Insider or outsider hires come with no guarantees

Though Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne has no immediate plans to step aside, it doesn’t stop speculation on who will succeed the 74-year old who was a legendary Husker football head coach from 1973-1997, during which time he compiled a 255-49-3 overall record, piloting Nebraska to three National championships.

University Chancellor Harvey Pearlman has admitted past mistakes, notably the Steve Pederson debacle (2002-2007). Osborne took over as interim athletic director in October 2007 after Pederson was fired. Osborne later had the tag lifted.

Pearlman recently said in an Omaha World Herald story that when Osborne decides to retire, he'll do a nation-wide search for the next Nebraska AD. That statement is significant because there are two people within the athletic department, Jeff Jamrog (assistant athletic director for football) and Paul Myers (associate athletic director of development), that are also believed to be potential successors to Osborne.

Jamrog is a former walk on (three year letter winner) that compiled 66 tackles, 13 for a loss and eight sacks as a senior. Myers has a sentimental favorite notion in him. It was Meyers’ brief departure from the department in October that added a significant subplot to the Pederson saga, and it was his return only four weeks later that was met with jubilance by some major donors. Now, some of those contributors are in tune that Meyers would be a fine choice to follow Osborne as Nebraska’s AD.

If Osborne has his druthers, based on past experience, he’ll push for the in-house candidate like he did in hand-picking Frank Solich to be his success. Osborne also gave a Pederson a strong recommendation as AD. When Osborne he replaced the deposed Pederson in 2007, he dismissed Bill Callahan at the end of the season as football head coach and hired then former Husker defensive coordinator Bo Pelini. When Osborne dismissed Mike Anderson as Husker baseball coach, he hired Nebraska legend Darin Erstad. The only head coaching hire Osborne made that did not involve Nebraska ties was Tim Miles as men’s basketball head coach to replace Doc Sadler.

Pearlman might be publically saying he will conduct a national search but you can bet Osborne will strongly recommend Jamrog or Meyers. I just don’t see Dr. Tom handing the keys to his Rolls Royce to somebody without spending a lot of time with the person first. He has his whole life vested in it.

However, national searches or in-house hires come with no guarantees and before anyone rants about “keeping it in the family,” just remember that after Bill Byrne left as Nebraska athletic director in 2002 for Texas A&M, many Nebraskans viewed Pederson as the ideal hire. Pederson had 2 ½ years of experience as Nebraska’s Associate Athletic Director as well as Director of Football Operations. Plus, he was a North Platte, Neb., native.

At the time, the hire made sense but would have known that five years later he would become the most loathed man in the state. If anything, he made Nebraskans long for the Byrne era.

It’s just so hard to tell what you’re getting, as everything seemed to point in the right direction for us, but just happened to be in the wrong direction. I’m no Pederson fan or apologist by any means, but he worked right under our own roof for so long, yet we didn’t really know the guy as well as we thought.

Most people will point to Pederson’s firing of Frank Solich and subsequent hiring of Callahan as the beginning of his demise which is true to a degree but it was not the ultimate reason why he got fired. Pederson’s management style as it pertained to those working under him as well as his arrogance with the Husker fan base was the reason he got fired. Pederson probably would have survived the Callahan hire if not for his poor management skills.  

Do you root for your conference in Bowl Games and March Madness?

To root or not to root. To be rooted for or not to be rooted for.

Every season when college football bowl games start or the NCAA basketball tournament gets underway, you frequently hear people talk about “rooting for teams in the conference.” The argument in favor of that is so the conference “looks good.”

While I can sort of understand that argument, I must say that I don’t just roll over on command when I hear it.

For example, I am a proud University of Nebraska graduate (Class of 1997). At Nebraska, football is king whereas basketball takes a backseat. Sorry, Husker fans. Let’s face it, if the football team went 5-7 and the basketball team made the Sweet 16, football would still be the No. 1 ticket. At other schools, the opposite would be true. At say, Kentucky, the football team could make a BCS bowl game and the basketball team could stumble to a .500. Basketball will always be king.

To take a Big 12 example, in 2007, Kansas’ football team went 12-1 including an Orange Bowl win over Virginia Tech. Three months later, the basketball team defeated Memphis for the NCAA title. However, when I think of the Jayhawks, I think basketball. Why? Because they are consistently good. Whereas football, while it has had a few spikes of success, never has enjoyed sustained success. What I mean by sustained is say 10-year period.

It’s definitely rare to be powerful at both sports. Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Ohio State have bucked the trend in recent years and have been strong at both sports but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Back to this whole argument of “rooting for your conference so it looks good.” Yes, a strong showing by your conference in bowl games and the NCAA tournament adds credibility for the conference. However, my argument is that if I wouldn’t root for say Oklahoma at any point in the regular season why should I change now? Plus, shouldn’t I be more worried about how my own team does?

Speaking as a Husker fan, in basketball, I root for the Big 12 without reservation. In football, I tend to go back and forth with that belief.

Why?

We haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 1997-1998 and have had four losing seasons since that year. I feel confident about the direction head coach Doc Sadler is taking the team but let’s face it, because basketball is not woven into the culture like football, it’ll take Doc longer than it will football head coach Bo Pelini to get the Huskers among the elite.

That said, I root for the Big 12 across the board because it’s not as if we are a threat to the Big 12 powers and I look at it as “well, if we’re not going to have NCAA tournament success then why not see someone else do it?”

In football, despite our 5-7 to 9-4 turnaround in 2008 under Pelini in his first season, we are obviously not where we are accustomed to being but I don’t think it’s going to be long.

Since other teams are a threat to us, my dislike for say Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Missouri and Kansas State runs deeper. Well, I can respect OU and Texas because while their programs and fan base have a cocky mentality at least they have produced National titles. Colorado, Missouri and Kansas State have not produced didley. Sorry, Colorado, your shared National title in 1990 will not get acknowledged since you needed five downs to beat a sorry ass Missouri team.

I will confess that one time in my life I did root for the Buffs was the 1995 Fiesta Bowl when a 10-1 Colorado team played a 6-4-1 Notre Dame team. Typical of Notre Dame getting bowl game preferential treatment. Damn elitists.

It might be blasphemy for a Husker fan to say this but I was glad to see Colorado kick Notre Dame’s ass 41-24. Another bit of irony with my dislike for the Buffs, one of my favorite Oakland Raiders from when I covered the team as a freelance writer from 1999-2005 was a Colorado Buffalo. He is Greg Biekert. I always admired the consistency in his performance and preparation.

This past bowl game season, I struggled with the idea of rooting for Missouri to beat Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl and Oklahoma to beat Florida in the BCS Bowl. On one hand, I want the Big 12 schools to win but my dislike for them runs so deep that it’s hard.