Farewell To The Huskers, Part 2

Taylor – This is great stuff. Thanks for putting it out there. Will get the Better Off Red gang to reply/rebut.

UT (the school) needs to worry more about educating its own project athletes before enforcing the same demands on others.

From a November 2009 article in the Statesman:

“For the four classes that entered from 1999-2002 — and in each case were given six years to graduate under NCAA guidelines — only 49 percent of Longhorns football players earned their degrees. None of the 25 schools listed in this week’s BCS rankings, where Texas sits at No. 3, had a lower rate.

Oregon and Georgia Tech matched Texas at 49 percent while No. 1 Florida had a 69 percent graduation rate. No. 2 Alabama had a graduation rate of 67 percent.

Of the Big 12 football programs, only Oklahoma, at 45 percent, had a lower rate than UT.

The Texas baseball team, at 37 percent, had the lowest graduation rate for the 10 Big 12 schools that play the sport. Men’s basketball, at 47 percent, ranked eighth in the Big 12.

UT was the only Big 12 school to score under 50 percent in all three of those sports."

Hmmm. Fair points but perhaps specious?

Is it harder to get in? Is harder to stay in? Does this imply a more rigorous academic environment?

Also, losing kids to professional sports kills these numbers, right?

I think UT could keep all their “projects” in school, if that were the priority. Alas, it isn’t.

Fevrier, I guess I don’t get what your point is, other than part of the reason Nebraska struggles is that the University of Texas is mean?

I’d say that pretty much sums it up.

But you left out one very important figure….Steve Pederson. He shares more of the blame for the fall than Callahan or Solich.

No denying that NU has been pretty weak nationally and in the B12 for about ten years, for more than a few reasons.

I reccomend you look into the actual PQ’s numbers we had from 93’ to ‘97 you might be surprised. Half of the guys names you wouldn’t even recognize.

@rede4biz

UNL does not miss the PQs so much as they resent that they have had to give in to Texas from the very beginning. They thought of themselves as superior to all others and it was rude for us to constantly remind them it just was not so.

rede4biz, you’re right. I am stunned by the hubris required for Pederson to think he could rebuild a better machine than the dominant one built by Devaney and Osborne. It’s like he read ESPN columns and thought he knew how to design a program.

A quick glance at recent win/loss history vindicates the comparison of Nebraska to Iowa at the moment.

Moving beyond what things quickly glanced at on paper can tell a person, I’d argue that the depth of concern and commitment to the team by Husker supporters dwarfs that of Iowa’s. That our overall revenue stream from football For instance, Nebraska’s football revenue in 2008-2009 was $55mil v. Iowa’s $39mil. Plus, I’d argue, without any extrinsic evidence, that Nebraska’s national following and recognition is an order of magnitude above Iowa’s. Still, as a matter of product quality, they’re about the same at the moment. Hopefully, that changes in the near future (to our advantage).

Is it harder to get in? Is harder to stay in? Does this imply a more rigorous academic environment?

According to one TaylorTRoom, it’s rather easy for athletes to get in.

UT (the school, not the team) has a real problem right now where it has to reject applications from exceptionally qualified students for lack of space, and the school is really wondering why some of the athletes are allowed in.

That statement simply means that we are rejecting 11% (but not top 10%) with high SAT scores but letting in athletes with lower qualifications than that simply because they play sports. That’s the way it has always been and the university is simply not The University without the athletes so I am not sure why the complaints exist.

“Looking at this, I see Nebraska football weakened by several small cuts, rather than one big kill shot.”

Somewhat true, but TO retiring was big cut, indeed. He redesigned Devaney’s offense before the undefeated ‘70 & ’71 seasons, and kept the team at a consistently high level for 25 years as HC. Once his influence wore off (and his recruits left) it was a different team.
I think his ability to manage the scope of the football program (recruiting, S&C, X’s &O’s, player development, motivation), and do it year after year, was exceptional. Alas, one shortcoming was his ability to develop and groom a replacement. The TO coaching tree is pretty sparse, given his overall success. Solich was an OK coach, but his lack of ability to recruit offensive skill players was a big part of his undoing. Callahan was an odd fit, and he had a terrible DC. I think the old guard were always looking for a reason to get rid of him, and the ’07 collapse was more than enough.

CFB is so about having the right HC… given this and the lack of local talent, the right coach is absolutely critical to NU’s success, and the last two were not the right guys.

I am curious. Does Nebraska fail out football players? Does OU or Kansas? Has Kansas ever had a starting hoops guy sidelined for academics?

