Wojciechowski - NU not an elite job

[np_husker]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...mp;sportCat=ncf

 

Myths:

Nebraska is an elite coaching job

It used to be. But now-former athletic director Steve Pederson made a critical mistake and imposed his will on a program that needed a facial, not reconstructive cosmetic surgery.

 

Pederson hired Bill Callahan, who fit like Tabasco sauce on chocolate pudding. Callahan might be a good coach, but he wasn't the right coach for Nebraska.

 

Now Pederson and Callahan are gone, and so is Nebraska's one longtime advantage: an identity.

 

Lincoln was once I-Back U. It was Walk-On Heaven. It was a national recruiting pipeline, stretching as far as Jersey, Florida and California.

 

Now it's a seven-tractor pileup.

 

Tradition is nice, but elite high school recruits from outside of Nebraska's state lines (and there aren't many of them on an annual basis) don't remember much, if anything, about Mike Rozier. They want to win. They want to be on TV. They want to play for someone who can get them a job in the NFL.

 

If interim AD Tom Osborne is going to seal the gaping holes in this program, he had better find someone who understands and appreciates Nebraska's past, but more important, someone who understands the realities of its future. Nebraska needs its football identity back.

 

There are other overrated coaching jobs, beginning with UCLA (everything done on the relative cheap), Arkansas (limited in-state recruiting base, psycho fan expectations), Michigan State (program sounds good on paper, until you realize Michigan and Ohio State are in your conference).

 

But Nebraska was never in the same paragraph with those type of programs ... until now.

 

Nebraska football can be fixed. Probably. Not too much is at stake. Only the difference between relevancy and has-been status.

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

But has he ever tried tabasco sauce on chocolate pudding?

 

The truth is it's not an elite job right now because it's not an elite top 10 program right now. Wednesday we will have the answer on who will lead the team back to glory.

[BeachBuffs]

I completely disagree, you still have the facilities, you have your al time win totals, you have your tradition. Kids in SoCal wil still listen whoever the NU coach will be.

[mwj98]

Someone should keep a log of all these espn takes. File them away, and repost once we return to dominance. espn is starting to rub me the wrong way.

 

[knapplc]

Myth:

ESPN is an elite news source

 

It used to be. But now with their sound-bite-driven mentality and their penchant for hiring people who look or sound good rather than who are actually knowledgeable about their sport, they have fallen far from what they once were. ESPN today is simply a shell of its former self, propped up by their past, not their future.

 

As a whole, the institution that is Nebraska Football is far more solid than that of ESPN. Despite several dozen similar programs across the country, optimism still rides high regarding this football program. Were there to be even ten true challengers to the sports news conglomerate that is ESPN, they’d tumble like a house of cards. Their product is crap, they’re out of touch with the majority of sports fans, and they are nigh on unwatchable most nights. Their “experts” aren’t, their “news” isn’t and their touch is out.

 

So please don’t quote ESPN articles to me. I have far more respect for what any of us twits on Husker Board have to say than for whatever drivel comes out of Bristol these days.

[seed60]

Myth:

ESPN is an elite news source

 

[jjamuss]

Myth:

ESPN is an elite news source

 

It used to be. But now with their sound-bite-driven mentality and their penchant for hiring people who look or sound good rather than who are actually knowledgeable about their sport, they have fallen far from what they once were. ESPN today is simply a shell of its former self, propped up by their past, not their future.

 

As a whole, the institution that is Nebraska Football is far more solid than that of ESPN. Despite several dozen similar programs across the country, optimism still rides high regarding this football program. Were there to be even ten true challengers to the sports news conglomerate that is ESPN, they’d tumble like a house of cards. Their product is crap, they’re out of touch with the majority of sports fans, and they are nigh on unwatchable most nights. Their “experts” aren’t, their “news” isn’t and their touch is out.

 

So please don’t quote ESPN articles to me. I have far more respect for what any of us twits on Husker Board have to say than for whatever drivel comes out of Bristol these days.

 

A monty python quote and an England reference? Awesome!!

[admo]

I usually do not find myself bothered from what writers report. I dont get peaved from TV broadcasters or analyst. Only one guy keeps me from reading anything he writes. And it's this joker.

[T_O_Bull]

Myth:

ESPN is an elite news source

 

It used to be. But now with their sound-bite-driven mentality and their penchant for hiring people who look or sound good rather than who are actually knowledgeable about their sport, they have fallen far from what they once were. ESPN today is simply a shell of its former self, propped up by their past, not their future.

 

As a whole, the institution that is Nebraska Football is far more solid than that of ESPN. Despite several dozen similar programs across the country, optimism still rides high regarding this football program. Were there to be even ten true challengers to the sports news conglomerate that is ESPN, they’d tumble like a house of cards. Their product is crap, they’re out of touch with the majority of sports fans, and they are nigh on unwatchable most nights. Their “experts” aren’t, their “news” isn’t and their touch is out.

