now. ​That's what I'm saying. I grew up with Bob Devaney's Nebraska Cornhuskers. That's why Tom Osborne was the New Guy to me. I've met them both. When one of them was too drunk to drive his Cadillac, I drove it for him. It is physically impossible for you to lecture me on Nebraska football. So stop. And I go back just as far as you do with it... Again, my apologies. I keep thinking you're a young guy with a poor grasp of history and terrible reading and writing skills.

Black people are perfectly capable of subjugating fellow blacks. White people are not responsible for all the evil in the world. Neither of which means white people don't enjoy entrenched privileges in this country, and there isn't a disturbing discrepancy in the treatment of blacks in our criminal justice system. Please don't use the most inflammatory passages in this document to pretend otherwise. Also, my own white daddy worked his ass off to go to college (UNL) --- the first in his dirt poor family to do so --- and lift himself and our family up in class. Yet he's willing to recognize the lingering racial inequity in this country instead of merely offering his personal experience as evidence that blacks have no excuse for their lot in life. He's a 90 year old WWII vet. Just spent some time with him. He's terribly depressed about the sharp right turn the country is taking.

I will freely admit that when Ameer Abdullah was a freshman competing with two other freshmen to succeed Rex Burkhead, I predicted he would never start because he went down far too easy on contact. In my defense, Abdullah wasn't a standout freshman, but worked his ass off to become excellent.

I don't think you are going out on a limb with that prediction of a top 25 ranking since it would include Oregon, but staying there for any length of time would seem unlikely. And with all that I shudder to think we would be giddy to get in the top 25 "yee haw" there are some posters that are enjoying the huskers not being ranked. it gives them a lot to bitch about. yee haw!!! Enjoying that , are you kidding! But for us fans that were around when we competed at the highest level and were ranked in the top 10 quite often (and I don't mean in the 90s', this is a bitter pill to swallow. For those that have never experienced it, I can see where you have a more (meh) attitude. I went to my first Nebraska game in 1966. Tom Osborne will always be "the new guy" to me. So your perspective isn't quite so precious, young fella. Ummm... Bob Devaney was our coach in 1966. He coached Nebraska until 1972. young fella... psycho.....try reading his post again. it doesn't say what you think it says. Bob Devaney was the "new guy". He's the one who started the entire decades long winning streak, and he's the one who hired Tom Osborne. Devaney replaced the previous coach who's last season was 3-6-1. Bob Devaney's first year at Nebraska he took the team to a 9-2 record... and he did that entirely with the previous coaches players. ​Devaney's second season he was 10-1... third season 9-2... fourth season 10-1. ​Devaney was the equivalent then... of Ohio State hiring Urban Meyer now. ​That's what I'm saying. I grew up with Bob Devaney's Nebraska Cornhuskers. That's why Tom Osborne was the New Guy to me. I've met them both. When one of them was too drunk to drive his Cadillac, I drove it for him. It is physically impossible for you to lecture me on Nebraska football. So stop.

EDIT: to the bold about wealth.. what a load of horse spit. I was brought up in a family that was far from wealthy, a long ways from wealthy. I now make considerably more than both my parents every did. I had to work my way through college. EDIT 2 : You clearly do not realize there were free black back then, some even owned slaves themselves! It is sad and exhausting to keep explaining why these two narratives don't explain away a very real and persistent problem.

The Dem conspiracy appears to stem from Bill Clinton being pretty friendly with Trump for years, and reportedly urging him to run for President. But I don't think it's a false flag conspiracy. The more reasonable explanation is still pretty nutty. A reputable campaign professional recently reported that she was approached by the Trump camp last summer, and hired to run a campaign in which Donald Trump would get around 15% of the Republican Primary vote and win a primary state or two before dropping out. It was a brand building assignment. The guy who has no intention of letting the world see his tax returns clearly didn't want to be put in that position. If we are to believe the Kasich camp, Trump Jr. tried to woo John Kasich on the ticket with the promise he'd be the most powerful VP in history, because President Trump wouldn't be handling either domestic or foreign policy issues. Knowledgeable folks have noted that the lack of Trump campaign operatives in key states is unprecedented. Combined with billions of other pieces of evidence, it appears that we have a candidate for President who really doesn't want the job and has been saying and doing everything possible to warn us.

You can't dismiss the serious racial realities in the country based on the most inflammatory statements some members of BLM want to make. Anymore than you can say the nasty racists at Donald Trump rallies speak for the Republican Party. Or white people in general. Lot of straw dogs out there.

