What the SEC is Saying about Nebraska? (2 Viewers)

Texas A&M

• E Rob gone?
• Rumor in Omaha is he is going to be on Matt Rhule's staff.
• UN-O has a football team?
• As with last year, need to do everything we can to keep him. Unless he is being made a DC I hope he would not leave for a lateral move. DL would still be in good shape if Coach Price handled the entire DL but Robinson is an elite coach, our DT play has been very good since Day 1 of him joining the staff.
• Would hate to see him go, but much like we are likely to shell out a handsome paycheck for a new OC, I'm sure Nebraska would do the same for Robinson given that they're clearing house and trying to start fresh.
• SIAP: Matt Rhule to Nebraska
• Guess that Rhule's out Kiffin going to Nebraska...
• Would think this is a pretty good hire for Nebraska.
• Would love to see him in the Big 10 and not in the SEC.
• Huh. He didn't stay in the pros long. But good choice for the cornhuskers.
• His GM failed to get him a QB at Carolina. Great hire imo. Not sure anyone can succeed in Nebraska these days, but if anyone can it's Rhule.
• Sure he will Joel Osteen his way into a good season or two wherever he goes and then will leave them in the middle of the night for the next NFL team that comes calling and leave their program worse than he found it.
• I'd like Nebraska to rebound. It's gotten to the point where I feel sorry for them.
• He will do as well as Frost. Nebraska is never coming back. Such a crappy place and now that you have more choices of schools to play big boy football, its prestige is long gone.
• He is a good hire for someone like Nebraska. He can evaluate and develop. That's what they need. NIL going to suck for him. Bigger programs can use his team like a AAA squad.
• The days of domination may be over, but any school can be good with the right coach & keep them with enough money, which they have.
• I'd rather have Nebraska in the top 25 than most of the teams currently there.
• I think Matt is a GOOD hire for Nebraska. They will play physical sound football under him. Doesn't effect us.
• I wouldn't be so sure NIL sucking. All the makings for successful NIL are there. A rabid fan base spends serious $ on gear and are typically top 20 in sales. They'll buy merch! When recruits on on official visits the fans address them by name. Some of the women's volleyball players are already leading the nation in NIL for their sport.
• Don't underestimate Nebraska's ability to put together and execute an effective NIL strategy.
• I'm hearing that Nebraska will be going after Elijah Robinson on our staff. Excellent recruiter
• Robinson has a history with Rhule as he was on staff at Temple and then 1 year at Baylor before joining Ag staff.
• Great hire for Nebraska actually. He made temple football respectable in a city like Philadelphia where high school football is way different than here. He turned Baylor around pretty quickly and Nebraska has more money that those schools put together. Time will tell but I think that's a solid hire for them.
• Looks like Rhule also taking USCe OC...Satterfield. The fans were upset w that guy all year long until they got hot at the end of the season.

Auburn

• Matt Rhule hired by Nebraska
• I'm seeing Nebraska, Wisconsin, Georgia tech all making or closing in on solid coaching candidates smoothly and on time to capitalize on transfers and set up their programs.
• My disappointment is a dumpster fire Nebraska made a huge hire and we haven’t
• He fits that school and should do good things. Of course, Bo Pelini went 67-27 in 8 years and 7 bowl appearances and they fired him. Frank Solich was even better than that and got fired.
• Osborne deserves to be on the Mt. Rushmore of college coaches. Nebraska has zero recruiting grounds and he dominated there for 20 years.
• How does he fit there? I wonder if Auburn ever looked his way..
• Looks like we struck out with 2 of our 5 top candidates. My guess that Auburn is going to screw this up looks more legit by the day...
• If he can resurrect that program, then he can turn water into wine. All good wishes to him
• Nebraska figured out 'roids before anyone else did. I'll never forget Rimington and Steinkuler just wrecking double teams and driving them 5-10 yards off the ball with impunity.

