How much integrity are you willing to trade for success?

How should Nebraska football work?

  • Devoted commitment to the mission statement first, with all other goals (such as championships) only

    Votes: 9 12.2%

  • Maintaining the mission statement and striving to be elite should essentially be equal goals side by

    Votes: 24 32.4%

  • I'm fine with certain sacrifices of integrity/loyalty/etc. if it guarantees elite results.

    Votes: 9 12.2%

  • Winning is all that matters. The rest of that stuff is nice, but doesn't matter if you don't

    Votes: 7 9.5%

  • Addendum - Take advantage of loopholes, bend but don't break the rules, find whatever advantage

    Votes: 25 33.8%
  • Total voters
    74
Our bowl win / loss record needs a GIANT asterisk beside it because Nebraska has been very unfairly disadvantaged in bowls as compared to most top twenty programs. Yes, Osborne had a tough losing streak a couple times in the bowl games during his 25 years but that was due in large part to the fact that we were a top TV and paying fan draw and we played in one of the top 4 bowls year in and year out, the lion's share of which were the 'home' field for our opponents, typically the Florida big three (Miami, FSU and UF) or we played a California school in a Cal bowl or a TEX or AZ school in Texas or Arizona. There is a tremendous 'home field' edge to local teams getting to play a far away school in the bowl setting.

First, during the 70s, our bowl prep was very hampered by not having any indoor facilities to practice in so Nebraska was either forced to delay most bowl prep until we arrived 'on bowl site' (usually some high school field somewhere where the team had to live out of a motel room, ride long bus rides, etc etc. All the while, the opponent was sleeping at their own homes/apartments, practicing in the normal facilities, etc.

Not have regular practices meant the team's timing, 'execution' level, etc was severely hampered.

Osborne and even Devaney (before the NCAA adopted ethics, rules and such that would have limited who you recruited, grades, etc etc) had moral standards and followed them. We certainly need high standards and we should NEVER bend or lower our standards in order to try to win more games. It is truly more than just winning and while winning is important, you must win the right way. Never cheat. It alwasy backfires anyway.

 
I we should not have to do one or the other. I believe, although I know rules were bent under Bob and Tom, that we operated with a high degree of integrity.

 
Bama had to vacate like 16 wins (the last two years of Mike Shula) because of some sort of cheating...that lead to Shula getting the boot and them hiring Saban...

I guess I would be totally fine with NU vacating two years of wins for what Bama has done the last 10.

 
jamesbond said:
No, we didn't compete nationally until we got the players to compete nationally. We were embarrassed many times in bowl games until we finally recruited speed and athleticism. It's amazing how much better a coach gets when they get elite players. Obviously some coaches are better than others, but without talent, it doesn't matter. A coach will win the games that he should win but never get over the hump.

For example, people on here want Nebraska to model themselves after Wisconsin and Iowa. Wonderful, we will win 9 or maybe 10 games a year but will never compete at the highest levels because that takes elite talent.

It was easier for Osborne to recruit players during his tenure since scholarship rules were different and he could use Prop 48 for many players. I just don't understand the insistence of people who don't understand that any system will work as long as the athletes are elite.
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We competed great before , that just got us over the hump.

 
Sorry if I wasn't clear - I meant not breaking the law, but being gratuitous with your deductions and trying to game the system in ways that you know aren't necessarily entirely honest.

Personally, those don't really line up for me.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
Sorry if I wasn't clear - I meant not breaking the law, but being gratuitous with your deductions and trying to game the system in ways that you know aren't necessarily entirely honest.

Personally, those don't really line up for me.
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To your taxes example. I will gladly take whatever the law allows me to take to reduce my taxes and there is absolutely nothing unethical about that.

The quote from the list of choices clearly says "but don't break the rules" and "as long as technically allowed".

Now, there is a chance the author didn't mean it the way it reads. But, that's what it says.

In taxes and in recruiting rules, you have to assume the authors of the rules meant for you to take full advantage of the room the leave for you to work within. Nothing in the last choice says anything about doing things unethically or illegal.

 
There's room to lie on your taxes about write-offs, but still be within the confines of the law. That does not, by my personal conscience at least, lend itself to ethical behavior.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
This narrative that we didn't compete nationally until the mid-90's seems confusing to me. Here's a list of Osborne's wins against ranked (by end of season) OOC opponents from '73-'93

#12 UCLA, W 40-13

#16 NC State, W 31-14

#8 Texas, W 19-3

#12 Florida, W 13-10

#9 Texas Tech, W 27-24

#2 Alabama, W 31-24

#14 North Carolina, W 21-17

#18 Penn State, W 42-17

#8 Penn State, W 21-7

#19 Mississippi State, W 31-17

#14 Auburn, W 41-7

#11 LSU, W 21-20

#17 Penn State, W 44-6

#13 UCLA, 42-10

#10 UCLA, W 42-3

#16 LSU, W 28-10

#20 Florida State, W 34-17

#11 LSU, W 30-15

#11 UCLA, W 42-33

#20 Arizona State, W 35-28
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What does this show? Only five wins against top 10 teams? Heck, if we give Riley the next two decades I don't think he'll have any problem duplicating this. He's already got 20% of what he needs with his win against Michigan State last year. He's got another 18 years to get a grand whopping total of four more to duplicate this.

I don't mean to come off as an a$$, but it's really getting old hearing some of this stuff. If TO was hired today at Nebraska, he probably doesn't even make it a decade. He didn't even win his first outright conference title until year 9. Heck, Solich won an outright conference title in year 2. They both inherited similar programs. Things are drastically different now than they were 4+ decades ago. It's win now, or get out. The money is considerably bigger and the timeline is drastically shorter.

 
HuskerBoard: "I'll trade integrity for a championship."

Same HB member when NU is caught: "Clean house, not the Nebraska way, I told you from the beginning, blah blah blah"

And the circle will continue.

 
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