http://redraiders.com/sports/2015-0...d-tom-osborne-when-it-had-chance#.VeHOk_lVikq
By Don Williams
A-J MEDIA
Editor’s Note: The Avalanche-Journal is revisiting defining moments in Texas Tech football history as the Red Raiders head toward their 1,000th game on Sept. 5.
One of the biggest what-ifs in Texas Tech football history is this: What if Tech had hired Tom Osborne when it had the chance?
Osborne, then a 32-year-old Nebraska assistant coach, came to Lubbock to interview in late December 1969 when JT King stopped coaching to become full-time athletic director.
Ultimately, the job went to Jim Carlen, who produced one of the Red Raiders’ best eras, going 37-20-2 in five years including an 11-1 season in 1973. Osborne said he was told Tech preferred Carlen because of his head-coaching experience at West Virginia.
Osborne went on to win 255 games, 13 conference championships and three national championships from 1973-97 as head coach at Nebraska.
The imagination wanders at the thought of Osborne roaming the Jones Stadium sidelines in a different shade of red.
"The people in West Texas are similar to the people in Nebraska,’’ Osborne told me at a 1999 speaking engagement in Lubbock. "It was a place I felt I could be comfortable in the style, the size of the school, the location and everything. It would have worked out for me. But they had to make a decision. I can understand why they’d go with a guy that had head coaching experience.’’
Even had Tech hired Osborne, though, who knows how long he might have stayed. Nebraska promoted him from offensive coordinator to head coach less than four years after that interview at Tech.
Osborne was born, raised and went to college in Nebraska, so he might have felt the same tug as David McWilliams, who left Tech after one year to return to Texas, his alma mater.
During that 1999 conversation, Osborne was reluctant to say whether he could have done in Lubbock what he did in Lincoln.
"That’s so hard to assess,’’ he said. "Tech’s had some good teams. JT King was a friend of mine. Steve Sloan, I thought, did a nice job, Jerry Moore, a lot of guys. Spike (Dykes) has done a real good job. It’s so hard to extrapolate from one situation to another.’’
Long-time Red Raiders’ fans, though, could have a field day to write that chapter of alternative history.
By Don Williams
A-J MEDIA
Editor’s Note: The Avalanche-Journal is revisiting defining moments in Texas Tech football history as the Red Raiders head toward their 1,000th game on Sept. 5.
One of the biggest what-ifs in Texas Tech football history is this: What if Tech had hired Tom Osborne when it had the chance?
Osborne, then a 32-year-old Nebraska assistant coach, came to Lubbock to interview in late December 1969 when JT King stopped coaching to become full-time athletic director.
Ultimately, the job went to Jim Carlen, who produced one of the Red Raiders’ best eras, going 37-20-2 in five years including an 11-1 season in 1973. Osborne said he was told Tech preferred Carlen because of his head-coaching experience at West Virginia.
Osborne went on to win 255 games, 13 conference championships and three national championships from 1973-97 as head coach at Nebraska.
The imagination wanders at the thought of Osborne roaming the Jones Stadium sidelines in a different shade of red.
"The people in West Texas are similar to the people in Nebraska,’’ Osborne told me at a 1999 speaking engagement in Lubbock. "It was a place I felt I could be comfortable in the style, the size of the school, the location and everything. It would have worked out for me. But they had to make a decision. I can understand why they’d go with a guy that had head coaching experience.’’
Even had Tech hired Osborne, though, who knows how long he might have stayed. Nebraska promoted him from offensive coordinator to head coach less than four years after that interview at Tech.
Osborne was born, raised and went to college in Nebraska, so he might have felt the same tug as David McWilliams, who left Tech after one year to return to Texas, his alma mater.
During that 1999 conversation, Osborne was reluctant to say whether he could have done in Lubbock what he did in Lincoln.
"That’s so hard to assess,’’ he said. "Tech’s had some good teams. JT King was a friend of mine. Steve Sloan, I thought, did a nice job, Jerry Moore, a lot of guys. Spike (Dykes) has done a real good job. It’s so hard to extrapolate from one situation to another.’’
Long-time Red Raiders’ fans, though, could have a field day to write that chapter of alternative history.
