I'm an old man lifelong Michigan fan since 1970. So i saw Nebraska's dominance...the Bama of their day. I have tons of respect for the rich tradition of an old blueblood like Nebraska and hope that their program returns to something that their GREAT fans deserve. I think that Matt Rhule has a good shot at that.
You can blame the changing environment of college football all you want but the fact is that programs like Wisconsin and Iowa have still managed to be successful. A competent coach is worth his weight in gold and Nebraska hasn't had one since Solich.
@@POLITICALHYBRID Exactly. Solich was beloved, but he was no Devaney or Osborne. He was the embodiment of the Peter Principle. There's a reason nobody hired him after he was fired. And after time off, all he could land was the Ohio gig. And even then, in the MAC, he was just another face in the crowd. Solich was killing recruiting, and Steve Pederson knew it.
I was born in Nebraska in 1991 and have lived here all my life. I’m so glad you began the video by putting the state’s location/population into the proper context. I feel like it’s an often overlooked part of why the success they had for all those years was so special. There is truly no equal in the sport. A landlocked state with less than 2 million people ran shit for decades. There will never be a run like it again. I really wish people outside of the state would take the time to truly appreciate Tom Osborne’s tenure as head coach while he’s still with us. Who knows where we’d be without him.
A losing bowl record. Osborne had a losing record to 9 win teams. He could never win the biggest of games. Spurrier still owns the worst SEC championship loss in its 31 year history. 56-17 5-12 against Switzer, Never played a good OU team during the Skip Along. Blah, blah, blah. After the Big Easy crashed, Neb has been a shell. Solich and Pelini were 9 win coaches and got canned bec Neb did not want another Osborne. Pelini never won a game that mattered.
It wasn't discussed in the video, but Nebraska's greatness came about right when national college TV broadcasts were taking off. With only a few national games every week, Nebraska was always on TV. As cable (and now streaming) became bigger, every school was on TV so kids didn't have to go to Nebraska just to be on TV.
The firing of Frank Solich was one of the worst administrative decisions in college football history. They were unreasonable and greedy and have been paying for it ever since.
You have no clue in what you are spewing. Forget about Neb for second. Look at his pathetic results at Ohio, where he was supposed to lite up the world and show everyone that Neb made a mistake. LOL. Total confirmation they were spot on in firing him.
@@mas5867 You fired a coach after a 10 win season. The AD at the time said he was not going to “let the program gravitate into mediocrity.” How did it work out for the Huskers? That’s what I thought…
@@toddhawk9921 Again you talk and stick your foot in your mouth. 42-7 followed by 16-12 with his players. Beat 1 team in that last 28 that finished ranked. McNeese State. There are several more stats that absolutely confirm that regardless of the future, Neb could not hold on to the drunkard.
The only time I ever rooted for the Huskers is when they played Florida in the Fiesta Bowl, Seeing Spurrier slamming his visor down over and over really made my day.
I've always pulled for Nebraska, even though I'm from NJ. The Huskers were the true champions in '97, should have jumped Virginia Tech and played FSU for the national championship in '99, and I pulled for them against Miami in the Rose Bowl, but that was just a bad match-up stylistically. Nebraska, like Florida, used to get the best players in the country. That's not the case anymore. Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, LSU, Texas, Alabama, etc. have been dominating national recruiting in recent years. Leaving the Big 12 for the Big Ten wasn't the best decision either. The only way Nebraska will ever get back is through recruiting.
It’s pretty inaccurate actually. Devaney never ran the option. Nor was Osborne’s offense a true option, but rather an element in a power run/play action pass based scheme. He also very inaccurately lumped Biff Jones as one of the bad coaches when he’s actually the first on the outside looking in on NU’s Mount Rushmore. NU’s problem the past quarter century was a combination of Osborne’s meddling and cheaping out when hiring coaches. The search that landed Rhule was the first real onesince the one that landed Devaney.
@@johnfahrer5038 A lot of your points are on point, but I think you attribute far too much to Osborne "meddling". Frank Solich helped Osborne win 3 🏆 and then continued on to have a HoF coaching career after leaving Nebraska. I have a hard time believing we wouldn't have competed for another couple championships with him at the helm. Osborne had zero intervention on either Callahan or Riley and both Pelini and Frost were obvious hires at their respective times. It was a coup based on legacy that even allowed us to land Frost. I think bad luck plays a far bigger role in the drastic demise of Nebraska than most give credit to. Callahan got commits from two multi-year NFL starter QBs who ended up going elsewhere and then we ended up with arguably two of the worst starting QBs in Nebraska's recent-ish history instead (Joe Dailey and Sam Keller). If Freeman or Gabbert had come to Nebraska I truly believe our recent history could be very different.
