Steve Pederson

[cavalot]

Look at the 2004 roster. Not about one class, one group in Nebraska, but a trend. Nebraska football was headed for mediocrity regardless, and that was on Frank and his inability to bring in talent, measured by an entire roster.

By 2003 Frank had let go of long time assistants for the very reason you mentioned. No doubt things had slipped. But the ship was being righted until Pederson shot a hole in the bow. That boat has been leaking ever since.

I guarantee that FS's classes have had more NFL success then anything since, as did most of his teams.

 

[cavalot]

So now Bama and Miami 4-5 star talent is being compared to one outlier Nebraska class? Gimme a break

You should take a break.

 

[dinglefritz]

By 2003 Frank had let go of long time assistants for the very reason you mentioned. No doubt things had slipped. But the ship was being righted until Pederson shot a hole in the bow. That boat has been leaking ever since.

I guarantee that FS's classes have had more NFL success then anything since, as did most of his teams.

His first classes after Tom retired maybe. You're right to a degree but I think even his hires were going to and did cause problems. We lost maybe our best D line recruit to transfer because Carl (GA) bagged the kid's wife. Bo wouldn't recruit. Our recruiting organization was severely deficient and he lost the ability to trade on Tom's legacy when he had the .500 season. IF he had canned Bo and Carl after their misdeeds and put in place some of the staff he has now at Ohio, I think he would have survived and maybe done very well. Heck if we had Burrows on staff at least we would have a good dual threat QB now. We definitely needed somebody who could bring in some offensive players and fast and I don't think we had that. That next year or two IMO would have been rough no matter what. The rift between Frank and SP had a lot to do with the recruiting organization and the issues some of his staff was having with their behavior.

 

[dinglefritz]

Pretty good post dingle....except stating that SP did not want to fire Frank. They did not have a great relationship. Stevie P wanted Frank gone all most as soon as he got here.

I don't think they got along from the start but SP most definitely was getting pressure to fire Frank a year before he did. What I said was he didn't want to fire him until he had a slam dunk hire in place. He thought he did.

 

[Toms Wife]

Look at the 2004 roster. Not about one class, one group in Nebraska, but a trend. Nebraska football was headed for mediocrity regardless, and that was on Frank and his inability to bring in talent, measured by an entire roster.

You must not remember those days. The one thing Dingle has right is that Frank was a goner starting in the '02 season. It hurt recruiting horribly for the '03 class. Most knew that Frank would be canned in '03 barring a conference championship. It wasn't much of a surprise that he got the axe even after beating CU to go 9-3.

Once again, four years removed from Osborne's retirement Frank was hauling in a top 10 class.

 

[SoFL Husker]

You must not remember those days. The one thing Dingle has right is that Frank was a goner starting in the '02 season. It hurt recruiting horribly for the '03 class. Most knew that Frank would be canned in '03 barring a conference championship. It wasn't much of a surprise that he got the axe even after beating CU to go 9-3.

Once again, four years removed from Osborne's retirement Frank was hauling in a top 10 class.

Ok, point made, point taken. I was far removed at that time, and entirely busy with life that I don't remember those late Frank classes or the one that got away due to his firing. Now, I work about 10% as much and scribble on here almost every other day

 

[dinglefritz]

You must not remember those days. The one thing Dingle has right is that Frank was a goner starting in the '02 season. It hurt recruiting horribly for the '03 class. Most knew that Frank would be canned in '03 barring a conference championship. It wasn't much of a surprise that he got the axe even after beating CU to go 9-3.

Once again, four years removed from Osborne's retirement Frank was hauling in a top 10 class.

I didn't say Frank was a goner that last year. IF he had won more SP couldn't have fired him. So in other words once Tom's national championship was no longer front of mind for high schoolers it became evident that NU had fallen off the top and Frank's recruiting was NOT going to fix that. (in the recruiting world it was 3 years after Tom retired) Unfortunately for Frank those highly ranked recruiting classes that you keep bragging about didn't contribute nearly as much as they should have for Frank. Bo certainly wasn't going to fix it either. Frank was failing in the recruiting department when he was canned. There is no debating that and it didn't appear that he was going to get that fixed any time soon.

 

[timnsun]

You must not remember those days. The one thing Dingle has right is that Frank was a goner starting in the '02 season. It hurt recruiting horribly for the '03 class. Most knew that Frank would be canned in '03 barring a conference championship. It wasn't much of a surprise that he got the axe even after beating CU to go 9-3.

Once again, four years removed from Osborne's retirement Frank was hauling in a top 10 class.

Most obviously didn’t include the players, who were shocked and upset at their coaches’ firing... I don’t think recruiting in 03 was bad because everyone expected Solich to be fired, as you suggest.

