Volkswagen and Nebraska Football

[GBRedneck]

KSU ended ranked there after losing in the Fiesta Bowl to Buckeyes. Not familiar with Texas' ending of season, but those teams were very good. NO disgrace in losing those games. Mizzou wasn't bad either. Brad Smith was super fast. Everyone points to that, but hardly anyone remembers that Ozzy lost games to unranked Mizzou, Iowa ST and other teams along his tenure. Sometimes, some teams rise above for a period in time, but don't sustain it. This is what made Nebraska so great. Sure, we lost a few games in certain years to teasm we should not have, but during a 30 year period, we stayed consistent. Too late to know what would have been, but I think Solich would have maintained 9-10 wins a season. We will never know. Bo would have been here at least 3 years, and would have added to the recruiting base here along with Solich.

Now we are seeing the price we paid for being arrogant and unrealistic about the landscape of the sport.

Yep. Firing Solich was the biggest mistake in the history of college football. And we learned nothing from it.

If Frank is such a fantastic head coach, then why isn't he at a power 5 school? If Frank is such a fantastic head coach then why isn't he going undefeated at a MAC school? Why isn't he winning his conference every single year? Looking at his list of accomplishments, Frank is probably an average coach at best.

Because Nebraska is the only major P5 school that hires 60+ year old coaches.

Frank is the winningest coach in Ohio history and is moving in on the winningest coach in MAC history.

Frank had a Heisman winner, several top ten finishes, BCS bowl wins, conference championship, national championship appearance and coach of the year honors. His first 6 years were better than TO's first six years. He's WAAAAY above average.

 

[GBRedneck]

Did you want Solich fired in '03?

I wish he would never have been hired as HC and Byrne would have been able to hire the coach he wanted. A coach that has won 80% of his games.

What coach was that?

The Solich haters think Byrne was going to get Stoops.

[SIZE=medium]So you don’t think Byrne’s hands were tied and Solich was his top choice?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]And I’m not a Solich hater; his service to the University is admirable and he was a great Running Backs coach. I’m just someone who never thought he was the best choice to take over the program and wished then and still do that we would have hired someone else (from that staff or from outside the program).[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Thanks though.[/SIZE]

That expresses how I feel about Solich better than I could have myself. He did admirable work on TO's staff, and he was a gamer as a ball player (from what I've read). But I wasn't keen on seeing him take over as head coach. Oh well. It's water under the bridge. Frank recovered, and put together a nice body of work at Ohio.

Frank put together a really nice body of work as HC of the Huskers. A very underappreciated body of work.

That 7-7 season in 2002 was pretty fantastic!

Frank didn't recruit nearly well enough. Can you really say that the team Callahan took over had 1997 talent on it still? Regardless, Frank wasn't fired for his record. He was fired for his poor recruiting and his extra curricular activities.

More lies. Frank got fired because Pedey had a personal vendetta against him.

 

[Elf]

Did you want Solich fired in '03?

I wish he would never have been hired as HC and Byrne would have been able to hire the coach he wanted. A coach that has won 80% of his games.

What coach was that?

The Solich haters think Byrne was going to get Stoops.

[SIZE=medium]So you don’t think Byrne’s hands were tied and Solich was his top choice?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]And I’m not a Solich hater; his service to the University is admirable and he was a great Running Backs coach. I’m just someone who never thought he was the best choice to take over the program and wished then and still do that we would have hired someone else (from that staff or from outside the program).[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Thanks though.[/SIZE]

That expresses how I feel about Solich better than I could have myself. He did admirable work on TO's staff, and he was a gamer as a ball player (from what I've read). But I wasn't keen on seeing him take over as head coach. Oh well. It's water under the bridge. Frank recovered, and put together a nice body of work at Ohio.

Frank put together a really nice body of work as HC of the Huskers. A very underappreciated body of work.

That 7-7 season in 2002 was pretty fantastic!

Frank didn't recruit nearly well enough. Can you really say that the team Callahan took over had 1997 talent on it still? Regardless, Frank wasn't fired for his record. He was fired for his poor recruiting and his extra curricular activities.

More lies. Frank got fired because Pedey had a personal vendetta against him.

Anyone that looked at the athletes objectively could see there was a large qualitative distance between the 1997 team and Franks last team. And Frank had issues with women who weren't his wife, and he liked alcohol a bit to much. (reference his dui.)

 

[Dansker]

Preface, just so I don't get flamed by The World's Greatest Fan(s) - Again, I'm glad Bo go fired. I'm in that corner. This comment is just coming off the top of my head more than anything...