The thing is that Nebraska will be hard pressed to get back to the top but they really didn't need to do that to get 9-10 wins. They have (until this year) been in two historically bad divisions where Nebraska was the best program, statistically, and still struggled: Big12 North and B1G West. The major dogs of their league (OU and Texas in Big12 and Ohio State and Michigan in the B1G) are in the other division. Not sure how Nebraska can't compete. Wisconsin (at least Wisconsin 2-3 years ago) looked more like the Nebraska of old and I think that is a good benchmark for Nebraska.
I was actually the last recruit brought in for a visit under Solich. Watched the (at the time) worst home loss they had ever suffered against Kansas State and then he was soon fired with one of the main reasons being bad recruiting. So I think I was such a bad recruit that I brought down decades of Nebraska dominance!
You actually strike at the heart of Nebraska's demise, a point that far too many Nebraska fans refuse to acknowledge due to seeing everything through their Scarlet & Cream-colored glasses. Solich was killing recruiting, which is the quickest & most irreversible way to kill a program. Think about it, after Osborne has a team that goes 60-3 over five seasons, Solich takes over and in the first year fielding a team made up entirely of his own recruits, he goes 6-7, losing to every single ranked team they faced, and getting absolutely smoked 3 times. (Nebraska salvaged a .500 season and a bowl appearance thanks to the late addition of a home game vs 1-AA McNeese St.) You can talk all you want about the 10-3 record in 2003, but that was abetted by an unrepeatable 47 defensive turnovers. It also saw NU lose to the only 3 good teams on their schedule by an average of 23+ points. Pederson knew Solich had to be replaced. He was a great Assistant Coach. But as a Head Coach....he made a great Assistant Coach. Nobody wanted to hire him after he was fired. And even after a year off, all he could land was the Ohio job. And it's not like he went and dominated the MAC after that.
Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns they were getting big in the year 2000's to the 2010 in the Big XII conference. That why Nebraska leaves the Big XII conference in 2011.
@@williamdiemert9866 I seem to recall that Tom Osborne was upset with Texas' political dominance of the Big 12, so Nebraska jumped at the chance to join the Big Ten.
I grew up in Denver and always hated Nebraska. Hated them because they were so good, I was intimidated by the home field advantage through the TV. All the linemen would get Peterbilt tatoos and thr Black Shirts was such a cool name for thr defense. As a Nebraska hater, I feel like college football is better when Nebraska is a power house. But if I was a 4 or 5 star recruit today, I do not think i would go there. Great video, great memories of this program in their prime.
For some reason, the teams of the 90s were cursed through the entire 2010s. Nebraska, Tennessee, Michigan, Florida State, Miami, and even Florida had a really rough time. Seems like when 2020s started, everybody dug themselves out of that hole except Nebraska.
@@Football__Junkie Nebraska has been in an ideological tug of war internally since Osborne retired. Frost failing so miserably may end up becoming a blessing.
A friend of mine from my teens, Lance Gray, walked on at Nebraska. It was kind of strange for a kid from upstate New York to end up at Nebraska but he showed up to one of their spring practices and gave his highlights to Coach Osborne. Osborne liked his tenacity and gave him a chance. He surprised everyone and started on their JV team his freshman year. They redshirted him his second year and then became a mainstay on special teams for the rest of his career. He earned the nickname Bullethead for his play on special teams.
@@dlowe4481 Not quite 50 but close enough (35 years), lol. They got rid of the JV team in Feb of 91 and his freshman year was fall of 89 so he was on one of their last JV teams.
Delusional they are. I think there are many programs with an old hayday that's never coming back. We're in a new generation now and these kids weren't even born for that era. Nebraska football, Georgetown basketball, Miami football, Pitt football, etc. Even if they do, it's not going to be like it was. New day now.
@@bbryant9455 that’s valid like fans who grew up with the team good and watching them while they are bad slowly begin to realize that those long droughts that they thought only happened to other fans is happening to them like my dad was a pistons fan at their height and it looked like it would last forever and now it’s been like 16 years now since they were decent. Or like me growing up a warriors fan and now watching them really demonstrate why it took them 75 years to win again.
@@ContentVintageTypewriter-ut1vl fuuuuuckin A. Good call on that one. It's like I get it because we'll always be fans of the team but damn we gotta live in reality too. I'm a lifelong Washington fan and have never lived a time to see them as one of the best teams in football. But I also know and accept that the Redskins are never ever coming back. I can't bring myself to say our current name 🤣☠️
The Big 8 Conference should had never been dismissed or ended.Nebraska and Oklahoma were powerful in football for years.Colorado,Iowa State and Kansas State did well for a little while also.Kansas and Kansas State did well in Basketball.Some very Hall Of Fame Athletics were from that area.Gayle Sayers,Johnnie Rogers and Bob Gibson who played Major League Baseball.But i think that the coaches and the athletic director hires were the real reason why they lost games.
