Rank our last 4 coaches
- Thread starter Redder
- Start date
Waterloohusker26
Five-Star Recruit
ColoradoHusk
Heisman Trophy Winner
2004 Iowa State begs to differ. He also had some stinkers in 2007 (Missouri, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State).
Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
I don't think Solich inherited a Heisman-caliber QB. He inherited a poor passing quarterback who wouldn't start on most Power-5 teams and gave him a team and a scheme that won him the Heisman. Solich was granted a grudging bit of patience in his transitional year -- we weren't used to 4 loss seasons! -- but his 1999 season was as good as all but a handful of Osborne's. I thought is was a coaching achievement to get that modest-by-Nebraska standards 2001 Nebraska team into the NC game, where they faced one of the most talented teams in college football history. But that was the point where the Nebraska defense had started giving up up points in huge bunches, a trend we haven't really stopped till this day.
Bo Pelini did everything we asked of him his first two seasons, most importantly restoring the Nebraska defense to nationally heralded levels. He took the talent he inherited and made it better. That's what good coaches do. Then he proceeded to get less -- often much less -- out of his own recruits. He blamed everybody else, most notably the fans. That's what bad coaches do. It appears that the bad part followed him to Youngstown State, so maybe it's not the state of Nebraska's fault.
Bill Callahan needed a soft place to land after the Raiders. Steve Pedersen needed a coach people had seen on TV in the Super Bowl to cover up the fact that Nebraska couldn't land its top prospects. Callahan never really wanted to be here and it showed. Some folks are made to be assistants.
Mike Riley has his work cut out for him. I'm looking forward to next season.
Bo Pelini did everything we asked of him his first two seasons, most importantly restoring the Nebraska defense to nationally heralded levels. He took the talent he inherited and made it better. That's what good coaches do. Then he proceeded to get less -- often much less -- out of his own recruits. He blamed everybody else, most notably the fans. That's what bad coaches do. It appears that the bad part followed him to Youngstown State, so maybe it's not the state of Nebraska's fault.
Bill Callahan needed a soft place to land after the Raiders. Steve Pedersen needed a coach people had seen on TV in the Super Bowl to cover up the fact that Nebraska couldn't land its top prospects. Callahan never really wanted to be here and it showed. Some folks are made to be assistants.
Mike Riley has his work cut out for him. I'm looking forward to next season.
Waterloohusker26
Five-Star Recruit
I'm sure on every play callers resume there will be some stinkers thrown in there
BigRedBuster
International Man of Mystery
No way was Callahan a better recruiter, individually or organizationally, than Frank and Bo (and likely not Mike either).
John Blake, scumbag that he is, was the main catalyst for that '05 class. Other than that one, which was inflated by its sheer size and unbalanced in actual composition, Callahan's recruiting was only on par with what the other coaches have accomplished.
I'd rank it:
Solich
Pelini
Riley
Callahan.
Red_October
Three-Star Recruit
Solich
Riley
Callahan
Pelini worst speaker in the history of Nebraska football. I suspect he was the lowest intelect as well.
cornographic
Banned
I think they love Franky @ Ohio. He's averaging 8-9 wins per and regularly gets them to bowl games. Seems his recruitng has improved also, as they have some real good players on thier roster currently. Gill seems to be doing well @ Liberty too.
RedRedJarvisRedwine
All-American
1432
Academic all-b10 as a player at arguably the second or third best academic school in what is arguably the best academic conference in the country and widely regarded among his peers as a defensive genius.
Not exactly the credentials of an idiot.
But I understand that for a percentage of self righteous husker fans, the pillory is cathartic.
Not exactly the credentials of an idiot.
But I understand that for a percentage of self righteous husker fans, the pillory is cathartic.
cornographic
Banned
Didn't Solich win the conference with mostly OZ's recruits? Recruiting dropped off under Frank's last few years and that was a problem. Not to say that he couldn't revive it over time, but it did drop off. But Frank's main problem was that he was a guy w/o a name following a legendary coach who had just gone 60-3 and won 3(could've easily been 5) natty's in the 90s. Tough act to follow, to say the least.
StPaulHusker
Banned
This could depend on your interpretation of the question. I interpreted it as rank our last four coaches and what they did at Nebraska. Going by this, I can't in good reason put Riley above Callahan because they both had relatively similar beginning seasons from a record stand point (though Riley had a more notable win and made it to a bowl game, too). If Riley is gone after next season, is he still a better coach than Callahan was?
Including their entire resumes could offer a different conclusion, as well. But, it appears many of us are at least on the same page that Solich was the best coach we had since Osborne. I don't care if he won a conference title with TO's players or not - that's still a critical piece of hardware none of the other guys have.