Florida

• Nebraska replaced Frost with Matt Rhule
• Napier to hire Frost as OC please
• He’ll be HC in sun belt imo, when one of those guys gets elevated, Impressive conference.
• Turns out every coach from that cycle was bad LOL. I think Dan was probably the best of the bunch in the end, which is pretty sad.
• Could see Dan Mullen going there. He's weird enough to fit in at Nebraska.
• Thought Mullen and Frost were fits at their opposite schools the first time around. Mullen would be able to do well in a bad B1G west that’s more about scheming on Saturdays than it is having to recruit top classes nationally like the SEC.
• I know Tom Osborne was great coach, but damn. Was he really extraordinary to the point where no other coach could compete for titles at NE?
• Dan Mullen will NEVER return to CFB. His only coaching fits are Saban rehab analyst, if he doesn't have to recruit, AND NFL OC.
• As we all know: The N in Nebraska stands for kNowledge!
• Frosty going to be an off the field analyst for a year, get promoted to Bama OC and then be named head coach of FAU
• Nebraska should call Petrino
• Eric Bieniemy and Colorado need each other.
• Wonder if Cockeye will ask Ferentz to "step down" soon
• Shocked Nebraska got Rhule, but good for them.
• Really, no such thing as an overpay or going "too long" if you get the right guy. And Rhule's a proven program builder during a time there really aren't a lot of them.
• Did Nebraska just drop the news on gameday? Pretty badass if so.
• Rhule and Freeze would both be significant upgrades over the last 2 coaches those schools would have.
• Rhule is a great pull for Nebraska, that could get them back on the radar as a legit program again.
• Big 10 West picking up. Some good coaches seeing opportunity and stability there.
• I’m calling it. Mullen to Cincy.
• Can we hire Collins as DC and one of Frost / Scott as OC?
• Rumor Frost might be a candidate for Dilly Dilly as OC at ASU.
• SCOC going to Nebraska
• They’ve been wanting to get rid of him all year, he puts up two good games in a row and he bolts. Love to see it.
• Outside of Rhule, Dillingham, and #2ndChoice (2 of the 3 were easy to peg and rumored for weeks), I feel like this has been the slowest moving silly season in coaching in awhile.

Kentucky

• Matt Rhule
• If Nebraska gets Matt rhule, they never had serious interest in stoops other than someone way down a list.
• Even if they had serious interest in Stoops he didn’t have any interest in them.
• Just read an article Nebraska is after #2ndChoice and their might be mutual interest.
• Rhule may be the best, Auburn may regret not being able to secure him.
• The BIG10 TV money sure helps
• Better jobs out there than Nebraska. Even if you have to wait a year.
• His contract was different and had some clauses that had to be worked out before he took a college job. I don't know those details but it wasn't a regular contract.
• Officially Official … Matt Rhule now the Head Coach at the University of Nebraska
• Want to see the contract details on this one.
• Plus Neb paying Frosty $15M
• Best hire Nebraska could make. If they don’t make noise here, I’d guess they’re officially dead for good.

