Who left the biggest black eye on the Program?

[Judoka]

Pedey? Really? Let's look at the last 8 years of Nebraska football.

2002: 7-7

2003: 10-3

2004: 5-6

2005: 8-4

2006: 9-5

2007: 5-7

2008: 9-5

2009: 10-4

The bolded years obviously occurred after SP was fired.

Where is the black eye? I don't see it.

I just don't see where in this run we have been so outstandingly bad that it was a black eye left on the program. Yeah, we had some tough years where we barely dipped under .500. So?! This happens to every program. Alabama, USC, Texas. They've ALL been through worse stretches. It's hard staying at the top, at the high level we did under Devaney/Osborne for so long. Sooner or later, you run into bumps and lulls and bad seasons. Honestly, we didn't do so badly.

And for a "huge black eye" that left our program in tatters, we sure bounced back quickly. If SP really left us in such a disastrous state, we have no business being so optimistic just one year, two years later. It's not like he purposely tried to destroy the program either. He tried to make his mark and his style for what he thought was best, didn't work out here. Failure is common at this level and his was by no means epic or un-recoverable.

LP is an extraordinarily bad case of a "trouble athlete" - not that we made him that way, but his undeniable association with the program gives us a bad name. As skersfan has said, nobody really cares about Steve Pederson.

You don't get it...it is deeper then a win/loss record. We scrapped the walk-on program, they took down all of the old pictures in the locker room, they didn't allow the former players on the field anymore...Pederson turned it into a business. I remember I used to be able to go out on the field and just throw the football around with friends and I wasn't a student. The family atmosphere, the culture, everything was being wiped away. Thank God for Bo and Tom.

but a black eye involves the public perception, you don't get it. Pederson may have hurt our traditions, but that only upsets the fans, the hardcore fans at that. we have are are rebounding from what Pederson did. Phillips took away our moral superiority and high ground over schools on the national stage, now we are no better than the worse of Miami (according to public perception) because of phillips. someone also mentions the Peters brothers, they should also be in this discussion. winning is big, but winning with a clean team is much more important, and phillips left a stain his national championship team and even Osborne.

I do not even know why Callahan would be in this discussion, he was just a bad college coach, nothing more or less and wins will wash away his memory.

Big +1

 

[HuskerGBR]

Pedey? Really? Let's look at the last 8 years of Nebraska football.

2002: 7-7

2003: 10-3

2004: 5-6

2005: 8-4

2006: 9-5

2007: 5-7

2008: 9-5

2009: 10-4

The bolded years obviously occurred after SP was fired.

Where is the black eye? I don't see it.

I just don't see where in this run we have been so outstandingly bad that it was a black eye left on the program. Yeah, we had some tough years where we barely dipped under .500. So?! This happens to every program. Alabama, USC, Texas. They've ALL been through worse stretches. It's hard staying at the top, at the high level we did under Devaney/Osborne for so long. Sooner or later, you run into bumps and lulls and bad seasons. Honestly, we didn't do so badly.

And for a "huge black eye" that left our program in tatters, we sure bounced back quickly. If SP really left us in such a disastrous state, we have no business being so optimistic just one year, two years later. It's not like he purposely tried to destroy the program either. He tried to make his mark and his style for what he thought was best, didn't work out here. Failure is common at this level and his was by no means epic or un-recoverable.

LP is an extraordinarily bad case of a "trouble athlete" - not that we made him that way, but his undeniable association with the program gives us a bad name. As skersfan has said, nobody really cares about Steve Pederson.

You don't get it...it is deeper then a win/loss record. We scrapped the walk-on program, they took down all of the old pictures in the locker room, they didn't allow the former players on the field anymore...Pederson turned it into a business. I remember I used to be able to go out on the field and just throw the football around with friends and I wasn't a student. The family atmosphere, the culture, everything was being wiped away. Thank God for Bo and Tom.

but a black eye involves the public perception, you don't get it. Pederson may have hurt our traditions, but that only upsets the fans, the hardcore fans at that. we have are are rebounding from what Pederson did. Phillips took away our moral superiority and high ground over schools on the national stage, now we are no better than the worse of Miami (according to public perception) because of phillips. someone also mentions the Peters brothers, they should also be in this discussion. winning is big, but winning with a clean team is much more important, and phillips left a stain his national championship team and even Osborne.

