Just something about Harvey I dont like - after reading that he deflects blame so much, I think that attitude filters down through athletics
Okay, so who's the would-be “wow hire” to replace Frank Solich that got cold feet?
- Thread starter Larry Hagman's Liver
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Meyer says a lot of things that he doesn't really believe. Kind of like when he feigned outrage after we fired Pelini. He loved Pelini being here because he wouldn't have to recruit against him.
I would guess Butch Davis. He recruited that 2001 Miami team that destroyed us in Pasadena. He was also on the hot seat at Cleveland at the time.
Then one year later, he took a job at a school that fired an 8-win coach.
Pearlman, can tell us it was some other Head Coach then Wannstedt to make himself look better walking out the door but someone told me who worked in the AD offices who was high up told me different.
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I have always heard the same thing. Sherman was suppose to take the job and bailed out. Sherman also wouldn't have been a very good hire. Zimmer would have been the best hire of the coaches Pedey struck out on.
I was young then but I had heard that some guy called Lombardi was close to signing a deal but the NFL got a sweet TV contract and the dude stayed with some backwater town in Wisconsin. Bob Devaney became the 2nd choice and Nebraska Football hasn't worked out to bad since.
Recruiting was very good under Billy C, not sure how it would have been better. I agree Cosgrove was Cally's Achilles heel.
So for those of us keeping score at home, we have about 4, or is it 5, different guys who everyone has a source for?
If Pederson didn't have a plan B then Perlman exercised gross negligence to allow Pederson to pull the trigger. Oh well he's out of the picture now.
Agreed. Cosgrove's weakness was having absolutely no idea how to defend the spread and read option. At minimum, as the innovator behind the "Fun 'N Gun," Spurrier would have found someone capable of scheming against the "new age" offenses in the Big XII at that time.
What? You hire people you take to be competent for the job so you don't have to manage everything they do. He made a mistake in hiring someone who made a mistake, which he never could have foreseen, not in letting that person do the job he was hired to do.
IMO, Cosgrove as DC was the worst mistake ever made by Nebraska. Did you ever meet the man? Total ass from the beginning. Wore Wisconsin sweats in the coaches offices when recruts were in. Never took responsibility for his pathetic D.
I remember a member of the media asking Bill Callahan if he would fire himself if he were in the AD's shoes. If it was Spurrier in that position, he might have fired himself before the question was asked.
Well, that's when I heard about it. Doesn't mean that's when the talk started.
Every competent executive will ask what is plan B when the stakes are high and it's far from micro managing. Asking relevant questions on matters of significance is part of the responsibility Perlman accepted.
I don't think Harv meant 'wow hire' as we might be thinking. I think he meant 'wow' as in wtf?
We might have to agree to disagree on this issue, because I think Perlman's responsibilities went well beyond football. I'll grant that athletics in general could have been one of his top 5 concerns, after things like enrollment, endowment, and research, but I don't think you're ever going to convince me that he should have played anything but an indirect role in hiring and firing coaches, and by that I mean hiring a competent athletic director. I don't think Nebraska football fans appreciate real well that UNL is an academic institution first and foremost. If you want to criticize him for something, criticize him for the university losing its AAU membership on his watch.
Your point about stakes is valid. But if they had this conversation and SP gives him every reassurance he has his man, I don't see how that is Perlman's problem, because, as I am saying, his job is much bigger than making sure SP knows how to do his job.
To make the point another way. If Perlman asks SP, "who you gonna hire to replace Frank?" And SP says: "Dave Wannstedt." And Perlman goes, "who is that, is he any good?" And SP says, "yes, he is currently coaching the Dolphins in the NFL and I have an agreement in principle with him." I think that's a perfectly reasonable exchange, because I don't expect Perlman to know that much about football or have that much of a stake in it.
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Thats all well and good except Perlamn does insert himself into things football related all the time. One of the main gripes I have with this guy is his CYA style of management - For example when Riley was hired he does another interview( not about the english department) about how it all happened in this article he makes sure to insert even though He met with Riley that the decision to hire was Eichorst's only
I think the tone he set has done much to make the athletic department dysfuntional
I have followed this thread off and on and it really is an interesting testimony to the fact that no one knows for sure about anything but the opinions of many are supreme - at least in their own minds. Personally I don't really care who was lined up and backed out. I have seen it happen dozens of times in business and education. Plan B, if you want to call it that, can be a whole bunch of people who come in a distant 2nd to the top dog. I go after the person I want and if that doesn't work out I go back and reorganize. You can't play two along like that for very long. The timing is another issue if in fact someone did agree to come on board and the decision was made quickly, there would not be time to get plan B in place.
One thing I learned in business is that the higher you got up the food chain the less connected you were to the day-to-day operations. Meeting people was more to familiarize yourself with them, not judge them on their abilities. If I allowed a department to hire someone and they said this is our person then I would meet with them to get my own opinion but I don't go into the detail they did. A upper level manager simply does not have that much time. If I answer to a board which he does, then I have to account for several things - 1. did I give people below me the tools and freedom to do their job, 2. Did they actually do their job and present the best candidate, 3. Support the decision that was made by the person you have to trust. I cannot even imagine if HP were so involved in football that he had any time at all for anything else - it is just crazy to think about. Was he involved? Sure, but at what level.
Speculation is such a fun sport because everyone who chooses to speculate on who it might be cannot be wrong!
Guess who were assistant coaches at Pitt...
Jimmy and Dave.
Guess who Jimmy brought to Oklahoma State... Dave.
Guess who Jimmy brought to the Canes...
Dave.
Guess who Jimmy brought to the Cowboys... Dave.
Guess who Jimmy brought to the Dolphins... Dave.
Dave was the perfect cover for Johnson as to throw the sent off. And you need some serious cloak and dagger when you're going after a WOW hire.
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I agree with you there. Also his latest shots at Pelini on his way out. Conduct unbecoming of a chancellor imo.
Fair enough and I agree to a point. I know I would fire a direct report if he hatched a scheme that would be sure to piss off the major stakeholders and near founders with the idea that a "wow" hire would get ground swell support to silence the majors only to have his scheme fail. It isn't/wasn't as simple as going back to the drawing board for a do-over.
I know for certain if I knew Pederson was trying to change the contracts of the assistants so he could hatch a wow scheme he'd have been looking for a job that very day.
