[Husker] TO's "learning curve"

[Andrew Smith]

I'm slightly bothered by the frequent suggestion that TO had to "learn 
and adjust" before winning a NC.  While I'm certain he continued to 
learned and make adjustments throughout his career, the 'learn and 
adjust' comment usually seems to suggest some significant coaching break 
through from an old approach to a new one was needed before TO was a 
great coach.  Looking at his career, that makes no sense to me and 
GREATLY underestimates his success before he won a NC.

One thing many forget is that TO was Devaney's offensive coordinator and 
by most accounts was the person who changed NU's full house backfield to 
the I-formation (and what some describe as more of a pro "spread" 
passing offense).  So before TO was even a head coach, he had 'learned 
and adjusted' enough to help lead NU to back-to-back NCs.

In his first 5 years as head coach he never finished out of the top-10 
and a few times was 1 win away from playing for the NC:

    In '72, #5 NU lost to #4 OU (a heartbreaker, 17-14); NU then crushed
    #12 ND 40-6 in the Orange Bowl
    In '73, NU played 7 top-20 (at game time) teams, beating 5 of them,
    including a 19-3 bowl win over #8 Texas.
    In '74, #6 NU lost to #1 OU
    In '75, #2 NU lost to #7 OU (in Norman), the only year from '72-76
    'OU was not ranked above NU going into the game

I'm not sure what learning and adjusting was needed.  Learning how to 
beat OU, you say?  So few did that during that period (when OU was led 
by one of the great college coaches - Barry Switzer), that I don't 
believe it was due to any significant lack of learning or adjusting.

Looking further along in TO's career, his worst years - the ONLY ones 
where Nebraska finished below #11 (ave. of both polls) were '89-'92.  I 
guess it took him 17 years to unlearn and unadjust some important things 
:-).

People forget that there is usually some luck involved in winning, or 
even simply playing for, the NC.  For example:
* In '82, Joe Paterno won the NC with a 1-loss team and only "beat" NU 
due to a terrible officiating call.
* On the other hand, Paterno has had 4 undefeated teams that did not win 
a share of the NC or even a chance to play for it.
* In '81, NU plays Clemson for the NC (since #2 and #3 lose their bowl 
games) despite having 2 losses.
* But NU's bad luck that year (on top of the bad luck of losing their 
star sophomore QB, Turner Gill, to injury), and every one else's is that 
Clemson builds a stellar team using serious recruiting violations.
* Change a single play each of the years '82, '83 (and perhaps '81 and 
'94), and '97, and TO wins 3 NCs in th early '80s but only 1 in the '90s.

I, and everyone else on this list could go on and on with examples where 
there was some fortune was needed for a team to win the NC and examples 
where some misfortune prevented a team from playing for or winning the NC.

My point is that TO was a great head coach his first year on the job!

Go Big Red!
Andy