South Carolina

• Can someone help me understand this Satt situation?
• I’m still not following how he ended up the OC at Nebraska.
• Matt Rhule
• Very happy he’s going to Nebraska.
• Matt Rhule contract - yikes
• Also, probably has a mega buyout which puts Nebraska in a bad spot for awhile should he not work out.
• They are desperate to become relevant again.
• Feel like that's going to end poorly.
• I wouldn’t even want him as my head coach much less pay him all that money .
• Don’t let Rhules failure as an NFL coach overshadow his success in NCAA. He’s pretty good. With that said… still overpaid in that contract
• That’s crazy money for someone who isn’t a sure thing. And Rhule isn’t.
• He's going to get time and Nebraska isn't nearly as far away from being relevant as their record indicates, Frost was god awful in one score games to the point where it's pretty mind boggling. I get the contract, Rhule has won everywhere at the college level including rebuild jobs.
• Big Ten has a ton of money. It’s a lot to many schools, but not them.
• 90% of his contract is guaranteed. I believe the contract is for $72 million, so $64.8 million is guaranteed. Yikes.
• Rhule also is drawing $800K a month for 5-6 more years from Panthers….
• Coaches can thank Mel Tucker, average coach that MSU thought would go to LSU and gave him a stupid deal.
• And he also picked Satterfield to be his OC. I don’t think a pro-style offense isn’t going to work at Nebraska. They’re not going to get the offensive talent to pull it off.
• Then they should spend that on players. Rhule isn't worth that.
• Regardless of what you think of Satt, his hiring is AT BEST very risky.
• CFB coach salaries just keep going up as the sport keeps making more money. To say he’s “not worth it” is to disregard how the sport is changing. Will he work out? I don’t know. But get used to guys making more and more
• I think too many on here either are jaded because of how bad he was with the Panthers or just see his overall college record without context.
• Worst OC in America, good riddance.
• Plenty of OCs who are much, much worse.
• Look at Cockeye.

Mississippi State

• Lady Dawgs down 29-26 to Nebraska halftime.
• Lady Dawgs headed to OT with Nebraska 57-57. dawgs trailed whole game till the end.
• Nebraska any good?
• Matt Rhule to Nebraska
• He is finalizing a deal nebraska as we speak
• Good move by Nebraska. Good for college football also.
• Take em a couple years, but I think he will be successful. I thought frost would be too though
• Since he is off the board any guesses on Aubbie search. One name out of the blue would be Todd Monken. If Aubbie doesn't name a coach before the SEC Championship Maybe Aubbie might be poaching the UGA staff.
• With a 40Mil buyout in his pocket from the Panthers I would have thought he would hold out for a better job. That is a good hire for them.
• Nebraska killed this hire.
• Everybody fails at Nebraska. I'm calling my shot - Rhule will be a failure there. Bump this and mock me if I'm wrong.
• That's about as good of a hire Nebraska can make
• Define failure. There is a low bar to be a success right now. Nebraska hasn't won more than 5 games since 2017. They are, imo, in the weaker of the two divisions in the Big 10.
• Perfect hire. I don't know if it will work out, but it's the perfect fit.
• The big 10 west is the worst division in power 5 football currently.
• Matt Rhule is going to kill it at Nebraska
• He will play in a very weak division with an easy path to the big 10 title game every year.
• Given their deep pockets and NIL potential he could be very very dangerous in certain years
• Well, he is off the OM HC short list now. lol
• The Big 10 is abandoning divisions in 2024 like the SEC presumably is, which will even out the Strength of Schedule across the conference.

Alabama

• NEBRASKA- Matt Rhule
• Nebraska hires Matt Rhule as next HC
• Let’s see if they get this one right.
• Excellent hire. He will win. I guess it remains to be seen if it'll be enough for that fan base
• Tough one to recruit for... and the fans still think they should be winning titles annually.
• Nebraska needs to be a monster in the transfer portal. They have amazing NIL opportunities
• Rhule seemed excited to be in Purga…. Ummm Lincoln, Nebraska.
• Great hire by Nebraska!
• Home run hire. RTR
• That fanbase is beyond reproach. All they have to do is beat Ohio St. or Michigan to get to the top. Having said that, I still don't know the Big Ten divisional structure.
• That's an outstanding hire. Matt Rhule would be a good fit in Tuscaloosa. I really believe that. But I am in zero hurry to see such. Roll Saban
• If Rhule can’t win at Nebraska (he never beat a ranked team at Baylor but they were in the basement before he arrived), Nebraska might want to think about resetting program expectations.

