The Nebraska Way

I can’t imagine Tom Osborne saying the Danny Glover line from “Lethal Weapon,” but he has to be thinking it. “I’m getting too old for this s---.”

Osborne was 60 in 1997, when he walked away from the Nebraska football program, having won three of the previous four national championships. He was a missed field goal (’94 Orange Bowl) and split-end screen (’96 Big XII Championship) away from winning five in a row. In the mid-90s, Nebraska was Alabama.

These were my high school years. Being a Nebraska football fan was hip, and the words ‘Nebraska’ and ‘hip’ haven’t been associated with each other before or since. Rappers were wearing Tommie Frazier jerseys on MTV. ESPN’s College Game Day was in Lincoln every other week and Osborne was starring in Burger King commercials.

Being a Nebraska football fan was easy: roll out of bed, turn on the TV and watch them hang “half-a-hunerd” on one of the Little Six, wash, rinse and repeat. I actually remember a discussion with a friend sometime during that ’95 season, where neither of us could foresee the Huskers losing a game again . . . EVER.

Yes, there was controversy. Yes, there was drama. But Osborne had created a machine, so finely tuned that it seemed indestructible, even in the midst of such obstacles.

He turned over the keys to that machine in 1998 to a little known running backs coach, whose sole purpose was to keep it running. Unfortunately the manual for that machine was contained in Osborne’s head. Osborne has authored four books, but unfortunately none of them have been a Bruce Lee-style manifesto on the art of football titled “The Nebraska Way.”

We throw that phrase around a lot. Each time a coach or an athletic director is fired, we offer up candidates familiar with “The Nebraska Way”: Scott Frost, Turner Gill, Ron Brown, Trev Alberts, Dave Remington.

First and foremost, we turn to the Godfather in search of guidance and direction in “The Nebraska Way.” I like to imagine the Godfather alone, sitting on the bank of his favorite fishin’ hole when his cellphone rings. His signature squint from the sun turns into more of a squinty scowl as he looks at the number. “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.” And of course, “I’m getting too old for this s---!”

Osborne put out a dumpster fire in 2007, after Chancellor Harvey Pearlman, AD Steve Pederson and football coach Bill Callahan did everything in their power to rid the football program, and the athletic department, of “The Nebraska Way.” But looking back, I question whether there is a Nebraska Way.”

Ask the 90,000 fans, inside Memorial Stadium, to define “The Nebraska Way” and you will get 90,000 different answers: walk-ons, fullback traps, power football, run-the-damn-ball, Blackshirts, Black Friday, the triple option, I-backs. The truth of the matter is, “The Nebraska Way” is winning and it doesn’t really matter how you get it done.

“The Nebraska Way,” is essentially “Osborne’s Way” and his recipe for winning included all of the aforementioned. The “Osborne Way” was different than the “Devaney Way” but both methods resulted in winning and therefor became the “Nebraska Way.”

What if Callahan would have had success at Nebraska? Would the west coast offense be considered “The Nebraska Way?” He didn’t, so we cling to traditions associated with those who did in hopes of recapturing glory. For the sake of God, it is 2017 and the Huskers are still walking out of the tunnel to the Alan Parsons Project. Even Alan Parsons is embarrassed.

Frank Solich essentially used the same recipe as Osborne. After all, he served 20 years as his understudy. Admittedly, I wasn’t a Solich fan. My sister went to UNL in the mid-90s when national championships were a birthright. My freshman year coincided with Solich’s first year at the helm. He lost four games. From 1993-1997 Nebraska had only lost three games.

But looking back, I realize that Osborne had a couple of ingredients that neither Solich nor any coach since have had – patience and stability.

From the time I was born until the time I graduated high school, I knew one football coach at Nebraska. That football coach worked for a total of two athletic directors during his 25-year head coaching career. My 11-year old son will soon see his fourth athletic director and likely his fourth coach during his short lifespan. And with each shakeup, we turn to the Godfather and ask, “What do we do now?”

Osborne’s reign as athletic director has been widely criticized. The facility upgrades under his watch are tainted by questionable coaching hires.  Bo Pelini steadied the football program but never returned it to past glory, Tim Miles’ days are numbered and Darin Erstad, Osborne’s punter, is prone to late season disappointment.

Osborne’s tenure as athletic director was much like his coaching career. He was a marathon runner and not a sprinter. While he won a lot of football games early in his career, he couldn’t beat Oklahoma and therefore couldn’t win a Big 8 championship, let alone a national championship. While I wasn’t alive during those years, I know there were grumblings. My dad used to call Dr. Tom the psychologist who couldn’t psych up his team. It’s funny how his stone-faced, gum-chomping quirks changed from lethargy to stoic heroism after winning national championships.

Osborne’s philosophy with coaching hires seemed to mimic his recruiting and coaching philosophy. He didn’t throw money at the splash hire. Rather he went for candidates in which he saw potential. He saw that potential in Pelini, just as he did Miles and Erstad. But this isn’t 1972. In 2017 we want instant popcorn, internet and results.

What if Solich or Pelini were given another decade or even another five years? That was certainly Osborne’s vision. Instead we keep scrapping the plan every few years in an effort to recapture something that took 20 years to build. And each time we do, we go back to the architect of that plan and ask him to fix it.

So here we are again. Another AD just went on the chopping block. Truly, it needed to happen. Athletic departments don’t survive when volleyball is your flagship program. Osborne isn’t coming back to save us this time. The new AD may have ties to the program or he/she might be an outsider. I know this for sure, turning this program around won’t happen overnight. It’s not the “Nebraska Way.”