While I prefer the travel schedule of the XII, w/ UT always threatening to leave NU had to make solid business decisions or face the chc of being left in the cold. B1G financially was the place to go. XII will eventually be divided up btwn B1G & SEC.
There were other reasons: much like the 1970s Steelers, NU was at the forefront of steroids to gain advantages in strength and size. Kansas State and Mizzou got their collective acts together and made it very difficult for NU to go into KC, St. Louis and Wichita metro areas to get nearby recruits. The fanbase wanted a "favorite son" to takeover the program and that resulted in the horrible Scott Frost period.
Frost had success in the AAC running an offense that was so effective and high flying that it didn't matter how bad the defense was. Then he went to Nebraska where Big Ten defenses don't allow you to just do whatever you want on offense. Completely unmitigated disaster.
Nebraska fans will have a lot to be happy about this year and the coming years. A resurgence of the program. UGA fan out here in Atlanta, a football fan in general. It's felt like yall have recently been right on the edge of turning the corner. You will be in the top 20 this year. Corner turned.
I'd add the increase in nationally televised games to this as well. From the 1960s-80s, the same handful of elite schools would have maybe 3 games a year total at most ever make it onto national TV- which was a lot for the time since 90% of teams got zero. For years, college football only had a "game of the week" format where ABC, NBC, or CBS would only air one big matchup a week. For example, you'd only get Michigan vs. Ohio State, Oklahoma vs. Texas, Alabama vs Tennessee, Notre Dame vs. USC as your only college football game that was broadcast anywhere in America that weekend. With this format, it made it easier for the few household names to continue recruiting great players to their schools. When ESPN hit the scene in the 1980s, then you started seeing more and more teams get national exposure, which made it easier for the recruiting hotbeds to not lose their best in-state players to the same handful of prestige programs elsewhere every year. This is about the same time when the Florida States, Miamis, Floridas, LSUs, Georgias, and Penn States started becoming major players in college football when they previously hadn't been. Simply because kids in Louisiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Georgia now had reasons to stay home and play for their home state schools instead of going to a Nebraska for the increased exposure. This erasure of the national television monopoly is also about the same time when Notre Dame started to lose it's grip on power in the sport too. Like Nebraska, no one who grew up in the warm weather Southern and West Coast states had a reason to attempt uprooting to frigid, faraway states like Nebraska and Indiana because it increased their likelihood of getting discovered by NFL scouts. With ESPN, now they could get discovered in their own backyards. I think the primary lesson to take from all of this is that if you want to remain consistently competitive, you need to be the top school in a recruiting hotbed. No matter how much your administration screws things up and makes bad decisions, as long as your home state produces enough talent to sustain you through lean years, you'll never really fall too far behind. Sure, Alabama, Texas, USC, and Ohio State have all suffered erosion in greatness for certain spells of time, but they never fall so far behind that they can't make big comebacks in just a year or two because their recruiting gardens are always ripe and abundant.
Wrong. The only reason those national games were like that's is bc the ncaa had a rule where a team could only have so many games broadcast. Uga sued them and won.this is why the games are seen everywhere now
Disagree about the weather reasoning. Winters in Lincoln are much milder now then they were in 80s and 90s. Ohio State and Michigan get national championship caliber talent.
Georgia fan here I remember those Nebraska teams of 94 and 95. GREAT! As a college football fan I hope they will return to that! Just makes college football the greatest sport ever! GO DAWGS!
Callahan, threw the SUPER BOWL and then destroyed the HUSKER program. What a shame. I really miss the OKLAHOMA VS NEBRASKA SHOW DOWN, one of the greatest rivalries in college football history. I would get up at 2AM in southeast Asia to watch that game and i am from California. Tom Osborne is legendary. I loved how NEBRASKA recruited their lineman from those small high schools. I hope for their return to prominence.
My cousin played for Texas Tech back in the mid 90’s and he told me a story about when they played Nebraska. Zach Thomas was an All American linebacker for Tech at the time and on a run he just got rocked by a Nebraska lineman pancaked to hell and he said “get off me fat ass” to the Nebraska lineman, the lineman raised his jersey up while over the top of him with a muscled up 6 pack, and Thomas went back to the sideline and told Spike Dykes “Coach it’s about to be a long day” I think that’s how we all remember Nebraska during the 90’s. They just imposed their will they literally broke the most solid of teams.
