Rhule Positivity & is the Solich Curse Broken?

[runningblind]

4 hours ago, admo said:

There was never a Solich curse, a 9-win curse, or Bo curse.  That is low hanging fruit that comes up every year.  Take a step back from tunnel vision and see what really happened.  Be warned though, the realization will upset the loyal fanbase thinking.

The troubled history of Nebraska's success has been a combination of 3 things: 
Evalution, Administration, and Tom Osborne

When Osborne retired after winning his 3rd championship, Nebraska football was coveted.  They had a choice of a dozen great coaches to take over if they had asked.  

 

You could wonder how many experienced head coaches or top coordinators would have been interested in Nebraska as a head coach.  Including Bob Stoops (Florida's DC for 3 years - hired by OU as HC in 99; also served under Bill Snyder at KSU) and Nick Saban (MSU HC that went to LSU in 99).  

 

But what did Nebraska do?  And did they even attempt to put a group of people together to interview coaches?  NO.  

Osborne retired.  He promised Solich the job.  Solich had no HC experience.  Had no OC or DC experience.  Osborne said Solich and that's what Nebraska did, and said "Whatever you want Tom".  So Nebraska hired Solich.  

This was strike #1.

Osborne should have removed himself from it all, enjoyed going out with a championship as a head football coach.  He had no experience interviewing, hiring or evaluating Head Coaching prospects.  He should have stayed out of it.  And with his stature of success, kept quiet about his opinions and thoughts.  Just go fishing or run for office.  But stay out of it.

Strike #2 was a huge mistake by the new AD Pederson.  When he saw Nebraska fans and boosters getting fed up with blowout losses to Iowa State, Penn State, Kansas State, Miami and Colorado, he made a coaching change without a backup plan.  It took months for him to court Houston Nutt to come here, and knowing that no other coach was all that interested, the NFL Oakland Raiders fired Bill Callahan and they soon made a deal.  

 

Strike #2 was Administration and Evaluation - hiring an NFL Head Coach that had only 2 years of Head Coaching experience, and Zero experience as a Head Coach of a College Football team and running a program.

Strike #3
The administration fired Pederson, and brought on Tom Osborne once again to save the day.  The first task as the new AD, fire Callahan.  So he did.  And everybody cheered.  Now the next task is to interview as many possible Head Coaches that are interested, and right the ship.  But what does Osborne do?  He quietly and politely interviews 3 guys for the job.  Three!  Turner Gill, Bo Pelini, and Jim Grobe.  Gill and Pelini had never been head coaches before!  Grobe was at Wake Forest and iffy about the job, and declined.  So Osborne decides the next Husker head football coach will be between Turner Gill and Bo Pelini.  He hires Pelini, and makes the remark that he kinda sorta reminds him of Devaney.  Husker fans eat it up.  But was this the best decision or the smartest way to go when you have the power to hire anyone?  Was there no one else to talk to?  No one to help you out and say "Hold on now Tom, I know you like a few guys, but let's find someone who has run a football program before and has some proven success"?  Nope.  Osborne hired Pelini on a hunch.

Strike #4
More decision making by the Administration and Osborne

 

Osborne felt strongly about some financial issues with the Big 12 conference.  And he pulled us out of the Big 12 conference, as did Colorado first, plus Missouri and Texas A&M.   He got us in the B1G ten, and when the question was asked about who Nebraska would play on Black Friday, Wisconsin said they wanted to, Penn State said they wanted, but Tom declined and personally picked Iowa.  So everyone said "Ok Tom".... again.   
By this point, the former football Coach Osborne has had his hands in on picking Solich, picking Bo, moving the team to a new conference, picking Iowa for Black Friday.  I mean, as much as we respect him as a coach, Nebraska was being run by Osborne and his decisions and choices and his way of making those decisions and choices.  Just him.

Strike #5
More terrible evaluations and Administration stuff.  
Osborne steps down.  There is a lot of heat on Pelini with the cupcake schedules and getting blown out in big games.  Osborne doesn't want to be a part of it because he hired him.  Pelini wins games, loses ugly, and says some stuff we all know he wishes he didn't say.  Plus he challenges Nebraska to fire him.  Firey and passionate, but also a  smart guy as he knows if they do terminate him he will get paid the rest of his contract while he's gone.  The new administration then blows another opportunity.  Besides hiring Mike Riley who was being forced out at Oregon State and in his 60's, who else did the Admin interview?  In a time that has hiring consultants and tons of younger coaches excited for a chance to coach at Nebraska.  This was another failed attempt at firing and hiring the wrong guy with a lack of interest in the process.  

