Who left the biggest black eye on the Program?

[walksalone]

1) Steve Pederson

 

1a) Bill Callahan

 

Under SP's watch, there seemed to be an air of, cluelessness, for lack of a better term. Maybe it's just me, but he didn't have an idea what was good for the program.

 

And hiring Clownahan, that was just the cherry on top of the crap sundae...

[druski_2k5]

I voted for Pederson. Wow, that sounds dirty of me to say, but not in this poll. Let's be honest. Callahan wasn't a good fit here and I don't think he is head coaching material. Look at him in the Jets, he is doing fine there and enjoys his job. But with the Raiders, besides the Super Bowl run that was with Gruden's system, the next year he got 4 wins and was fired, then is the 5th or 6th choice for coach here. I supported him in the beginning, but once things started coming out and how badly we looked against Auburn in the 2007 Cotton Bowl, and the entire 2007 season, as well as some loses in previous years, it just wasn't a good fit and he is not head coaching material. Good recruiter? Yes. Good offensive mind? I think so. Can he coach his players past their potential? I think that was his downfall, just like recruiting and a balanced offense with Solich was his downfall, that and he was stupidly fired by Pederson.

 

Which leads me to Pederson getting the vote. Callahan was just doing his job, and tired to do it to the best of his abilities, yet it was Pederson that started this whole fiasco, and without him, we don't go through Callahan. That's why I think Pederson should NEVER be let off the hook, with Cosgrove and Callahan right behind him, but definitely Pederson getting a vote of this magnitude.

 

Callahan is the choice for "outside Nebraska" and Phillips is just a troubled athlete, and I felt for the guy, but he kept making stupid mistakes and breaking the law, that will get you in trouble and it did. It's not like he is the ONLY troubled athlete or run in with the law in any sports.

[huskernumerouno]

Its funny to see we are split on who was worse. A man that cost us alot of losses, or a man who raped and pillaged as he pleased and who recently tried to run over some high school kids after losing a pick-up game of football.

 

Don't recall a rape.

T_O_B

Let's not quibble over the difference between physically assaulting a woman way and rape. One or the other doesn't much matter besides arguing semantics. Both are horrible crimes.

If a person wants to describe what LP did and uses terms that are not accurate to make his point and someone else responds by saying "don't recall a rape". Why does this require a response like this:"Let's not quibble over the difference between physically assaulting a woman way and rape. One or the other doesn't much matter besides arguing semantics. Both are horrible crimes."

 

Yes they are both horrible crimes but LP did not rape anyone and if we are talking about what the media says about us we should hold ourselves to be accurate as well.

[Captain K]

Pedey? Really? Let's look at the last 8 years of Nebraska football.

 

2002: 7-7

2003: 10-3

2004: 5-6

2005: 8-4

2006: 9-5

2007: 5-7

2008: 9-5

2009: 10-4

 

The bolded years obviously occurred after SP was fired.

 

Where is the black eye? I don't see it.

 

I just don't see where in this run we have been so outstandingly bad that it was a black eye left on the program. Yeah, we had some tough years where we barely dipped under .500. So?! This happens to every program. Alabama, USC, Texas. They've ALL been through worse stretches. It's hard staying at the top, at the high level we did under Devaney/Osborne for so long. Sooner or later, you run into bumps and lulls and bad seasons. Honestly, we didn't do so badly.

 

And for a "huge black eye" that left our program in tatters, we sure bounced back quickly. If SP really left us in such a disastrous state, we have no business being so optimistic just one year, two years later. It's not like he purposely tried to destroy the program either. He tried to make his mark and his style for what he thought was best, didn't work out here. Failure is common at this level and his was by no means epic or un-recoverable.

 

LP is an extraordinarily bad case of a "trouble athlete" - not that we made him that way, but his undeniable association with the program gives us a bad name. As skersfan has said, nobody really cares about Steve Pederson.