Yeah, I read something years ago about Prop 48. Osborne said the Big 8 went along with everything Texas wanted when meetings were held to admit the 4 Texas schools, rather than making those 4 realizing the Big 8 was inviting them but didn't need to. The SEC was the only conference that had added, and making extra $ from a December game. Without the SWC collapsing before their eyes after Arkansas left, the Big 12 wouldn't have happened for years. The Big 8 should have gone into meetings knowing the ball was in their court, instead there were "slurping" UT and went along with any demands about the "NEW" conference. They knew they could turn the tables, Nebraska would not be able to allow some poor performing students like before. But college is a bigger joke now than ever. Stories have been around forever about the academics, UNC-ChapelHill. Halfback James Brooks was one of my faves to watch with the Chargers and Bengals. If came out after his NFL career was over that he was still illiterate.
I didn't take their comment to be classless. I'm a lifelong Huskers fan, and the comment made me smile. What do you expect from a fan of a rival school? He was just being honest. Schadenfreude is real. I know, because I was basking in it when Stanford erased a 29-0 deficit in Boulder last year to crush Buffs souls in OT. NU and CU have inflicted brutal losses on each other over the years. Reveling in the other's failure is how we coexist. Sort of like how Jimmy Johnson thanked all Cowboy-haters. It makes the rivalry so much more consequential.
Nebraska is one of those department stores that we all grew up with that are now relegated to online only or are no longer in business. They benefited from being around during a particular time in college football, but that time is come gone.
Great video! I watch it over and over, very interesting stuff about the UN program in the Bob Devaney-Tom Osborne era. I'm a UCLA fan, and enjoyed when UCLA played Nebraska several times between 1972 and 2013, the Nebraska fans and players were the best behaved. It didn't help that Nebraska lacked a modern passing game especially in the 1980's and 90's, though they totally destroyed Florida in the championship. Nebraska also had trouble with Oklahoma after that famous 1971 Game of the Century.
It blows my mind just how many younger folks have no idea of Nebraska’s blue blood pedigree. A lot of them scoff at the idea if you mention it, but the Huskers are really a storied program that deserves to be recognized. It’s like scoffing at Notre Dame because they went through some rough decades.
Nebraska has not even won a conference championship during the last 24 seasons. Shouldn't an alleged "blue blood pedigree" program win at least 1 conference title during such a long span?
Blue blood pedigree. LOL After 1973 when bowls mattered, * a losing bowl record * a losing record to 9 win coaches * 5-12 against Switzer * 2-6 against Bowden Blue blood. Right!
The nail on the coffin was when they went to the B1G All those Texas kids they used to get didn’t want to play Wisconsin and MSU in November. They rather stay close to home because 1. Weather 2. Their families didn’t have to travel that far.
The Texas Recruiting Pipeline is a myth. A myth perpetuated by people who never followed Nebraska to know that California had always been a lot more important to Nebraska recruiting than Texas pre-2000s. The only coach that ever recruited Texas heavily for Nebraska was Pelini. Nebraska and Texas weren't even in the same conference until 1996. Their 1995 roster of 144 players was predominantly made up of Nebraska players with Texas having only 8 total and of that only 2 started. Texas was never a factor during their dominance and only became a bigger factor much later when they were in decline.
We'll see how they develop all this talent they are getting. Matt Rhule is 0 and 14 all time versus ranked teams at Baylor [0-11] and Nebraska [0-3] combined. So it is hard to call him even a good big game coach. That Stat is alarming.
Probably not but there's no reason for them to not be a B+ program that flirts with being national contenders from time to time. Ohio State gets people into Ohio for LA Seattle and Vegas so the placement is only an excuse to an extent
I was there in the 70’s. Perfection. Turner Gill, Roger Craig, Dave Rimington, Mike Rozier, Irving Fryer, Jamie Williams. I. M. Hipp ( greatest name ever). etc. etc.
The Huskers are the college version of the Raiders. From the 60’s-90’s the Raiders were doing things nobody else was doing. Bending the rules stretching the rules and using them to their advantage, then everybody else caught up and the Raiders have been stuck in neutral ever since.
There are good people in Nebraska. I lived in Omaha for seven years. I didn't like it at the time, but I came to realize that it's one of the best places to raise a family.
No mention of jump to big ten? The ball had already started rolling downhill but that shot it out of a cannon. As they destroyed all the interest Texas high schoolers would have in going to Nebraska to play games away from friends and family and the region they grew up watching. In 2024 this doesn’t mean as much, but when Nebraska moved to big 10 it was a huge game changer.
this is pretty good. i think Rhule has us heading in a more upward slope. Idk if the Huskers will ever be champions again but i do think they could be CFP eventually.
Great video! I very much like the way you framed it: it's not about what Nebraska is doing wrong now; it's about what they were doing right before and everyone else caught up.