I do not even know why Callahan would be in this discussion, he was just a bad college coach, nothing more or less and wins will wash away his memory.

Actually I do get it...I voted for LP. In an earlier post I had, I was saying if Pederson continued on his course then it would have been way worse since fans would stop supporting the program which makes us lose money, we would have a heck of time recruiting players to come here, and we would be a once proud program that lost its way (heck the media already had us written off in those short 4 years). When an idiot is in power...he can do a great amount of damage. Just look at history. The reason I didn't vote for Pederson is because he was stopped and now we are back on course. Just ask Bo about the division in the fan base and culture when he took over...he has said it was almost broken. All I was saying was don't just look at it like Pederson and Callahan were just bad at their jobs. But I get the whole "black eye" deal which is why I voted for LP. Some people just can't see past today and get the big picture, I guess.

 

[sd'sker]

Pedey? Really? Let's look at the last 8 years of Nebraska football.

2002: 7-7

2003: 10-3

2004: 5-6

2005: 8-4

2006: 9-5

2007: 5-7

2008: 9-5

2009: 10-4

The bolded years obviously occurred after SP was fired.

Where is the black eye? I don't see it.

I just don't see where in this run we have been so outstandingly bad that it was a black eye left on the program. Yeah, we had some tough years where we barely dipped under .500. So?! This happens to every program. Alabama, USC, Texas. They've ALL been through worse stretches. It's hard staying at the top, at the high level we did under Devaney/Osborne for so long. Sooner or later, you run into bumps and lulls and bad seasons. Honestly, we didn't do so badly.

And for a "huge black eye" that left our program in tatters, we sure bounced back quickly. If SP really left us in such a disastrous state, we have no business being so optimistic just one year, two years later. It's not like he purposely tried to destroy the program either. He tried to make his mark and his style for what he thought was best, didn't work out here. Failure is common at this level and his was by no means epic or un-recoverable.

LP is an extraordinarily bad case of a "trouble athlete" - not that we made him that way, but his undeniable association with the program gives us a bad name. As skersfan has said, nobody really cares about Steve Pederson.

You don't get it...it is deeper then a win/loss record. We scrapped the walk-on program, they took down all of the old pictures in the locker room, they didn't allow the former players on the field anymore...Pederson turned it into a business. I remember I used to be able to go out on the field and just throw the football around with friends and I wasn't a student. The family atmosphere, the culture, everything was being wiped away. Thank God for Bo and Tom.

but a black eye involves the public perception, you don't get it. Pederson may have hurt our traditions, but that only upsets the fans, the hardcore fans at that. we have are are rebounding from what Pederson did. Phillips took away our moral superiority and high ground over schools on the national stage, now we are no better than the worse of Miami (according to public perception) because of phillips. someone also mentions the Peters brothers, they should also be in this discussion. winning is big, but winning with a clean team is much more important, and phillips left a stain his national championship team and even Osborne.

I do not even know why Callahan would be in this discussion, he was just a bad college coach, nothing more or less and wins will wash away his memory.

Actually I do get it...I voted for LP. In an earlier post I had, I was saying if Pederson continued on his course then it would have been way worse since fans would stop supporting the program which makes us lose money, we would have a heck of time recruiting players to come here, and we would be a once proud program that lost its way (heck the media already had us written off in those short 4 years). When an idiot is in power...he can do a great amount of damage. Just look at history. The reason I didn't vote for Pederson is because he was stopped and now we are back on course. Just ask Bo about the division in the fan base and culture when he took over...he has said it was almost broken. All I was saying was don't just look at it like Pederson and Callahan were just bad at their jobs. But I get the whole "black eye" deal which is why I voted for LP. Some people just can't see past today and get the big picture, I guess.