Tennessee

• Satterfield to Nebraska
• SC offensive coordinator is making a lateral move to join Matt Ruhle's staff at Nebraska. This serms like a good thing for UT, as it potentially creates upheaval in SC's offensive planning for next year. Considering his offensive hung 63 on us, his leaving has got to be a good thing for us, no?
• Perhaps a good thing. Although I believe they could've used the old Tecmo Bowl playbook and scored 63 on us that night.
• I wouldn't read too much into that their offense has been pretty dreadful for most of the year. Of course it does help when you are playing against a defensive unit that is more concerned with it's hurt feelings than winning
• Marcus Satterfield???....he is an ole Tennessee Tech man. No wonder they scored nine touchdowns.
• Freddie Kitchens drew up the USCjr gameplan versus UT. So if he gets promoted to OC it actually will be the same guy's offensive scheme as it was when they waxed us. Not saying he can repeat the feat but don't feel like Satterfield being gone to Nebraska is going to make things better - that's inaccurate.
• guess that shows the Cockies where they stand in the pecking order!
• He was about to get fired if he didn't leave.
• I thought he might have saved his job with their performance the last 2 games, but maybe not.
• He's worked with Rhule at 3 previous stops, so he probably is more comfortable working with him anyway.
• Dude lost four games with Spencer Rattler as quarterback. The way he played against us, ole Spencer could beat the Philadelphia Eagles with me calling the plays.
• Anyone on that staff needs to get out while they can. Rattler single-handedly gave them a lifeline in two short weeks. Get out now—will never have a better chance than that.
• I have a hard time making fun of programs that won their most recent matchup against us.
• Prior to our game with SC... their fans blamed Satterfield for all their woes and were convinced Beamer would be replacing him with Kendal Briles in the offseason. Their fans are probably rejoicing at this news.
• Only the Cockies could score 63 points on a Top 10 team and having him leave for Nebraska 9 days later.
• You really think he was calling the plays the last 2 weeks? They've wanted him gone since October.
• Not a surprise. Rhule and Satterfield’s relationship dates back to their time at Western Carolina in 2005. Satterfield also worked on Rhule’s staffs at Temple, Baylor and the Carolina Panthers.
• F*** him. Hope he likes corn.
• Nebraska is very cornographic.
• A cornucopia of corn
• Wisconsin wins the coaching search match, Nebraska loses (in my opinion…if they do well…..he gone).
• Hopefully Rattler will transfer to Nebraska
• I like Omaha during baseball season.
• Plenty of corn there....also, Cockeye has even more corn.

LSU

• Trey Palmer for caught 2nd TD of the day for Nebraska
• Now the all-time single season pass catcher in Nebraska history.
• Not trying to knock him and I know they just started throwing the ball in 2004 but the single season record is 1007 yds? Do better Nebraska.
• It would have been nice to have Brian Kelly coach this kid.
• Wasn’t Nebraska known for running a wishbone running offense?
• But couldn’t go shite at LSU!
• Has anybody heard anything from DeColdest Crawford?
• Cool I guess?
• Wasn't he injured early on and is out for the season?
• He was stuck behind possibly the greatest receiving corps in LSU history and then the wheels came off of the program. He wasn't going to succeed in that situation.
• He really should have been returning punts in '19 instead of Stingley. The crap was forced for the sake of Stingley's future Heisman campaign
• Wonder if he’s showing up on time for meetings?
• Happy for Trey he’s going to get a shot at the NFL. His success shows the disparity in talent between the 2 programs. LSU is truly blessed with the talent in Louisiana and surrounding areas in close proximity.
• WTF are you talking about? Trey Palmer NEVER had disciplinary problems. Dude stuck with LSU longer than a lot of you have been fans. What a dip shite comment.
• Good for Trey
• But that record was easy to do when that program ran the option for 100 years
• Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. Happy for him.
• You a-holes all have a complex to always shite on former players. They are not good enough, they suck, blah blah blah
• Palmer could very well be our leading WR this year. But he sucks and would not be top 5-6 at LSU is what all you experts say.
• Give the kid his due, he is balling out this year at Nebraska.. Good on him
• Trey Palmer is who we are missing on punt and kickoff return. Maybe he will consider coming back to LSU for his senior year but I doubt that. He will probably enter the NFL draft after the season. Had a great year production wise. I'm proud of him.

