Which 'What If' Would Have Caused the Biggest Change?

Mavric said:
In order of significance:

Crawford picks CFB - I was going to give this more credit but he would have overlapped a lot of Crouch's career so I'm not sure it would have made a significant difference.
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My thought process is that 2 years of Crawford is better than 2 years of Lord, particularly for 2002, as I don't know that 7-7 happens with Crawford. 

On the other hand, one could argue that Crawford is merely a band-aid to mask two more years of the systemic issues that the program had under Solich...

 
BigRedBuster said:
Not if Texas and OU are still scheming behind the scenes to leave for the Pac 10.  If we win that game, I believe they work harder to make that happen.
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Okay, say they do.  Say OU and UT are successful in leaving for the Pac 10.  Leaving 10 of us still in Big 12, including us and Colorado.  Things shake out WAY differently from there.

Point being, that loss set things in motion.  I think it's a much bigger factor than being given credit for.

 
I think you could make a solid case that if we had not fired Frank at that time that we would still be in the big 12 probably with one to two more conference titles, AND I am not saying that Frank would have won them necessarily.  But if it were handled more prudently, a Husker coach could have.

 
I go with Crawford.  2 years of him following Crouch and I don't think Solich gets fired as soon as he did.  And then we never get Cally and in turn probably never get Pelini or Riley or...

 
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Also, Bubba was never going to be a QB here.  He couldn't throw the ball at all (47% completion as a HS senior).  He would have ended up as a TE after a couple of years.

 
4). Nebraska winning the conference.    Bo leaves for a place where he can be lazy with recruiting and have more success.    Not sure he liked the fishbowl of Lincoln.   

 
Cdog923 said:
On the other hand, one could argue that Crawford is merely a band-aid to mask two more years of the systemic issues that the program had under Solich...
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This is pretty much my thought. 

Although if the offense was just enough better to buy Frank a couple more years and Pelini got the defense up and rolling again, maybe things work out differently.

 
dvdcrr said:
5. Doesn't matter.  Our staff at that time had developed  NO plan B
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Well, I don't know about developed well, but we had Cody Green and Zac Lee behind Taylor that year (and Rex Burkhead :lol: ). And they tried to get all those guys, especially Cody, real reps and experience.

Redux said:
I don't think it's that simple.  Sure, Nebraska was fed up with the Texas favored crap.  But that wasn't anything new, Nebraska higher ups had been dealing with that since the inception of the Big 12.  What was the final straw that made Nebrask say "....screw this"?

Take that 1 second away, Nebraska wins.  Nebraska has a conference title for the first time in a decade.  The frustration is subdued a bit for the time being.  It's easy to say we still leave, but I think there's a chance we don't had this^ not happened.
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Redux said:
Okay, say they do.  Say OU and UT are successful in leaving for the Pac 10.  Leaving 10 of us still in Big 12, including us and Colorado.  Things shake out WAY differently from there.

Point being, that loss set things in motion.  I think it's a much bigger factor than being given credit for.
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idk how us beating Texas would have changed any of the conference realignment. Colorado announced leaving for the Pac-10/12 before we announced leaving. Missouri announced official interest in the Big Ten before we were in that picture. Texas/A&M/OU/OSU/TT were all being courted by the Pac-10 at the time, and A&M was torn between being interested in the Pac 10 or the SEC. Everybody was flirting around and then asking us specifically to publicly declare our allegiance. And the reasons for all of the interest would've still been there had we beat Texas.

"One school leaving a conference does not destroy a
conference," Perlman said. "Nebraska did not start this
discussion. After the Big Ten announced it planned to consider
expansion, we saw reports that Missouri would want to go to the Big
Ten, including a statement by their governor, a member of board of
curators and chancellor -- comments that weren't clearly supportive
of the Big 12."

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne, the longtime football coach,
agreed.

"As we read the tea leaves and listened to the conversations,
some of the schools that were urging us to stay, we found some of
them had talked to not only one other conference or two but even
three, and those were the same ones urging us to stay," he said.

 
Mavric said:
#3 probably has the most what ifs and buts.  What happens if Frank isn't fired then?  Does he right the ship and win something of significance?  Do we stagger along being good but not great?  Do we totally tank in another year or two?  If Frank is fired a few more years down the line, the next coaches change but to whom and what does that look like?
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I'm not sure that scenario provides more what ifs and buts but I do get what you're saying. I guess I'm looking at it from the other side, knowing what it did cause, not necessarily what would have happened if he wasn't fired. But you're right, any hypothetical comes with a ton of possibilities.

 
Mavric said:
Winning 2009 B1G Title - would have changed the perception and status of the program significantly.  Not only would it have broken the conference title drought, but we would have played a mediocre UConn team in the Fiesta bowl and had a great chance to get both a Conference Championship and a BCS Bowl win on the ledger.  Could have made a lot of things go better in the following years.

Pederson doesn't fire Solich - It was only a matter of time.  Frank hasn't even won a MAC title.  Not sure why so many people think he would have done any better here.
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Hum, a coach who won some division titles but never a conference championship as most significant on your list, and a coach who won some division titles but never a conference championship at his current school as least significant on your list.

Just to toss some numbers out...

Solich: 58-19 at UNL (.753), 164-94 overall as HC (.636)

Pelini: 67-27 at UNL (.713), 94-49 overall as HC(.657)

Solich: 3 division titles in 6 seasons at UNL, 1 championship, 7 division titles in 20 seasons overall

Pelini: 4 division titles in 7 seasons at UNL, 0 championships, 4 division titles in 11 seasons overall

"Solich hasn't even won a MAC title.  Not sure why so many people think he would have done any better here."

"Pelini hasn't even won a Missouri Valley title.  Not sure why so many people think he would have done any better here."

I don't think it's implausible that Solich could have won at least a division title in 2004 or 2005. Maybe even a last-second championship game controversy in one of them...

 
dvdcrr said:
I think you could make a solid case that if we had not fired Frank at that time that we would still be in the big 12 probably with one to two more conference titles, AND I am not saying that Frank would have won them necessarily.  But if it were handled more prudently, a Husker coach could have.
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I pretty much agree with this but I think you're way low with only one to two more conference titles in the last 15 years. Frank may not have ever returned things to the excellence of the TO era but surely we would have remained well above average, found a much better replacement than Callahan and eeked out quite a few more CC's than any of the 3 bozos managed.

 
JJ Husker said:
I pretty much agree with this but I think you're way low with only one to two more conference titles in the last 15 years. Frank may not have ever returned things to the excellence of the TO era but surely we would have remained well above average, found a much better replacement than Callahan and eeked out quite a few more CC's than any of the 3 bozos managed.
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I still think we have to of gotten rid of pederson before anything could've stayed.

 
I think the idea behind Pederson not firing Solich in 2003 is that it depends on who Nebraska hires as its next head coach in 2005, 06 or 07 when Solich eventually gets fired under less "controversial" circumstances.

Then it just depends on who Nebraska hires. If it's someone like Ron Prince or Ron Zook, then things don't go well, maybe even worse than they have in our world.

But if they hire someone like Chip Kelly or Dan Mullen, then who knows where Nebraska is now. It's just butterfly effect stuff after that. 

 
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