Now I appreciate yall for taking the time to see my personal POV, and I know it may not agree with the M.O. of Solich curse and 9 wins mantra, but this is just how I have seen it as it happened.  And I appreciate Osborne the football coach big time.

I could also go on with the hiring of Moos and Frost and Trev Alberts and Mickey Joseph and so on.  But honestly, Moos wasn't a bad AD hire, he brought a lot of new coaches to the athletic teams (baseball, hoops, etc).  And we all knew it was a temp job he would do for a few years.  But most importantly - hire Scott Frost from UCF and not F that up by hiring someone else.

I don't believe in Solich curse.  I believe bad Evaluations, Administrations, Decisions and Tom Osborne having heavy input on the program's direction has been a combo piece that we have all witnessed nearly 25 years.  And I am hopeful Trev and Rhule can build this football program back up with the bigger picture in mind.  It's been a long journey, but I am willing to wait it out as I keep getting older with time. 

I say it a lot, but I fully agree Osborne has done significant damage to this program since he retired in 97.  The constant background meddling for 25 years of a variety of people is why we are where we are.   It a vicious cycle we only get out of by hiring good people and getting the hell out of their way.  We can all hope Rhule is being afforded that chance but we shall see.  I'm not overly confident the meddling will stop.

[LennynSquiggy]

4 hours ago, admo said:

There was never a Solich curse, a 9-win curse, or Bo curse.  That is low hanging fruit that comes up every year.  Take a step back from tunnel vision and see what really happened.  Be warned though, the realization will upset the loyal fanbase thinking.

The troubled history of Nebraska's success has been a combination of 3 things: 
Evalution, Administration, and Tom Osborne

When Osborne retired after winning his 3rd championship, Nebraska football was coveted.  They had a choice of a dozen great coaches to take over if they had asked.  

 

You could wonder how many experienced head coaches or top coordinators would have been interested in Nebraska as a head coach.  Including Bob Stoops (Florida's DC for 3 years - hired by OU as HC in 99; also served under Bill Snyder at KSU) and Nick Saban (MSU HC that went to LSU in 99).  

 

But what did Nebraska do?  And did they even attempt to put a group of people together to interview coaches?  NO.  

Osborne retired.  He promised Solich the job.  Solich had no HC experience.  Had no OC or DC experience.  Osborne said Solich and that's what Nebraska did, and said "Whatever you want Tom".  So Nebraska hired Solich.  

This was strike #1.

Osborne should have removed himself from it all, enjoyed going out with a championship as a head football coach.  He had no experience interviewing, hiring or evaluating Head Coaching prospects.  He should have stayed out of it.  And with his stature of success, kept quiet about his opinions and thoughts.  Just go fishing or run for office.  But stay out of it.

Strike #2 was a huge mistake by the new AD Pederson.  When he saw Nebraska fans and boosters getting fed up with blowout losses to Iowa State, Penn State, Kansas State, Miami and Colorado, he made a coaching change without a backup plan.  It took months for him to court Houston Nutt to come here, and knowing that no other coach was all that interested, the NFL Oakland Raiders fired Bill Callahan and they soon made a deal.  

 

Strike #2 was Administration and Evaluation - hiring an NFL Head Coach that had only 2 years of Head Coaching experience, and Zero experience as a Head Coach of a College Football team and running a program.

Strike #3
The administration fired Pederson, and brought on Tom Osborne once again to save the day.  The first task as the new AD, fire Callahan.  So he did.  And everybody cheered.  Now the next task is to interview as many possible Head Coaches that are interested, and right the ship.  But what does Osborne do?  He quietly and politely interviews 3 guys for the job.  Three!  Turner Gill, Bo Pelini, and Jim Grobe.  Gill and Pelini had never been head coaches before!  Grobe was at Wake Forest and iffy about the job, and declined.  So Osborne decides the next Husker head football coach will be between Turner Gill and Bo Pelini.  He hires Pelini, and makes the remark that he kinda sorta reminds him of Devaney.  Husker fans eat it up.  But was this the best decision or the smartest way to go when you have the power to hire anyone?  Was there no one else to talk to?  No one to help you out and say "Hold on now Tom, I know you like a few guys, but let's find someone who has run a football program before and has some proven success"?  Nope.  Osborne hired Pelini on a hunch.

