He's even had some mentoring...
Im not sure I shouldn't have put this in the pub or the smack room due to the comedic value it presented.
Osborne's input
You may have noticed a third-quarter Nebraska offensive play that seemed out of the ****er playbook from the 90s.
Zac Lee started to run the option to his right, then pulled back and found Niles Paul for a 45-yard game inside the Kansas 10. It looked like a play from Scott Frost or Eric Crouch or whoever.
Shawn Watson smiled after the game, recalling it. That play was added about two weeks ago, he said.
"Coach Osborne's input," he said, laughing. "It's serious. Coach Osborne's been awesome. He understands. He gets it. And he never forces anything on me. All he does is say, 'Look, here are some things that you may want to consider now that you are moving into this aspect of your game.' And Coach, he's a beautiful human being...." (Watson got emotionally choked up at this point for a couple seconds). "All those little twists, great stuff, he's helped enhance us. So Coach gets the credit for those."
Watson said it's just a matter of evolving. "If you've been in there hacking away with us, you know what we've been through this year. We'd get a guy hurt. ... You seen (the movie) 'Apollo 13?' We had to put all the pieces on the table. We had to put all the pieces on the table and find a way. The staff's been awesome. We've had to get out of all of our comfort zones. Because we thought we had something really special that we were working on. And we had to get out of our comfort zone and go back and put all the pieces on the table, and hack away and find a way."
Watson said Osborne has even offered him some old video cutups of plays like the one we're talking about. Ron Brown, with his option knowledge, also has been important to the process, the coordinator said.
"I have humility so I just listened and learned and those guys have been big helping us," Watson said.
About Osborne, Watson said: "He's awesome. You want Tom Osborne as your athletic director. He's a coach. He gets it. He understands it. He knows. So when he gives you good input, he's a Hall-of-Fame coach. There's not a guy in our building that doesn't stop and listen and we heed what he says. And he's always gracious enough to say, 'Tweak it to what you''ve got. Make it yours.' And that's what we've done."
Im not sure I shouldn't have put this in the pub or the smack room due to the comedic value it presented.