Dr. Rob Zatechka

[Trojan Husker]

I absolutely said Pelini had it worse than Frost. I’m not speaking to a singular issue tho. You bring up the AD, that’s a great point (just one I may add) that leads me to my conclusion. Tom Osborne wanted to be a band-aid or a stop-gap while Nebraska found their true AD. In many ways he found the cheapest ways to do things and not make large decisions that could hurt the department when he was gone. Osborne was supportive, as is Moos, but Moos is going to bat way more for Frost than Osborne did. Pelini presented to the AD on how he needed recruiting help and more staff on many occasions from 2009 on to get on par with LSU and he was told we needed to wait until the permanent solution comes in. This is the entire premise of why I have said for years “ya, Pelini needed to go, but would have loved to see what he could do with what Riley or Frost were given.”

Again, I’m not just talking about Talent. People seem fixated on that.

But I had never heard that about Pelini asking for help and not getting it. That is really frustrating. It seems like with the momentum of the 2009 and 2010 seasons, we could've really gotten rolling.

 

[Trojan Husker]

Pelini basically just had an AD that wasn’t going to commit more than he needed to until a more permanent solution was in place. The permanent solution ended up being Eichorst so that kind of makes me laugh a bit.

I feel like I read at one point that Osborne wanted to stick around longer but was kind of forced out? Did he really think of himself as temporary for five years?

God, we really struck out horribly with both Pederson and Eichorst. What a nightmare.

 

[Hu5k3r]

I bet there wouldn’t be a shortage of people to pull the plug when it comes to that time. Sorry, but when it’s time to go, it’s time. Make the most while you still can.

Dang dude!

 

[Husker Country Doc]

This is going to seem off the wall but I think Sam Folz's death in July 2016 really impacted the culture of Nebraska football. Aside from the carry over discontent/anger over the Pelini firing within the team his death opened the door in 2016 for a negative clique within the team to assume much influence. i.e. skipping classes/wieght training, ,etc. I think Folz's leadership was missed by a large group of players and that contributed to this happening. Please do not accuse me of blaming anything on Folz. That I am not doing. Just consider the team dynamics/culture, especially in 2016 and continuing through into 2017. Watch what little video of full team meetings in 2016 that are available and you can easily pick out the alpha male in those videos. Had Folz been available I think he was held in such high regard by the entire team, including that alpha male, he might have and I repeat might have, negated some of that negative influence impacting team work ethic/culture.

Please.

A great kid, I’m sure. A tragic story. But a team leader? No. You cannot be a team leader when you are on the field 6-7 plays a game.

 

[HuSkaBob]

Does talent not factor into a situation? You don't think that Pelini had a bit of an advantage to have a whole slew of talent to build on. Are you related to Bo, or what?

Carl????

 

[ShortSideOption]

But I had never heard that about Pelini asking for help and not getting it. That is really frustrating. It seems like with the momentum of the 2009 and 2010 seasons, we could've really gotten rolling.

I feel like I read at one point that Osborne wanted to stick around longer but was kind of forced out? Did he really think of himself as temporary for five years?

God, we really struck out horribly with both Pederson and Eichorst. What a nightmare.

I think Osborne wanted to be a stop-gap, and it just didn't happen. He wanted to get the football program in the hands of someone who understood the tradition, then get an AD in there that would carry that on. Then when Perlman chose the AD that Osborne didn't want, he wanted to stick around and was basically told he was no longer needed. It's why he didn't come around much in the Riley era.

 

[goodnterribles]

I think Osborne wanted to be a stop-gap, and it just didn't happen. He wanted to get the football program in the hands of someone who understood the tradition, then get an AD in there that would carry that on. Then when Perlman chose the AD that Osborne didn't want, he wanted to stick around and was basically told he was no longer needed. It's why he didn't come around much in the Riley era.

We have all argued the last 15+ years about what is wrong with this program. Callahan, Bo, Frank, now Frost to an extent. Perlman, Pederson, Eichorst. That's all anyone needs to know about what has happened.

 

[FeelLikeAStranger]

And I agree, Riley inherited a completely toxic situation. Not only that, but Pelini didn't seem to recruit as well near the end of his tenure. Maybe it was the switch to the Big Ten and navigating that whole transition, but the recruiting seemed to dip.

Hard not to have a ‘dip’ in recruiting when your administration is actively undermining the HC behind the scenes for at least 3 years and then publicly court firing the HC, cutting his legs out and leaving the program in limbo for another entire year because you couldn’t put the political capital together to fire the coach you left in limbo.

WTH, it’s not rocket surgery to figure out.

 

[36Blast]

Hard not to have a ‘dip’ in recruiting when your administration is actively undermining the HC behind the scenes for at least 3 years and then publicly court firing the HC, cutting his legs out and leaving the program in limbo for another entire year because you couldn’t put the political capital together to fire the coach you left in limbo.

WTH, it’s not rocket surgery to figure out.

Or rocket science, for that matter

 

[Maverick]

I guess I'm still not seeing what was bad about Pelini's situation. The team was one year removed from playing in the Big 12 championship, we had a big facilities upgrade in 2006 with the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex, and even Osborne himself was there as athletic director to support Bo with whatever he needed. Frost has a good situation with Moos as AD, but other than that it feels like Bo had a way better setup in 2008. But maybe there are other factors I just don't know about.

From what I can tell, *** has a lot more knowledge than many of us. My guess is internally there were issues that we're not privy to or the publicly known issues were more widespread than we knew.

 

[Deleted member 3570]

From what I can tell, *** has a lot more knowledge than many of us. My guess is internally there were issues that we're not privy to or the publicly known issues were more widespread than we knew.

I can't speak for ***, but I know enough to state that this is not only accurate, but some of the stuff would make fans here puke. It was really bad!

 

[Colfax]

Please.

A great kid, I’m sure. A tragic story. But a team leader? No. You cannot be a team leader when you are on the field 6-7 plays a game.

You know very little about the human experience sir!!!!

 

[FeelLikeAStranger]

Please.

A great kid, I’m sure. A tragic story. But a team leader? No. You cannot be a team leader when you are on the field 6-7 plays a game.

Oooh. Yeaaaaah. I’m going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there.

 

[North Cove]

Agreed. It doesn’t make sense to me that with almost all of the Riley players gone - the remainder which have arguably bought in - and after complete turnover in coaching staff, that this culture still exists. I guess it’s not as simple to root it out as I thought it would be.

Just one of the many excuses we've been using for nearly two decades now.

 

[wcbsas]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived!!!!!!! So many other factors go into a coaches success and situations they were dealt, not just talent. So when I say Pelini inherited a tougher situation, please refer to your own post 4107469 that i'm not just talking talent.

It feels good. It feels really good to get here. Now we can move on.

Do you think BP inherited a tougher situation? He’d been there a few years earlier. He inherited good talent.