 

[Toms Wife]

Most obviously didn’t include the players, who were shocked and upset at their coaches’ firing... I don’t think recruiting in 03 was bad because everyone expected Solich to be fired, as you suggest.

So if Riley goes six and six or worse, we don't get an AD until late December, and no one is sure if he is staying or going, do you really think that won't hurt recruiting? That was virtually the exact situation in '02.

 

[huskerfan1414]

Pretty good post dingle....except stating that SP did not want to fire Frank. They did not have a great relationship. Stevie P wanted Frank gone all most as soon as he got here.

This.
Steve and Frank never got along, going wayyyyy back. Steves ego was large

 

[timnsun]

So if Riley goes six and six or worse, we don't get an AD until late December, and no one is sure if he is staying or going, do you really think that won't hurt recruiting? That was virtually the exact situation in '02.

No, what I’m saying is at 9-3 his firing was a shock to almost everyone except those in the know.

And why aren’t you returning to the 97 championship reunion thread? I was wondering, since you think they should show the Scott Frost Orange Bowl speech video tomorrow night, why that would be a good idea. I mean, it is a team celebration (even though it is Scott Frost’s 20th anniversary), but we need to celebrate Scott more than the rest tomorrow, right?

 

[Toms Wife]

I don’t think recruiting in 03 was bad because everyone expected Solich to be fired, as you suggest.

This is what you said and the same circumstances could be playing out before us. I bet if we go 6-6, don't have an AD until late December, have to wait for him to make a call, and then if Riley does get another year that some of those folks who have Nebraska really high on the list will start dropping Nebraska down a few notches come signing day.

 

[timnsun]

This is what you said and the same circumstances could be playing out before us. I bet if we go 6-6, don't have an AD until late December, have to wait for him to make a call, and then if Riley does get another year that some of those folks who have Nebraska really high on the list will start dropping Nebraska down a few notches come signing day.

Tell you what... I’ll respond to you as soon as you respond to my question about he frost video.

You see, I can be just like you and only respond to what I want, not what you asked.

 

[HuskerDana]

I don't think they got along from the start but SP most definitely was getting pressure to fire Frank a year before he did. What I said was he didn't want to fire him until he had a slam dunk hire in place. He thought he did.

There was some pressure from a couple of heavy hitters, but SP was looking for a reason to get rid of FS as soon as he arrived at NU. He was LOOKING to round up support for the removal of FS as HC. Unfortunately for Frank, he handed SP a reason. Recruiting had slipped under FS's watch....and we now will never know if the changes that FS made on staff would have reversed this trend.

I do know that privately FS even made reference to the fact that his days were numbered as soon as Stevie P was hired. They did not have a great relationship going all the way back to when SP was on the staff. What's kind of funny is that, in essence TO (by throwing support behind hiring SP as AD), helped to have his hand picked successor removed.

 

[BigRedBeliever]

Here's the problem with SP. Tom Osborne worked with him for multiple years and liked him well enough to endorse his hire. I have a couple of friends who knew him during his time at NU and both thought and still think he's a really good guy. I know, there's somebody on here who had a friend who supposedly worked with him during his very early time at NU and didn't like him. He comes off as a slick schmoozer and frankly I don't think you get to be an AD without being able to be a slick schmoozer. The fact is that the football program fell apart during his tenure and he didn't handle the fall out from canning Frank well at all. From what I've been told, the guy still loves Nebraska and still loves the Huskers. IF Callahan had won a MNC, SP would be a beloved legend despite his public personality. He had some good things rolling at the athletic department until he decided to shake up the football coaching. Frank's next to last season brought lots of heat from boosters to can Frank. (The same clowns that wanted to keep Bo). I don't think SP wanted to do it until he thought he had a slam dunk hire on board so he waited a year and it all blew up.

You nailed it. The boosters call the shots; not the AD. Follow the money...

 

[oldjar07]

His last 2 classes depending on what service you use were right around 40. We had Joe Dailey and MIke Stuntz for QBs with none in the works in recruiting. We had Corey Ross and nothing else at RB. Our O line severely lacked talent and there was nothing in the wings to help that so don't give me the "system" BS. The only way we got by before that was by riding Eric Crouch. We had a terrible offensive outlook no matter who the coach was and Frank wasn't IMO going to be able to recruit what he needed quickly enough to avoid a string of 6 loss or worse seasons. His next season would have been better than Callahan's first year no doubt but beyond that I doubt he was going to succeed. We'll never know. I wish SP had given him another year. SP is human. He made mistakes. I just don't like people demonizing SP like he was the only thing wrong with our football program because he wasn't. There were internal problems on Frank's staff more so than Frank himself that were going to doom him without major changes.

Joe Dailey would have done a lot better under Solich's system.