 

So please don’t quote ESPN articles to me. I have far more respect for what any of us twits on Husker Board have to say than for whatever drivel comes out of Bristol these days.

 

[T_O_Bull]

 

ESPN has always had it in for Neb. TO was never a good interview and they couldn't the sound bites they wanted so they decided to bash us instead.

 

It always pi$$ed me off when they would reference, "former Nebraska football star, Lawrence Phillips..." every time the kid spit on the street. He turned out to be a bad guy but that was more a product of his So Cal upbringing than his time with the Huskers.

 

If ESPN wasn't the only game in town...

 

...T_O_B

 

[huskersrule95]

Myth:

ESPN is an elite news source

 

It used to be. But now with their sound-bite-driven mentality and their penchant for hiring people who look or sound good rather than who are actually knowledgeable about their sport, they have fallen far from what they once were. ESPN today is simply a shell of its former self, propped up by their past, not their future.

 

As a whole, the institution that is Nebraska Football is far more solid than that of ESPN. Despite several dozen similar programs across the country, optimism still rides high regarding this football program. Were there to be even ten true challengers to the sports news conglomerate that is ESPN, they’d tumble like a house of cards. Their product is crap, they’re out of touch with the majority of sports fans, and they are nigh on unwatchable most nights. Their “experts” aren’t, their “news” isn’t and their touch is out.

 

So please don’t quote ESPN articles to me. I have far more respect for what any of us twits on Husker Board have to say than for whatever drivel comes out of Bristol these days.

 

 

Good work. That is funny.

[HuskerExpat]

Agreed. ESPN these days is crap. Their experts hype the teams that are televised on their network (or sister station ABC) and downplay the other teams. CBS has the SEC games, but you would think the SEC is the equivalent of the MAC listening to ESPN "experts."

 

And don't even get me started about baseball. If you're team isn't Boston or New York, forget about watching baseball coverage on ESPN.

[NUpolo8]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...mp;sportCat=ncf

 

Myths:

Nebraska is an elite coaching job

It used to be. But now-former athletic director Steve Pederson made a critical mistake and imposed his will on a program that needed a facial, not reconstructive cosmetic surgery.

 

Pederson hired Bill Callahan, who fit like Tabasco sauce on chocolate pudding. Callahan might be a good coach, but he wasn't the right coach for Nebraska.

 

Now Pederson and Callahan are gone, and so is Nebraska's one longtime advantage: an identity.

 

Lincoln was once I-Back U. It was Walk-On Heaven. It was a national recruiting pipeline, stretching as far as Jersey, Florida and California.

 

Now it's a seven-tractor pileup.

 

Tradition is nice, but elite high school recruits from outside of Nebraska's state lines (and there aren't many of them on an annual basis) don't remember much, if anything, about Mike Rozier. They want to win. They want to be on TV. They want to play for someone who can get them a job in the NFL.

 

If interim AD Tom Osborne is going to seal the gaping holes in this program, he had better find someone who understands and appreciates Nebraska's past, but more important, someone who understands the realities of its future. Nebraska needs its football identity back.

 

There are other overrated coaching jobs, beginning with UCLA (everything done on the relative cheap), Arkansas (limited in-state recruiting base, psycho fan expectations), Michigan State (program sounds good on paper, until you realize Michigan and Ohio State are in your conference).

 

But Nebraska was never in the same paragraph with those type of programs ... until now.

 

Nebraska football can be fixed. Probably. Not too much is at stake. Only the difference between relevancy and has-been status.

 

 

Meh.

 

Until journalists can write an article about Nebraska without biting on the tractor/farm/corn/hick bait, methinks I will not be reading.

[robsker]

The test of whether the NU job is an elite job will be the nature of the applicant pool. If coaches all over the nation are interviewed, people like Petterson at BSU, Leavitt, Grobe, Kelly, Patterson (from TCU), Muschamp, Johnson, Pelini and Gill, etc --- if a huge bevy of these people are interested and interviewed then it is an elite job --- by definition.

 

 

If, on the other hand, only a few are interviewed, ostensibly because many candidates turned down the interview, then it is not an elite position.

 

Or, another way of looking at it is this --- four years ago the applicant pool was small, many turned it down for lack of interest and we hired an unemployed coach. So, the NU position 4 years ago was not an elite position. The program is worse off now. So..... ESPN is right.

 

The NU position is not an elite position. Reality hurts. But it is reality nonetheless.

[knapplc]

Or, another way of looking at it is this --- four years ago the applicant pool was small, many turned it down for lack of interest and we hired an unemployed coach. So, the NU position 4 years ago was not an elite position. The program is worse off now. So..... ESPN is right.

 

Why did they turn the job down? Can you further explain that?