Georgia

• Carolina OC SATTERFIELD
• leaving for same position at Nebraska. Maybe Rhule not that smart after all.
• I don't give a damn as long as it's not Monken. Keep your hands off Monken...
• Looked pretty good against Tennessee and Clemson
• They were together at Temple and Baylor. Its not surprising
• NFL and college are drastically different. Wasn't he Rhule OC when he revived Baylor?
• Cock fans wanted the guy gone so badly during the season, wonder how they feel about him now, after the two big wins and he is leaving them?
• Pretty sure Matt Rhule knows how to select an OC....
• He wasn’t surviving this season and just about all of us have a hard time believing he was the one calling plays against UTjr and Clempson… the game plan and calling was that different
• Or the 5 start Qb played like one instead of a 2 star
• This is what happened more than anything.
• Who the heck was calling it then? Sounds like they already have the new OC
• At least in Columbia you can drive to the beach. In Nebraska, it's cold, flat, windy, no in state recruits, and it snows. That zero degree weather is fierce!

 

[Skerz4Life50]

The key words I used were "at that time" firing a 10 win coach who had been part of the football program for two decades was a poor showing. Nebraska fans were a bunch of spoiled babies at the time and ignorant to the changing tides of football. KU, KSU, and MO were no longer the whipping boys of the conference and parody across the football world was starting to take hold. Nebraska faithful simply couldn't come to terms with that fact. Im not arguing that we hadn't slipped but we were a far cry from where we are now.

That firing and how it was handled put us back two decades. And don't let Pedersen off the hook on that fiasco either. That snake neutered our program and divided an entire fan base in a matter of one season.

The point, though, is that a lot of major programs have done this, not just Nebraska. Like stated earlier, Auburn and Wisconsin just did similar, and LSU also did in the past. Maybe those coaches weren't in the program for 2 decades, but they won National Titles, Conference Championships, and/or had consistent top-tier conference teams. There is legit clamoring now for OSU to think about getting rid of Day (who is 45-5 or something like that) because he has lost to Michigan 2 years in a row. Major programs try to make changes when things get stagnant or start to regress, that is just the nature of the business.

This is an article published today in the Athletic:

Ohio State should give Mike Vrabel the world, resume dominance and never look back​

Ohio State should give Mike Vrabel the world, resume dominance and never look back

Vrabel becoming the head coach at his alma mater should be more than an Ohio State fan fantasy.

theathletic.com

Spoiler

This probably won’t come until a year from now, after Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan throttles Ryan Day’s Ohio State for a third straight season and the fury of a fan base becomes the charge of an athletic director.

But it will come, if Ohio State AD Gene Smith has an any sense for where things are headed in Columbus and what’s been happening in Nashville.

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Mike Vrabel’s Ohio State. Get used to the idea.

It’s more than an Ohio State fan fantasy — by the way, OSU loyalists, if at least half of your message board threads right now don’t have “Vrabel” in them, what are you even doing? — and it should not inspire scoffs of dismissal from Tennessee Titans fans. It should inspire reviews of the liquidity of the financial assets of Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk. Keep that checkbook handy.

I don’t know for sure that Vrabel would take the job at his alma mater if offered. I know Ohio State should offer it, and anything Vrabel wants to take it.

And I wouldn’t totally rule out all of these things happening in a matter of weeks as opposed to months.

Mike Vrabel was an assistant coach at his alma mater from 2011-13. (David Dermer / Getty Images)
That’s not a prediction of a firing. Day’s 45-5 record in four-plus seasons, two Big Ten championships, two College Football Playoff appearances and advancement to the 2020 title game should earn him another season, right? Did I just write that out loud? Yeah, no. He’s not getting fired. Not this year.

