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OWH: Outgoing UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman leaves with unmet goal: Huskers’ return to top

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Saunders

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“I’m disappointed we haven’t had a better experience in football, which is critically important to the state and fans,” he said.

But Perlman says there’s a lot more to the story of what’s transpired in and around Memorial Stadium over the past 16 years. And in the most wide-ranging, in-depth interview he’s given on the recent history and current state of Husker football, the retiring chancellor recently shared his thoughts with The World-Herald.

Perlman noted he had the misfortune of coming in the wake of the unprecedented career of Tom Osborne, one of the most successful and innovative football coaches of all time and a tough act for any coach to follow. To fail to recognize that, Perlman said, doesn’t give the legend his due.

And Perlman cites other circumstances no one could have anticipated.

Who knew that Steve Pederson, a Nebraska native who was universally seen as the right man for the athletic director’s job in 2002, would so disrupt the department’s culture? And what would have happened after 2003 if the high-profile NFL head coach whom Pederson had lined up to coach the Huskers — a would-be “wow” hire Perlman won’t name — had not subsequently backed out?

 

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/outgoing-unl-chancellor-harvey-perlman-leaves-with-unmet-goal-huskers/article_1e710d39-c435-5f72-a994-9562f257b619.html

 

 

Who is he talking about?

 

Perlman also revealed that when Pederson made the move, he already had lined up an NFL head coach for the job, one who “led us to believe that he was available and willing to do it.”

Perlman would not name the coach, but says “everyone would have said ‘Wow.’ ”

He last week said it was not Dave Wannstedt, the Miami Dolphins coach who was one rumored target at the time, but Perlman declined to entertain other names. Other coaches on NFL sidelines at that time included Jon Gruden, Marty Schottenheimer, Butch Davis, Tony Dungy, Steve Spurrier, Herm Edwards and Bill Cowher.

In the end, the coach got cold feet, contract negotiations dragged on, and the coach decided to stay with his team.

“The error in judgment Steve made was he was so confident he’d get him, he didn’t have Plan B,” Perlman said.

 

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cm husker Starter

cm husker

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Perlman is a liar or an idiot if he thinks that a "high profile" NFL coach was going to move to Nebraska to coach after Frank was fired.

One did just that
I know you're kidding. Because that's hilarious.

 

Bill Callahan, a high profile NFL coach? Not compared to actually high profile coaches, unless you consider all NFL coaches high profile. Oh wait, Callahan wasn't an NFL coach at that point. He was a shitcanned cast off and a desperation hire.

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StPaulHusker Offensive Coordinator

StPaulHusker

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Perlman is a liar or an idiot if he thinks that a "high profile" NFL coach was going to move to Nebraska to coach after Frank was fired.

One did just that
I know you're kidding. Because that's hilarious.

 

Bill Callahan, a high profile NFL coach? Not compared to actually high profile coaches, unless you consider all NFL coaches high profile. Oh wait, Callahan wasn't an NFL coach at that point. He was a shitcanned cast off and a desperation hire.

 

Other than the Browns HC, every NFL head coach is a high profile coach.

 

And to be fair, he was fired by the Raiders. They fire their head coach every couple of months.

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lo country Head Coach

lo country

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I heard it was Urban. Didn't come since we fired a 9-3 Frank........... Thought expectations were too high.

Urb wasn't an NFL coach

 

My bad. Heard he was offered though.

 

From the NFL, seem to remember Cowher kicked around. Might not have been same time period. That might have been after Cally.

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StPaulHusker Offensive Coordinator

StPaulHusker

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I heard it was Urban. Didn't come since we fired a 9-3 Frank........... Thought expectations were too high.

Urb wasn't an NFL coach

 

My bad. Heard he was offered though.

 

From the NFL, seem to remember Cowher kicked around. Might not have been same time period. That might have been after Cally.

 

My belief is that it was Spurrier. He stayed at Washington for a year and then took a year off before going to South Carolina.

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Redux Head Coach

Redux

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Perlman is a liar or an idiot if he thinks that a "high profile" NFL coach was going to move to Nebraska to coach after Frank was fired.

One did just that
I know you're kidding. Because that's hilarious.

Bill Callahan, a high profile NFL coach? Not compared to actually high profile coaches, unless you consider all NFL coaches high profile. Oh wait, Callahan wasn't an NFL coach at that point. He was a shitcanned cast off and a desperation hire.

You were the one that put "High Profile" in quotations, kinda set yourself up for that.

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Sargon Scout Team

Sargon

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Dungy would have been great IMO but I doubt it was him. He only began in Indy in 2002.

 

I found the article to be very interesting (I'm not in the Perlman is a lying idiot camp btw, and I know there are many highly paid lying idiots).

 

He's pretty upbeat on Riley and gave some good reasons.

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