I just saw a documentary about Everett Case, NC State's basketball coach. I think you could tell the same story about him: he raised the bar with structural changes to the program, then everybody else caught up.
Great video! As a georgia tech fan, I’d love to see a similar video about their change too, as we went from being one of the biggest powerhouses to being below average or worse
This was incredibly well done. As a Husker fan it pains me to see where they are knowing where they have been. I really believe Matt Rhule can do this and make this a respectable program again. GBR!
Introducing Bo Pelini as the LSU Defensive Coordinator makes it sound like he was an outsider. He was a Nebraska Defensive Coordinator first, and was the Interim Coach when Solich was fired!
I was born in ‘97, the last year they won the National Title. My whole life, my whole existence, has been waiting 27 years for them to just make it to the playoffs let alone win the whole thing.
1. Osborne's original offense was a pro style, as he had played wide receiver in the NFL for several seasons. Wasn't until later in Devaney's run, with Oklahoma and Texas's success running the wishbone that they switched to the I-form option. 2. What gets missed in the partial qualifier debate, and what was very misinterpreted in the original Nebraska Dead Letters Podcast episode, is that yes Nebraska would take these kids, but that qualification standard was only for freshman eligibility. Those that didn't qualify out of HS, couldn't play. Nebraska would take them, and because of the academic support made available to them, get them qualified through necessary *college* coursework and then they could play as upper classmen. Other schools could have done the same thing.
Agreed. The discussion completely ignored the NCAA Prop 48 rules, which meant that kids with shit grades and shit test scores couldn't play *anywhere,* but Nebraska took them and got them to pass college classes and become eligible.
I really liked this. I’m more of an nfl guy but I love football history period. And I didn’t know a ton about the old college teams other than names. But this was really well done. I like the format a lot and your voice is good for narration. Well done. I’ll be following
My perspective on this has long been: With Regard to Nebraska: In the 1990s Nebraska had a huge facilities advantage that really helped in recruiting. Since the turn of the century, many if not most colleges have heavily invested in new football facilities. This has eroded a huge recruiting advantage that Nebraska had back in the day. To me, it really comes mostly done to the evaporation of the facilities advantage. If they still had that recruiting advantage, they'd be better able to recruit the QBs, WRs, and TEs for the elite passing game you need today. They could have evolved from a dominant running team to a dominant passing team. Since the evaporation of the facilities advantage killed their recruiting advantage and there's no other reason for elite players to prefer Nebraska they fell from their mountain top. But, if they get their act together somewhat, the expansion of the CFP actually increases their chances to win a future natty since it will no longer be necessary to be as elite in the regular season as it was in the 2 team BCS era or 4 team CFP era. Get in and get hot like the 2005 Steelers or 2010 Packers did at the NFL level.
Hey all. This is the first one of these we've made! We want to hear how you feel about it. And if you have suggestions for future Dead Letters or similar videos, we'd love to hear them.
Really good job. It's a story I've studied a lot myself. One correction is that Nebraska never ran "triple option." They ran double options and every power, gap, and trap scheme known to man, though!
@@hawkishOwl2020 Hey, thanks for listening! Alex here. I think you're right, but that's sort of what I was getting at with "version of the triple option." They certainly had many give/keep/pitch plays but were by no means doing it every play or operating a modern service academy flexbone.
@SplitZoneDuo Yeah, they created an illusion of 3 options, but they were never option keying two defenders like a wishbone team running inside veer or midline triple. Osborne taught the QBs to audible run plays better and more often than anybody. A huge percentage of their plays in the mid 90s were checks at the line.
Very well done.... early on, Osborne wanted to throw the ball, but was convinced otherwise by his assistants. Also - I believe the vast majority of Nebraska's problems of falling beyond mediocrity have to do with personnel decisions. What boob ever though hiring Mike Riley was a good decision?
We had a lot of butting heads within the Athletic Department and University and just about everywhere in between. The AD’s (Eichorst, and Moos) were so bad and almost self sabotaging. Had we just rectified the program and taken our time finding a proper candidate after Pelini, who realistically could’ve stayed here a few more years, had he just managed his emotions, we wouldn’t be where we are now. Pelini left the program 9/10 games every year, which was a staple in our history. He had Nebraska back on the National stage and one step away from being a title contender at times. However, when Nebraska decided to placate a small group of people and hire the “nice guy” to reverse the effects of having the “hot head” for the better part of a decade, they solidified the plunge of the program. Riley was a watered down and worse version of Frank Solich and when you compound the issue with satisfying a group of people again with the Frost hire, you almost inevitably fall into the abyss. That was all on the AD’s. Matt Rhule is about the only coach who could fix all of this. And he’s on the right track, in development, recruiting, building a staff and culture. The only thing left is to translate to wins. One season back at 10 wins and all of the country will be talking about us again. The brand is too big.
