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Big Red Business: Private jet access for Husker coaches will get a boost

How long before the schools in recruiting hotbeds (read, SEC and Texas) cry enough to the NCAA to get this sort of thing shut down?
 
Well, in the $EC, they don't need planes-
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Some of the behind the scenes stories i've heard (since I hardly have enough money to be a part of the conversations) are crazy. Boosters can stop firings. Boosters can pull their support and get people fired. There's a story about after Riley started 1-2 an administrator saying "we can't afford to pay for two buyouts at once" and a singular booster flopping his goods on the table saying "i'll pay his buyout and Frosts yearly salary" after they destroyed Maryland.
Reminds me of the conversations on how some folks here thinking that the money NU doesn't have the funds other schools have. NU is still big Dog in college football. As a school they will never be afraid to make bold moves because of money. They can pretty much do what they want and need to do. If Frost proves himself, like I think he will, boosters will be more than happy to pay Saban like money to keep him.
 



Reminds me of the conversations on how some folks here thinking that the money NU doesn't have the funds other schools have. NU is still big Dog in college football. As a school they will never be afraid to make bold moves because of money. They can pretty much do what they want and need to do. If Frost proves himself, like I think he will, boosters will be more than happy to pay Saban like money to keep him.

Agreed. The key is to make bold moves that have a reasonable chance to succeed (like hiring Frost). Hiring Riley was bold in a sense, but also very risky. Hiring Callahan at the time was very bold, but horribly misguided. Yes, we have the benefit of hindsight, but neither of those unhappy endings should have been difficult to foresee.
 
How long before the schools in recruiting hotbeds (read, SEC and Texas) cry enough to the NCAA to get this sort of thing shut down?
It's actually the SEC schools that got the ball rolling for us. Before Terry Joseph showed up, our coaches didn't think anything of it to wake up at 5AM to drive to Omaha to catch a 7AM flight. Coach Joseph shows up from Tennessee and is sitting in the Southwest terminal in Omaha with one of our other coaches getting ready to board a flight and turns to him and goes "I would have already been sitting at a recruits high school a year ago. We haven't even taken off yet and we've been traveling for 2 hours already." That short statement gets the ball rolling, and then deeper analytics get involved with how much further our coaches have to travel compared to a school like Tennessee, and you learn how inefficient Nebraska truly was.
 
Agreed. The key is to make bold moves that have a reasonable chance to succeed (like hiring Frost). Hiring Riley was bold in a sense, but also very risky. Hiring Callahan at the time was very bold, but horribly misguided. Yes, we have the benefit of hindsight, but neither of those unhappy endings should have been difficult to foresee.
Absolutely! Riley was risky, and though a good disposition versus Bo, more attention should have been given to his record and it was thought that upgrade in facilities and such would make a difference, and what we got was that his record was an accurate reflection of his capabilities. We had a super affable man with a 50-50 record.
 
Agreed. The key is to make bold moves that have a reasonable chance to succeed (like hiring Frost). Hiring Riley was bold in a sense, but also very risky. Hiring Callahan at the time was very bold, but horribly misguided. Yes, we have the benefit of hindsight, but neither of those unhappy endings should have been difficult to foresee.

Bold moves come with a potential upside to offset the risk.

Nobody did a risk analysis on Mike Riley, apparently, as he has 0 upside potential.
 



It's actually the SEC schools that got the ball rolling for us. Before Terry Joseph showed up, our coaches didn't think anything of it to wake up at 5AM to drive to Omaha to catch a 7AM flight. Coach Joseph shows up from Tennessee and is sitting in the Southwest terminal in Omaha with one of our other coaches getting ready to board a flight and turns to him and goes "I would have already been sitting at a recruits high school a year ago. We haven't even taken off yet and we've been traveling for 2 hours already." That short statement gets the ball rolling, and then deeper analytics get involved with how much further our coaches have to travel compared to a school like Tennessee, and you learn how inefficient Nebraska truly was.


The value of this can't be overstated. I've spent my career flying commercially for work (30 years). It's soul crushing especially when you have a young family and are working long hours anyway. Now I have a few clients with fast planes that I get the pleasure of flying in on occasion and the hours it saves really add up. It will cut way down on the number of nights coaches have to spend away from home.This leads to greater job satisfaction/retention, being more rested and being a better coach to your existing players. For an energizer bunny like Held it will really increase his effectiveness.
 