But let’s cut to a Columbus Dispatch story by Bill Rabinowitz, a veteran and well-sourced Ohio State beat writer, from Jan. 13 about possible NFL interest in Day after last season. To quote Rabinowitz: “Don’t be shocked if Day seriously considers an offer if he gets one.”

Two factors were cited in the piece. One, obviously, was Day’s sub-market contract — and yes, he got the bump from $7.6 million a year to $9.5 a year, with an extension to 2028, a few months later. The other was the “fishbowl” aspect of Columbus, in particular after a “cataclysmic” event known as a loss to Michigan. Day, 43, and his young family experienced that after last season’s 42-27 Michigan upset in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines’ first win over the Buckeyes in a decade.

Saturday’s 45-23 dismantling of Day’s Buckeye’s by Harbaugh’s Wolverines made it two straight Michigan wins in the rivalry for the first time since 1999-2000. Also, it marked two straight double-digit Michigan wins in the rivalry for the first time since the Wolverines got three straight of those from 1946-48. With Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud moving on to the NFL and Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy back for his junior season in 2023, I’ll wager a third straight is on the way.

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I bet Day thinks of last year’s fishbowl as something more like a luxury swimming pool at this point.

It’s fair to wonder how appealing Day would be to NFL owners right now, but I think he’d fit in perfectly with the offensive whiz kids club. Remember, Vrabel wanted to hire him to be the Titans offensive coordinator when Vrabel got the job in January 2018. Day had only been with Urban Meyer for a season at OSU as co-OC after two seasons with Chip Kelly in the NFL, but Vrabel’s intelligence gathering in Columbus told him positive things. Day stayed at OSU and supplanted Meyer a year later.

Day is a good coach. But there are other good coaches who could win 45 out of 50 games at Ohio State, in this era of absolute talent-gathering dominance for the Buckeyes. What Ohio State needs is a great coach, like the flawed Meyer and beloved Jim Tressel, a coach who would not shrink in the moment the way Day did Saturday against Michigan.

Vrabel would stuff Harbaugh in a trash can, or split his head open trying. He’s the guy. The question is whether he’d sign up for that fishbowl — even though it’s his home fishbowl. His kids are grown, it’s worth mentioning.

A couple years ago, I got the strong sense this day would come at some point, while working on a story for The Athletic on Meyer’s improbably undefeated 2012 Ohio State team and how it launched Vrabel’s coaching career. Actually, go back about a year earlier, back when Vrabel still had post-presser conversations with writers on his availability days. The subject turned to recruiting in college football, and I asked Vrabel if that was one of the main reasons he left Ohio State after the 2013 season to become Bill O’Brien’s linebackers coach with the Houston Texans.

The answer I got back, in a nutshell, was that Vrabel actually loved recruiting. He loved building new relationships. He loved talking football with coaches and parents and kids. If you think about it, if he didn’t love all this stuff so much, he wouldn’t be coaching at all because he made more than $20 million as an NFL player. That’s why Meyer was initially leery about hiring Vrabel in the first place.

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Fast-forward to that story, which involved Vrabel’s best friend, Luke #2ndChoice — previously a hot candidate to replace Day, but now Wisconsin’s new coach because bold moves work — talking Meyer into giving Vrabel a chance. Here’s what Meyer told me he learned quickly about Vrabel as a recruiter: “One of the elite guys.”

Kerry Coombs, who coached defensive backs on that Meyer staff and then with the Titans under Vrabel — and then was hired away by Day to be Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, and then was sacrificed after last season, and boy would it have been interesting to see his reaction Saturday — told the story of Vrabel flipping cornerback Gareon Conley from Michigan to Ohio State. It paired nicely with the story, told first in the Rabinowitz book “Buckeye Rebirth” on the 2012 season, about Vrabel paying an in-home visit to defensive lineman Noah Spence, getting scratched up wrestling Spence in his living room, but also getting the commitment.

