Oh LORD is this funny!!!
Pelini wasn't that "Bad"? Ok, I mostly agree - he'd have been a "Rock Star" at Kansas or Texas Tech. But the fact is Pelini didn't match the record of Solich, a guy the Knebraska fans called a bust and demanded they fire.... So "it is what it is"......
Yea, never won less than nine games... NOR won more than 10, and never LOST fewer than 4 games in any season he finished at Nebr.!!
I don't really have a strong opinion either way on Frost. I'm no fan of Knebraska, but "IMO" CFB would be more interesting if another Blue Blood could return to the national stage.
I'll give you O'Brien - but at the same time, would you accept an Alabama coach - even in a bad situation - who won less than 63% of his games?
yea, I didn't think so!
USCw's 2009 sanctions were actually
Worse than our 2002 sanctions - the thing is, USCw didn't AMPLIFY their sanctions the way Alabama did, by
(A) effectively losing almost a full year of recruiting by allowing Dumbose to hang on in 2000 when he lost the team,
then
(B) hiring a guy unable and/or unwilling to recruit and (for the most part) losing another two classes,
then
(C) replacing the second guy with an alcoholic who stayed at Washington St until January, barely recruited at all for UA, then flamed out before he'd been on campus 4 months - in effect costing us a FOURTH consecutive recruiting class.
According to 24/7 sports, we didn't have a Top-20 class from 2000 (the first year they rank) until 2005 - and some of those classes didn't make the Top-FORTY!!
USCw's "investigation" never seriously affected their recruiting (#2 class in 2009, #3 in 2010 and again in 2011). So Lane took over a NC Contender quality team, with NC Contender Depth - and pretty much had that level of talent on the field his whole time there. AND maybe that's why their "idiot" AD (Hall-of-Fame'er Pat Haden) wasn't too happy with 7-6 in 2012, and a 0-2 Conference start in 2013.
We can debate which of Shula's Alabama teams was the
least crippled by sanctions - but it's beyond dispute that Lane's WORST USCw roster was still VASTLY better than Shula's BEST Alabama roster. (and yes, some of that IS Shula's fault).
IMO It's pretty doubtful that Lane Kiffin, for all his great offensive prowess, could have gotten to 10-0 and a #2 national ranking in November, even in the weak PAC-12, with the
paper-thin roster Shula had in 2005.
We could debate whether Brodie Croyle was as "NFL ready" (whatever that means) as Matt Barkley. Barkley was drafted #98, Brodie #85 - I'm not sure the NFL saw either of them as significantly better than the other?
The supposed "Scholarship Loophole" at Knebraska is and was almost completely a MYTH, spread by jealous haters. - The same kind of toads who have cried for the past 50+ years that Bryant "Cheated" by __________ (fill in your favorite myth).
AND even if it
WAS a real thing - how many Div-1 players come out of NEBRASKA every year???? I mean, I could buy the story if we were talking about LA, or GA, or FL, or CA - but
Nebraska?
Yea - not so much.
In fact, there are fewer NFL players from Nebraska than from Minnesota OR Colorado! - People argue that Tennessee can never win big again due to lack of local talent, right? The state of TN puts almost THREE TIMES as many guys into the NFL as the State of Nebraska!!!
But riddle me this? If it's such a big advantage, then why have all subsequent Nebr. coaches failed to win NC's with that BIG advantage? Why didn't Pelini win at least a couple? Or even see an 11 win season...... even once?
(Spoiler - it's really no advantage at all.)
Osborne's career Winning percentage of 0.836 would put him in the TOP-5 among active coaches today - and ahead of a certain guy we all know and love.
...... Frankly, any school that doesn't have Nick Saban as coach would be pretty happy to have a guy as "average" at Tom Osborne!!!!! LOL!!!!! :biggrin:
But, hey! Thanks for playing, all the same!!!!