i know what you are saying, i was even starting to wonder how long our great record of consecutive sellouts would last. i fully understand what pederson's arrogance did to the program and what he was capable of doing if he had stayed, but we were still getting decent recruits, and callahan was still getting recruits and propagating the myth that were would be there in just a year.

scrapping our history and tradition is a slap in the face to the fan base, phillips was a black eye to the program.

pederson was just annoying and if we continued to be competetive in the north, people wouldn't have cared so much. i just don't think pederson's damage extended past memorial stadium, nebraskans want a winning program and would still give to create the best opportunity to win, regardless of what the program was working with at the time.

 

[Captain K]

If Callahan gets a pass because SP put him in power and it all falls on SP, then TO needs to be the fall guy not LP. Tom knew that Lawrence had big problems, yet he gave him another chance. LP shouldn't have been here past the girlfriend incident, if at all. TO found the guy, brought him to Lincoln and kept him past his expiration date. To be fair TO should be on the list. Sure his whole body of work still makes him a legend, but he has to take the blame for LP. :wacko:

 

[sd'sker]

If Callahan gets a pass because SP put him in power and it all falls on SP, then TO needs to be the fall guy not LP. Tom knew that Lawrence had big problems, yet he gave him another chance. LP shouldn't have been here past the girlfriend incident, if at all. TO found the guy, brought him to Lincoln and kept him past his expiration date. To be fair TO should be on the list. Sure his whole body of work still makes him a legend, but he has to take the blame for LP. :wacko:

that's true, and any fan of another program will be the first to bring that up. i criticized bowden for how he handles his thugs and how myers handles spikes and dunlap, but people always say, "what about TO and phillips," as if TO was more to blame in that situation than phillips because the buck stops with him. it is true, that is what makes phillips so bad, he tainted everything that was good with the program in the 90's.

 

[Elf]

Pederson and Callahan just presided over a bunch of losses and loss of purpose and direction. With a few more winning years by Pelini, those two will rapidly dwindle to footnotes - a mention of the "blip" in the Huskers' winning ways.

Lawrence Phillips has done more to hurt this program's public image than all the rest of the people on that poll, combined.

he was the big stain on the Husker carpet that covered the 90's.

and still to this day, the Nebraska handling of the LP fiasco is bought up from time to time by the national media.

And that's why I voted for Lawrence Philips. That was a fiasco that played out on the national stage, and still does from time to time.

Pedersen is nothing compared to that fiasco.

 

[Elf]

If Callahan gets a pass because SP put him in power and it all falls on SP, then TO needs to be the fall guy not LP. Tom knew that Lawrence had big problems, yet he gave him another chance. LP shouldn't have been here past the girlfriend incident, if at all. TO found the guy, brought him to Lincoln and kept him past his expiration date. To be fair TO should be on the list. Sure his whole body of work still makes him a legend, but he has to take the blame for LP. :wacko:

Tom Osborne always felt that these troubled young men needed help not rejection and most of the time it worked out for the best that way. It just didn't work out that way with Philips. Heck, Philips couldn't pull his head out of his anal orifice even after being a first round NFL draft pick. He could have been one of the all time greats in the NFL and become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Instead he squandered his talent.

I can find no fault with Osborne for Philips antics, Osborne did what he could to be a mentor and help this young man.

 

[Elf]

He still held nothing on to the likes of Scott Baldwin (RB) who attacked some girl in the nude and later tried to attack a police officer in Omaha that she had to shoot him.

Scott Baldwin had (still does afaik) a mental issue that wasn't known until the first incident. After that he was put on medication to control his condition but later on he forgot (or just quit taking it) to take his meds and went on another rampage. Unfortunate for sure, but a someone going off the deep end because of a medical condition does not compare to what Philips did of his own free will.