Strike #4
More decision making by the Administration and Osborne

 

Osborne felt strongly about some financial issues with the Big 12 conference.  And he pulled us out of the Big 12 conference, as did Colorado first, plus Missouri and Texas A&M.   He got us in the B1G ten, and when the question was asked about who Nebraska would play on Black Friday, Wisconsin said they wanted to, Penn State said they wanted, but Tom declined and personally picked Iowa.  So everyone said "Ok Tom".... again.   
By this point, the former football Coach Osborne has had his hands in on picking Solich, picking Bo, moving the team to a new conference, picking Iowa for Black Friday.  I mean, as much as we respect him as a coach, Nebraska was being run by Osborne and his decisions and choices and his way of making those decisions and choices.  Just him.

Strike #5
More terrible evaluations and Administration stuff.  
Osborne steps down.  There is a lot of heat on Pelini with the cupcake schedules and getting blown out in big games.  Osborne doesn't want to be a part of it because he hired him.  Pelini wins games, loses ugly, and says some stuff we all know he wishes he didn't say.  Plus he challenges Nebraska to fire him.  Firey and passionate, but also a  smart guy as he knows if they do terminate him he will get paid the rest of his contract while he's gone.  The new administration then blows another opportunity.  Besides hiring Mike Riley who was being forced out at Oregon State and in his 60's, who else did the Admin interview?  In a time that has hiring consultants and tons of younger coaches excited for a chance to coach at Nebraska.  This was another failed attempt at firing and hiring the wrong guy with a lack of interest in the process.  

Now I appreciate yall for taking the time to see my personal POV, and I know it may not agree with the M.O. of Solich curse and 9 wins mantra, but this is just how I have seen it as it happened.  And I appreciate Osborne the football coach big time.

I could also go on with the hiring of Moos and Frost and Trev Alberts and Mickey Joseph and so on.  But honestly, Moos wasn't a bad AD hire, he brought a lot of new coaches to the athletic teams (baseball, hoops, etc).  And we all knew it was a temp job he would do for a few years.  But most importantly - hire Scott Frost from UCF and not F that up by hiring someone else.

I don't believe in Solich curse.  I believe bad Evaluations, Administrations, Decisions and Tom Osborne having heavy input on the program's direction has been a combo piece that we have all witnessed nearly 25 years.  And I am hopeful Trev and Rhule can build this football program back up with the bigger picture in mind.  It's been a long journey, but I am willing to wait it out as I keep getting older with time. 

https://giphy.com/gifs/latenightseth-seth-meyers-late-night-lnsm-IdfZoqnHEEqFkXBUFO

 

I’m out at Burchard Lake in southeast Nebraska with one bar on my phone and I can’t seem to get that gif embedded properly. My apologies. 

[JJ Husker]

4 hours ago, admo said:

There was never a Solich curse, a 9-win curse, or Bo curse.  That is low hanging fruit that comes up every year.  Take a step back from tunnel vision and see what really happened.  Be warned though, the realization will upset the loyal fanbase thinking.

The troubled history of Nebraska's success has been a combination of 3 things: 
Evalution, Administration, and Tom Osborne

When Osborne retired after winning his 3rd championship, Nebraska football was coveted.  They had a choice of a dozen great coaches to take over if they had asked.  

 

You could wonder how many experienced head coaches or top coordinators would have been interested in Nebraska as a head coach.  Including Bob Stoops (Florida's DC for 3 years - hired by OU as HC in 99; also served under Bill Snyder at KSU) and Nick Saban (MSU HC that went to LSU in 99).  

 

But what did Nebraska do?  And did they even attempt to put a group of people together to interview coaches?  NO.  

Osborne retired.  He promised Solich the job.  Solich had no HC experience.  Had no OC or DC experience.  Osborne said Solich and that's what Nebraska did, and said "Whatever you want Tom".  So Nebraska hired Solich.  

This was strike #1.