You say that we bounced back quickly. First, I wouldn't say one 10-4 year makes us "back." Second SP fired the coach who led us to a better record than that, causing our tailspin. That is the biggest part of the SP mess. It would be one thing if we completely sucked and Solich's effort (hiring Bo) to improve us missed the mark and we continued to suck, but SP fired a coach who had made the necessary move to improve the D and gave us a chance to continue the greatness. Are you saying it wouldn't be a big deal if TO fired Bo today and hired a guy who would go 27-22 and let KU score 76 on us again or CU 60-something? Frankie, in the three years before he was fired, played for an NC, went 7-7 and then 10-3. Bo has gone 9-5 and 10-4, he needs to go about 11-3 next year to be equal to FS's last three years. If Bo falls short of that, there would be more merit to firing Bo than there was Frank. The only reason we love Bo so much and would think that firing him absurd, is because of Bo's reversing the results put up by PD/BC. You know, the results that made people call us the laughing stock of college football.

[schuhbdoo]

Pederson and Callahan just presided over a bunch of losses and loss of purpose and direction. With a few more winning years by Pelini, those two will rapidly dwindle to footnotes - a mention of the "blip" in the Huskers' winning ways.

 

Lawrence Phillips has done more to hurt this program's public image than all the rest of the people on that poll, combined.

 

he was the big stain on the Husker carpet that covered the 90's.

 

Don't forget he just got sentenced to 31 years a couple months ago.

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/article/2009-12-18/ex-nfl-rb-phillips-gets-31-years-for-assault

[zoogs]

OK, your standards are way too high if not having 11 or 12 win seasons for several years is a black eye.

 

SP made one hire that didn't work out. The same hire also in part got us to where we were today.

 

In today's landscape we won't see another team put together a 35-year run like Osborne/Devaney did. Our ridiculous run of success was going to run dry sooner or later. We were falling off the pedestal by 2002, blew up everything in 2004, and by 2006 were back in the Big 12 championship game. We went through another coaching change, and by 2009 were 0:01 away from the Fiesta Bowl. Where's this big irrelevancy period? Here's USC football in the 1991-2001 ten year period:

 

2001 6-6-0

2000 5-7-0

1999 6-6-0

1998 8-5-0

1997 6-5-0

1996 6-6-0

1995 9-2-1

1994 8-3-1

1993 8-5-0

1992 6-5-1

1991 3-8-0

 

Black eye? Nobody really remembers or cares about that at all anymore. Who were the ADs who made the bad hires? Who were the unsuccessful coaches?

 

Callahan had a winning record while at Nebraska; he gave us two good seasons and two bad ones, while running a completely clean ship. There are a lot of teams in D1 football, and having a couple bad seasons in a 4 year span doesn't really qualify us as "the laughing stock of college football", I don't think. You could say firing Solich was a mistake, but we weren't going anywhere under that ship IMO and sooner or later, the offense would have to be blown up and started over. Callahan actually did a good job with that, and now we can inherit that O's foundation while getting Bo's defense and guidance for the future...really, could have been a lot worse.

 

When our program produces guys that end up being future criminals, those are the wrongs that endure and will always give us a bad name, fair or not. A mediocre coaching decision and poor AD job leading to a clean, though 27-22 four year stretch, doesn't really tarnish our program any.

[HUSKER 37]

Interestingly enough, all of my Georgia friends always mention the "thug" Christian Peter first when they talk about problem players in Nebraska history. It always comes back to the sexual assault/rape stuff. Phillips follows up pretty quickly though.

 

I wonder why most people within the state dwell so much on LP "dragging his ex down a flight of stairs", but give Christian Peter more than one pass for sexually attacking strange girls in bars?

 

The C.Peter thing got more national coverage (60 Minutes?) and scared me more having a Niece at UNL at the time.

 

Both guys' crimes were bad, but CP's crime seemed more random and thus more possible.. to happen to someone you cared about..With LP, you felt some confidence it wouldn't happen to your loved ones because you could warn them not to "date" that guy...but how do you warn them to stay away from Peter if he happens to walk in drunk at a bar?

 

 

I lost WAY more respect for how Tom handled the CHristian Peter problems than for giving LP another chance...Which seems to work remarkably well in shutting up the occasional wanker in a bar trying to bring up Lawrence Phillips.

[HuskerNCo]

Pedey? Really? Let's look at the last 8 years of Nebraska football.

 

2002: 7-7

2003: 10-3

2004: 5-6

2005: 8-4

2006: 9-5

2007: 5-7

2008: 9-5

2009: 10-4

 

The bolded years obviously occurred after SP was fired.

 

Where is the black eye? I don't see it.

