What went wrong? Part 1

[Baron Winnebago]

Mack Brown wanted to come here and Urban Meyer after 2003.

My recollection is Urban said he wouldn't even consider taking the job after we fired Frank at 9-3

Here's a funny thread from some board from almost 20 years ago

Urban Meyer To Nebraska??

MACbbs: The #1 Board for Mid-American Conference sports on the internet.

csnbbs.com

 

[KidsSeeGhosts]

But he didn't......

In a weird twist of a fate, Callahan and Solich played in the same number of Big 12 title games.

 

[Pipe Line]

In a weird twist of a fate, Callahan and Solich played in the same number of Big 12 title games.

Jesus….does that mean both were failures?

 

[Black Dean]

After the 1997 season and if Bill Byrne had his way I think we would have went in either 3 directions:

1) Hire Barry Alvarez. Won the B1G title in 93 (again in 98 & 99)

2) Mac Brown: 96&97 finished 21-3 record and was one of the hottest coaches in the country, ended up in Texas in 98.

3) Bob Stoops: Knew the Big8/12 landscape from his 7 years with Kansas State and became the hottest assistant coach in the country after leading the Gaytors defense as DC/AHC and winning the National title against FSU.

 

[Black Dean]

Mack Brown, who was at NC at the time, was his first choice. We chose Frank, Mack went to Texas...the rest is history.

“Texas is a powerful player”

 

[huskerj12]

Yeah this conversation is hard to have because Solich was obviously not the man for the job, but AT THE TIME in 1997 it would have seemed like a big risk to go "outside the family" and bring in an entirely new staff.

We were easily the best program in the country, and we had a roster built for a VERY unique and specific offense that was fine tuned by the guy leaving, along with his staff who had been together forever. Solich obviously wasn't up to the task but I just don't know that someone from outside the NU Football world would've fared better. Maybe someone else within the program other than Frank would've been a better CEO.

The names that get brought up on RSS sometimes make me laugh, imagine NU hiring Bob Stoops in 1997? We win our third national championship in four years and then hire the defensive coordinator from Florida who went on to feature the Air Raid offense? People would have lost their shit. Other candidates who get brought up in hindsight hadn't shown much yet at the time either, including Notre Dame WR coach Urban Meyer, Florida State's pass-happy QB coach/offensive coordinator Mark Richt, or Michigan State's Nick Saban who had just gone 6-5-1, 6-6, and 7-5 in his previous 3 seasons (including absolute beatdowns by NU in 1995 and 96). Bringing guys like that in over Tom Osborne's longtime right hand man and Assistant Head Coach Frank Solich would have been out of this world bizarre AT THE TIME.

Obviously a lot of things haven't worked out over the last 20 years. But I just can't bring myself to lay it all at Osborne's feet for handing Frank the reins and kicking off the mediocrity. Like I said, in hindsight it obviously wasn't the right move. But putting yourself in a 1997 mindset, blowing up decades of work and progress at the height of NU's powers could have been seen as batshit crazy UNLESS you brought in maybe Mack Brown or Barry Alvarez (who wasn't doing all that hot at Wisconsin at the time anyway).

As for whether Frank should have been fired after 2003, I think Pederson obviously screwed it up in a massive way by not doing it after 2002. And if not 2002, he should have waited until Solich imploded again instead of giving him a phony chance to repair the program with new coaches and then firing them all anyway after a much improved season. I think we would've crashed again shortly after 2003 anyway, but letting nature take its course would've saved our program a LOT of grief and given us a way better coach than Callahan to come next. Same with Bo in 2014.

 

[Black Dean]

My recollection is Urban said he wouldn't even consider taking the job after we fired Frank at 9-3

Here's a funny thread from some board from almost 20 years ago

Urban Meyer To Nebraska??

MACbbs: The #1 Board for Mid-American Conference sports on the internet.

csnbbs.com

Did you see this reply on that message board 🤯:

“I always figured that Kirk Ferentz was next in line for that job.”

 

[Black Dean]

Yeah this conversation is hard to have because Solich was obviously not the man for the job, but AT THE TIME in 1997 it would have seemed like a big risk to go "outside the family" and bring in an entirely new staff.

We were easily the best program in the country, and we had a roster built for a VERY unique and specific offense that was fine tuned by the guy leaving, along with his staff who had been together forever. Solich obviously wasn't up to the task but I just don't know that someone from outside the NU Football world would've fared better. Maybe someone else within the program other than Frank would've been a better CEO.

The names that get brought up on RSS sometimes make me laugh, imagine NU hiring Bob Stoops in 1997? We win our third national championship in four years and then hire the defensive coordinator from Florida who went on to feature the Air Raid offense? People would have lost their shit. Other candidates who get brought up in hindsight hadn't shown much yet at the time either, including Notre Dame WR coach Urban Meyer, Florida State's pass-happy QB coach/offensive coordinator Mark Richt, or Michigan State's Nick Saban who had just gone 6-5-1, 6-6, and 7-5 in his previous 3 seasons (including absolute beatdowns by NU in 1995 and 96). Bringing guys like that in over Tom Osborne's longtime right hand man and Assistant Head Coach Frank Solich would have been out of this world bizarre AT THE TIME.