Osborne should have removed himself from it all, enjoyed going out with a championship as a head football coach.  He had no experience interviewing, hiring or evaluating Head Coaching prospects.  He should have stayed out of it.  And with his stature of success, kept quiet about his opinions and thoughts.  Just go fishing or run for office.  But stay out of it.

Strike #2 was a huge mistake by the new AD Pederson.  When he saw Nebraska fans and boosters getting fed up with blowout losses to Iowa State, Penn State, Kansas State, Miami and Colorado, he made a coaching change without a backup plan.  It took months for him to court Houston Nutt to come here, and knowing that no other coach was all that interested, the NFL Oakland Raiders fired Bill Callahan and they soon made a deal.  

 

Strike #2 was Administration and Evaluation - hiring an NFL Head Coach that had only 2 years of Head Coaching experience, and Zero experience as a Head Coach of a College Football team and running a program.

Strike #3
The administration fired Pederson, and brought on Tom Osborne once again to save the day.  The first task as the new AD, fire Callahan.  So he did.  And everybody cheered.  Now the next task is to interview as many possible Head Coaches that are interested, and right the ship.  But what does Osborne do?  He quietly and politely interviews 3 guys for the job.  Three!  Turner Gill, Bo Pelini, and Jim Grobe.  Gill and Pelini had never been head coaches before!  Grobe was at Wake Forest and iffy about the job, and declined.  So Osborne decides the next Husker head football coach will be between Turner Gill and Bo Pelini.  He hires Pelini, and makes the remark that he kinda sorta reminds him of Devaney.  Husker fans eat it up.  But was this the best decision or the smartest way to go when you have the power to hire anyone?  Was there no one else to talk to?  No one to help you out and say "Hold on now Tom, I know you like a few guys, but let's find someone who has run a football program before and has some proven success"?  Nope.  Osborne hired Pelini on a hunch.

Strike #4
More decision making by the Administration and Osborne

 

Osborne felt strongly about some financial issues with the Big 12 conference.  And he pulled us out of the Big 12 conference, as did Colorado first, plus Missouri and Texas A&M.   He got us in the B1G ten, and when the question was asked about who Nebraska would play on Black Friday, Wisconsin said they wanted to, Penn State said they wanted, but Tom declined and personally picked Iowa.  So everyone said "Ok Tom".... again.   
By this point, the former football Coach Osborne has had his hands in on picking Solich, picking Bo, moving the team to a new conference, picking Iowa for Black Friday.  I mean, as much as we respect him as a coach, Nebraska was being run by Osborne and his decisions and choices and his way of making those decisions and choices.  Just him.

Strike #5
More terrible evaluations and Administration stuff.  
Osborne steps down.  There is a lot of heat on Pelini with the cupcake schedules and getting blown out in big games.  Osborne doesn't want to be a part of it because he hired him.  Pelini wins games, loses ugly, and says some stuff we all know he wishes he didn't say.  Plus he challenges Nebraska to fire him.  Firey and passionate, but also a  smart guy as he knows if they do terminate him he will get paid the rest of his contract while he's gone.  The new administration then blows another opportunity.  Besides hiring Mike Riley who was being forced out at Oregon State and in his 60's, who else did the Admin interview?  In a time that has hiring consultants and tons of younger coaches excited for a chance to coach at Nebraska.  This was another failed attempt at firing and hiring the wrong guy with a lack of interest in the process.  

Now I appreciate yall for taking the time to see my personal POV, and I know it may not agree with the M.O. of Solich curse and 9 wins mantra, but this is just how I have seen it as it happened.  And I appreciate Osborne the football coach big time.

I could also go on with the hiring of Moos and Frost and Trev Alberts and Mickey Joseph and so on.  But honestly, Moos wasn't a bad AD hire, he brought a lot of new coaches to the athletic teams (baseball, hoops, etc).  And we all knew it was a temp job he would do for a few years.  But most importantly - hire Scott Frost from UCF and not F that up by hiring someone else.

I don't believe in Solich curse.  I believe bad Evaluations, Administrations, Decisions and Tom Osborne having heavy input on the program's direction has been a combo piece that we have all witnessed nearly 25 years.  And I am hopeful Trev and Rhule can build this football program back up with the bigger picture in mind.  It's been a long journey, but I am willing to wait it out as I keep getting older with time. 

