I've been working on this Nebraska coach/U.S. president analogy. Excuse any flippancy, real or perceived.
Devaney = Truman: Salty Midwesterner who, when he had the weapons, dropped a couple of big ones (national titles).
Osborne = Eisenhower: Lots of social problems beneath the surface, but an unparalleled era of peace and prosperity.
Solich = Kennedy: Assassinated by a sniper just as he was turning things around.
Callahan = Johnson: Rioting in the streets over defensive ineptitude.
Pelini = Nixon: Foul-mouthed paranoiac with a list of enemies a mile long.
Riley = Ford: Nice guy who can't help falling on his face a little too often.
I deliberately stopped after Ford. Consensus on the success of any president after him is a political minefield. Plus, I didn't want to get into the whole Jimmy Carter "crisis of confidence" and "malaise" thing this early in the season. Although I have to say this sounds pretty prescient with minor edits: "It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our (Husker) will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our (football program)."
Devaney = Truman: Salty Midwesterner who, when he had the weapons, dropped a couple of big ones (national titles).
Osborne = Eisenhower: Lots of social problems beneath the surface, but an unparalleled era of peace and prosperity.
Solich = Kennedy: Assassinated by a sniper just as he was turning things around.
Callahan = Johnson: Rioting in the streets over defensive ineptitude.
Pelini = Nixon: Foul-mouthed paranoiac with a list of enemies a mile long.
Riley = Ford: Nice guy who can't help falling on his face a little too often.
I deliberately stopped after Ford. Consensus on the success of any president after him is a political minefield. Plus, I didn't want to get into the whole Jimmy Carter "crisis of confidence" and "malaise" thing this early in the season. Although I have to say this sounds pretty prescient with minor edits: "It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our (Husker) will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our (football program)."