a couple quotes from Mac to start this article.... decent read.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10205227
Published Sunday | December 9, 2007
NU Football: Old values for new Big Red
BY DIRK CHATELAIN
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Nebraskans and Bill McCartney have always seen eye to eye, of course.
Tom Osborne, the interim athletic director, has taken unusual steps, like doing some football recruiting, to help NU recover.Go back to the days when McCartney took over Colorado's lowly football program and boldly proclaimed Tom Osborne his rival.
Or the days when McCartney beat Osborne two straight years with the Orange Bowl at stake. Or the days when CU fans showered all things scarlet and cream with beer and snowballs.
Oh, Cornhuskers have always loved Buffaloes, just as conservative farmers have always understood liberal mountaineers. So allow McCartney to speak for all flat-landers and put in perspective the Huskers' recent slide.
He's not joking one bit.
"The long run Nebraska enjoyed was the result of superior leadership," McCartney said.
"When they took Coach Osborne out of the equation, they made a colossal mistake of the highest order. If he had been involved in the decision making, you wouldn't have gone through what you did.
"That's flat-out obvious."
Osborne, 70, may not perceive his absence as the root of the dynasty's destruction, but he's re-engaged like a legend on one final mission.
Officially, he has performed the duties of athletic director for two months. But since Bill Callahan's departure, Dr. Tom has acted just as much like a football coach, mixing new faces with his old potion for brilliance.
Osborne did not bring former Husker assistant coaches back on staff, but he hired a head coach who would. He may not design the offense, but he had a hand in deciding who will. He may not teach techniques, but he helped recruit the kids to execute them.
Osborne's influence, combined with his emphasis on restoring past traditions, has been resoundingly endorsed. It's also highly unusual in the world of athletic administration.
Typically, a new head coach takes over and receives complete authority. But Bo Pelini's main task, it seems, is rebuilding the Blackshirts. The program's greater vision, at least for now, appears to be Osborne's.
On a recruiting visit to Omaha Westside High School on Tuesday, Osborne dropped off Pelini at the door as he parked the car.
In many ways, Osborne's still driving Husker football. He's still the face of the program and will be until Pelini returns from the national title game and finds time to warm his office, said Al Papik, Osborne's friend and a former Nebraska athletic administrator.
If your average coaching legend participated as Osborne has the past few weeks, Papik said, it'd be fair to wonder how the A.D.-head coach relationship would function.
But not Osborne, Papik said. He won't meddle.
"Once he gets everything under control, I think he'll be the athletic director," former Nebraska All-American Dave Rimington said. "He'll be hands off."
If he's overseeing an entire athletic department, Osborne won't have time to intervene with football, said former Nebraska defensive coordinator Charlie McBride.
But, for various reasons, stepping back may be difficult for Osborne. He's working with a first-rtime head coach. His personal investment in the program is unmatched. And he didn't sign up as A.D. for the long haul, so clearly he's working with urgency.
Former Nebraska team psychologist Jack Stark compared the situation to building a house over the course of 40 years, then walking away and watching it fall apart. Osborne won't leave again, Stark said, until he's comfortable with the repairs.
So wouldn't Osborne, who is expected to stay in the A.D. chair at least through the 2008 season, be inclined to keep an active role in football to accelerate the rebuilding effort? Nobody knows the landscape - or the day-to-day workings of a football team - like him.
Not likely, Papik said.
Osborne so admired the way Bob Devaney kept his distance from football matters that he will emulate his old boss.
But it might be tough to resist a heavy hand. Devaney never had to watch a football program in such a state of peril. Osborne, for that matter, hadn't seen a Husker season like 2007 since he was catching passes for the Washington Redskins.
He's taken unusual steps to help NU recover - and to establish the old blueprint.
Recent events - like temporarily joining the coaching staff - caught even McBride by surprise. Osborne? Recruiting?
Hey, if Tom's doing it, McBride said, it's probably the right thing.
But name a head coach other than Pelini whose first scholarship offer came not from him, but from the athletic director. It speaks volumes that the recipient of that offer was a Class C-2 honorable mention linebacker, Micah Kreikemeier, whose father and high school coach were former walk-ons for Osborne in the 1980s.
Name another head coach with defensive credentials who hired an offensive coordinator he's never worked with - and seemingly never met until last weekend. Shawn Watson caught Osborne's eye long before Pelini's.
Name another head coach - replacing a fired coach - whose staff has such a heavy dose of former assistants from that school. Barney Cotton, Marvin Sanders and Ron Brown worked with Pelini in 2003, but they all have connections to Osborne, too.
And Osborne made clear the day he fired Callahan the importance of Nebraska ties on the next coaching staff.
Finding a prominent voice who questions Osborne's decisions is like searching for a mountain to climb in Merrick County.
"I don't know anywhere along the line where I'd do something different," Rimington said. "From the day he was hired, he's handled this as well as anybody could."
You can't put a value on Osborne right now, Rimington said. He can wave the flag for the university while Pelini's preparing for a national title game. He can calm fears.
Papik was down at the local barber shop the other day and folks were already anticipating 2008. Days of depression are gone. Osborne's running the show.
"We'll trust Coach Osborne," Papik said. "I think that trust factor is a major reason why the state has settled down. They're content. If there was ever a person who could right the ship, it was Tom Osborne."
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