PJ Tucker and Christian Scott asked me to inquire.

Some good points by Taylor but he missed on a couple.
Partial qualifiers were limited to 1 per year. Very little effect but it did allow the Kenny Walkers (deaf) and Jared Tomichs (dyslexic) the opportunity to get an education thru sports. Both were Einsteins compared to Vince Young.

And Nebraska’s facilities and tradition are as good as any in the country. While NU was able to avoid some of the cyclical trends Texas, USC, ND, and OU suffered through for 40 years, a coaching change did manifest a dip in prestige for a short period.
But, the fans and alumni support & commitment both financially, and morally will always keep NU on par with the likes of Texas and OU.

Texas recruiting. NU relied on Texas for maybe a half dozen recruits per year at its peak, generally very blue chips. Texas was not its main territory, but it was a significant one. Mack Brown changed the state’s recruiting calendar, which knocked all the out of state schools for a loop. Schools like to issue their offers in an orderly manner, and Nebraska had to either start recruiting everybody earlier, or go out of synch with the Texas recruiting schedule. The impact on NU recruiting was small, perhaps, but negative.
 
I know you disclaimed this as a small impact, but Nebraska needing Texas in recruiting is basically an old wive’s tale. Check those national title teams. And judging from last year’s roster, a lot of the Texans they do have are busts.
 
If they can dominate the Midwest (they still demonstrate the ability to go into Missouri and Kansas) and select specific skill players from California, Texas, Florida, New Jersey – they’re good to go. It’s one of the few true national recruiting schools in college football.

Greg Z., the Big 12 PQ rule Nebraska hated limited PQs to 1 per year. If your point is true, that NU self-limited to 1 per year, then there is no issue to complain about.

Also, NU has not kept on a par with UT or OU the last 7 years. That’s the point of the post. My Phil Steele only goes back to 2005, but in that time period NU has not beaten one opponent that finished the season ranked. Texas has beaten 13 in that period.

Also, I don’t understand your point about NU fans moral support helping the program.

Scipio, you’re right. In Texas, we notice every recruit lost to NU, or won over them, because that’s what we focus on. We never notice the recruits they do get from other states, because we just don’t follow national recruiting.

I searched the USA Today draft database, and NU’s NFL players came from all over the country, not relying too much on any one region.

It was more than just a few Nebraska players from the glory years who were PQ or NQ’s, it was their A-list guys like Frazier etc (and some real solid citizen kanes, like Christian Peter and Lawrence Phillips) – good article foreshoadowing their fall here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1007647/2/index.htm

Here is the quote
 “Take away Frazier, Phillips and the partial and non-qualifiers, and Nebraska’s 12-0 record this season could have been 10-2, which might have put the Huskers in a meaningless Cotton Bowl matchup instead of in a showdown for the national championship.”

This does not imply that Frazier and Phillips were PQ’s or non-qualifiers.

Another quote
“In the Fiesta Bowl, Nebraska started four partial or non-qualifiers (cornerback Michael Booker, defensive tackle Christian Peter, cornerback Tyrone Williams and defensive end Jared Tomich), and two others, wideout Reggie Baul and outside linebacker Jamel Williams, played almost as much as the starters. According to Nebraska officials there were at least 12 partial or non-qualifiers in the program last fall. “Among elite schools Nebraska is a true haven for partial and non-qualifiers,” said the coach of another elite school."

This implies there were 3-4 per year.

Good stuff TTR. Thanks for your efforts.

For me, who a HC hires as Assistants is more important than offensive scheme.

I am curious. Does Nebraska fail out football players? Does OU or Kansas? Has Kansas ever had a starting hoops guy sidelined for academics?

PJ Tucker and Christian Scott asked me to inquire.

Dear PJ, Texas didn’t suspend you, the NCAA did. They suspended you because you couldn’t pass a NCAA mandated minimum of 6 hours.

Dear Christian, Texas didn’t suspend you, the NCAA did. They suspended you because you weren’t taking any classes towards your major in……. youth and communication studies. In fact, Mack pleaded with the NCAA to reinstate you for the bowl game.

