The reality that USC will be a Big Ten school, not a Pac-12 school, 13 months from now is beginning to sink in with the revelation of USC’s Big Ten schedule. We’re still a Pac-12 school preparing for a Pac-12 football season, but the Big Ten era is just around the corner. USC fans will be studying the new Big Ten schedule.
We have to study up on Big Ten schools and get some Big Ten knowledge. We’re talking to the other College Wire Big Ten sites, with Cornhuskers Wire being one of them.
We asked Cornhuskers Wire editor Evan Bredeson about the harm done by former Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson’s decision to fire then-football coach Frank Solich in 2003. That move came after a nine-win season which was only two years removed from the Huskers’ appearance in the BCS National Championship Game. It was a shocking move at the time, and it looks far worse 20 years later.
“It did a ton of damage on a number of fronts,” Bredeson said. “When Steve Pederson decided to fire Frank Solich, he had only one name on his list of people he wanted to hire, and that was Mike Sherman, the former Packers coach who ended up going to Texas A&M. When Nebraska missed out on that, it ended up turning into what was over a 40-day search before they just literally settled on Bill Callahan. From the optics of the situation to how the search was handled, to the fights between the athletic department and the university, it was a very contentious time. One mistake after another was made and it compounded over time from the hiring of Steve Pederson to letting him fire Solich to this 40-plus-day search that settled on Bill Callahan. It was one self-inflicted injury after another and it caught up to Nebraska after awhile.”
The full one-hour conversation with Evan Bredeson of Cornhuskers Wire appears below:
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