Obviously a lot of things haven't worked out over the last 20 years. But I just can't bring myself to lay it all at Osborne's feet for handing Frank the reins and kicking off the mediocrity. Like I said, in hindsight it obviously wasn't the right move. But putting yourself in a 1997 mindset, blowing up decades of work and progress at the height of NU's powers could have been seen as batshit crazy UNLESS you brought in maybe Mack Brown or Barry Alvarez (who wasn't doing all that hot at Wisconsin at the time anyway).

As for whether Frank should have been fired after 2003, I think Pederson obviously screwed it up in a massive way by not doing it after 2002. And if not 2002, he should have waited until Solich imploded again instead of giving him a phony chance to repair the program with new coaches and then firing them all anyway after a much improved season. I think we would've crashed again shortly after 2003 anyway, but letting nature take its course would've saved our program a LOT of grief and given us a way better coach than Callahan to come next. Same with Bo in 2014.

I think that’s why Alvarez was the right choice for the job, he wasn’t killing it at Wisconsin; but did have a B1G title and knew the foundation of Nebraska football as that’s what he built Wisconsin on.

 

[Kaladin]

I think that’s why Alvarez was the right choice for the job, he wasn’t killing it at Wisconsin; but did have a B1G title and knew the foundation of Nebraska football as that’s what he built Wisconsin on.

It's fun to think about where we would be if Alvarez had taken over

 

[huskerj12]

I think that’s why Alvarez was the right choice for the job, he wasn’t killing it at Wisconsin; but did have a B1G title and knew the foundation of Nebraska football as that’s what he built Wisconsin on.

Yup I bet he would've been the best alternate-universe choice all things considered

 

[BingoDingo]

My recollection is Urban said he wouldn't even consider taking the job after we fired Frank at 9-3

Here's a funny thread from some board from almost 20 years ago

Urban Meyer To Nebraska??

MACbbs: The #1 Board for Mid-American Conference sports on the internet.

csnbbs.com

"Don't be suprised if Walt Harris at Pitt gets this job."

Close.

 

[Black Dean]

It's fun to think about where we would be if Alvarez had taken over

The other thing is how Alvarez was behind the scenes, besides Delaney he was probably the second most powerful man. It was known as an AD he got his way a lot of the time and always made sure Wisconsin was in a good position.

 

[Cash68847]

I thought they asked Urban about the Nebraska job after Solich was fired and he said it was insane a coach would be fired after a 9-win season and said he could never coach at a program like that?

I remember it as Pedey put stipulations on who Urb could hire for his staff.

 

[Jim14510]

What's part 2 going to be about?

 

[Cash68847]

I don't think Frank would have been able to sustain that level of success. I think he'd be closer to a .500 level coach (maybe a little above) in a P5 conference. I think making Frank the guy was what went wrong and it all spiraled from there.

You also had a pretty old staff left behind that didn’t see Frank in the same way as Tom. I think firing Frank was the curse of Nebraska football.

 

[Cash68847]

Mack Brown, who was at NC at the time, was his first choice. We chose Frank, Mack went to Texas...the rest is history.

There is still a chance Mack wouldn’t have got enough time at Nebraska. Nebraska was a different animal with their system. Looking back Stoops would have been the hire because he would have kicked ass defensively and evolved the offense over time, but were you going to tell Charlie to hit the road at that time?

 

[RedSavage]

You also had a pretty old staff left behind that didn’t see Frank in the same way as Tom. I think firing Frank was the curse of Nebraska football.

I agree. I was pretty young but was actually against giving Frank the reigns from the get go

 

[Cash68847]

I agree. I was pretty young but was actually against giving Frank the reigns from the get go

I was on the rivals message board at that point. I was 21. I was okay with it at the time. Looking back I think Frank should have got another year. He did revamp his staff and his team went 10-3.

 

[Chi7397]

Jesus….does that mean both were failures?

Solich wasn’t on a trajectory to win any more conference titles - his recruiting was truly terrible. It was going to get worse.

Callahan had a really good 06 team and then a really tough 07 (against an all-time hard schedule mind you), but with a phenomenal recruiting class in process. I still wonder what we look like in 08/09 if the AD comes out in support of him, subject to moving on from Cosgrove. The class was absurdly stacked.

 

[Goskers07]

Solich wasn’t on a trajectory to win any more conference titles - his recruiting was truly terrible. It was going to get worse.

Callahan had a really good 06 team and then a really tough 07 (against an all-time hard schedule mind you), but with a phenomenal recruiting class in process. I still wonder what we look like in 08/09 if the AD comes out in support of him, subject to moving on from Cosgrove. The class was absurdly stacked.

Young goskers07 was very happy to see Callahan go. Current goskers07 is slightly less dumb and thinks Callahan actually would have killed it if given a bit more time.