I’m not saying other schools are more strict on athletes than Texas is, but don’t make it sound like these 2 suspensions were Texas drawing the line no matter what the skill level of a player. Because the truth is that it was the NCAA, not Texas, drawing the line. Both failed to meet NCAA standards and both were dealt with by the NCAA.

here’s another good article that reveals the extent to which they relied on Props, looks like pretty much the entire blackshirts defense from 94-95:

http://www.omaha.com/article/20090831/SPORTS30/708319948

48

Walk-ons give Nebraska an edge on Saturdays, but Big Red still needs difference-makers. And signing non- and partial qualifiers was a useful tool during the Big Eight era. The Big 12, however, prohibited non-qualifiers and limited partial qualifiers in football to one per year, effectively forcing those prospects to attend junior college if they wanted to pursue a Division I career.

The change derailed Nebraska, which had relied on Proposition 48 players. Prop 48 stated that an athlete who didn’t fully qualify could be granted a scholarship, but he had to sit out his freshman season and lose one year of eligibility. Charles Fryar, Derek Brown, Johnny Mitchell, Clinton Childs, Shevin Wiggins and Eric Johnson were "Props." Look at the non- and partial qualifiers who became starters on the Huskers’ three national title teams:

Dwayne Harris, 1994
Barron Miles, ‘94
Tyrone Williams, ’94-’95
Christian Peter, ‘94-’95
Reggie Baul, ’95
Jamel Williams, ’95
Jared Tomich, ’95
Michael Booker, ’95
Eric Warfield, ’97

Scipio beat me to the punch. Nebraska never relied on Texas for recruiting in their glory days. They dominated Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas and picked up their skill players from Cal(Booker), Florida (Frazier) , and New Jersey (Fryar and Rozier), as well as some other midwest states. The 1995 team had a total of 6 players from Texas on its entire roster.

growing up in Midland, I became acutely aware as to the reach of Nebraska recruiting, when in the mid-80s, Osborne came to town to woo Jake Long, a blue chip OL at my beloved Lee HS. Long (now since passed away, RIP) went along to achieve glory in Lincoln, I believe was drafted into a brief NFL career, if I’m not mistaken…

The idea of Nebraska football even KNOWING there was a Midland Lee football star baffled me at the time, a very impressionable age. Ever since, it was folly to ignore the Big Red Cornholers.

Triston27 – The NCAA did not give them the failing grades.

Your response didn’t really answer the question.

Junior MIller, IMO

Fray,

Not quite the “entire” defense. But Prop 48’s were significant for the defense. The quote I posted indicated that 4 defensive starters and 1key backup were prop 48’s in ’95.

I don’t think any of the key offensive players from ‘95 to ’97 on were prop 48’s (Frazier, Phillips, Ahman Green, Scott Frost, DeAngelo Evans).

What about me? I was the AD architect of the ten NCs while at Nebraska, including the three football that you noted.

“Greg Z., the Big 12 PQ rule Nebraska hated limited PQs to 1 per year. If your point is true, that NU self-limited to 1 per year, then there is no issue to complain about.
Also, NU has not kept on a par with UT or OU the last 7 years. That’s the point of the post. My Phil Steele only goes back to 2005, but in that time period NU has not beaten one opponent that finished the season ranked. Texas has beaten 13 in that period.
Also, I don’t understand your point about NU fans moral support helping the program.”

I wasn’t complaining, I was pointing out an inaccuracy on your part. The Big 8 limited schools to 2 partial qualifiers total and 1 per sport. Saying the loss of partial qualifiers had an effect on the slide of the Huskers is a not a fact, only subjection on your part.
You stated Nebraska has fallen to the level of an Iowa because of the last 7 years. Let’s talk Texas during the nineties when they got handled by the UCLAs of the world by fifty. UT’s recent rise to their present level is limited to the arrival of Mack Brown.

And how can moral support help Nebraska? Let me give you an example…
In January 2005 the Army All American Bowl played in San Antonio had a large presence of NU commits and prospects. One of the prospects not yet committed was a high schooler form Portland OR by the name of Ndamukong Suh. The Nebraska faithful organized a contingent of fans who bought an entire block of tickets and hundreds (actually over 2000) of fans showed up in Red to show support. They were both vocal and very visible.
Suh was later quoted as acknowledging that showing of moral support by Husker fans in San Antonio was a direct influence on his decision to come to Nebraska. One of many examples of how Husker fans go above and beyond to attempt to make a difference.

Like I said, you are right on many points but not on some.

The role that the loss of PQs played in our decline is cogent but arguable and the loss of Texas as a recruiting base is just wrong. Everything else is textbook and excellent.

I still have issues with a Texas blog defining Nebraska with evenhanded thoughtful analysis. Come on! This from the creators of the mudhole posts?! I would prefer more Ike Turner please.