I do quite enjoy seeing the selectivity with which people see Osborne's decisions. Osborne picks Solich. Solich gets remembered as a loser. Osborne picks Bo. Bo turns out to be classless a** clown. Not a single f*** given.

Just interesting. Doesn't really matter...but still interesting.

I have a problem with how you criticize Tom Osborne and Frank Solich. This season, we have entered the abyss en route to the second dark age of Nebraska football. Look for yourself at the first 4 years of them all.

Tom Osborne's hires:

FRANK SOLICH & BO PELINI (combined)

80-25 overall record, 48-17 overall conference record
15-19 record vs. Ranked Opponents
63-7 record vs. Unranked Opponents
8 bowl games (4-4) 2 BCS Bowls (1-1)
1 National Championship appearance
1 Conference Championship
3 Big XII North Division Championships
Ranked in AP/Coaches Top 25 all 8 years combined, 3 top 10 finishes, 1 top 15 finish

Best players - QB #7 Eric Crouch & DT #93 Ndamukong Suh

RECRUITING

1998 (unknown ranking) 21 recruits 3.19 avg

1999 (unknown ranking) 22 recruit 2.09 avg

2000 (unknown ranking) 21 recruits 2.43 avg

2001 (unknown ranking) 19 recruits 2.06 avg

*2008 (Rivals #30) 28 recruits 2.96 avg

*2009 (Rivals #28) 20 recruits 3.25 avg

*2010 (Rivals #22) 21 recruits 3.24 avg

*2011 (Rivals) #15 19 recruits 3.53 avg

(*) Indicates rivals rankings only.

Harvey Perlman's hires:

BILL CALLAHAN & MIKE RILEY (combined - excluding 1998 & 1999 for Mike Riley only 2003-2006)

57-52 Overall record, 33-32 overall conference record

5 Bowl games (Nebraska 1-1, Oregon State 3-0)

7-19 Record vs. Ranked Opponents

48-23 Record vs. Unranked Opponents

2006 Big 12 North Division Champion (Nebraska), 0 divisional titles for Oregon State

0 Conference championships

Ranked only once in final polls, #24 in 2005 (Nebraska)

Ranked only once in final polls, #21 AP & #22 Coaches poll in 2006 (Oregon State)

Best players - QB #13 Zac Taylor & QB #4 Sean Mannion (Oregon State)

RECRUITING (Rivals Rankings Only)

2004 Nebraska (Rivals #58) 20 recruits 2.55 avg

2005 Nebraska (Rivals #5) 30 recruits 3.33 avg
2006 Nebraska (Rivals #20) 22 recruits 3.27 avg
*2007 Nebraska (Rivals #13) 27 recruits 3.33 avg
2004 Oregon State (Rivals #31) 36 recruits 2.39 avg
2005 Oregon State (Rivals #47) 20 recruits 2.6 avg
2006 Oregon State (Rivals #41) 33 recruits 2.36 avg
2007 Oregon State (Rivals #47) 35 recruits 2.51 avg

(*) Indicates the year Callahan was fired, recruited nearly half the class.
MIKE RILEY (Post 4 year assessment, 8 seasons 2007-2014)

55-46 Overall record, 38-34 overall conference record

10-24 record vs. Ranked Opponents

45-22 record vs. Unranked Opponents

5 Bowl games (3-2)

0 Championships

Finished ranked in top 25 only 3 out of 8 seasons, highest ranking #19 Coaches & #18 AP

2015 Nebraska stands at 3-6 (1-4 in conference)

RECRUITING (Rivals Rankings Only)

2008 #52 18 recruits 2.72 avg
2009 #54 24 recruits 2.63 avg
2010 #44 18 recruits 3.11 avg
2011 #56 24 recruits 2.71 avg
2012 #39 23 recruits 2.87 avg
2013 #39 25 recruits 2.92 avg
2014 #54 26 recruits 2.65 avg
*2015 (Nebraska) #31 20 recruits 3.1 avg
*2015 (Oregon State) #71 19 recruits 2.53 avg
2016 (Nebraska) #41 15 recruits 3.13 avg vs. Oregon State #44 16 recruits 2.88 avg

​

(*) Indicates for Nebraska, Riley had a hand in half of the recruits for our 2015 class, but had only 4 commitments at Oregon State prior to taking the job at Nebraska.