I agree with some of this but think there’s a little too much hindsight and connecting dots after the fact. Yes TO had his hand in things and yes none of it has panned out too well.

Strike #1 is not a strike in my book. Tom had more than earned the right to name his successor. And everyone involved had every reason to believe it was the best option for the program. We actually still had a “program” and system at that point in time. Continuity and stability are highly desirable for a program that was best in the country through the 90s and which had excelled for over 25 years. You don’t go out and hire an outsider at that point. You just don’t. Problem is, anybody following TO was going to fall short of expectations. That part was inevitable. Given more time Frank likely makes the needed adjustments and gets the juggernaut back on track. But the win’s weren’t where everyone wanted them to be and toss in the debacle in Boulder and, well, that’s when the series of bad decisions begin. Pederson and Callahan and the timing if Frank’s termination is when the s#!t hit the fan. Those are the 2 guys that let, nay caused, the machine to be dismantled.

 

Bringing Tom back to right the ship made sense. That was not a bad decision. Hiring Pelini also was not a bad decision. That one boiled to a head strictly because of Pelini’s demeanor and failure to address that 9 cupcake wins with some embarrassing blowout losses mixed in was not good enough. But Bo didn’t see it that way and behaved accordingly. He could’ve been the pissiest coach ever if he would’ve fixed the problems and got over the hump but he chose to go another way with it.

 

Riley was a bust, plain and simple. No need to rehash that s#!tburger. But it was brought about due to circumstance and the timing of following Bo. A mistake, no two ways about it.

 

Frost was a home-run hire at the time. Who knew he’d run off the rails? That was not an administration or decision or evaluation problem. It just didn’t go the way it should’ve and that is Frost’s fault alone. He was cocky, arrogant and didn’t put in the work unless you count drinking, carousing and late nights at Gate 25 as work.

 

Toss in elements of the game changing over all that time, partial qualifiers, scholly limits, other programs catching up on strength and conditioning (because we were busy putting out the fires of our own problems) and, well, here we are.

 

So yes Osborne was involved in most of that but I don’t think the poor results can be laid at his feet or explained as simply bad choices and bad evaluations. There’s only two things in there that can be identified as glaring mistakes. 1- the beginning of it all, Pederson and Callahan and the dismantling of the machine and 2- the hiring of Riley. Everything else made sense and was the right choice at the time. The fact none of it worked out doesn’t make them all bad decisions or failures to evaluate or the fault of one guy.

 

JMO

and take that Huskerlaw 

 

[ndobney]

On 11/28/2022 at 8:46 AM, TGHusker said:

 I wanted to start a thread on the positives of hiring Matt Rhule.  There will always be doubters and distractors. But at this moment it is time for Husker Nation to come together and bring positive energy into our program. We've had too much negativity over the past 8 years.  

 

So lets look at the numbers as to why this is a good hire - and I'm not talking about on the field numbers.  Some tongue in cheek here as I do a Di Vince code play wt the numbers that

came to my mind

 

The signs that the Solich Curse & the Bo Curse (firing 9 win coaches) are now broken :

5:     Runza -Frank - Rhule    all  have 5 letters.   It is meant to be.  Rhule was hired to end the Solich Curse

5      also stands for "freedom, Independence, individuality, adaptability, and "life lessons learned through experience".  Husker fans have learned from the school of hard knocks and the primary lesson:  Humility and Patience

7      stands for Completeness, wholeness   -  Iowa's win streak over the Huskers stopped at 7. That cycle has been completed.  The lessons have been learned (see # 5)

8      Victory, Prosperity & overcoming    The last game of the season providing a new start - after 8 years in the wilderness.  On the 8th year we beat Iowa in the last game.  Victory over Iowa was a preview of things to come

        Also 8 year contract -  FIRST TO NAME IT - NC WINNER IN YEAR 8  OR BEFORE !!

9 -    The # of letters in "Matt Rhule".   9 stands for completion.  The finalization of a cycle.  Thus, the Solich/Bo Curse is completed. The cycle is over.   We can proclaim it as so - SO BE IT!

11    # of letters in "Trev Alberts"   &  # of letters in "Frank Solich" - 11 stands of awakening, enlightenment, contentment and good fortune -  This is where we are headed as a program. 