So instead of arguing against Nebraska mediocrity (which is obvious)…I find myself arguing against Texas excellence (which is not):

“UT (the school, not the team) has a real problem right now where it has to reject applications from exceptionally qualified students for lack of space….Doesn’t it have a right to insist that it only belong to a conference that has standards for admissions?”

I did a quick search of the 25/75 percentile acceptance SAT data for university admissions and UT data is closer to the data of most of the big 12 than to similar schools in size/resources/stature (Berkeley, North Carolina and Michigan) and light years from schools that one believes you are associating yourself with above (Sanford).

As for what one can expect in installment #3…I think you did some foreshadowing with the Iowa comparison.

All in all, a very unbiased analysis in Parts 1 and 2. Are there discrepancies? Without a doubt, but as unbiased as I’ve ever seen.

I do have a beef with the following statement: “As ugly as the B12 CG was for the Texas offense, it was worse for Nebraska’s, and I think the Huskers’ near upset is as telling an indicator of relative program strength as Texas’ 37 – 27 win in 1996.”

Nebraska went through the entire 2009 season with the #1 and #2 running backs injured, the entire offensive line injured and the only QB with any starting experience injured from the Missouri game until the end of the season. Were we thin? Yes, but even Texas found out how difficult it is to win against a quality team when their QB was injured in the MNC game.

I think that the B12 CG was more telling of the strength of the Husker’s defense and the direction that the program is headed than anything else. (Any one remember McCoy being thrown around like a ragdoll by Suh?) Nebraska was a 17 point underdog that (despite a horrible offense) lost only after the referees mistakenly put one second left on the clock. Are we back? Maybe. Are we an elite program again? Probably not; I think we need some quality wins against ranked teams to earn that adjective.

It’s not unusual for elite teams to go through a slump. Anyone remember OU or USC during the 90’s? Texas before Mack Brown? Michigan or Notre Dame right now? USC over the next decade (lol)? Nebraska had it’s slump in the last decade, but we are fighting and clawing our way back to the top; we have the right AD and HC to accomplish that goal. I doubt we’ll ever see the Nebraska dominance of the 90’s again (when all the planets aligned), but I certainly believe that we’ll earn back the “elite” adjective.

Keep up the good work; Chip Brown could learn a few things from you.

So how was Nebraska’s POQ and NQ’s who had to sit a year before qualifying any different than when Texas used to send PQ’s and NQ’s to juco for a year(before the Mack regime)?

Furthermore, why are you stuck on the pre-Big XII days on this issue? Why don’t you look at the post 1996 limitations and tell us all how many we had on our 1999,2000 and 2001 teams?

I think that is the most important metric. Sure Nebraska had a few PQ’s and NQ’s(see 1 year Jucos for Texas) but if none or a just a couple played for Nebraska in 1999,2000 and 2001 that sort of shoots your biased theory in the foot.

Well said, Greg. There are many Texas fans who refuse to acknowledge the inevitable and that is that ALL great programs experience a swoon at one time or another. It takes a gifted coach who understands the tradition of the school he embraces to capitalize and take advantage of those resources to compete for National Titles. That is why I was so upset with the departure of an historical top 5 program to the Big 10. It hurts the prestige of our current conference and takes away a fun home and home. There are many in our fanbase who scoff and say Neb is a has been. How soon our fanbase forgets the 80’s and 90’s. Texas went 35 years without a National Title.

BleedN Red needs to invest in a DVR so he can get instant replay. The second added was clearly the right call and evryone knows it.

“lost only after the referees mistakenly put one second left on the clock.”

Aaaaaannnddddddddd … there it is. Don’t forget, BleedN, that the entire ’96 Husker team had the flu, too, when James Brown Roll Left-ed them. The whole team!

(I kid, I kid, and have been pleasantly surprised at the lack of this nonsense.)

John Carson:

The problem UT faces admission wise is that it must now admit the top 10% of Texas HS seniors without regard to SAT or anything else. That has diluted the SAT scores of the incoming classes remarkably. But UT has never had any problem attritting the ingorant or unprepared with academically rigorous colleges like engineering and business having rates of attrition (do not go past soph year in major) of 2/3 to 1/2.

By the admissions numbers UT is not competitive. By undergraduate attrition it is brutal.

How is it that Nebraska fans have somehow retroactively convinced themselves that the second added to the clock at the end of the CCG wasn’t exhaustively validated by instant replay? Is Tom Osborne the second coming of Kim Il Sung?

