yep, 100% spot on and I agree.. NU didn't adjust fast enough to this, but the biggest problem football had came from NU itself..
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What REALLY hurt Osborne's approach to program dominance?
- Thread starter Middle-aged_Ball_Coach
- Start date
yep, 100% spot on and I agree.. NU didn't adjust fast enough to this, but the biggest problem football had came from NU itself..
Well, they weren’t eligible as freshmen, giving them a full year to get acclimated, and focused on their grades. Pretty simple, they either make it or they don’t? Why not let them sink or swim? It’s purely some egotistical, white, suits.
I gotcha. Texas sucked in the 1980’s and 1990’s, mostly. The jucos must have not helped them. They should have looked at Kansas State on how to use jucos.
You could be right about IWCC, I just don’t recall exactly but it seems it was around that time.
Interesting thread. I think between the rule changes and the coaching changes it was nearly impossible to continue the success of the program. However, there's nothing stopping it from being a top 10-15 program. Just putting the pieces in place.
Thanks, I couldn't remember the details. I knew that they didn't have a football program back then, and I knew Osborne was involved somehow, but the rest was fuzzy.
Lawrence Phillips would be one.
Do you mean a partial qualifier? I don't think he was. He scored very well on his testing, and he had his grades together in late high school. Osborne said that he was a very high IQ guy.
Yeah, I believe he played as a true freshman
I recollect that he had to score high on either ACT or SAT and did. But it was because he had some poor grades.
But I think you’re right, he was immediately eligible and scholarship from get go. But I thought his grades were questionable enough that a lot of “name brand” programs (USC e.g.) backed off.
So you’re correct, he was not a partial qualifier.
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In the documentary about LP, Osborne mentioned that he had been given an IQ test, and he had scored very high. By the rules of the time, if LP's grades were below a 2.5 GPA, he had to score significantly higher on the SAT or ACT to be eligible. I'd guess that Osborne had his staff administer an IQ test to in some way get a bead on the likelihood of his passing the SAT/ACT minimum requirements. Other schools would have backed off. Nebraska was the only blue blood program of the era who was willing to work with and wait on partial qualifiers to become eligible. We were probably the only top tier program who kept faith that LP would qualify, and even if he didn't, he likely would have been taken as a partial qualifier. LP--despite all of his other well known shortcomings--was very loyal, so I imagine that Osborne's willingness to stick with him when things were up in the air probably carried extra influence.
And played well. He had a decent game against FSU in that 18-16 loss (robbery).
Edit. Wouldn’t it have been cool to have seen him without all of his demons? What might have been. When I would hear him speak, he spoke well, seemed like a good dude. Then he lost it. Driving into that crowd of kids was the last straw for him. It’s just to bad he couldn’t grab ahold of the inner issues, which btw, most deal with something. Most are just able to control it.
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RJ Young is a long-time video blogger who started out covering the Sooners with a new vlog every day, but it often expanded to cover other teams. He has a background in football (I think he played DB at Tulsa), and he's very astute and honest. I've been following him for quite a few years because more often than not he was worth watching. He recently got a promotion to a national position as a Fox Sports digital analyst.
Young has been intrigued by the renewal of the Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry ever since the game was announced, but he has admitted that he's young enough that he can't really remember it as the sort of rivalry game that his parents' generation experienced. His audience trends young, so he was often trying to make people understand how dominant the 90s Nebraska teams were, which brings us to the video that is worth watching:
The main gist of the video is a re-analysis of Tim Layden's insanely prophetic prediction in January of 1996 that the changes in eligibility rules for partial qualifiers in the new Big 12 conference was going to end Nebraska's dominance. That article is the most outstanding example of clear analytical thinking being applied to any sport, anywhere, at any time as far as accurately laying out the cause and effect of the momentous changes that were about to take place. If you've never read the article, here's the Sports Illustrated Vault version of it, and I can't imagine that it will ever be outdated and not worth reading:
HEADED FOR A FALL? NEBRASKA MAY WIN ANOTHER NATIONAL TITLE, BUT THE DAYS WHEN SUCH A COLOSSUS RULED THE GAME ARE OVER
It was tempting enough to become enthralled with Nebraska'sbrilliance in its 62-24 Fiesta Bowl humiliation of Florida onJan. 2. It was impossible not tovault.si.com
If you liked that RJ Young video, I'd recommend subscribing to his channel because he has promised to cover a lot more on the history of the Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry as the 50th anniversary of the Game of the Century draws near. Young is the epitome of the best of amateur web sports analysts who have been able to make a career out of using a technology in ways that weren't possible 20 years ago. Yes, he's an Oklahoma fan, but he's fun and playful about it. Enjoy!
I saw this last week. It is a great video. I thought the angle of racial bias in the Big 12 and NCAA decision was an interesting take as well. As most of the PQ were minority players from inner city areas with poor school systems. TO was unique in his ability to get these players to not only become great players but more often then not get them to graduation. The main impediment to those players graduating during his tenure was them leaving early for the NFL. However he also opened the avenue for them to come back and finish their schooling if they so desired.
I agree. I think that it was the staff's ability to identify the guys who would be motivated to put in the work and do the right thing was a large part of the reason why the guys who ended up coming as partial qualifiers were so often turned into success stories.
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Agree! If I had to guess, one of the reasons TO retired when he did was the impediment to helping disadvantaged kids that limiting prop 48 effected. Osborne didn’t coach football just to win. It was obvious that he was truly motivated by using football to help those young men become productive adults. I agree with the video that TO’s career would likely had been extended had he been able to continue to use Prop 48 to recruit large numbers of athletes. Winning at a high level would have resulted of course. My hypothesis, however, is that the controls of the Husker football were turned over for humanitarian reasons not mainly for football achievement…he had all that…and arguably could have had more if that was what drove him.
