Tom Osborne
From 1973-1997, Tom Osborne was the head football coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers football program. Osborne’s record was 255-49-3 including 13 conference titles and three national titles. Osborne’s popularity in the State of Nebraska was so immense that he was elected in 2001 to represent the state in the United States House of Representatives. Osborne retired from Nebraska in 1997 and he handpicked his successor in Nebraska assistant football coach Frank Solich. Life was good for Solich at first as he kept the winning machine going until 2002 when the Cornhuskers finished with a record of 7-7. Solich would rebound with a record of 9-3 in 2003, but he was fired prior to the team’s bowl game. The school felt that they needed to bring in a coach that would run a pro-style offense and thus former Oakland Raiders head coach Bill Callahan was pegged to lead Nebraska. In Callahan’s four years in Lincoln, he had two losing seasons and he never won a conference title which led to him being fired in 2007. In 2008, Nebraska decided to get back to its roots as Bo Pelini was hired to be the next head football coach there. Pelini had a past life as an assistant coach at Nebraska and he understood the Cornhusker way of life.
Bo Pelini
In Pelini’s first season at Nebraska, he led his team to a 9-4 record. In Pelini’s first three seasons at Nebraska, the Cornhuskers would share the Northern Division Title of the Big 12 Conference. The latter two years would see Nebraska play in the Big 12 Championship Game, but each time there they lost. In 2011, Nebraska would move to the Big Ten Conference where they would win the Legends Division in 2012. But in the Big Ten Conference Title Game, Nebraska would be blown out by the Wisconsin Badgers and under Pelini they would fail to make it back there.
Shawn Eichorst
This past Friday, Nebraska would score a comeback victory on the road over the Iowa Hawkeyes to finish the season with a record of 9-3. But that wasn’t good enough for Pelini who was fired yesterday by Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst. Pelini’s record at Nebraska was 67-27 and he won at least 9 games in each season. Pelini’s undoing in Lincoln was the fact that Nebraska never won a conference title or appeared in a major bowl game. Pelini’s teams were consistent, but they were never able to ascend to that next level which is the gold standard at Nebraska. Pelini was defensive minded coach that was never able to return Nebraska’s defense to the “Blackshirts” as they are currently ranked 50th in the nation this season in total defense. The low light for Nebraska’s defense came this season when they surrendered 408 rushing yards to Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon which was a Football Bowl Subdivision record. The facilities and resources at Nebraska are second to none, but the fact of the matter is that the folks there are still blinded by what Osborne did.
Osborne was and forever will be a god at Nebraska, but the landscape of college football has changed since he roamed the sidelines. The days of one or two teams dominating a conference are a thing of the past as it is tough for most teams to remain consistent along with the fact that the arms race in recruiting is at an all-time high. In Osborne’s run at Nebraska, he dominated the Big 8 Conference and he only had to worry about the Oklahoma Sooners on the recruiting front. With television exposure in college football at the level that it currently is, players aren’t married to the fact that they’ll stay in a specific region to play ball, but more so to the fact of a head coach or a program that will get them to the National Football League.
Pelini had built a program at Nebraska that sent talent to the NFL in current Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, cornerback Prince Amukamara of the New York Giants, and cornerback Stanley Jean-Baptiste of the New Orleans Saints. Pelini had a few pro prospects on this season’s Nebraska team in running back Ameer Abduallah and defensive end Randy Gregory which is the main thing that recruits covet.
Obviously the hand of Eichorst was forced in the matter as the boosters want to see the Huskers return to being a national power. But Nebraska will now have to overpay in order to hire their next head football coach due to the fact that the expectations there are unrealistic as they will search for a man that can win 10-11 games every season while finishing in top five of the Associated Poll. And I am not sure that the man that Nebraska is looking for even exists. Nebraska will have their hands full heading into the off-season due to the fact that they will have some stiff competition on their search for a head football coach as another big named program in Florida has begun its search to replace Will Muschamp and you can also expect Michigan to throw its name into the ring soon as they are expected to part ways with Brady Hoke.
Pelini had seven years at Nebraska and the only thing that held him and the program back was the fact that he was never able to get that dynamic quarterback to take things to the next level. But that will no longer be Pelini’s problem as he should land on his feet as a defensive coordinator soon or maybe in another head coaching gig with less expectations for their football program. But in firing Pelini, Nebraska panicked and thus they’ll once again be starting over which is never good for business.
Source: Sports-reference.com, Cfbstats.com
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