 

I just don't see where in this run we have been so outstandingly bad that it was a black eye left on the program. Yeah, we had some tough years where we barely dipped under .500. So?! This happens to every program. Alabama, USC, Texas. They've ALL been through worse stretches. It's hard staying at the top, at the high level we did under Devaney/Osborne for so long. Sooner or later, you run into bumps and lulls and bad seasons. Honestly, we didn't do so badly.

 

And for a "huge black eye" that left our program in tatters, we sure bounced back quickly. If SP really left us in such a disastrous state, we have no business being so optimistic just one year, two years later. It's not like he purposely tried to destroy the program either. He tried to make his mark and his style for what he thought was best, didn't work out here. Failure is common at this level and his was by no means epic or un-recoverable.

 

LP is an extraordinarily bad case of a "trouble athlete" - not that we made him that way, but his undeniable association with the program gives us a bad name. As skersfan has said, nobody really cares about Steve Pederson.

You say that we bounced back quickly. First, I wouldn't say one 10-4 year makes us "back." Second SP fired the coach who led us to a better record than that, causing our tailspin. That is the biggest part of the SP mess. It would be one thing if we completely sucked and Solich's effort (hiring Bo) to improve us missed the mark and we continued to suck, but SP fired a coach who had made the necessary move to improve the D and gave us a chance to continue the greatness. Are you saying it wouldn't be a big deal if TO fired Bo today and hired a guy who would go 27-22 and let KU score 76 on us again or CU 60-something? Frankie, in the three years before he was fired, played for an NC, went 7-7 and then 10-3. Bo has gone 9-5 and 10-4, he needs to go about 11-3 next year to be equal to FS's last three years. If Bo falls short of that, there would be more merit to firing Bo than there was Frank. The only reason we love Bo so much and would think that firing him absurd, is because of Bo's reversing the results put up by PD/BC. You know, the results that made people call us the laughing stock of college football.

 

just wow...oh yeah Frankie was all it...not. look at his record and the losses endured...Bo may have been the answer on defense, maybe at that time but Frankie had no answer on offense. NONE.

[HUSKER 37]

OK, your standards are way too high if not having 11 or 12 win seasons for several years is a black eye.

 

SP made one hire that didn't work out. The same hire also in part got us to where we were today.

 

In today's landscape we won't see another team put together a 35-year run like Osborne/Devaney did. Our ridiculous run of success was going to run dry sooner or later. We were falling off the pedestal by 2002, blew up everything in 2004, and by 2006 were back in the Big 12 championship game. We went through another coaching change, and by 2009 were 0:01 away from the Fiesta Bowl. Where's this big irrelevancy period? Here's USC football in the 1991-2001 ten year period:

 

2001 6-6-0

2000 5-7-0

1999 6-6-0

1998 8-5-0

1997 6-5-0

1996 6-6-0

1995 9-2-1

1994 8-3-1

1993 8-5-0

1992 6-5-1

1991 3-8-0

 

Black eye? Nobody really remembers or cares about that at all anymore. Who were the ADs who made the bad hires? Who were the unsuccessful coaches?

 

Callahan had a winning record while at Nebraska; he gave us two good seasons and two bad ones, while running a completely clean ship. There are a lot of teams in D1 football, and having a couple bad seasons in a 4 year span doesn't really qualify us as "the laughing stock of college football", I don't think. You could say firing Solich was a mistake, but we weren't going anywhere under that ship IMO and sooner or later, the offense would have to be blown up and started over. Callahan actually did a good job with that, and now we can inherit that O's foundation while getting Bo's defense and guidance for the future...really, could have been a lot worse.

 

When our program produces guys that end up being future criminals, those are the wrongs that endure and will always give us a bad name, fair or not. A mediocre coaching decision and poor AD job leading to a clean, though 27-22 four year stretch, doesn't really tarnish our program any.

 

The Wins and Losses are (mostly) immaterial. (Although just squeaking by with winning one game over 50% was never a goal for any of us).

 

The real tarnish resulted from getting rid of a coach who appeared to be turning things around (at least to the coaching world).

 

Where were we supposed to find a competent coach that would come here after we fired someone who won 10 games that year?...We ended up having to ignore the fact that our forth choice was fresh off of accusing his NFL team of being the "stupidest team ever", and focusing on the fact he took Gruden's team to the Super Bowl (but lost badly).