I grew up watching Nebraska with my father and they were my second favorite team until they joined the Big 10. The 90s teams were something to witness with their option offense and incredible defense. I hate how they ruined college football conferences.
Another thing that wasn’t mentioned was DeVaney was a pioneer of bringing black athletes into the program. Him and Bear Bryant were major programs that were early adopters of this.
First, though the Huskers were great at one time, they had numerous one loss seasons because they played in the Big Eight where the only competition was Oklahoma along with an occasional decent Colorado team. Had they played in the SEC they'd have lost 3-4 games each year. When the Big Twelve was formed that started the decline. Going to the BigTen only made matters worse. Lincoln is no special destination outside of local recruits wanting to wear that red jersey, and the in-state talent is not sufficient to stock a dynasty. I personally do not think Nebraska will ever reach the heights it once achieved. They will win a BigTen title or two, but those years will be few and far between. I suspect Oklahoma is going to fade to mediocrity as well in the SEC.
This video pretty much sums up the perfect storm of how to slip from a top position program in just a short while. 40 years to build it up, 8 to tear it down. Cutting walk ons-- bad hires-- and worst of all, a front office full of attorneys forcing bad decisions. It was digging our own grave. The Ace in the Hole is our NIL project-- and we are even or above that of the big names. Young players may not remember Nebraska, but their coaches and dads do. Everything cycles for all teams, and it just takes the right player or two to fire the engine back up.
So a lot of people don’t know this, but it was actually Tom Osborne who started the Strength and Conditioning program craze world wide. Osborne noticed that when a player came back from injury they were stronger and faster than they had been and in many cases became better than the player they were behind in the depth chart. He got with the rehab people and people at the University and they took some data, and and found that it appeared to benefit players to lift weights and all. He took that information to Devaney who thought he was crazy but told Tom that he would get one season to see if it worked, and if it didn’t… he was fired. The thinking back then was that muscle slowed you down. Osborne recommended Eply for hire and the rest is history. It’s a big reason as to why he was given the job after Devaney. Many people don’t know this in regards to Steve Peterson… Solich beat him out for a local high school coaching job, and then beat him out for an assistant coaching position at UNL. When this happened, Peterson decided to go into athletic administration instead of coaching. There’s rumors they had beef during a stint Peterson had as a Graduate Assistant at UNL as well. When Peterson got the AD job… it was only a matter of time before he fired Solich. The biggest problem was that he fired Solich after a 9-3 season (team went on to win the bowl game and go 10-3) instead of firing him the year before when he went 7-7. I believe it was Houston Nutt who was quoted as saying after he was offered the Nebraska job… “Why would I take that job? They fire a coach that wins 9 games. What happens if I win 8?” The next biggest mistake was doing this again with Pelini. When Pelini was fired he was one of 3 coaches to win 9+ games every season since he was hired in 2007 (7 years). The other two… Dabo Sweeney & Nick Saban. Pelini did a lot with very little. But the problem was once again… who do the Huskers hire because no one wants a job where you win 9 games and play for championships and get fired. We know Bill Callahan was the 8th person offered the Husker job when he was fired. There are rumors that 10 or more people were offered the job before Mike Riley took the job. I think they’ve righted the ship with their most recent hire, but the fan base is impatient and pressure will mount the longer it takes for them to play for a championship. In the new format for the Big Ten… that’s going to be tough. Gotta be top 2 out of 18 teams. Sadly, the fan base will eventually grow impatient and the pressure will mount because they are too concerned with keeping their sell out streak alive and when people threaten not to buy tickets… the coach is the first one to go.
What's ironic is that a lot of these same traits that made an unlikely school like Nebraska a name brand in college football can be applied to Oregon today. They don't have a particularly populated state with tons of in-state blue chip prospects and a high annual income either. Their weather is pretty repulsive also. Their school history is pretty dismal in the grand scheme of things. Yet they've identified a few select areas that could give them an upper hand over the competition, and used them to gain an advantage over 95% of schools. Sure, theirs is a house of cards that'll likely come crashing down someday also, but until then they better maximize this opportunity since it probably won't endure for long.
Anybody who doubts the importance of coaching in Division I college football need look no further than what happened to the University of Nebraska program after Tom Osborne retired.
Pretty decent...as a Husker fan. Other tidbits you could have added. Nebraska didn't have an ROTC for players to enter to avoid WW 2, so the roster was decimated (other FB powers of the era did), leading to the long drought before Devaney. Nebraska beat Oklahoma in 1959 in one of the greatest upsets in CFB history before Devaney arrived. Not only did Devaney hire Osborne, he also had Monte Kiffin on his staff. Nebraska actually ran a pro style offense under Osborne until the late 70s...not the option attack they became famous for. Vince Ferragamo was a pro style QB that played in the NFL for years who was a Cornhusker.