​

Notes:

• Bill Callahan was the first coach to lead Nebraska in over four decades since Bob Devaney in 1962 with no direct ties to the university either as a player or an assistant coach. Mike Riley and his staff are now in that same boat. For the first time in a half century or more (not enough data available), there are no Nebraska ties on the staff.
  
• Bill Callahan also introduced the West Coast offense to a program that had traditionally relied on a strong option running attack. Mike Riley stated he was opting to go more Spread at Oregon state and run the ball more before accepting the job at Nebraska. Nebraska's strength was multiple set primarily in Pistol and Shotg running the ball and coming off a 9-4 season in 2014. We were led to believe Riley and his staff were going to continue to do just that this year and that has not been the case.
  
• Callahan's tenure is considered to be one of the biggest failures of the 2000 decade not only for Nebraska but also it is one of the worst in coaching overall. He led the program to 2 losing seasons; a first in 46 years at the time. He is responsible for the worst loss in school history - 70-10 2004 @ Texas Tech.

Conclusions & Comparisons - Solich & Pelini:

• Solich was fired after having a .753 win percentage and was owed $1.8 million as part of a buyout in his contract along with $518,000 in guaranteed supplemental compensation.
• He was replaced by Bill Callahan who's initial contract was $1.5 million over five years.
• On September, 2007, Chancellor Harvey Perlman gave his Athletic Director Steve Pederson a contract extension and Callahan, a 3 year contract extension.
• Osborne and the 1997 national championship team were the guests of honor at the Huskers' 2007 Homecoming game on October 13. Just two days after the resulting 45–14 loss to Oklahoma State – Nebraska's worst home loss since being shut out 31–0 by Missouri on November 1, 1958 – athletic director Steve Pederson was fired. Athletic Director Steve Pederson was fired On October 15, 2007 just one month after all the contract extensions.
  
• Steve Pederson, the athletic director who had hired Callahan, was replaced on an interim basis by Nebraska's legendary former head coach, Tom Osborne.
• Nebraska had a five-game losing streak during the 2007 season, the Huskers' first since 1958 (Mike Riley and the 2015 Cornhuskers could tie that streak should they lose the remaining 3 games of the season.)
• On the afternoon of November 24, 2007, a day after a 65–51 loss to rival Colorado, Callahan met briefly with Osborne and was fired.
• Osborne announced during a press conference held at the school that despite Callahan's ouster, he would still earn $3.1 million as part of his buyout.
• Bo Pelini who was later hired and then fired is now owed $7.65 million $150,000 per month for the remainder of his contract.

Riley:

• On December 4, 2014, Mike Riley from Oregon State was named head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers with a contract worth $13.5 million, $2.7 million annually. Riley completed his stint at Oregon State with a 93-80 record overall over the course of 14 seasons. Riley brings a West Coast offensive philosophy to Nebraska, along with a poor defensive coordinator (and good friend) that he seems to be hamstrung to, shades of the Bill Callahan era and Kevin Cosgrove - Nebraska now has the 78th ranked total defense allowing 424.3 YPG, in 2004, we finished with the 68th ranked total defense 386.8 YPG and 113th ranked total defense in 2007 at 476.8 YPG.
• Mike Riley is a .500 coach at best and was on his way out at Oregon State prior to becoming the head coach at Nebraska.
• Continues to force his West Coast Offensive principals on players that are not made for that system and refuses to play to their strengths on both sides of the ball.
• Riley praises Shawn Eichorst and Harvey Perlman, shades of Bill Callahan giving praise to Steve Pederson and Chancellor Harvey Perlman.
• Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst releases a statement of support for Mike Riley where most fans/media argue with it.
• Chancellor Harvey Perlman speaks to the media in support of Shawn Eichorst and Mike Riley. Perlman is now planning to propose a contract extension for Shawn Eichorst, shades of Steve Pederson and the Bill Callahan era prior to Osborne's re-entry.
• Nebraska is 3-6 for the first time in its 126 year program history prior to November. Nebraska is banged up mentally and physically while coming off arguably one of the worst losses in program history to Purdue to face a well rested and healthy top 10 Michigan State team. If Nebraska endures 7 losses, it will be the first time since 1959.
  

