Pederson, Nutt Depositions

[AR Husker Fan]

You may recall that, as part of a lawsuit against the University of Arkansas, the attorneys for former basketball coach Nolan Richardson deposed both Steve Pederson and Huston Nutt. The state-wide newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, obtain copies of the depositions and today had an article with some quotes from each. Below is the entire article.

 

From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette – April 14, 2004:

Three days after the Arkansas Razorbacks’ 31-point loss to eventual national champion LSU, an agent acting on behalf of Coach Houston Nutt contacted the Nebraska Cornhuskers about their two-day-old coaching vacancy, Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson said in a court deposition.

 

Pederson’s Feb. 17 deposition and a Feb. 6 deposition of Nutt were taken as part of former basketball Coach Nolan Richardson’s wrongful termination lawsuit against the University of Arkansas and UA officials. Those depositions shed light on other items of interest that occurred during talks between Nutt and Nebraska, which ended Jan. 3 when Nutt announced he was staying at Arkansas.

 

The depositions, obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette through court filings, include: Pederson’s statement that Nutt was never officially offered the Cornhuskers job, much less a $2 million yearly salary; Nutt’s statement that he was offered the Nebraska job and a salary of about $2 million; The criteria for what Nebraska wanted in a coach; What Pederson saw in Nutt that made Nutt a candidate for the job.

 

Pederson, who eventually hired former Oakland Raiders Coach Bill Callahan to run Nebraska’s football team, said he first heard about Nutt’s interest from Memphis-based agent Jimmy Sexton on Dec. 1, two days after Frank Solich was fired as the Cornhuskers coach. Pederson said Sexton told him he had two clients interested in the Nebraska job. The second client was not identified in the deposition.

 

Pederson said he called Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles seeking permission to talk with Nutt on the morning of Dec. 31, the day of Arkansas’ 27-14 victory over Missouri in the Independence Bowl. Broyles granted permission on the condition that Pederson talk to Nutt after the game and not before it. Pederson and Nutt spoke for the first time after the game.

 

That contradicts a statement made by ESPN college football analyst Trev Alberts, a former Cornhuskers linebacker, who said Nutt was "badgering" Pederson from the day Solich was fired.The next day, Jan. 1, Pederson flew from Lincoln, Neb., to Fayetteville to meet Nutt in person and talk for more than two hours.

 

"We talked in general about his rebuilding of the Arkansas football program and I talked to him about Nebraska," Pederson said in the deposition. "I talked to him about where we were at the University of Nebraska. I showed him plans for a new facility and we talked in general about the future of our football program.

 

"I talked about our need to continue to recruit better and our need to continue to have success at the highest level of college football."

 

Pederson, who received a recommendation for Nutt from Miami Dolphins Coach Dave Wannstedt, said it was obvious Nutt had done a "great job" at Arkansas.

 

"The Arkansas program was in bad shape when he took over," Pederson said. "He rebuilt the program and he had taken them to championships in their division of the SEC and had a good reputation as a recruiter, had a good reputation as a person, had a good reputation with regard to compliance with the NCAA rules, and certainly, I thought then, and I think now, he’s an excellent football coach. And I can understand why Arkansas would want to do what they can to hang onto him."

 

Pederson, who essentially was a one-man search committee, said he told Sexton in a Jan. 2 telephone conversation that the Cornhuskers were looking to pay their new coach between $1.3 million to $1.5 million per year for six or seven years. Pederson said he never discussed money with Nutt. He also said he couldn’t offer Nutt a contract until Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman interviewed him.

 

Nutt said in his deposition he heard something else. He said "counting incentives and everything" he was offered about $2 million to become the Cornhuskers’ coach. "Right around $1.8 [million]" without incentives, Nutt said.

 

Pederson released a statement Tuesday through the University of Nebraska and repeated that $2 million was never offered.

 

"I find the statements attributed to Houston Nutt interesting," Pederson said. "[On Feb. 17], Nutt commented to me on the ridiculous nature of the $2 million figure and indicated he was not aware of the origin of that number. He also joked that if he had been offered a job like that, he would have been in big trouble at home if he had not taken it.

 

"In my deposition, I testified that I only discussed salary ranges of between $1.3 to $1.5 million a year with each potential candidate. I have no idea what might be going on in Arkansas, but the University of Nebraska should be left out of the issue."

 

Pederson sent a booster’s airplane to Fayetteville on Jan. 2 to take Nutt and his family to Lincoln so they could meet Perlman.

 

Pederson acknowledged in the deposition that it would have been hard for Nutt to return to the UA had he got on that plane. When asked by UA lawyer Scott Varady if flying to Lincoln would put Nutt "in an awful spot," Pederson said, "Certainly." When asked by Varady if "it might upset their [the Razorbacks] fan base," Pederson said, "Certainly."

 

Public records released by the university showed Nutt’s compensation package at $833,000, but after the talks with Nebraska it became known that Nutt had been making about $1.03 million, not including $160,000 a year that he was receiving in deferred compensation.

 

The UA is in the process of raising him to "close to" $1.5 million, Nutt said, including money for a second $1 million annuity that has been agreed to in principle.

 

Nutt also said he promised Pederson he would keep their discussions confidential "just because he asked me to..." Nutt said he also was approached about becoming coach of an unidentified Atlantic Coast Conference team but turned down the school and kept those talks confidential.

 

Nutt said "athletic directors all over the country... don’t want the rumors and rumors of, ‘He got offered, he got offered and he got offered.’ This creates a lot of headache.

 

"First of all, I knew I didn’t want to go there [to the ACC school], and I didn’t want any... I didn’t want it out. I don’t want it out for negative recruiting. I don’t want that type of information out."

 

Nutt also said in his deposition that Sexton was working for him for free as a favor at the time of the talks with Nebraska.

 

Nutt elaborated on his relationship with Sexton on Tuesday.

 

"At the time of my deposition, I had not signed any papers with Jimmy Sexton," Nutt told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "I still haven’t, but I will. He is my agent."

[Guest Guest]

Thnx for the art man!

[Redout]

I skimmed most of it but basically Pederson is being called into this because of what happened to Nolan Richardson. Arkansas wants to know about other situations Arkansas has been in. And how they deal with hiring/firing coaches??

[AR Husker Fan]

I skimmed most of it but basically Pederson is being called into this because of what happened to Nolan Richardson. Arkansas wants to know about other situations Arkansas has been in. And how they deal with hiring/firing coaches??

Good question, and one for the life of me that I - and the attorneys representing the U of A - can't figure out. Richardson is suing on the basis of discrimination after being terminated - which occurred after he blew up at a press conference and stated that the University could have the job if it would pay his contract out. The University - feeling that such statements were detrimental to the program - obliged him...at least to the firing part. He was offered a settlement of his contract - and a pretty generous one, as well.

 

Now, how this has anything to do with Nutt and Nebraska - I don't know. If Richardson had been fired for considering taking an offer from another school, then yes, it would apply - it would be proof that a black coach was treated in a different manner than a white coach. But that's not the case.

 

The attorneys for the Department have moved to block the depositions from being introduced on the grounds that the information is irrelevant. The judge has decided to wait on his ruling, to see whether there is any relevancy in the information come trial - assuming it comes to that.

[Guest Guest]

interesting.

[CalHusker]

I think both Nutt and Pederson are manipulating the truth to a certain extent. All I know though, is I am very glad that it didn't work out with him. It would have been like if Osborne would have went to Colorado when he had the chance. It just wouldn't be right. Nutt is a "home grown" Arkansa boy and I don't think he's that good of a coach. Not to mention, all I could think about was the rest of the nation calling us "Corn Nutts".