Ifs & Buts - If Tom had coached another 10 years

[TGHusker]

Tom was very successful his entire career and would have continued to be successful if he had stayed. His offense didn't stay the same for 25 years, when he felt it needed changing, he changed it.

The biggest question is how would his successor have been chosen if he had stayed.

Very true - he may have been leading the spread or read offenses - in modified forms. He did change as needed - power running was always a major component

 

[JTrain]

Would be interesting to see how recruiting would have been in 98 and 99. We were one or two guys away from being a title contender in 2000.

 

[HuskerNationNick]

I think TO probably coaches through 2001. NU wins a title in '99 and loses in the title game in '01 (62-36 doesn't happen, but we still lose to that Miami team anyway) and then he goes out with Crouch.

We still hire Frank, and 2002 is probably still a tough year, but he gets a free pass for it being season one. What happens after that is anybody's guess, but he certainly doesn't get fired in late '03 unless that team is somehow worse. Would have been interesting to see it play out.

We beat Miami, because TO will want that 1st Rose Bowl victory

 

[NUinID]

I don't think he would have stayed ten more years. I could see 5 years. I think he really wanted to coach more, but he made a promise to his wife and FS and he stuck to it.

If TO would have stayed 5 more years FS would have gone somewhere for a HC job. I believe he interviewed and may have been offered the Minnesota job, but stayed because he knew he had the job at NU.

Some of his assistants would have retired. McBride I still think retires after 99' his knees couldn't take it anymore. Milt may have been encouraged to retire and Dan Young wanted to retire. Neither was doing much recruiting.

Tony Samuel would still have moved on to a HC job.

In 98' NU probably still loses at least 2 games. They had more stupid freak injuries that year than this year. Though I do think they would have won it in 99 and been better in 2000 and 2001. Recruiting would have been better.

FS really didn't recruit all that bad except on the O and D lines. He had a lot of guys that didn't pan out, mostly because of injuries.

 

[Danimal]

99 team would've definitely won it all with TO still here, especially since having FS with the rb's would have prevented the fumblitis we saw that year.

 

[HuskerNationNick]

If TO would have stayed, he would have retired with Bo on his staff in '03, and that is who we would have had take over from there. Instead of Bo taking over a torn down program, he would be taking over a healthy dynasty, as well as a healthy coaching staff. Recruiting would still be up there, and we would have never known who Bill Callahan was, outside of his failed Raiders game.

Texass would also be known as Nebraska's whipping boy.

 

[TGHusker]

I'm in agreement on the recruiting. By the time 2001 rolled around it was all on Crouch's shoulders. TO would have had better recruits and that is why I think we would have one 1-2 more NC in that time span.

 

[Count 'Bility]

The biggest question? if TO sticks around, is Charlie McBride still the DC in 2000? If so, that team probably rolls to another title. And it's probably back-to-back for the 2nd time within a decade. Remember, that 2000 team was loaded offensively. Probably by far Solich's best offensive team. But it was the defense that had issues that year. Some new personnell in the secondary along with a new DC. I think TO's presence changes the outlook on that 2000 season altogether as well.

 

[Ulty]

The biggest question? if TO sticks around, is Charlie McBride still the DC in 2000? If so, that team probably rolls to another title. And it's probably back-to-back for the 2nd time within a decade. Remember, that 2000 team was loaded offensively. Probably by far Solich's best offensive team. But it was the defense that had issues that year. Some new personnell in the secondary along with a new DC. I think TO's presence changes the outlook on that 2000 season altogether as well.

That 2000 team was damn good. I thought they were even better than the 2001 squad. We had a 14-0 lead over eventual national champion Oklahoma in Norman before falling apart, and we lost to K-State in the snow on some questionable late playcalling by Solich that I think Osborne would have called better. I don't know if Osborne would have made McBride stay any longer than he already had, but that was still a special team.

Northwestern was a co-champ of the Big Ten that year (3 way tie) but we beat the living $h!t out of them in spectacular fashion.

 

[I am I]

I say it all the time, and have 1st hand knowledge of the situation:, yet it gets dismissed easily: elimination of Prop 48 upon inception of the B12.

Tom woulda done real good for another 3-6 years, but his dynasty was brought down in a board room...in Texas.

 

[junior4949]

I say it all the time, and have 1st hand knowledge of the situation:, yet it gets dismissed easily: elimination of Prop 48 upon inception of the B12.

Tom woulda done real good for another 3-6 years, but his dynasty was brought down in a board room...in Texas.

It does seem to get overlooked but not just from Nebraska's standpoint. The B1G is going to have an awful hard time competing year in and year out with the SEC when one considers academic qualifications. It hasn't been dumb luck that caused the long run of NC's by the SEC. Notre Dame relaxed their criteria for Holtz who went on to win a NC. They put them back on and have almost become irrelevant. I know people will throw Stanford out there, but they haven't won a NC either.

 

[TGHusker]

The biggest question? if TO sticks around, is Charlie McBride still the DC in 2000? If so, that team probably rolls to another title. And it's probably back-to-back for the 2nd time within a decade. Remember, that 2000 team was loaded offensively. Probably by far Solich's best offensive team. But it was the defense that had issues that year. Some new personnell in the secondary along with a new DC. I think TO's presence changes the outlook on that 2000 season altogether as well.

That 2000 team was damn good. I thought they were even better than the 2001 squad. We had a 14-0 lead over eventual national champion Oklahoma in Norman before falling apart, and we lost to K-State in the snow on some questionable late playcalling by Solich that I think Osborne would have called better. I don't know if Osborne would have made McBride stay any longer than he already had, but that was still a special team.

Northwestern was a co-champ of the Big Ten that year (3 way tie) but we beat the living $h!t out of them in spectacular fashion.

I was thinking the same thing - the 2000 team was very good - better than the 2001 team - now 1 year more removed from Tom's recruits. I was at that OU game - the Ok Husker Club was in the south end zone and we thought we were going to walk away wt it the way we started. Crouch had a long run ending up in the zone in front of us. I believe Davidson had a catch in the zone in front of us also. For some reason we end up losing control and ou started catching passes. KSU was good that year also - but we should have won that one also. OU had to beat Tx, KSU, NU all ranked high to get to 1st.

 

[Joe_5700]

I think he woulda just been worn on. Like the other guys I mentioned. first they start losing a couple games a year, then it's 3, and before you know it, like Carroll, Stoops, Brown, and even Meyer, they have young team and theyre going 6-6 or 7-5 and winding up in a sh#t bowl trying to figure out how to get the mojo back when your rival has turned into a freight train. Stoops and Brown were those guys to solich. It's quite possible they woulda been those guys to TO as well. Let's face it, he got out at the right time. He gave us the joy of being able to remember him as how great he really was.

I agree 100%. Solich had that year in 2002. Bo will have some tough years too. We were lucky to get 9 wins with the injuries that we sustained and our young defense in my opinion. I just hope that people will remain calm and sane and analyze why we have that bad year.