 

[sd'sker]

If Callahan gets a pass because SP put him in power and it all falls on SP, then TO needs to be the fall guy not LP. Tom knew that Lawrence had big problems, yet he gave him another chance. LP shouldn't have been here past the girlfriend incident, if at all. TO found the guy, brought him to Lincoln and kept him past his expiration date. To be fair TO should be on the list. Sure his whole body of work still makes him a legend, but he has to take the blame for LP. :wacko:

Tom Osborne always felt that these troubled young men needed help not rejection and most of the time it worked out for the best that way. It just didn't work out that way with Philips. Heck, Philips couldn't pull his head out of his anal orifice even after being a first round NFL draft pick. He could have been one of the all time greats in the NFL and become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Instead he squandered his talent.

I can find no fault with Osborne for Philips antics, Osborne did what he could to be a mentor and help this young man.

i think we all feel that way, and that is the point, we can easily defend TO, but to the public, that tarnished his stellar reputation. LP tainted that championship, the program, and TO; ergo, he left the biggest black eye, bar none.

 

[Elf]

If Callahan gets a pass because SP put him in power and it all falls on SP, then TO needs to be the fall guy not LP. Tom knew that Lawrence had big problems, yet he gave him another chance. LP shouldn't have been here past the girlfriend incident, if at all. TO found the guy, brought him to Lincoln and kept him past his expiration date. To be fair TO should be on the list. Sure his whole body of work still makes him a legend, but he has to take the blame for LP. :wacko:

Tom Osborne always felt that these troubled young men needed help not rejection and most of the time it worked out for the best that way. It just didn't work out that way with Philips. Heck, Philips couldn't pull his head out of his anal orifice even after being a first round NFL draft pick. He could have been one of the all time greats in the NFL and become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Instead he squandered his talent.

I can find no fault with Osborne for Philips antics, Osborne did what he could to be a mentor and help this young man.

i think we all feel that way, and that is the point, we can easily defend TO, but to the public, that tarnished his stellar reputation. LP tainted that championship, the program, and TO; ergo, he left the biggest black eye, bar none.

The masses just need to be educated on Osborne's policies. Osborne kicked more than one player off his teams when they didn't want to straighten their act out. Terrel Farley is one.

 

[ESPY]

Oh, and how I hate that he had to kick Terrell Farley off the team. He was the most exciting LB I've ever watched here at NU.

 

[Elf]

Oh, and how I hate that he had to kick Terrell Farley off the team. He was the most exciting LB I've ever watched here at NU.

Farley rocked on the field and I agree, I hated to see him go. Still, it was Farley's actions that made Osborne kick him off the team. I've just never understood why some of these great talents piss it all away. Farley probably could have been a great NFL linebacker.

 

[sd'sker]

If Callahan gets a pass because SP put him in power and it all falls on SP, then TO needs to be the fall guy not LP. Tom knew that Lawrence had big problems, yet he gave him another chance. LP shouldn't have been here past the girlfriend incident, if at all. TO found the guy, brought him to Lincoln and kept him past his expiration date. To be fair TO should be on the list. Sure his whole body of work still makes him a legend, but he has to take the blame for LP. :wacko:

Tom Osborne always felt that these troubled young men needed help not rejection and most of the time it worked out for the best that way. It just didn't work out that way with Philips. Heck, Philips couldn't pull his head out of his anal orifice even after being a first round NFL draft pick. He could have been one of the all time greats in the NFL and become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Instead he squandered his talent.

I can find no fault with Osborne for Philips antics, Osborne did what he could to be a mentor and help this young man.

i think we all feel that way, and that is the point, we can easily defend TO, but to the public, that tarnished his stellar reputation. LP tainted that championship, the program, and TO; ergo, he left the biggest black eye, bar none.

The masses just need to be educated on Osborne's policies. Osborne kicked more than one player off his teams when they didn't want to straighten their act out. Terrel Farley is one.

i completely agree, i will always defend TO, but to the outsider, it is just a trump card they like to use, and hang on to, regardless of the rebuttals. that is my point, TO should not have to be defended for his actions, but because of LP, he does (more accurately, we do).

 

[Judoka]

LP without question. That he still gets mentioned in the same breath as NU when he hits the headlines is testament to the negative impression he's left on NU.