Then caused a major rift in our own fan-base where some of us actually accused former players of being babies for standing up for longtime support staff that were getting fired for no apparent reason...Even had some of us questioning the wisdom of Oz for attending more than one Golf Tournament.(you remember..the meddling old faarrtt).

 

We really, really lucked out getting Bo, who probably would've coached almost ANY BCS conference team just for a chance at calling the shots.

[kansas husker]

I voted LP that crap he pulled when he ran over the teenagers was very low class(not to down play his other crimes). On another note I'm surprised how few votes that thunder has. Maybe black eye wouldn't be the best term to describe him as hid crimes did not get all the national coverage that LP's did. But he is a huge dirt bag none the less and I thought he would have more than 2 votes.

[VA Husker Fan]

On another note I'm surprised how few votes that thunder has. Maybe black eye wouldn't be the best term to describe him as hid crimes did not get all the national coverage that LP's did. But he is a huge dirt bag none the less and I thought he would have more than 2 votes.

Aside from not being a big-time player, he only got into minor trouble while playing at Nebraska, at least not that I recall. Once he started getting into trouble, he was suspended, and then quit. After that his life went downhill. I don't think he put a black eye on Nebraska any more than Carruth does Colorado (not much), or Simpson does USC (maybe not a good example since so many years passed).

[knapplc]

I'll bet if we asked this question in five years we'd have far fewer people voting for Pud. Phillips' damage has stood the test of time, and doesn't appear to be going away. Phillips accusations were brought up in "conversations" with Arizona fans before the bowl game.

 

I'd be interested to see what MU Tiger fan, fro_daddy, killer cacti and Cy think about this. To a man I'd bet they'd pick Phillips.

[HuskerGBR]

Pedey? Really? Let's look at the last 8 years of Nebraska football.

 

2002: 7-7

2003: 10-3

2004: 5-6

2005: 8-4

2006: 9-5

2007: 5-7

2008: 9-5

2009: 10-4

 

The bolded years obviously occurred after SP was fired.

 

Where is the black eye? I don't see it.

 

I just don't see where in this run we have been so outstandingly bad that it was a black eye left on the program. Yeah, we had some tough years where we barely dipped under .500. So?! This happens to every program. Alabama, USC, Texas. They've ALL been through worse stretches. It's hard staying at the top, at the high level we did under Devaney/Osborne for so long. Sooner or later, you run into bumps and lulls and bad seasons. Honestly, we didn't do so badly.

 

And for a "huge black eye" that left our program in tatters, we sure bounced back quickly. If SP really left us in such a disastrous state, we have no business being so optimistic just one year, two years later. It's not like he purposely tried to destroy the program either. He tried to make his mark and his style for what he thought was best, didn't work out here. Failure is common at this level and his was by no means epic or un-recoverable.

 

LP is an extraordinarily bad case of a "trouble athlete" - not that we made him that way, but his undeniable association with the program gives us a bad name. As skersfan has said, nobody really cares about Steve Pederson.

 

You don't get it...it is deeper then a win/loss record. We scrapped the walk-on program, they took down all of the old pictures in the locker room, they didn't allow the former players on the field anymore...Pederson turned it into a business. I remember I used to be able to go out on the field and just throw the football around with friends and I wasn't a student. The family atmosphere, the culture, everything was being wiped away. Thank God for Bo and Tom.

[T_O_Bull]

Pederson and Callahan just presided over a bunch of losses and loss of purpose and direction. With a few more winning years by Pelini, those two will rapidly dwindle to footnotes - a mention of the "blip" in the Huskers' winning ways.

 

Lawrence Phillips has done more to hurt this program's public image than all the rest of the people on that poll, combined.

 

he was the big stain on the Husker carpet that covered the 90's.

 

Don't forget he just got sentenced to 31 years a couple months ago.

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/article/2009-12-18/ex-nfl-rb-phillips-gets-31-years-for-assault

 

The following is quoted from a article in the Sporting News, as written by an Associated Press reporter.

 

"Lawrence Phillips sentence: 31 years in prison

Associated Press

 

SAN DIEGO -- Ex-NFL running back Lawrence Phillips has been sentenced to more than 31 years in prison for attacking his girlfriend and driving his car into three teens.

 

Phillips, 34, was sentenced Friday in San Diego for assault and other crimes.

 

Phillips told the judge he didn't get a fair trail and he'll appeal.

