Texas seems quite a bit similar.
Royal was Devaney/Osborne. Not exactly, but definitely The Legend.
Akers was Solich. Almost Osborne, in that he was a younger assistant coach somewhat unexpected promoted to the top. Not sure if he faced the same challenges Osborne did with the early staff, but he didn't overcome the challenges and it became more like Solich. Some very good seasons, some not so good, and eventually let go for not living up to The Legend.
McWilliams was Solich extended. Another former assistant. One good season but less successful overall.
Mackovic was Callahan. The Outsider. Some early successes but didn't fit in. I moved to Austin for a few years a couple years after he was gone and they hated him, but he didn't seem to wreck the program.
Brown was where they diverged. He was what we hoped Pelini would've been, at least for awhile. No ties to the program. A lot of success and a championship, though he got fat and the program grew soft and complacent and struggled at the end.
Strong is Riley, but only in lack of success. A bigger name hire, more excitement but he's running out of time. People who want Herman or Fuente now would've drooled over Strong from his Louisville record. Did the OU win buy him another season to get his system and his way in? It is different in some ways because Strong has to rebuild from the malaise that Brown left the program in. Riley should have been able to build on Pelini's record without overhauling it. Apparently he does have to rebuild brick-by-brick, but I'm not seeing a plan like Strong has. But Strong may be another guy who just never fits in at Texas.
This is all a bit of a stretch IMO. Texas is similar to Nebraska in that Texas fans and Nebraska fans think they should be good and relevant all the time in college football. That is about the only similarity I can see. Texas is built on arrogant, good ole boy, rich oil man principles that we are entitled to the most of everything all the time, because everything is bigger in Texas. We will buy what we want.
Nebraska is built on we are going to out work you and keep out nose to the grindstone. We are going to do it smarter than you do it and over achieve because we are just a bunch of poor old farmers. This in itself is its own kind of arrogance I guess.
In 2004 I thought firing FS was a bad move and I still think it was. SP was an arrogant d!(k who thought the system was broken and he didn't like FS and the feeling was mutual. Frank put together an amazing staff that should have been allowed to work together for a couple of years. That IMO is where the problems really started.