 

Ok seriously:    I like the Rhule hiring because it gives the us much needed positive experience at the HC position.  Let's face it: Frost was still a novice HC when he was hired and Riley's experience - while long term- wasn't very successful.  Rhule is a developer and a builder and that is what we need at Nebraska. 

 

 

By the way -  I looked up those number meanings on the internet - I'm not into new age numerology  

 

 

So what do you find positive about the Rhule hiring??  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makes sense to me

[admo]

2 hours ago, LennynSquiggy said:

https://giphy.com/gifs/latenightseth-seth-meyers-late-night-lnsm-IdfZoqnHEEqFkXBUFO

 

I’m out at Burchard Lake in southeast Nebraska with one bar on my phone and I can’t seem to get that gif embedded properly. My apologies. 

[admo]

3 hours ago, runningblind said:

I say it a lot, but I fully agree Osborne has done significant damage to this program since he retired in 97.  The constant background meddling for 25 years of a variety of people is why we are where we are.   It a vicious cycle we only get out of by hiring good people and getting the hell out of their way.  We can all hope Rhule is being afforded that chance but we shall see.  I'm not overly confident the meddling will stop.

The meddling and doing whatever Osborne says and decides for Nebraska, after he retired as the GOAT HC all-time, is a sweet and short version of what I was trying to say.  So fewer words too!  

[admo]

2 hours ago, JJ Husker said:

I agree with some of this but think there’s a little too much hindsight and connecting dots after the fact. Yes TO had his hand in things and yes none of it has panned out too well.

Strike #1 is not a strike in my book. Tom had more than earned the right to name his successor. And everyone involved had every reason to believe it was the best option for the program. We actually still had a “program” and system at that point in time. Continuity and stability are highly desirable for a program that was best in the country through the 90s and which had excelled for over 25 years. You don’t go out and hire an outsider at that point. You just don’t. Problem is, anybody following TO was going to fall short of expectations. That part was inevitable. Given more time Frank likely makes the needed adjustments and gets the juggernaut back on track. But the win’s weren’t where everyone wanted them to be and toss in the debacle in Boulder and, well, that’s when the series of bad decisions begin. Pederson and Callahan and the timing if Frank’s termination is when the s#!t hit the fan. Those are the 2 guys that let, nay caused, the machine to be dismantled.

 

Bringing Tom back to right the ship made sense. That was not a bad decision. Hiring Pelini also was not a bad decision. That one boiled to a head strictly because of Pelini’s demeanor and failure to address that 9 cupcake wins with some embarrassing blowout losses mixed in was not good enough. But Bo didn’t see it that way and behaved accordingly. He could’ve been the pissiest coach ever if he would’ve fixed the problems and got over the hump but he chose to go another way with it.

 

Riley was a bust, plain and simple. No need to rehash that s#!tburger. But it was brought about due to circumstance and the timing of following Bo. A mistake, no two ways about it.

 

Frost was a home-run hire at the time. Who knew he’d run off the rails? That was not an administration or decision or evaluation problem. It just didn’t go the way it should’ve and that is Frost’s fault alone. He was cocky, arrogant and didn’t put in the work unless you count drinking, carousing and late nights at Gate 25 as work.

 

Toss in elements of the game changing over all that time, partial qualifiers, scholly limits, other programs catching up on strength and conditioning (because we were busy putting out the fires of our own problems) and, well, here we are.

 

So yes Osborne was involved in most of that but I don’t think the poor results can be laid at his feet or explained as simply bad choices and bad evaluations. There’s only two things in there that can be identified as glaring mistakes. 1- the beginning of it all, Pederson and Callahan and the dismantling of the machine and 2- the hiring of Riley. Everything else made sense and was the right choice at the time. The fact none of it worked out doesn’t make them all bad decisions or failures to evaluate or the fault of one guy.

 

JMO

and take that Huskerlaw 

 

When you glance at both of our posts together, it looks like something out of an Amazon Kindle eReader.  Lots of words and paragraphs 

 

I never tried to connect the dots per say.  I thought the way Solich was given the job was ridiculous back then, without looking at head coaches who could take the program into the 2000's. 

 

The only hindsight vision I had was in 2002 that confirmed my foresight when Osborne appointed Solich - - - "Why would Nebraska give the keys of a Lamborghini to drive, to the little fella that changes the brake pads on it and checks the dipstick?"  Well, it was because of loyalty and stubborn decision making.   And the football program started to suffer ever since then.  

