I chuckle every time I read that we can blame Osborne for not allowing the AD to do a real search for a big name coach in 1997. I laugh because it is all hindsight thinking. IN 1997 NU was in the midst of the greatest run in the history of college football. Our program was hitting on all cylinders and a great deal of our success had to do with the unique genius of Osborne's unique offense. Nebraska WAS Osborne's offense. Yes, yes, we had a great defense. But that is because we had great athletes and McBride dialed up a blitzing attack defense on the shoulders of a great d-line and corners who could cover in man to man. Therefore, the real uniqueness of Nebraska was that offense. It was our identity and our brand.
So when he knew he was going to retire Osborne wanted to keep the train going just as it had been. And why wouldn't he? It just made sense. And the best way to do that was to hire Solich since he knew the unique offense we were running inside and out. Osborne knew that if you brought in a brand new head coach from outside you were going to get an all new staff most likely and a change of offensive identity. You know... kind of like we got later with Callahan. And Osborne rightly thought that it would be insane to dismantle the single most successful program of the modern era.
Solich turned out to be a not so great recruiter and he got little help from his veteran staff either in that regard. So there was a drop off. But I will contend to my dying day that the biggest tragedy in the history of NU football was firing Solich and replacing him with Callahan. Because in doing that you did more than fire Solich. You fired a tradition of success which was tied to a unique offense that began to take shape in 1978 and which had only gotten better and better over the years. Yes, Solich changed and modified that offense a bit. But it was still the same basic offense.
And notice this as well for all of you who want to blame Osborne for this mess: Since 1997 Osborne was the one who hired our two most successful coaches who never had a losing season and averaged nine wins a year.
Too bad Frosty boy's ego caused him to ignore that legacy and that offense in favor of his Pac 12 basketball on grass notion of offense. How could he possibly have ignored the fact that power, power, power is what made NU great and is what the B1G does well. But Frost wanted to be known as his own offensive genius and he wasn't going to just emulate the Osborne template.
And now he is most likely going to get fired. And our program is a shambles. And people are on here dreaming about spending 100 million to get a coach here who is so lacking in integrity and is a proven liar and a total megalomaniac that he flopped with NFL players he could not bully and intimidate. Imagine what his buyout clause would be and how much it would bankrupt us when it came time to fire him in three years.
