[Husker] How bad is it?

[Dan Draney]

Steve,

Well said and right on the money, so to speak. In the interest of conserving
bandwidth below I have trimmed all but one paragraph, that I particularly
like, but it's all good.

Like an alcoholic or drug addict, we must first recognize the problem before
we can begin to recover. Steve Pederson is the root cause of our troubles,
and things will not improve until he is removed. I have some hope that
"Donors of Substance" see this and will step up to make it happen sooner
rather than later.

Changes in the coaching staff are necessary but not sufficient, and they
need to be done after Pederson is gone. Furthermore, departure of the AD in
mid-season is not disruptive at all to a football team (indeed, it might
even make things easier), so there's no reason to wait until after Colorado
to clean out Pederson's office.

On the coaching side, I'd like to see Calahan get at least one more year to
try to right the ship, provided he sees the need for changes and is prepared
to make them. The minimum necessary change is to abandon the "sit back and
get beat" defensive philosophy and a return to attacking. I doubt that
Cosgrove is the man to do that, but I do remember that before McBride was a
"genius" he was an "idiot."

Dan


> Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:17:25 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Steve Reichenbach <reich at inetnebr.com>
> Subject: Re: [Husker] How bad is it?
> To: HuskerGuy9495 at aol.com, dopc67 at comcast.net, husker at tssi.com,
>     scott71lawson at yahoo.com, tjsilvey at yahoo.com, toddlowell at yahoo.com
> Message-ID: <200710141417.JAA20052 at stork.inebraska.com>
> 
[snipped]
> 
> At the time, there were many stupid fans and some foolish donors who
> thought Solich was not doing well enough, but those are the same sort
> who wanted to fire Devaney in the late 60s and to fire Osborne in the
> late 70s and early 90s.  You expect your AD to recognize that achieving
> the high sucess that NU had in the mid 1990s is not sustainable for any
> program, let alone a program with some inherent limitations (albeit
> also many advantages) as Nebraska.  You expect your AD to recognize
> that the basis for NU's long success, at a much lower level than in the
> mid 1990s, was due to commiment, coaching continuity, integrity, and a
> focus on improving.  You expect your AD to see what many fans who were
> so dismayed by Pederson's actions saw: the Husker tradition was both
> the foundation for the program's great success and the source of their
> solace when the goal of winning was not achieved --- as, at some point
> nearly every season, no matter how successful a program is, that goal
> is lost.  But, Pederson overthrew good reason and took, what I "told
> you so" at the time, was a rash, foolish, and risky action, based
> largely on his ego.
[snipped]