 

It doesn't mean I don't love and appreciate Osborne or Solich.  It means my foresight was correct, and history proved it with hindsight. 

 

After the Pederson / Callahan destruction, the next worse thing Nebraska did was not learn from previous mistakes.  They hired a person with no head coaching experience again, for the third time in a row.  When that didn't work out and he got fired, we were 15 years in with Nebraska just trying out head coaches and different athletic directors.  At that point, it really didn't matter if the next AD hired Mike Riley (who was on the verge of retiring).  The problems were already established long before that, and the red flags were already there.  And if Riley couldn't get it done, surely Nebraska's own born and bred Scott Frost could save the day.  But he made it even 1000% worse.   

 

It's not a curse, nor is hindsight.  I'm just finally saying what I always thought to myself as it happened when it happened.  It was a mistake to hire Solich, and the dominoes fell.  

[BigRedBuster]

9 hours ago, admo said:

When you glance at both of our posts together, it looks like something out of an Amazon Kindle eReader.  Lots of words and paragraphs 

 

I never tried to connect the dots per say.  I thought the way Solich was given the job was ridiculous back then, without looking at head coaches who could take the program into the 2000's. 

 

The only hindsight vision I had was in 2002 that confirmed my foresight when Osborne appointed Solich - - - "Why would Nebraska give the keys of a Lamborghini to drive, to the little fella that changes the brake pads on it and checks the dipstick?"  Well, it was because of loyalty and stubborn decision making.   And the football program started to suffer ever since then.  

 

It doesn't mean I don't love and appreciate Osborne or Solich.  It means my foresight was correct, and history proved it with hindsight. 

 

After the Pederson / Callahan destruction, the next worse thing Nebraska did was not learn from previous mistakes.  They hired a person with no head coaching experience again, for the third time in a row.  When that didn't work out and he got fired, we were 15 years in with Nebraska just trying out head coaches and different athletic directors.  At that point, it really didn't matter if the next AD hired Mike Riley (who was on the verge of retiring).  The problems were already established long before that, and the red flags were already there.  And if Riley couldn't get it done, surely Nebraska's own born and bred Scott Frost could save the day.  But he made it even 1000% worse.   

 

It's not a curse, nor is hindsight.  I'm just finally saying what I always thought to myself as it happened when it happened.  It was a mistake to hire Solich, and the dominoes fell.  

The biggest mistake that TO made when appointing Solich as HC is not allowing him to go out and hire new young assistants that were good coaches and had the energy to go recruit.

[JJ Husker]

18 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

The biggest mistake that TO made when appointing Solich as HC is not allowing him to go out and hire new young assistants that were good coaches and had the energy to go recruit.

I’ve never heard of this before. So Frank wanted to hire new young assistants and TO put the kabash to that plan?

[BigRedBuster]

Just now, JJ Husker said:

I’ve never heard of this before. So Frank wanted to hire new young assistants and TO put the kabash to that plan?

I don't know what Frank wanted at the time.  But, TO made sure he kept all the old assistants claiming they were a great staff and they had always been loyal to Nebraska.  Many were old and at the end of their careers.  Some either didn't have the energy or just didn't like to get out and recruit hard anymore.  They were used to top players just wanting to come play for Nebraska and TO.  When Frank came in, he should have been able to hire who he wanted and bring in young energetic guys that could go out and recruit hard.

 

Fast forward to Frank's last year and he cleaned house, brought in young assistants and, it appeared anyway, that recruiting was picking up.

[Mavric]

2 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

I don't know what Frank wanted at the time.  But, TO made sure he kept all the old assistants claiming they were a great staff and they had always been loyal to Nebraska.  Many were old and at the end of their careers.  Some either didn't have the energy or just didn't like to get out and recruit hard anymore.  They were used to top players just wanting to come play for Nebraska and TO.  When Frank came in, he should have been able to hire who he wanted and bring in young energetic guys that could go out and recruit hard.

 

Fast forward to Frank's last year and he cleaned house, brought in young assistants and, it appeared anyway, that recruiting was picking up.

 

I don't know what Frank wanted or was allowed to do but it does seem like this was one big issue.

