Smaller story but I'm sure you will be interested.
The University of Nebraska fired athletic director Shawn Eichorst this afternoon. Eichorst had been on the job five years. He was hired to replace Steve Pederson who had also been at it five years.
Better minds than mine have said it is folly to think Nebraska football can ever get back to the level it once was, when it was competing for national championships routinely. Those days are long gone. Nebraska is too small a state; it does not home grow football players like it does corn. Why would a kid from Florida or Texas or California want to live four years in Lincoln, Nebraska?
Except they did. From 1962-2003 Nebraska did not have a losing season. That is forty-two fucking years. What, did the Ice Age hit Nebraska just when the Bill Callahan era did? Did the population empty out? In the six decennial censuses from 1960-2010 Nebraska was 34th, 35th, 35th, 36th, 38th and 38th. In twenty-three of those years it won 10 or more football games. It won five national championships. It had three head coaches.
Forty-two years is not a brief shining moment! They hired the wrong people. They hired the wriong athletic directors who fired and hired the wrong coaches. There is no inherent reason on God's green earth why Nebraskans should not expect their football program to be at that level again.
The University of Nebraska fired athletic director Shawn Eichorst this afternoon. Eichorst had been on the job five years. He was hired to replace Steve Pederson who had also been at it five years.
Better minds than mine have said it is folly to think Nebraska football can ever get back to the level it once was, when it was competing for national championships routinely. Those days are long gone. Nebraska is too small a state; it does not home grow football players like it does corn. Why would a kid from Florida or Texas or California want to live four years in Lincoln, Nebraska?
Except they did. From 1962-2003 Nebraska did not have a losing season. That is forty-two fucking years. What, did the Ice Age hit Nebraska just when the Bill Callahan era did? Did the population empty out? In the six decennial censuses from 1960-2010 Nebraska was 34th, 35th, 35th, 36th, 38th and 38th. In twenty-three of those years it won 10 or more football games. It won five national championships. It had three head coaches.
Forty-two years is not a brief shining moment! They hired the wrong people. They hired the wriong athletic directors who fired and hired the wrong coaches. There is no inherent reason on God's green earth why Nebraskans should not expect their football program to be at that level again.
