Oh it wasn't just me making that phone call. It was thousands of stalwart Husker fans braving the Athletic Department phone tree to help save the program from embarrassing itself. Turns out we were right: the AD read the situation wrong. Please don't give me too much credit. It's just what heroes do.
I think I made two posts just this morning stating my feelings about the coming season. If they weren't blatantly optimistic, they were hopeful and open-minded. There's no need to cast me as a hater just because I mock your rather elastic defense of Scott Frost,
As far as continuity and Perlman go: Bo Pelini had seven years as head coach, and prior to his last season Eichorst gave him a contract extension, a new plane and a bigger recruiting budget. Back in those innocent times, you'd be hard pressed to find a Nebraska fan who considered Bo's 9-4 continuity to be acceptable. The only question was how many more years you give him to start winning the meaningful games. Perlman did not make the head football coaching gig undesirable Fan expectations did. And the fans were correct, if you thought Nebraska needed to be competing for at least divisional Big 10 titles. After Bo called his AD a c*nt in a long self-pitying final speech to his players, he went to the safety of his home town Youngstown team and a totally nurturing administration, where he wore out his welcome in similar fashion and is no longer a head coach, instead using his reputation as a defensive guru to lead LSU to some of the worst defensive performances in its history. Ipso facto, Perlman and Eichorst made the right call, whether you like them or not. It's also not Perlman's fault that Husker fans assumed the HC position at UNL would lure any top coaching candidate. We developed that expectation on our own. Turns out we weren't competing for Nick Saban or Jim Harbaugh. Brett Bielema and the second tier weren't interested, either. That's how we ended up with Mike Riley. Nebraska wouldn't have stood a chance for UCF's Scott Frost if he wasn't a native son. He was really tempted to go SEC as it was.
Did Harvey Perlman, chancellor of the University of Nebraska, personally resent that his shepherding of a huge multi-faceted educational system would be judged by the success of the football coach -- the highest paid public official in the state? Probably.
Harvey has been gone for 5 years.