"The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) introduced the Army Reserve OfficerTraining Corps (ROTC) in 1916, in the midst of World War I. As the years progressed, UNL ROTC began to expand as more and more students attended the University. By 1943 there were 2,906 male students, of which 1,991 were trainees".... Sounds like they did have ROTC. Maybe they didn't get very many war vets on their team after the war?
Bill Jennings was the coach from 1957-61, whose team pulled off the upset of Oklahoma in 1959, and a big win over ranked Texas at the start of 1960, but plain lost too many games. Bob Devaney came in, took the players Jennings had recruited, and his first three years went to the Gotham, Orange and Cotton Bowl with those players, while building a recruiting base for himself.
About the 7:22 mark the documentary Husker Century part 2 discusses what I'm referring to. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KZltOal5ix4.htmlsi=udcvD41fl-wf7OFZ
Nebraska canceled their game against South Dakota State after the Jackrabbits won the FCS National Championship because they were too scared of losing at home to a FCS level program. That is how far the Cornhuskers have fallen. Once the redivision of all of the NCAA programs go to a 2 to 3 class system for Division 1 and a lot of the conferences get reorganized, Nebraska, Minnesota and Northwestern should all be kicked out of the Big 10. If Nebraska (and Minnesota) are both too scared to play FCS level schools out of North & South Dakota, they have absolutely no business being in a FBS Power 5 conference.
People in Nebraska get their self worth and esteem from Nebraska football . It's their identity . Domestic violence rises when ever Nebraska loses a game . To say it's all they care about would be an understatement .
Also a decent team in a bad conference equalled more wins for 25 years. Only needed to be at Oklahoma and win a bowl game in the same year and get crowned champions. Changed the conference and things got tougher. Got exposed.
Great reporting and spot on for the most part. The only quibble I have is in the late 60s and early 70s, they ran power football w/ basic sweep plays and inside reverses mixed in, not the tripple option. When Osborne took over, he actually moved towards a passing offense (Vince Ferragamo) but found it didn't work well in Nov cold and wind. Since OU was beating us with the wishbone, Osborne added the tripple option to the I formation in the early 80s, then recruited to it - Turner Gill, Roger Craig, Mike Rozier. NU was off to the races for the next 20 yrs.
I made a couple of trips to Lincoln when they were in the Big12. I was really impressed with the environment and the fans. I hope the Huskers can make a resurgence. It makes college football more interesting.
I'm a 28 year old Nebraska fan so I've seen good Husker football but I have never seen truly great Husker football. Matt Rhule is proving himself to be the catalyst for the return of Nebraska's former spirit. He is here to help heal the wounds from our previous incompetent leadership under Frost. I am not talking about Riley, he was a good man, just not right for the job. Matt Rhule may or may not win us champions, but he is going to help return the tradition of excellence on and off the field to Nebraska and that is what sets the wheel in motion.
Matt Rhule hasn’t won anything at Nebraska so slow down. Don’t let the Nebraska media hype affect your judgement. They went and got the #1 kid out of North Dakota and everyone is making a big deal about it. North Dakota, which means he’d be the #457 kid out of florida who I’d rather have because that kid plays against other D-1 talent week in and week out in HS.
Honestly it is also an era thing. Your team can never be that dominate forever. Three decades of dominance, that is a long time. Very rarely does a team come out of a legend leaving and continue the way it was for decades. I am looking at you Alabama.
@@Denussy I understand that. But every empire must fall. They won't become the worst. But they will no longer be the best. Look at the Irish, Stanford I mean we could go on. ND and Stanford are blue bloods. How are they doing right now?
@@Denussy I hear this all the time. Over here in Sweden IFK Göteborg for like 80 years have dominated this region in football. Now they are near the bottom do the table and struggling heavily. This is just how things go. You can not be on top forever.