The bar I watched the game at was mostly Husker fans and almost all of them saw that it was obvious that there was over a second left on the clock when the ball hit the ground.

The current trend is for the warmer schools to dominate. The time has passed for northern climate schools and I dont see it changing anytime soon. One just has to look at recruiting rankings over the past 7 or 8 years. It is dominated by Florida, LSU, Texas, USC, ect. The best players and blue chips want to go someplace with mild winter, why there is more emphasis vs pre 1996 I have no clue, but its there as plain as day

Mysterious, with the internet and every game being on TV, players no longer have to freeze their asses off in Ann Arbor and South Bend in order to be on TV every week.

@ Greg Z – From everything I’ve read, the Big 8 did NOT have a limit on admitting non-qualifiers & PQs. Your claim that the Big 8 did indeed limit schools to 2 PQs (& 1 per sport) makes ZERO sense in light of history – NU was the lone vote against the more restrictive limits proposed for the Big 12, limits which were ultimately adopted.

If non-qualifiers & Prop 48s weren’t indeed vital components of the big red machine, then Osborne wouldn’t have crapped in his pants the way he did b/c they were, in effect, taken away.

Face it, your hero couldn’t compete against the elite until he lowered his standards & looked the other way when morally questionable players committed wrongdoings while on campus.

@Triston27 – Would you like to reconsider your response? Jesus.

This was another good post, TTR. Hopefully, we will have some more thoughts from calm, rational Husker fans.

Prop 48’s: At the time the Big 12 was formed, a friend of mine who graduated from one of the old Big 8 schools and subsequently worked in that school’s athletic department, commented that the athletic department filled all of the Prop 48 slots the school was given. In other words, there were no spots left for other students because they were all filled by athletes.

During the same time frame, I was doing a great deal of work with a company in Nebraska. We spoke on the phone a minimum of 3 to 5 times per week. Inevitably, ‘Big Red’ was mentioned at some point during a conversation, which led to weeping, wailing, and predictions of disaster due to the new limits on Prop 48’s.

Logic seems to dictate that Nebraska did NOT have a limit of one PQ per year prior to joining the Big 12. If that’s not the case, there has been much drama for no reason.

My dear Charles, this must be a sore subject for you. Shon Mitchell (one ‘l’?) graduated from a juco, which means 2 years. However, rarely, even before Mack’s arrival, did Texas have kids on the roster who went the juco route. Quan Cosby played baseball, but he was a very good student, and after playing baseball, followed through on his original Letter of Intent (no longer binding) and played four years at Texas. He was a stud, wasn’t he?

Why do you think frequently sign JUCO players? Is it wishful thinking or does it appear to you that Texas is struggling to recruit?

Anyone: Can kids do as Charles suggests and play one year at a JUCO, followed by 3 years at a Div I school?

Hook ’em!

Thanks for the comments, all. I guess my overall take is that Nebraska had been a great team, and has become a good team. Its talent declined a little bit, the coaching declined a little bit (or was a poor fit in Callahan’s case), and the S&C edge was lost. Nebraska isn’t a weak team, but it isn’t dominant, pending consummation of a Pelini turnaround (don’t have enough evidence yet to claim this).

I would like to post more about why NU wants so badly to leave the Big 12, but that is such a sensitive subject and so hard to approach objectively. I suspect it is a combination of money, strategic positioning, and unhappiness with conference mates, but I also suspect that given all those things, if NU had been winning conference championships they wouldn’t be leaving.

“Nebraska went through the entire 2009 season with the #1 and #2 running backs injured, the entire offensive line injured and the only QB with any starting experience injured from the Missouri game until the end of the season.”

This is just coincidence. I’m really a great Oline coach. Stay tuned for great pocket protection and run blocking in 2010!

" I suspect it is a combination of money, strategic positioning, and unhappiness with conference mates, but I also suspect that given all those things, if NU had been winning conference championships they wouldn’t be leaving."

Every program has its down periods…. at which point maybe you are more likely to evaluate your options. There is probably an advantage for NU to join a conference with other cold weather schools.. even TO said this (although he was talking about other sports (e.g. baseball). I think WRT football, the other conference power’s teams are largely built on Texas recruiting, which as pointed out above is not the case for NU (or CU). Our recruiting is aided by more national exposure, which the Big 10 will provide. That said, its unfortunate that NU is leaving at a point where they should usually be a favorite to win the Big XII North, and be competitive in the CCG regularly. Pelini had put more emphasis on Texas recruiting, and I think staying in the conference would have helped us pluck more top prospects out of Texas.