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Some of the behind the scenes stories i've heard (since I hardly have enough money to be a part of the conversations) are crazy. Boosters can stop firings. Boosters can pull their support and get people fired. There's a story about after Riley started 1-2 an administrator saying "we can't afford to pay for two buyouts at once" and a singular booster flopping his goods on the table saying "i'll pay his buyout and Frosts yearly salary" after they destroyed Maryland.

I remember hearing from a very reliable source and I think it was also out in the general public, that a certain "Booster of substance" went to Osborne and wanted Carl Pelini fired over breaking up his son's marriage. Supposedly, Osborne went to talk to Bo about it and Bo said: "If he goes, I go", as we know Carl didn't get fired, but I think eventually even Bo strongly encouraged him to go elsewhere. I do know the booster pulled his support until at least after Bo was fired. I assume he is back donating again? Although he was a sizable donor, I don't think he was in the top 10. As to the 1%, I don't want this to morph into some type of wealth envy argument. I am far from being a one percenter and likely never will be, but I want to thank guys like Dan Cook and Howard Hawks because they help us compete at a championship level. People who donate that much have the right to do whatever they want with "their" money. FWIW, I was less and less a Bo fan every year, especially the last two. "At the time" I was supportive of Eickhorst and his hiring of Riley. Now that I've heard all the facts and have seen the results, I wish we never hired either. I'm sure there are still plenty of Bo fans out there, but consider this: How many P5 offers has he received? I doubt tOSU reached out to him for their DC and other than his 1st or 2nd year, what has he done at Youngstown? IMHO, he doesn't like recruiting and the results show it.
 
I remember hearing from a very reliable source and I think it was also out in the general public, that a certain "Booster of substance" went to Osborne and wanted Carl Pelini fired over breaking up his son's marriage. Supposedly, Osborne went to talk to Bo about it and Bo said: "If he goes, I go", as we know Carl didn't get fired, but I think eventually even Bo strongly encouraged him to go elsewhere. I do know the booster pulled his support until at least after Bo was fired. I assume he is back donating again? Although he was a sizable donor, I don't think he was in the top 10. As to the 1%, I don't want this to morph into some type of wealth envy argument. I am far from being a one percenter and likely never will be, but I want to thank guys like Dan Cook and Howard Hawks because they help us compete at a championship level. People who donate that much have the right to do whatever they want with "their" money. FWIW, I was less and less a Bo fan every year, especially the last two. "At the time" I was supportive of Eickhorst and his hiring of Riley. Now that I've heard all the facts and have seen the results, I wish we never hired either. I'm sure there are still plenty of Bo fans out there, but consider this: How many P5 offers has he received? I doubt tOSU reached out to him for their DC and other than his 1st or 2nd year, what has he done at Youngstown? IMHO, he doesn't like recruiting and the results show it.
Excellent post and I could not have said any better. I certainly appreciate Bo and what he was able to accomplish, but I knew he wasn't a long term solution when he himself complained and said that you can't recruit to Nebraska. If you don't believe in the place, you really don't belong.
 
Some of the behind the scenes stories i've heard (since I hardly have enough money to be a part of the conversations) are crazy. Boosters can stop firings. Boosters can pull their support and get people fired. There's a story about after Riley started 1-2 an administrator saying "we can't afford to pay for two buyouts at once" and a singular booster flopping his goods on the table saying "i'll pay his buyout and Frosts yearly salary" after they destroyed Maryland.

I also offered to buy wings and beer for the entire bar if they pulled the trigger, but they only took me up on the wings and beer part at the time.
 



Given our national recruiting footprint, we probably need our own plane or fleet more than anyone.

If Purdue can afford it, why can't we?
https://nebraska.rivals.com/news/big-red-business-new-recruiting-tool-donor-program-for-jet-service[/QUOTE Purdue offers a pilot certification program in their Aeronautics School which has produced more Astronauts than any other program in USA, part of this includes an Airport which is for all intents and purposes on campus, and also several aircraft for training purposes.Not sure but believe some craft could be double purposed to be used by Athletic Dept.
 

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