I've watched Nebraska football for over 50 years. As a Kansas State graduate and fan, I grew up in an era when you almost had to be an Oklahoma or Nebraska fan and I rooted for the Huskers. Seems to me when the Cats finally beat the Huskers in 98 things changed in Lincoln. I miss NU being in the Big 8/12. It's sad to see a once great program fall like they have
To an outsider who admired Nebraska football in the 90s, the choice to fire Frankie Solich was the breaking point. Nebraska's AD couldn't accept that the ceiling for Nebraska was to be a 9-10 win/season team, to have an "outdated" offense, and to every once in a while when the planets and the stars all aligned and everyone else in the country had 2 losses for Nebraska to get a national championship shot. Which is what Nebraska's history really was, if you looked at it clearly. Instead, Nebraska chased the new hotness, instead of embracing the old school way of doing things that worked for decades. Because the walk-on program wasn't about DBs or WRs: Nebraska's power was always in the linemen. You don't need a huge roster to do that right: when every HS in the state ran the same offense as Nebraska, every 6'4", 300 lb corn-fed farm boy who was at Nebraska for an agriculture degree (and ALL the power in the world to them!) could walk on for the football team and the coaches could just pick. The strategic advantage of only using 15-20 scholarships (out of the old 85) on offensive and defensive linemen is HUGE in college football. Maybe now that the scholarship limits have been expanded, Nebraska can deliberately rebuild that old HS-University symbiotic relationship.
@@samuelfang5133 couldn’t agree more. Great analysis. I’ve always been perplexed at our lack of focus on the lines the past 20 years. It doesn’t matter how many 5 star skill positions you get if can’t get a push and be more physical. The game is always won in the trenches. As cliche as that might sound. And it’s been years since we’ve had dominance on both sides of the ball at the same time.
Yes you can, it's the curse of Lawrence Phillips. IDK why everyone forgets it. He beat the $h*t out of his GF and the coach not only swept it under the carpet, but reinstated him to the football team. Thank Tom Osborne. That was despicable.
I received recruiting materials from Nebraska when I was playing high school football back in ‘83…they sent me a workout manual and it was pretty impressive…(I was never offered a visit nor a scholarship from them though)
I was attending university in Lincoln in 1993, when Nebraska won the national championship. It was a great team. I'm not optimistic about future great Nebraska teams. 🙁
Husker fan here. Great job on this video! I think you’re 100% right about everything you said. There’s a lot of optimism surrounding this program now with Matt Rhule coaching and Dylan Riola coming to Nebraska. Also we return 20 starters from last season. Hopefully this is the year we turn in around and head back in the direction we once were! GBR!!
Here's a Nitty Lion rooting for Nebraska. If was so heartening when Nebraska was drubbing Miami in the 90's? Hope to see Nebraska doing it again in the B1G.
In the old Big 8, Nebraska would play a non-conference schedule of unranked teams, hope to beat 2 other good/ranked teams in the conference (usually OU and Colorado), and feast on the other 5. At the end of the season (no conference title game back then), maybe they would play in the Orange Bowl and roll the dice for a title win. NU can no longer run away from having to play only a couple good teams. They are forced to play them weekly in the BIG 10, and now they have USC, Oregon, Washington, and UCLA coming after them in addition to the other teams that they already can't beat. The Cornhuskers better go back to the BIG XII, re-new their CU rivalry, and finally have a chance to make the playoffs.
What a load of crap. The Big 8 when Nebraska was dominant was one of the strongest conferences in the country. Only very young, naive or ignorant people would make the statement you did
You're right Nebraska got very use to just wallowing around in the Big 8 , once in a great while they would actually play a tough non-conference game . Pack people in memorial stadium ,shoulder to shoulder ,sitting on a plank . What a money maker . Most of the time the games were over by half time and the third string would play in the 4th quarter . People would be buying bowl packages before the season even started . I remember Oklahoma week in school . The whole state was ecstatic . Players wanted to play for Tom Osborne. Now I think they want to play for money more than any iconic coach .
@@StonedMeadowOfDoom Sorry, but when Nebraska, Colorado and Missouri left it was no longer the same and now Oklahoma is leaving. They tried to pack the conference with Texas schools but that didn't work either. So far, the Big 12 has survived conference realignment but whether it can reach the level of the Big Ten and SEC remains to be seen.
I don't think that will happen because the money is just too big in the Big Ten even if the team is no longer dominant as it once was. They might make the playoffs once in a while since it is expanding with more teams.
@@StonedMeadowOfDoom I remember the Big 8. It was a strong conference but it also had its share of also rans like Kansas and Kansas State throughout the 80s. It had some teams that had really good years. Most of those teams, however, finished 3rd in the Big 8.
Osborn was not happy when Pederson fired Solich. It was a slap in the face to Osborn who personally picked Frank to replace him. What did Callahan do? He threw out the whole system that was in place and working that had Nebraska Football successful for some 20 years. Its been down hill ever since. That's the truth.
What you'll soon realize is OU will be 1 new team on the SEC's roster while all the SEC opponents will all be new for OU. Very high hill to climb joining a new league.
Unlike a lot of the dreck on her about CFB, your video is actually well researched and presented. Thank you! The importance of the strength coach in modern football cannot be overstated. Players spend way more time with strength coaches than FB coaches. Often, the strength coach is the last person to speak in the locker room before games.
