Locked due to no posts in 60 days. Report 1st post if need unlocked Would TO have faded out like Bobby Bowden?

[The Impaler]

Was listening to the Dan Le Batard show on the way home this afternoon and they had Bowden on as a guest. Was a very good interview and when the podcast is up I recommend taking a listen.

Anyway, BB talked about the pressures of CFB and how he didn't realize how much pressure there was until he was out of the game. Was talking about how the more you win, the more you're expected to win, etc. Also talked about interviewing for the Bama job in 86 and would have left had they offered it to him. They asked if Saban would leave and he said, he may be tired of the pressure at Bama, where it gets more difficult every year to please the fans and even though there would be just as much pressure at UT for example, it would be lighter at the beginning.

Well, it just got me wondering if Tom's career would have fizzled like Bobby's did. Also, found it interesting the fan expectations and what not. I think it's a good point to reiterate, that NU isn't any different than the pressure cookers elsewhere.

 

[ColoREDo]

Obviously Osborne's Huskers would have come back to a mere mortal football team at some point but I seriously doubt he would have lost 4 games in '98 and I absolutely refuse to believe he would have been 7-7 in 2002.

 

[Trojan Husker]

Obviously Osborne's Huskers would have come back to a mere mortal football team at some point but I seriously doubt he would have lost 4 games in '98 and I absolutely refuse to believe he would have been 7-7 in 2002.

Agreed. I also think we would have another national championship in 1999. TO would have to come back down to Earth at some point so he probably would've settled into 9-3 and 10-2 seasons (maybe even 8-4 once or twice), but we'd have at least a couple of Big 12 championships in the 2000s.

In the end I'm glad TO called it quits when he did. There's nobody else who can match the run he had in his final five seasons. 60-3!

 

[SoCalRed]

No way to know what would have happened after TO retired had he stayed another five or six years. His level of success would not have matched that of the Nineties - hell, nobody has since. But it's fair to say that five or six years would have been his limit.

One thing that would have been different was the recruiting numbers. They would have stayed pretty high until after he retired, and then dropped accordingly, as they actually did. Safe to say that there might have been a conference title in 2001; maybe even a NC.

We would still have been in the position of hiring a new HC in 2004 though, although TO probably would have been the AD at that time, and Callahan would never have been hired.

 

[Trojan Husker]

No way to know what would have happened after TO retired had he stayed another five or six years. His level of success would not have matched that of the Nineties - hell, nobody has since. But it's fair to say that five or six years would have been his limit.

One thing that would have been different was the recruiting numbers. They would have stayed pretty high until after he retired, and then dropped accordingly, as they actually did. Safe to say that there might have been a conference title in 2001; maybe even a NC.

We would still have been in the position of hiring a new HC in 2004 though, although TO probably would have been the AD at that time, and Callahan would never have been hired.

The '99 Huskers would've had a national championship too. That team was excellent and only lost one game by 4 points.

In 2001 we were a tad outmatched in a couple of games (to say the least), but you're right that the recruiting wouldn't have dropped off so maybe we could've won. Hard to say. Another thing to consider is if Charlie McBride had stuck around. If he was our DC in 2001, I doubt we would've had Black Friday nor the embarrassment in the Rose Bowl.

 

[SoCalRed]

The '99 Huskers would've had a national championship too. That team was excellent and only lost one game by 4 points.

In 2001 we were a tad outmatched in a couple of games (to say the least), but you're right that the recruiting wouldn't have dropped off so maybe we could've won. Hard to say. Another thing to consider is if Charlie McBride had stuck around. If he was our DC in 2001, I doubt we would've had Black Friday nor the embarrassment in the Rose Bowl.

I didn't mention '99, because that was an error on the defensive side of the ball. McBride was calling the defense, and would have done so no matter who his HC was. They probably still would have lost to Texas.

 

[ColoREDo]

The '99 Huskers would've had a national championship too. That team was excellent and only lost one game by 4 points.

In 2001 we were a tad outmatched in a couple of games (to say the least), but you're right that the recruiting wouldn't have dropped off so maybe we could've won. Hard to say. Another thing to consider is if Charlie McBride had stuck around. If he was our DC in 2001, I doubt we would've had Black Friday nor the embarrassment in the Rose Bowl.

I am not ready to say we would have won a title against that Hurricane team but I would imagine it would have at least been a game. The '01 Canes were one of the best teams ever.

 

[Gxuvir93]

I didn't mention '99, because that was an error on the defensive side of the ball. McBride was calling the defense, and would have done so no matter who his HC was. They probably still would have lost to Texas.

Who's to say that we wouldn't have scored 20 more points had TO been calling the offense?

 

[Gxuvir93]

I am not ready to say we would have won a title against that Hurricane team but I would imagine it would have at least been a game. The '01 Canes were one of the best teams ever.

The 2001 Hurricanes were a great team with a ton of NFL talent, but I wouldn't call a team that needed a fluke 91-yard defensive TD to beat an 8-4 Boston College team one of the greatest. They also got lucky against VaTech as one of their players dropped a wide open 2-point conversion that would have tied the game.

 

[ColoREDo]

The 2001 Hurricanes were a great team with a ton of NFL talent, but I wouldn't call a team that needed a fluke 91-yard defensive TD to beat an 8-4 Boston College team one of the greatest. They also got lucky against VaTech as one of their players dropped a wide open 2-point conversion that would have tied the game.

Wall to wall talent that won despite a suspect head coach. Definitely one of the best ever IMO.

 

[huskrthill]

Osborne would have continued to win at least 10 games per season (with a 12 game schedule) and would have won at least one more national championship before the message board nonsense eventually would have run him out of town.

 

[SoCalRed]

Who's to say that we wouldn't have scored 20 more points had TO been calling the offense?

That's a valid point, but really not relevant to the discussion, considering that we were outscored 21-7 in the second half.

 

[The Impaler]

That's a valid point, but really not relevant to the discussion, considering that we were outscored 21-7 in the second half.

Not following your logic here as usual. So if we had scored 20 more points it wouldn't have mattered as we got outscored 21-7 but only lost by 4?? Not sure I follow here.

 

[HuskerFanz]

He probably would have been or possibly pushed to just a figurehead like Peterno was at the end of his career.

 

[SoCalRed]

Not following your logic here as usual. So if we had scored 20 more points it wouldn't have mattered as we got outscored 21-7 but only lost by 4?? Not sure I follow here.

Point being that it was the defense that gave up 21 points in the second half. I concede that it's more likely we could have beaten Texas that game if TO is the HC, but we would have had the same DC regardless.

Seriously, we give TO an awful lot of credit for things he didn't actually do. I get it, but perhaps we need to do a little less canonization of Coach Osborne.