I don't think you are going out on a limb with that prediction of a top 25 ranking since it would include Oregon, but staying there for any length of time would seem unlikely. And with all that I shudder to think we would be giddy to get in the top 25 "yee haw" there are some posters that are enjoying the huskers not being ranked. it gives them a lot to bitch about. yee haw!!! Enjoying that , are you kidding! But for us fans that were around when we competed at the highest level and were ranked in the top 10 quite often (and I don't mean in the 90s', this is a bitter pill to swallow. For those that have never experienced it, I can see where you have a more (meh) attitude. I went to my first Nebraska game in 1966. Tom Osborne will always be "the new guy" to me. So your perspective isn't quite so precious, young fella.

Agree, the other Power 5 schools certainly haven't clamored for our unjustly fired coaches. But surely there's some truth to coaches -- and coach's agents -- being concerned about the expectation level at Nebraska. It's always sexier to turnaround a lousy program with low expectations, or revitalize a legacy program coming off a bad season or two, but it's a harder sell to inherit a 9 win team, knowing you have to do better immediately. There are probably easier campuses to recruit to than Lincoln, and nicer places for your wife to live. So if good coaches have choices -- and they do -- they might not put Nebraska on their list. But there's certainly a reward for the coach who wants to refurbish Nebraska to greatness, and plenty of resources at his disposal. The coach we need will know all about the expectations and pressures at Nebraska, and take the job precisely because he likes the challenge. He may already be here -- Mike Riley could have retired as a legend in his hometown. Or he may be the young coach we need to recognize before he gets hot and in demand.

Newby had a 5.2 yards per carry average and protected the ball well. He was perfectly competent without ever appearing to be a threat. Doesn't seem to me he would have done better if given the ball more. Imani Cross was never quite the back we thought he would be, as exhibited under two coaching staffs. Janovich was the revelation, and although I wanted to see him used more, he signaled that the new coaching stuff was far more willing to feature the fullback than the last. Someone unknown needed to emerge last season, and I think that was Ozigbo. He will push Newby this year and both players will benefit from it. And there was something behind the scenes with Mikale Wilbon that curtailed his playing time. Probably practice habits, not necessarily a small thing. Hope he gets that figured out. Everyone sees the talent there. Entirely possible we end the season with a pleasant surprise at featured running back, someone not named Newby, Ozigbo or Wilbon.

I'm concerned because I think Tommy Armstrong needs to hear some footsteps behind him. If there's a more accurate armed QB on the bench, Tommy will need to show he can throw disciplined passes, too. If his advantage is his running ability, he can use it to stave off the QB itching on the bench. He was that guy when Ron Kellogg III was the better-passing, more experienced option, and Tommy earned his playing time and leadership position. If he only has to worry about Ryker Fyfe, his playing time will never be threatened. I'm still not convinced that Tommy understands what's needed from him, and I'm forced to consider the possibility that he's already hit his ceiling. Either way, he's close to being champion-caliber game-changer, but running out of chances to prove it.

Capitol punishment may be meaningful as our national moral position on crime and criminals, but we can't pretend it's a deterrent. Does anyone believe that someone considering murder thinks to himself: "if I'm caught, I'll only get life in prison. Thank God they abolished the death penalty." Weirdly enough, it's often more expensive to the state (and taxpayers) to execute a prisoner rather than to keep him in prison for life. That and the fact that we occasionally execute innocent people makes me think the DP isn't a great or obvious solution. Or to look at it another way, if the same number of innocent people (primarily black) executed by the state were to die of E-coli from tainted hamburger meat, there would likely be greater outrage.

.......or you hire a .500 coach and wonder why we went .500. Sometimes a spade is a spade. Guess we should have kept Frank Solich. Whose HC record is very close to Riley's. Sometimes context is everything. Feel free to use actual numbers (I believe it's .633 vs .532).....and maybe that's "very close" in your book. Sometimes accuracy is everything. numbers and accuracy mean nothing to some. It's about feelings. Feelings to a fact fight sums up many a husker discussion. Fact remains, Frank Solich was a .754 coach with the National Championship football dynasty he inherited, and became a .567 coach in his 11 seasons at Ohio, including a rough transition season, a modest turnaround of the program, followed by an up and down career never losing less than 4 games a season, and periodically losing 6, 7 or 8 games playing in the MAC, where he has yet to win a conference championship. I like Frank. He's a good coach. Riley had a similar trajectory at Oregon State, inheriting what had long been considered one of the worst programs in college football, playing in the highly competitive Pac 12, where he ended with a .538 winning percentage, multiple upsets of Top 10 teams and 8 bowl games -- nearly half the total in the program's entire history. I like Mike. He's a good coach. And as long as we've turned this thread into a dumpster fire, Bo Pelini brought his 9 win magic to Youngstown State, where he inherited a 7-5 team and coached them up to a 5-6 season. You could draw a sweeping negative conclusion from those numbers, or find another context in which you could rationalize them. I have "a feeling" how you might respond.

