[Husker] Huh? Bad Decision?

[Scott Stewart]

I agree.

As a psychologist I have always found Dr. Tom fascinating. My opinion is
that TO always coached a game to win and took each game individually. How
many times have we heard a coach say "I take it one game at a time." That
decision reflected that process. He made a decision that gave his team the
best opportunity to win that game. If you win all your games, the polls take
care of themselves.

Some may remember a similar decision he had the following year against
Oklahoma. It was a defensive struggle. I believe OK was up 3-0. We had the
ball inside the 5 yard line and tried three straight plays to punch it in.
He had a choice of kicking or trying to punch the ball in on 4th down. He
went for it. It didn't pay off.

I remember a poll that was made of coaches. They were asked what football
coach would you most want your kid to play for and TO was the name most
mentioned. I think it was this character that contributed to his selection.
He did what was "right" not what was "popular." Some will argue about the LP
thing, but I also see that differently.

If TO had not one National Championships, he may have been thought of
differently, but I think the respect that he gained that night in Miami
going for two may have contributed to our share of the latest (hopefully not
last) championship. In some ways I think it was a well deserved retirement
present.

Scott

On Dec 3, 2007 10:03 AM, <dmelvin at insight.rr.com> wrote:

> >TO also went for 2 against Miami in the 1984 Orange Bowl, when he should
> have
> >settled for the tie and the National Championship.
>
> I don't post here very often, but this statement really bothers me. As one
> of the "older" fans (I remember when Devaney came to Lincoln), I've always
> felt that the decision to go for two against Miami was a defining moment in
> Tom's career and a seminal event in Nebraska football. He could have taken
> the easy way out and gotten the glory but he wanted to win it on the field,
> in my opinion, the honorable way. That was a quality rarely seen in the day
> and even less now. At the time, I was disappointed that we lost but I don't
> know if I've ever been prouder to be a Husker. I think it was viewed as a
> "heroic decision" by fans around the nation and I've heard more than one
> coach say he wished he had the guts to make a decision like that. I just
> don't understand how anyone could say it was a "bad decision".
>
> Dave Melvin
> Columbus, OH
>
> _______________________________________________
> husker site list
> husker at tssi.com
> http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/husker
>