FW: [Husker] The Family

Sun Nov 4 15:07:57 CST 2007

Athletics should be a small part of Harvey Perlman's job, but I find it 
odd that he seemed to interject his opinion at every turn when Solich 
was fired.  Now that Osborne has replaced Pedey as AD and Callahan is 
about ready to get fired, you hardly hear him commenting on the football 
program at all.  If anything, he is completely distancing himself from 
this debacle.

After Solich was fired, Perlman went on record to comment on Nebraska's 
final 9-3 record:

"It wasn't a very impressive 9-3" he said 
(http://www.theindependent.com/stories/011704/Hus_solich17.shtml).

Why would a University Chancellor say something like that, especially 
when it degrades the accomplishments of the 2003 Husker student 
athletes?  That would be similar to him commenting on students who got 
left off the dean's list by a narrow margin and saying, "That wasn't a 
very impressive 3.49 GPA."  Furthermore, what makes him qualified to be 
the judge of what is an impressive record, especially when the vast 
majority of head football coaches would disagree with him (as Solich 
points out in that article).  Furthermore, why isn't Harvey saying 
anything about this staff's record?  I don't think 4-6 is a very 
impressive record either, Harvey!

Here is a Perlman quote which a lot people overlook, yet it still 
infuriates me 4 years later.

http://www.theindependent.com/stories/121503/Hus_coach15.shtml

Solich's staff was forced to walk off the job for one day in 2003 in 
order to get their contract situation clarified and resolved:

=====================
The contract rift with Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson was 
twofold, Solich said.

The questions were: What would happen to the assistants' salaries if 
Solich retired or took another job? And how long they would be paid if 
he were fired?

Secondary coach Marvin Sanders said that the contract offered by 
Pederson was different than the verbal agreement he made with Solich 
when Sanders was hired in January.
...
"If the assistant coaches were spending a lot of time worrying about 
that provision, then that's too bad," Perlman said. "They should've been 
spending their time more wisely."

=====================

That strikes me as a classless and petty comment.  As a lawyer, 
shouldn't he recognize the importance of getting everything that was 
promised in *writing* ?  For whatever reason, Perlman seemed to have a 
personal vendetta against the 2003 staff, and like Pedey, he wanted to 
put his mark on the program by bringing in a completely new staff.  Now 
that it completely blew up in his face, he's pretending like he had 
nothing to do with the current situation.  Fortunately, some of us know 
better.

Also, read this article from a few months before Pederson's contract 
extension was signed and see if you can hold in the laughs:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=38&u_sid=2367518

Perlman goes on and on about what an excellent job Pederson is doing.  6 
months later, he would pretty much contradict everything he said in that 
article when Pedey was fired.

Do I think Perlman should be fired?  I don't know, but I don't hold the 
man in very high regard.

Kenneth McKillip wrote:
> Steve.  When I was pointing out the problems associated with firing the 10-3
> staff and where I saw it leading you were right there with me early on.
> 
> I seldom disagree with you, but Harvey's own words doom him.  He is a man
> that does the easy thing.  We need men that do the hard thing when it is
> right.  For the long term good of the university he needs to go.  Future
> leaders will make better decisions in an environment of accountability.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Reichenbach [mailto:reich at inetnebr.com] 
> Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007 3:57 AM
> To: husker at tssi.com; kmckillip at houston.rr.com
> Subject: Re: FW: [Husker] The Family
> 
> 
>>HP still needs fired.  The cancer will not be gone until he is run out
>>of town - for being so exceptionally stupid.  STUPID.  STUPID.  STUPID.
>>Accountability is absolutely necessary to keep people from repeating 
>>stupid mistakes.  This entire soap opera was based on stupidity.  We
>>must root out stupidity.  Stab it through the heart.  Fire HP.
> 
> 
> I can't tell if this is based on (a) a lack of understanding of the
> role of the chancellor or (b) an over-reaction to something not going
> as desired.
> 
> Having worked at the university for a long time, now as a professor
> and formerly as department chair, I have seen several chancellors.
> The chancellor is very important to the university; Perlman is an
> excellent chancellor.  Firing him would be bad for the institution
> internally (as it would be viewed as a stupid move about something
> that isn't even at core mission of the institution), it would be
> perceived by the wider academic community outside the university as
> a boneheaded and misguided action, and UNL would likely get someone
> who is less successful (especially given that subsequent candidates
> would be wary of an institution whose top academic officers were
> subject to the success of the football program) in running the
> university.
> 
> That said, Perlman isn't perfect.  He made a big mistake in letting
> Pederson, who looked to be a pretty good hire coming in, run the
> athletic depeartment as he wanted.  I complained in email to him
> (but he wasn't convinced).  Then, he was convinced by last season's
> success, the pre-season hype, which had NU rated (and so was not so
> foolish), and Pederson's say-so, that all was going well.
> 
> He made some mistakes.  So, why don't we fire him like we did with
> Devaney in 1968 and Osborne (take your pick 1978 or 1990) and Solich
> in 2003?  Oh wait, we weren't always so short-sighted to as to fire
> someone doing a good job when things weren't perfect.  Sometimes,
> we looked at the bigger picture before firing one of the "family".
> 
> Take a look at the big picture before you jump from the frying pan.
> Haven't we learned _that_ lesson in the last five years?  (I'm
> afraid the answer is no.)
> 
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