Yeah, Justice Scalia used to use the 1994 Henry Lee McCollum rape and murder of an 11 year old girl as the perfect demonstration of Capitol Punishment. At least Scalia lived to see McCollum pardoned when DNA evidence proved him innocent --- after three decades in prison.

.......or you hire a .500 coach and wonder why we went .500. Sometimes a spade is a spade. Guess we should have kept Frank Solich. Whose HC record is very close to Riley's. Sometimes context is everything.

I think it's like when you want to remodel a house that looks pretty good on the surface, but then you discover black mold in the basement.

I was just back in Nebraska, hanging out with some old buddies, many if not most Trump supporters who denigrate anything BLM adjacent. They're basically good dudes. We've all gone on to reasonably successful lives. Some served in the Marines. Some have held public office. School administrators, small businessmen, a chiropractor, regional sales director, etc. Most of them are regular church-goers these days. But man....some of the crazy sh#t we used to do! That brought back lots of laughter and memories. The time we broke into this. The time we vandalized that. The time we intervened on behalf of a drunken friend arguing with the Lincoln cops. Crazy driving. Drug use. Drug dealing. All that trespassing and petty theft that we passed off as "hijinks" because we were young and bored and nobody got hurt. Or caught. Or if we did get caught, we always managed to talk our way out of it in that middle-class, well-educated way. So I asked them to imagine us doing all that crazy, memorable stuff from our youth, except we were black. We wouldn't be looking back and laughing. We would have been dead or in jail years ago. That's the part a lot of folks seem to be missing.

I know we're friends now, and I really don't want to upset you, but there are a few things wrong with this post. Nebraska did not become a pariah when Osborne retired. If anything, the glory years of 94 - 97 made us a pariah in the world of college football. Respected on the field, of course, but considered tainted by many outsiders for our rash of criminal enabling and by others who thought the timing of Osborne's retirement was aimed at wooing sentimental voters away from the '97 Michigan team ranked ahead of us. I'm not debating our worthiness of that NC, just stating the perception of the college football world. Just for context, Alabama's recent success and arrogance have made them the current pariah. Things didn't change instantly when Osborne retired. Frank Solich had a blip of a transitional year, then had Nebraska right back in relevance with three consecutive high-ranked seasons that Tom Osborne would have been proud to own. The fact that Nebraska was selected for the NC game in 2001 after LOSING its own conference championship suggests Nebraska was perhaps coasting on too much respect in the college football world. I have never in my life heard anyone brag that Nebraska is famous for "making" coaches. 2003 was the first real job opening at HC in 40 years, and that was the wake-up call that Nebraska wasn't every coach's dream destination. In fact, I honestly don't recall much bragging at all since then. There's been plenty of humility since Callahan, but on the other hand I don't see any need to get on bended knee to the Iowa's or even the Michigan's of the world. We say "we're back!' in that hopeful way every year because that's what fans do, and for several seasons the college football press agreed with us, and some seasons we came tauntingly close to relevance. After awhile, we were no longer automatic choices for the Top 25 because we simply hadn't earned it. So on that we agree. But your posts are a pretty strange mix of decrying arrogance and then demanding it. Also, you don't seem to understand the actual history of Nebraska football and the definition of entertainment. But I'm glad we're friends. We didn't lose the conference championship. Colorado smoked us in our last conference game and they won the north. Right. Which is even worse. Point remaining, we didn't win our own conference and were allowed to play for the National Championship. At the same time many were declaring Eric Crouch among the weakest Heisman Trophy winners ever. If Nebraska was ever a pariah in the college football world, that was the week.

I gotta admit, I've been a Nebraska fan for so long that's it's still a little jarring to see any Top 25 without the Huskers listed.