The most important event in NU football history, since 2001 anyway, had actually nothing to do with football. Sometime in 2006 (not really sure of the date) Tom O was soundly defeated in the republican primary race for governor of Nebraska.

Clearly UNL is in a very rare for them down cycle. We shouldn’t be acting superior on that account because Texas has been in more and longer down cycles than anyother power program except maybe ND. And we have no where near their MNC count.

I just hope we don’t go into another slump in my life time. However, it is almost inevitably will happen after Mack Brown retires. Hell, DKR was in a serious 6 year down cycle when he retired. Hopefully, MB does not go out that same sorry way.

Hell, DKR was in a serious 6 year down cycle when he retired. Hopefully, MB does not go out that same sorry way.

DKR was 48-19-1 over his last six years — 4 SWC titles, was in the Top 20 five times, including Two Top 10 finishes.

Going 0-5-1 against your hated rival will color an awful lot of memories.

“Anyone: Can kids do as Charles suggests and play one year at a JUCO, followed by 3 years at a Div I school?”

Yes, if you make sufficient grades at the juco… I think it’s at least a 3.0. J.D. Lewis did it in the mid-2000s on the basketball team.

srr50, you help make my case.

Winning a lot of games in the Big12-2 while losing to OU and/or a$m for 5 or 6 years will be a serious future slump by any standard of measure you care to choose.

I doubt we slump post-Mack if we have a reasonable successor.

@ David – I was surprised that Osborne didn’t win the Republican primary for governor, especially since he’d been elected to Congress.

Perhaps NU doesn’t have the pull in the state of Nebraska that it thinks it has?

I think Nebraska wanting to leave the Big 12 closely parallels Arkansas’ move out of the SWC 20 years ago. The reasons are somewhat different — Hogs were unhappy with game officials and some scheduling/revenue sharing issues, ’Huskers evidently held a long-term grudge on the PQ issue, and felt the venue decisions for the CCG were unfair.

Both left because of politics they saw no way of changing. In Arkansas’ case, it was eight schools in Texas that often aligned (at least for majority purposes) against the Hogs. In Nebraska’s case, there was the perception that a bloc of schools (led by Texas) controlled many issues. As an SEC member, Arkansas is one of many schools that seem roughly equal. Nebraska likely sees the same with the Big Ten.

Given those circiumstances, I can’t fault either of them.

No way they leave if they had been winning at a high level in the Big 12. No way. CU could have been replaced by BYU and the conference would be better.

“Nebraska was a 17 point underdog that (despite a horrible offense) lost only after the referees mistakenly put one second left on the clock. "

That’s rich coming from a Nebraska fan whose 1997 national title was dependent on an illegally kicked ball in Mizzou’s end zone.

Scipio,

I doubt if we will have a “reasonable successor.” It has never happened before and the same people are in charge that made only one good hire out of the last 4 attempts. Hence, there is no better than a 25% chance the program will not fall off significantly.

There are almost no historical data on the success rate for filling HC jobs from the inside. The very few that have happened have generally been failures.

“It has never happened before and the same people are in charge that made only one good hire out of the last 4 attempts. Hence, there is no better than a 25% chance the program will not fall off significantly.”

I seriously hope you did not take a statistics class at UT.

Getting away from that issue – how many of those 4 were handed a top tier program that was running on all cylinders and was recruiting at a level off of the charts? How many of those 4 were hand picked as successors and allowed to learn under possibly the best college football CEO? How many were so highly thought of around the country that they were one of, if not THE top choice whenever a vacancy popped up at another school? How many of those had to deal with rampant cheating among conference mates and biggest rivals?

Back to back winning coaches can happen. Bob Devany begat Tom Osborne

But how did the inside guy picked by Tom Osborne work out?

Nebraska saw no future in the Big 12. They saw mega conferences coming down the road that don’t really want Kansas, Iowa, second tier Texas or even an OU teams for that matter. OU and NE certainly have a ton of local fan support but bring in marginal TV outside of that.
Most of the big 12 is a relative media wasteland outside of the large Texas metropolitan areas. Nebraska saw a bad situation getting worse and grabbed long term security.
Colorado? Their admin doesnt really give a dried up shit about football. Most of the fans and alumni are actually out of state and most of them on the left coast.
Probably a social move for them more than anything else even though they need the money more than anyone else