OWH: 20 Osborne Stats 20 Years After He Retired

15. Osborne coached 47 first-team All-Americans from 16 different states. The state of Nebraska produced 15. Texas was second with 9.

That's freaking cool. Who says there isn't talent in Nebraska??!! I'm excited to start seeing some of these All-American Nebraska boys come back into the picture now that Frost is making it a priority to keep Nebraska kids in Nebraska.

 
I always add that no other Midwest team has won more than 1 national title in the past 50 years which IMO matters (most not even 1). Not Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Wyoming, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, or Michigan. If you want to count Ohio St as MW than they'd be the only ones. Incredible what Tom did here. 

 
I thought CU won one under McCartney?   Michigan won one in '97.  Notre Dame has a few as well. Devaney won 2 as well.  Not sure we can claim we are all alone in the championship awards.    

 
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84HuskerLaw said:
I thought CU won one under McCartney?   Michigan won one in '97.  Notre Dame has a few as well. Devaney won 2 as well.  Not sure we can claim we are all alone in the championship awards.    
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I think Big Ern's point is "more than one".  CU has one (shared w/ Ga Tech in '90), Michigan has one (shared w/ NU in '97).  I'm not sure what Big Ern's 50 year cut off is, but Notre Dame 3 since  1970 ('73, '77, '88).

 
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Notre Dame is smack in the middle of the midwest.   I am not sure I'd call NU and Colorado in the midwest (typically called the great plains states I always thought.  Midwest would be IA, MN, IL, IN, WI, MI, OH although I suppose they may be referred to as the upper midwest).   Not a big deal I know and I do understand his point.  But OK has been highly successful in the middle of the country certainly thanks to their hard work ethic and being next door to the college football 'supermarket' of recruiting in TX).  

I think the main point is that Nebraska has done what many state unequivocally as the impossible.  We are far from the big population areas 'rich and fertile' in recruiting so we have to either make great players out of farm boys or lure the city kids from a thousand miles or more away from friends, home, family, and the other football powers to the cornfields of Lincoln

Not an easy chore for any coach.   Salesmanship and success are the two ingredients most needed besides a dam good ability to coach the game of football and instill the toughness and work ethic to be the best.  

Devaney was a salesman with a big smile and a sharp bark that knew how to get guys back in the 60s to play their hardest.  He also knew how to pick assistants who could coach em up and fire em up as well.  Tom was the 'thinker' and had a brilliant football mind and could simply outwit his oppoents and as a studious, hard working man, he spent the time to get to know his oppoents' strengths and weaknesses and exploit both.  Playcalling is more art than science and very few could match his wits.   Preparation.  Preparation.  Preparation.   That was TO's secret to success in my view.

I think Frost understands the game very well and was one of the strongest (maybe the very strongest Huskers ever - being the one and only so I've heard player to push the blocking sled the length of the field by himself loaded with coaches, etc..  He knows a lot and will learn even more as time passes.  Hopefully, TO will be nearby and on the phones and an will have his ear and he will listen and learn from the master.  Tom may be old but I am sure he has not forgotten and still knows more about the game than nearly anyone else alive.         

 
84HuskerLaw said:
Notre Dame is smack in the middle of the midwest.   I am not sure I'd call NU and Colorado in the midwest (typically called the great plains states I always thought.  Midwest would be IA, MN, IL, IN, WI, MI, OH although I suppose they may be referred to as the upper midwest).   Not a big deal I know and I do understand his point.  But OK has been highly successful in the middle of the country certainly thanks to their hard work ethic and being next door to the college football 'supermarket' of recruiting in TX).  
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So you're saying states to the EAST of us are Midwest states but we aren't? Does that make us a Pac 10 school??

 
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His last four years were the most impressive.  And never lost to a team from Kansas-cool

Wiffed on Barry Sanders tho

 
I've heard many from Ohio/Kentucky/Michigan refer to Nebraska/Kansas/Oklahoma as the Heartland (less so referencing it has Midwest). Growing up in Nebraska, I always thought we were the Midwest (?). Guessing we're both.

 
I've never heard anyone say Nebraska is not in the midwest before today.

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BIG ERN said:
I always add that no other Midwest team has won more than 1 national title in the past 50 years which IMO matters (most not even 1). Not Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Wyoming, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, or Michigan. If you want to count Ohio St as MW than they'd be the only ones. Incredible what Tom did here. 
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Ohio State has won 4. A few of the states you listed aren't Midwestern (neither is Nebraska).

 
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