A lot of stuff in that article worth discussion. First, it's nice to see Osborne admit that Bo was crazy. However, the hire, at the time, made sense and his logic made perfect sense. While he may not have been everyone's first choice, I don't remember anyone saying it was a bad hire other than those who wished we'd hired someone with head coaching experience. Hindsight is 20/20 and he did win some games, but the 9 win a year thing wore off and it became apparent he wasn't going to get us anywhere worth going.
Next, I still wish we would have kept Solich and I'm not ashamed to say it. I was mad at the move when it happened and I will never forgive Steve P for what he did. The Colorado game should have gone down as a black eye, much like Iowa State in 78; instead it is known as the "death of nebraska football" but it wasn't and it didn't need to be. He should have been given more years after the staff shake-up. I have no doubt he would have at the very least won a few more conference titles, but it doesn't matter now I guess. I love the hypocrites who say "it's a different era" but won't allow themselves to say that about Solich.
Lastly, two things amaze me about Tom Osborne:
1) Everything he has done for this football program and this state
2) How many people are so vicious and vile toward him now
I don't understand all the hate. Did he make some hires that didn't work out? Yes, but what was he suppose to do? I think people forget just how low things were with Callahan/Steve P. That OK State game was one of the strangest days of my life and I'm not exaggerating. Just looking at people was sad. He had to step in and try to do something, no one else was more fitting. And he did what he thought was right. It's okay to disagree with it, but what was he supposed to do? Say "I made bad hires, so I'm going to go do you all a favor and step in front of oncoming traffic now."
What bugs me is it seems the hate has spilled over into trying to tarnish his coaching career. "Oh, we didn't have scholarship limits. Oh, everyone did steroids. Oh Tom screwed up Phillips. Oh, Tom never played anybody." and so on and so forth. It's all a load of crock. He was the best coach of his era of the best program of the era, playing by the rules everyone else of the era was playing by. He gave many Husker fans some of the greatest moments of their life and no one would care as much as they do now without him having the career he did. He has done wonderful things for this state, and frankly I'm not going to go cry in the corner because he's not out there talking about how great Riley is or because he hired someone who turned out to be a maniac. Grow up, people.
Sorry about the rant.