The Bottom Line: Frank Solich was not a good recruiter and had much success in his first 4 years with Tom Osborne's recruits dating back to 1995-1997 whom was a solid recruiter himself. Bill Callahan was a good recruiter but didn't coach his players up very well. Bo Pelini was not known as a very good recruiter and had much success with Bill Callahan's recruits from 2006-2007 during his first four years. Mike Riley recruited in quantity but never had a top 25 recruiting class. He is known as a developer of talent. So far in 2015, this is not the case. Nebraska hired an aging Mike Riley who had a terrible recruiting class at Oregon State before he left and a 5-7 record. Our current recruiting class (ranked #41) mirrors his classes at Oregon State. He and his staff are not good recruiters. Harvey Perlman is finally going to step down and hopefully will stay far away from making any decisions for the future of this football program.

We are all victims of the classic bait and switch scheme.

 

[cm husker]

Damn, that's an impressive summation.

 

[Stumpy1]

KSU ended ranked there after losing in the Fiesta Bowl to Buckeyes. Not familiar with Texas' ending of season, but those teams were very good. NO disgrace in losing those games. Mizzou wasn't bad either. Brad Smith was super fast. Everyone points to that, but hardly anyone remembers that Ozzy lost games to unranked Mizzou, Iowa ST and other teams along his tenure. Sometimes, some teams rise above for a period in time, but don't sustain it. This is what made Nebraska so great. Sure, we lost a few games in certain years to teasm we should not have, but during a 30 year period, we stayed consistent. Too late to know what would have been, but I think Solich would have maintained 9-10 wins a season. We will never know. Bo would have been here at least 3 years, and would have added to the recruiting base here along with Solich.

Now we are seeing the price we paid for being arrogant and unrealistic about the landscape of the sport.

Yep. Firing Solich was the biggest mistake in the history of college football. And we learned nothing from it.

If Frank is such a fantastic head coach, then why isn't he at a power 5 school? If Frank is such a fantastic head coach then why isn't he going undefeated at a MAC school? Why isn't he winning his conference every single year? Looking at his list of accomplishments, Frank is probably an average coach at best.

Because Nebraska is the only major P5 school that hires 60+ year old coaches.

Frank is the winningest coach in Ohio history and is moving in on the winningest coach in MAC history.

Frank had a Heisman winner, several top ten finishes, BCS bowl wins, conference championship, national championship appearance and coach of the year honors. His first 6 years were better than TO's first six years. He's WAAAAY above average.

We had no business being in the NC that year.

 

[GBRedneck]

FTW, the Rivals team rankings for 2000 and 2001 were both #10. The only thing I could find for '99 was a #25 ranking by PrepStar. I couldn't find anything for '98. You can find them here.

 

[GBRedneck]

KSU ended ranked there after losing in the Fiesta Bowl to Buckeyes. Not familiar with Texas' ending of season, but those teams were very good. NO disgrace in losing those games. Mizzou wasn't bad either. Brad Smith was super fast. Everyone points to that, but hardly anyone remembers that Ozzy lost games to unranked Mizzou, Iowa ST and other teams along his tenure. Sometimes, some teams rise above for a period in time, but don't sustain it. This is what made Nebraska so great. Sure, we lost a few games in certain years to teasm we should not have, but during a 30 year period, we stayed consistent. Too late to know what would have been, but I think Solich would have maintained 9-10 wins a season. We will never know. Bo would have been here at least 3 years, and would have added to the recruiting base here along with Solich.

Now we are seeing the price we paid for being arrogant and unrealistic about the landscape of the sport.

Yep. Firing Solich was the biggest mistake in the history of college football. And we learned nothing from it.

If Frank is such a fantastic head coach, then why isn't he at a power 5 school? If Frank is such a fantastic head coach then why isn't he going undefeated at a MAC school? Why isn't he winning his conference every single year? Looking at his list of accomplishments, Frank is probably an average coach at best.

Because Nebraska is the only major P5 school that hires 60+ year old coaches.

Frank is the winningest coach in Ohio history and is moving in on the winningest coach in MAC history.

Frank had a Heisman winner, several top ten finishes, BCS bowl wins, conference championship, national championship appearance and coach of the year honors. His first 6 years were better than TO's first six years. He's WAAAAY above average.

We had no business being in the NC that year.

So you were one of the "fans" rooting against us getting into the NC game. Not surprised. That's the most disgusting attitude I've ever heard expressed by someone who claims to be a fan.

There was a system in place. We were the #2 team in that system. We had every right to be there. And there wasn't a team who deserved it any more than us.

 

[GBRedneck]

Did you want Solich fired in '03?

I wish he would never have been hired as HC and Byrne would have been able to hire the coach he wanted. A coach that has won 80% of his games.

What coach was that?

The Solich haters think Byrne was going to get Stoops.

