FW: [Husker] The Family

[jonlists at cbsol.com]

Then get a picture of him, print it out, put it on the wall, throw darts 
at it, curse at it while waggling your finger. 

It will accomplish more than this thread and let you get some of your 
angst out of your system. 

Jon Johnston
http://www.cornnation.com

husker-bounces at tssi.com wrote on 11/04/2007 11:36:50 AM:

> I do not buy the analogy equating firing HP to firing a FB coach who has 
a
> bad year or two.
> 
> I also don't accept the validity of arguments that include "except for 
this
> major issue what did he not see".
> 
> However, I do respect Steve's judgment and I'm glad, since HP will 
likely
> hang on, that Steve thinks he is good the University.  I do think there
> needs to be consequences for HP.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Reichenbach [mailto:reich at inetnebr.com] 
> Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007 11:21 AM
> To: husker at tssi.com; kmckillip at houston.rr.com; reich at inetnebr.com
> Subject: RE: FW: [Husker] The Family
> 
> 
> Yes, I was one of those who thought Pederson was tremendously "foolish
> and risky" (as I wrote than) in firing a coach who was 9-3, had been in
> the BCS Championship game less than two years earlier, had a better
> than 75% winning percentage (about the same as Osborne's at the same
> time in his head coaching career), and had made what looked to be
> excellent changes in his staff.  I criticized Perlman and emailed him
> to fire Pederson years ago (to which Perlman responded with his strong
> disagreement).  If only he'd listened to me years ago ;-).
> 
> However, firing Perlman over this would be like firing a coach
> everytime the team loses a game or benching a QB everytime he throws
> a pass off the mark.  That would be accountability --- the kind of
> accountability that is poison to an organization, the kind of
> accountability that Pederson supposedly applied to change head football
> coaches and led us to where we are now in the football program.
> 
> Perlman is not a man who "does the easy thing."  I know that from
> seeing how he makes hard decisions over which he knows some vocal
> special interests (e.g., the faculty of which I'm a member) will
> lambaste him.  In fact, I would say that your judgement in this is way
> off the mark.  Can you name any major issue at the university (other
> than this one) where Perlman has made the wrong decision because it was
> "easy"?  I cannot and I watch the university pretty carefully, so I
> doubt that you can.  On the other hand, I can name some very difficult
> decisions he made for the better of the university.
> 
> Accountability _is_ important, but if an organization fires people who
> make _a_ mistake and ignore the breadth of their job performance
> (especially when the mistake does not involve a core mission), the
> organization ultimately is paralyzed and ends up with no people of 
quality
> because they make no difficult decisions for fear of ever being wrong.
> In fact, the very root of the word suggests "accounting" for all of
> the ledgers, each with its own relative importance.
> 
> The most important aspect of accountability is learning from mistakes
> and changing to improve.  Apparently, Perlman learned the error of his
> way in going with Pederson and hopefully he will do better picking a
> good AD to replace him.  I think he already did.
> 
> For many, many reasons, Perlman will not be replaced over this mistake.
> And, that is a good thing.
> 
> 
> > 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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