 

The other big issue was Frank thought he was Tom and he wasn't.  He tried to be both the head coach and the OC.  But he was a terrible OC.  So his performance as a head coach was pretty sub-par but a lot of it was those two areas, imo. 

 

Of course, the counter argument to "He could have done better if he just could have _____" is he still got the chance to be a head coach for another 16 years and still couldn't win a conference championship.  So I have my doubts if he was really all that great of a coach himself.  Probably a guy who should have just topped out as an assistant.

[BigRedBuster]

8 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

I don't know what Frank wanted or was allowed to do but it does seem like this was one big issue.

 

The other big issue was Frank thought he was Tom and he wasn't.  He tried to be both the head coach and the OC.  But he was a terrible OC.  So his performance as a head coach was pretty sub-par but a lot of it was those two areas, imo. 

 

Of course, the counter argument to "He could have done better if he just could have _____" is he still got the chance to be a head coach for another 16 years and still couldn't win a conference championship.  So I have my doubts if he was really all that great of a coach himself.  Probably a guy who should have just topped out as an assistant.

And yet he won 75% of his games at Nebraska and went back to winning 10 when he could have his own assistants.  My opinion has always been that they should have fired Frank a year earlier....or allowed him to keep going when he changed his staff and had won 9 games at the time he was fired.

[Enhance]

Yeah the decision to let him go after the '03 season was (and still is) a wild one, because I agree - he either should've been let go the previous year when they really struggled, or, allowed to continue for at least another season after his staff changes.

That said, several signs suggested the program had taken a couple steps back, steps it wasn't clear Solich would be able to regain. And the fact he was a good (not great) coach at Ohio and never worked his way up the P5 ranks sort of justified that perhaps he wasn't the championship caliber coach Nebraska needed. We'll never know for certain. In some ways, I feel similarly about Solich and Pelini - two guys that were pretty good but incapable of sustaining championship caliber programs. So, their fate was probably the right one, but the path to get there was bonkers.

[JJ Husker]

47 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

And yet he won 75% of his games at Nebraska and went back to winning 10 when he could have his own assistants.  My opinion has always been that they should have fired Frank a year earlier....or allowed him to keep going when he changed his staff and had won 9 games at the time he was fired.

So much this. The timing and optics were poor. The firing should’ve happened a year earlier when it was more deserved.

[Mavric]

1 hour ago, BigRedBuster said:

And yet he won 75% of his games at Nebraska and went back to winning 10 when he could have his own assistants.  My opinion has always been that they should have fired Frank a year earlier....or allowed him to keep going when he changed his staff and had won 9 games at the time he was fired.

 

Eh ... he took over a team that won 60 games the previous five years.  You should still be able to win quite a few games with that kind of a program.

 

I won't argue that he shouldn't have been fired a year earlier.  As far as winning 10 his last year - which was really 9, Bo won the last one after Frank was fired - I think it was mostly smoke and mirrors.  Frank only beat two teams that finished with winning records (9-4 Oklahoma State and 9-4 Southern Mississippi).  We beat 3-9 Penn State by 8 at home.  And the three games we lost we were blown out - lost by 17 to 8-5 Missouri, lost by 24 to Texas and lost by 29 to Kansas State.  So the record looked better but I'm not sure the product on the field was still all that great (compared to the record).

 

And I'm also probably somewhat biased by being in the stands for most of the games in that stretch.  I could literally tell my friends around me what play we were going to run about 60% of the time based on what formation we came out in.  But I'm sure opposing defensive coordinators who studied film all week couldn't figure out any tendencies.  And he liked to run the wing-bone formation where he could have run the option to the wide side of the field with Crouch in Newcombe but instead insisted on running it to the short side with Lance Brown.  Osborne ran option to the short side because - in a Pro-I formation - the offense was (usually) strong to the field which meant there was also an extra defender to the field side, so short side made sense.  But the wing-bone is a balanced formation so the defense also had to be balanced, so it would have made more sense to run where there is more space (and with one of your most dynamic players).  And then there's the gem he spewed in a post-game news conference when someone asked him about running the fullback so much.  His response was that you had to run the fullback a lot to open up the option.  Really??? Have you not been paying attention the past 20 years when we'd run option all day until they forgot about the fullback and then he'd run by people who weren't even looking?

 

He just didn't get it as as OC. 

 

But I'm not bitter or anything.