 

twice choked his girlfriend in 2005 in San Diego. Later that year, he aimed his car and struck three teens after a pickup football game in Los Angeles.

 

A Los Angeles judge gave him 10 years for that attack but he was re-sentenced to seven years on Friday.

 

Phillips was once one of the nation's top college football players at Nebraska. The St. Louis Rams released him for insubordination in 1997. He also play for the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers."

 

 

 

rated 4.5 by 4 people [?]

 

 

.Comments (12)

.justice seems to be served. you reap what you sow

 

.he did a brief stint in the cfl too. what a waste.

 

.Dude is Nuts.

 

.Didn't get a fair trial? Let me guess...too many white people on the jury!! Where's Jesse Jackson when you want him?

 

.I'm sure there are plenty of teams that want him to resurect his career.

 

.What a waste.

 

.He was also in the NFL Europe league for a brief stint. He had no shortage of chances to get his sh!t straight. Complete waste of talent and opportunities.

 

.31 years? I call that 4th and very long!

 

.Phillips gladly fumbled his life away,and never learned or changed. So he put himself in the real big house for close to life. Dumb!

 

.After the appeal...

.... he will be applying to Roger for reinstatement...

 

.He didn't try...

 

.No need at all to bring race into it (re: Jesse Jackson). Way to be classy.

 

.Former Nebraska coach, Dr. Tom Osborne is a doctor of Educational Psychology. When it became clear his methods hadn't worked, I personally figured Phillips would come to this end. A great player when he left Nebraska, he shouldn't have been allowed to endanger any more women and that's what's sad. Women should have read his file and stayed away from him too, but that's another matter. His speed, power, and agility nearly cost two young women their lives. I was a fan of #1 back in the day and I think he got one chance too many.

 

.Another wasted talent. Let me guess, it's the white man's fault?

 

.hamburgers09 is still living in the past

 

.hamburgers09 No one is blaming the white man for Lawerence Phillip's decisions or outcome. Please get over yourself.

 

I am begining to think that our hardest critcs are ourselves. As the old saying goes, "We searched for our enemy only to find that he was us."

T_O_B

[sd'sker]

Pedey? Really? Let's look at the last 8 years of Nebraska football.

 

2002: 7-7

2003: 10-3

2004: 5-6

2005: 8-4

2006: 9-5

2007: 5-7

2008: 9-5

2009: 10-4

 

The bolded years obviously occurred after SP was fired.

 

Where is the black eye? I don't see it.

 

I just don't see where in this run we have been so outstandingly bad that it was a black eye left on the program. Yeah, we had some tough years where we barely dipped under .500. So?! This happens to every program. Alabama, USC, Texas. They've ALL been through worse stretches. It's hard staying at the top, at the high level we did under Devaney/Osborne for so long. Sooner or later, you run into bumps and lulls and bad seasons. Honestly, we didn't do so badly.

 

And for a "huge black eye" that left our program in tatters, we sure bounced back quickly. If SP really left us in such a disastrous state, we have no business being so optimistic just one year, two years later. It's not like he purposely tried to destroy the program either. He tried to make his mark and his style for what he thought was best, didn't work out here. Failure is common at this level and his was by no means epic or un-recoverable.

 

LP is an extraordinarily bad case of a "trouble athlete" - not that we made him that way, but his undeniable association with the program gives us a bad name. As skersfan has said, nobody really cares about Steve Pederson.

 

You don't get it...it is deeper then a win/loss record. We scrapped the walk-on program, they took down all of the old pictures in the locker room, they didn't allow the former players on the field anymore...Pederson turned it into a business. I remember I used to be able to go out on the field and just throw the football around with friends and I wasn't a student. The family atmosphere, the culture, everything was being wiped away. Thank God for Bo and Tom.

but a black eye involves the public perception, you don't get it. Pederson may have hurt our traditions, but that only upsets the fans, the hardcore fans at that. we have are are rebounding from what Pederson did. Phillips took away our moral superiority and high ground over schools on the national stage, now we are no better than the worse of Miami (according to public perception) because of phillips. someone also mentions the Peters brothers, they should also be in this discussion. winning is big, but winning with a clean team is much more important, and phillips left a stain his national championship team and even Osborne.

 

I do not even know why Callahan would be in this discussion, he was just a bad college coach, nothing more or less and wins will wash away his memory.