“Mike’s a winner, so if Mike’s gonna recruit, he’s gonna win,” Coombs said then. “He’s not gonna cheat, but he is gonna do everything possible, pull out every resource, use every strategy available, in order to get a recruit.”

And he will relate to his players. If you’re a Titans fan who thinks Vrabel is a pro guy and that’s that, you’re fooling yourself. It’s obvious he loves coaching at the highest level and he must see a path toward Canton in this role — he wasn’t quite that level of a player — but we’re not just talking about college football. We’re talking about Ohio State. And we’re talking about a guy whose approach would work on any level.

“I mean, I try to coach them the same way,” Vrabel said for that story. “I try to teach, develop, try to inspire them to do their jobs better. My relationships were probably different as a college D-line coach than they are as an NFL head coach. But let’s be honest, man, the only thing that’s different with some of our guys and some of the players on Ohio State and Alabama is that we’re paying them. What’s really different about a 21-year-old player on Ohio State or Clemson and a 23-year-old like Rashaan (Evans) or Jayon (Brown)?”

Now, would the transfer portal and name, image and likeness and all that has come about to make college coaching more complicated scare Vrabel away? Maybe. Would $12 million a year simplify things? I know it would be a wise investment for Ohio State.

(Of course, and this goes for the forecast of Day’s inability to overcome Harbaugh in the future as well, I also knew Josh Heupel was an underwhelming hire for Tennessee. And that Harbaugh was never going to live up to the hype at Michigan. And that Tom Herman was a can’t miss. And will they have player and coach statues of Scott Frost after he brings Nebraska all the way back? And on and on and on. These coaching projections have their limitations. But I do feel good about this one.)

Vrabel is 48-28 with the Titans, 2-3 in the postseason, including a run to the 2019-20 AFC title game, but that doesn’t fully convey how impressive he’s been in this job. Getting more than he should out of his talent isn’t just about relationships and motivation, it’s about scheming and finding edges in the film and the rulebook. Get him going on any aspect of the game and he’s got the math and probabilities on recall. His pursuit of winning is exhaustive.

Recruiting for Ohio State already has tremendous advantages. I’m trying to imagine Vrabel not winning over a parent in a battle with Alabama or Georgia, or a kid when he says: “I played for the best coach ever, caught touchdowns from the best QB ever in Super Bowl wins and coached one of the best running backs ever. So yeah, I know what it takes in the NFL.”

That would also mean departing from the dream of winning a Super Bowl as a coach. But the Titans have a worse roster this season than last season, Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill are getting older, and some years of mediocrity may be ahead until and unless they find a great quarterback. Ohio State may look more appealing by comparison if (when) this materializes.

This is the kind of speculation that is sure to annoy Vrabel. But maybe it will be a nice distraction from the A.J. Brown questions this week. For those who aren’t aware, the Titans play at the Eagles on Sunday, seven months after the draft-day trade that sent Brown to Philly. In the moments afterward, Vrabel looked like someone had just kicked him in the stomach, or made him listen to “The Victors,” high volume, Muzak version, for hours.

When it’s Mike Vrabel’s Ohio State — sorry, I mean, if it’s Mike Vrabel’s Ohio State — he will be the coach and the GM, holding picks at the top of the draft every year.

 

[whoboppin]

I can agree that it may have tarnished the view of the job from other coaches but anyone with football knowledge could see that once Osborne's recruits were gone, Solich was nothing. He would've likely made it one more year before being fired if we'd waited, which to me is moot.

Yep, Solich era gets whitewashed. I will say, he should not have been fired in 2003 unless Petey had someone locked up. The 40 day search was a clusterfuck. But he likely would have been gone in 2004 or 2005. Nebraska’s talent was regressing hardcore on offense under Solich. I think he would have been able to keep winning if it was 1991 when he took over, but he wasn’t ready for the internet recruiting era or explosion of the spread offense.