[SIZE=medium]So you don’t think Byrne’s hands were tied and Solich was his top choice?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]And I’m not a Solich hater; his service to the University is admirable and he was a great Running Backs coach. I’m just someone who never thought he was the best choice to take over the program and wished then and still do that we would have hired someone else (from that staff or from outside the program).[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Thanks though.[/SIZE]

That expresses how I feel about Solich better than I could have myself. He did admirable work on TO's staff, and he was a gamer as a ball player (from what I've read). But I wasn't keen on seeing him take over as head coach. Oh well. It's water under the bridge. Frank recovered, and put together a nice body of work at Ohio.

Frank put together a really nice body of work as HC of the Huskers. A very underappreciated body of work.

That 7-7 season in 2002 was pretty fantastic!

Frank didn't recruit nearly well enough. Can you really say that the team Callahan took over had 1997 talent on it still? Regardless, Frank wasn't fired for his record. He was fired for his poor recruiting and his extra curricular activities.

More lies. Frank got fired because Pedey had a personal vendetta against him.

Anyone that looked at the athletes objectively could see there was a large qualitative distance between the 1997 team and Franks last team. And Frank had issues with women who weren't his wife, and he liked alcohol a bit to much. (reference his dui.)

More lies. And anyone who thinks they can tell the quality of an athlete by looking at them has an unhealthy fetish.

 

[cm husker]

When do we find out that Pettit was compensated by the AD for this?

 

[Red Five]

RECRUITING

1998 (unknown ranking) 21 recruits 3.19 avg

1999 (unknown ranking) 22 recruit 2.09 avg

2000 (unknown ranking) 21 recruits 2.43 avg

2001 (unknown ranking) 19 recruits 2.06 avg

Where are Frank's 2002 and 2003 classes?

From A Brief History of Husker Recruiting Rankings (takes of average of all known recruiting rankings):

1998 - 15.0

1999 - 19.0

2000 - 12.6

2001 - 11.6

2002 - 37.3

2003 - 31.4

 

[Red Five]

When do we find out that Pettit was compensated by the AD for this?

Why don't you ask him on twitter? He's fairly active on it.

But I'm sure he'll say "no" and you will accuse him of lying about it anyway.

 

[GBRedneck]

RECRUITING

1998 (unknown ranking) 21 recruits 3.19 avg

1999 (unknown ranking) 22 recruit 2.09 avg

2000 (unknown ranking) 21 recruits 2.43 avg

2001 (unknown ranking) 19 recruits 2.06 avg

Where are Frank's 2002 and 2003 classes?

From A Brief History of Husker Recruiting Rankings (takes of average of all known recruiting rankings):

1998 - 15.0

1999 - 19.0

2000 - 12.6

2001 - 11.6

2002 - 37.3

2003 - 31.4

2002 and 2003 were very small classes. Frank had the 2004 class at #14 on Rivals the day he was fired. And he had a great group of Florida players set to visit with high interest. And he likely would have added Danny Woodhead before signing day.

 

[BigRedBuster]

in what alternate reality would it make sense, coming off a national championship, to blow up the program and bring in a new coach?

Or are some of you under the misimpression that Stoops or anyone else would have just retained the national championship winning staff?

The staff of assistants should have never been retained no matter if Solich was hired or not. The HC needs to hire their own staff. I love those assistants as much as any Husker fan. But, there were plenty that should have retired with TO.

 

[Red Five]

RECRUITING

1998 (unknown ranking) 21 recruits 3.19 avg

1999 (unknown ranking) 22 recruit 2.09 avg

2000 (unknown ranking) 21 recruits 2.43 avg

2001 (unknown ranking) 19 recruits 2.06 avg

Where are Frank's 2002 and 2003 classes?

From A Brief History of Husker Recruiting Rankings (takes of average of all known recruiting rankings):

1998 - 15.0

1999 - 19.0

2000 - 12.6

2001 - 11.6

2002 - 37.3

2003 - 31.4

2002 and 2003 were very small classes. Frank had the 2004 class at #14 on Rivals the day he was fired. And he had a great group of Florida players set to visit with high interest. And he likely would have added Danny Woodhead before signing day.

98 - 21

99 - 22

00 - 21

01 - 19

02 - 18

03 - 19

2001 didn't have a problem being with "a very small class". And signing an extra 2 or 3 kids in 98-00 doesn't account for a rating 20 spots higher those years compared in 02 and 03.

Keep trying to explain away...