 

[HuskerGBR]

Pedey? Really? Let's look at the last 8 years of Nebraska football.

2002: 7-7

2003: 10-3

2004: 5-6

2005: 8-4

2006: 9-5

2007: 5-7

2008: 9-5

2009: 10-4

The bolded years obviously occurred after SP was fired.

Where is the black eye? I don't see it.

I just don't see where in this run we have been so outstandingly bad that it was a black eye left on the program. Yeah, we had some tough years where we barely dipped under .500. So?! This happens to every program. Alabama, USC, Texas. They've ALL been through worse stretches. It's hard staying at the top, at the high level we did under Devaney/Osborne for so long. Sooner or later, you run into bumps and lulls and bad seasons. Honestly, we didn't do so badly.

And for a "huge black eye" that left our program in tatters, we sure bounced back quickly. If SP really left us in such a disastrous state, we have no business being so optimistic just one year, two years later. It's not like he purposely tried to destroy the program either. He tried to make his mark and his style for what he thought was best, didn't work out here. Failure is common at this level and his was by no means epic or un-recoverable.

LP is an extraordinarily bad case of a "trouble athlete" - not that we made him that way, but his undeniable association with the program gives us a bad name. As skersfan has said, nobody really cares about Steve Pederson.

You don't get it...it is deeper then a win/loss record. We scrapped the walk-on program, they took down all of the old pictures in the locker room, they didn't allow the former players on the field anymore...Pederson turned it into a business. I remember I used to be able to go out on the field and just throw the football around with friends and I wasn't a student. The family atmosphere, the culture, everything was being wiped away. Thank God for Bo and Tom.

but a black eye involves the public perception, you don't get it. Pederson may have hurt our traditions, but that only upsets the fans, the hardcore fans at that. we have are are rebounding from what Pederson did. Phillips took away our moral superiority and high ground over schools on the national stage, now we are no better than the worse of Miami (according to public perception) because of phillips. someone also mentions the Peters brothers, they should also be in this discussion. winning is big, but winning with a clean team is much more important, and phillips left a stain his national championship team and even Osborne.

I do not even know why Callahan would be in this discussion, he was just a bad college coach, nothing more or less and wins will wash away his memory.

Actually I do get it...I voted for LP. In an earlier post I had, I was saying if Pederson continued on his course then it would have been way worse since fans would stop supporting the program which makes us lose money, we would have a heck of time recruiting players to come here, and we would be a once proud program that lost its way (heck the media already had us written off in those short 4 years). When an idiot is in power...he can do a great amount of damage. Just look at history. The reason I didn't vote for Pederson is because he was stopped and now we are back on course. Just ask Bo about the division in the fan base and culture when he took over...he has said it was almost broken. All I was saying was don't just look at it like Pederson and Callahan were just bad at their jobs. But I get the whole "black eye" deal which is why I voted for LP. Some people just can't see past today and get the big picture, I guess.

i know what you are saying, i was even starting to wonder how long our great record of consecutive sellouts would last. i fully understand what pederson's arrogance did to the program and what he was capable of doing if he had stayed, but we were still getting decent recruits, and callahan was still getting recruits and propagating the myth that were would be there in just a year.

scrapping our history and tradition is a slap in the face to the fan base, phillips was a black eye to the program.

pederson was just annoying and if we continued to be competetive in the north, people wouldn't have cared so much. i just don't think pederson's damage extended past memorial stadium, nebraskans want a winning program and would still give to create the best opportunity to win, regardless of what the program was working with at the time.

Well said...I thought we might lose the consecutive sellouts pretty soon. I noticed during some games at that time, there would be a lot of empty seats from people leaving early. But like you said the damage was contained and the fact that nobody even knows who Pederson is means you probably can't count him. Heck I was talking to some people and they didn't even know who Callahan was...LSU fans though.

The bolded part though...would the big boosters keep supporting the program though? I mean at some point you would think they would get tired of supporting a regime that showed no heart or consistency, right?