Tag: tom osborne

Former Nebraska Head Coach Scott Frost ready to return to coaching

The former head coach was 16-31 in just over four seasons as head coach.

Scott Frost is talking about returning to the sidelines. The former Nebraska head coach spoke with Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports about his future and said he can’t wait to get back into the game he loves.

“For the first time in my life, I don’t know what’s next. I’m dying to get back in.”

Frost came to Nebraska in 2018 in what was seen as a homecoming for the former National Champion. The Wood River, Nebraska native was expected to return the Huskers to form after successfully rebuilding Central Florida.

That did not come to pass, as Frost would go 16-31 and was fired just three games into his fifth season in Lincoln. The former Husker said he always knew he was on a path to be a head coach.

“My whole life I was a little league player and a high school player and then a college player and then an NFL player and then a [graduate assistant], and then a position coach, then a coordinator and then a head coach. It was on a trajectory, and I knew what was next.”

The piece doesn’t see Frost speculate or comment on why he fell short of expectations at Nebraska. His former head coach, Tom Osborne, has said the fourth-quarter woes were never solved.

“For whatever reason, they couldn’t hang in the fourth quarter and lost a lot of games.”

Frost also says he doesn’t necessarily need a head coaching position to step back onto the sidelines.

“I know this. There’s some good coaches out there. I’m a good coach. I belong doing it. I just don’t know for sure where that’s going to be right now. If the right head coach job comes along, I’d take it. If the right coordinator job comes, I’d take it.”

Frost will likely return to coaching at some point, but where and in what role remains to be determined.

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Social media wishes Tom Osborne a happy birthday!

Happy 87th birthday to College Football Hall of Famer and former Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne.

Happy 87th birthday to College Football Hall of Famer and former Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne. Osborne was the head coach of the Cornhuskers from 1973-1997, ending his career with a career record of 255-49-3.

He won three national championships (1994,1995,1997), 13 conference championships (12 – Big Eight, 1 – Big 12), and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999.

Osborne was drafted in the 19th round of the 1959 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers. He would make his NFL debut as a wide receiver with Washington during the 1961 season.

In 1962, Osborne joined Bob Devaney’s coaching staff as an unpaid assistant. He became the offensive coordinator for the Cornhuskers in 1969 and took over as head coach following the 1972 season.

His teams never won fewer than nine games a season, finished in the top 15 in the final AP Poll 24 out of 25 years, and were ranked for 304 out of his 307 games as a head coach.

After leaving football, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska’s 3rd district from 2001-2007. Osborne returned to Nebraska in 2007 and served as athletic director before retiring in 2013.

Scroll below to see social media’s happy birthday messages!

How 12 football head coaches fared as the replacements for legends like Bill Belichick and Nick Saban

Who replaced Bear Bryant, Don Shula and John Madden and how did they do?

During one of the craziest weeks of football in recent memory, we saw the end of an era for legends like Bill Belichick and Nick Saban.

Belichick, 71, and Saban, 72, are easily two of the greatest coaches that the sport has ever seen. Next season, college football will look very different without Saban coaching Alabama. Meanwhile, the NFL will also look very different without Belichick coaching the Patriots.

Both teams will have huge decisions about how to fill these massive shoes. While there are some interesting candidates for the gig in New England and the job in Tuscaloosa, can either live up to the reputation that Belichick and Saban built?

We looked back at some of the most legendary coaches in football history, both in the NFL and in college football, to learn how these replacements have typically fared.

The results are a fairly mixed bag but if there is one thing we learned, it is that it is not easy to replace someone as accomplished as either of these two Hall of Fame-caliber coaches.

Husker legend makes surprise appearance at football practice

A Nebraska legend made a surprise appearance at football practice on Tuesday.

A Nebraska legend made a surprise appearance at football practice on Tuesday. Hall of Fame coach Tom Osborne stopped by the Huskers practice facility to visit with Matt Rhule and his staff.

It’s no surprise that the coach should visit the week of the Colorado game. Osborne had a long history with the Buffaloes, holding a record of 21-3-1 against the former conference foe.

Osborne’s connection to Colorado goes deeper than just coaching against the program. The Hall of Fame head coach almost left Nebraska for the Buffaloes job.

As Mike Babcock reported in Hail Varsity in 2018, Osborne was offered and considered the Colorado head coaching job. Following the 1978 season, Colorado offered Osborne more than double his pay to move west from Lincoln to Boulder.

The head coach told the Lincoln Journal then that his players were the most significant factor in his decision to stay in Nebraska.

 “I thought about when it would come time to line up next fall against the Nebraska players I had recruited and coached,” he was quoted in the Lincoln Journal. “That was an over-riding factor in my decision” to stay put.

Osborne would coach at Nebraska for 25 seasons and would finish with a record of 255-49-3. He would win 13 conference championships and three national championships as a head coach.

Find a photo gallery of Osborne’s career below.

What role did Tom Osborne play in Nebraska’s new 3-3-5 defense

Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule recently appeared on the Husker Radio Network. The conversation touched on various topics, including Nebraska’s new defense. The Huskers will be running a 3-3-5 scheme this season. Rhule has had some …

Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule recently appeared on the Husker Radio Network. The conversation touched on various topics, including Nebraska’s new defense.

The Huskers will be running a 3-3-5 scheme this season. Rhule has had some experience with the defense.

When I was at Temple we were really good on defense. We were in the Top 25 for three of the four years. We always mixed around with some three-down (lineman) stuff. We’d run some 3-3 stuff. Then when we got to Baylor, you know it’s a wide-open offense. We played a little bit of it but the last year we ran a true 3-3 and jumped through the roof and won 11 games. That was my history with it, I knew Tony and knew the success he was having.

As Rhule explained to host Greg Sharpe, former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne helped plant the seed of trying something different.

It was really listening to Coach Osborne talk about making Nebraska a place where people have to adjust to something in just two or three days. Again, he was talking about the option. On defense, let’s do something I know a little bit about from my history. Is it simpler? Our guys have taken to it and learned it but a lot of it has to do with their hard work as well.

Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White has been among the more popular topics of conversation among the Cornhusker faithful. White runs a 3-3-5 base defense. That’s three down linemen, three linebackers, and five defensive backs.

He learned the defense under Rocky Long, who was considered one of the significant influences on the modern spread defense. White’s defenses are known for their aggressive and unorthodox style.

Tom Osborne on what went wrong with Scott Frost

Former Nebraska head football coach and College Football Hall of Famer Tom Osborne has shared some of his thoughts on the failure of the Scott Frost regime.

Former Nebraska head football coach and College Football Hall of Famer Tom Osborne shared thoughts on the failure of the Scott Frost regime. Osborne spoke with former Husker Adam Carriker about what went wrong under Scott Frost.

While he believes Frost did do some good at Nebraska, Osborne believes, ultimately, the former Husker quarterback was dealt a tough hand.

“I think he went through a very difficult time. He came in on the tail end of a not very successful recruiting regime from the coach previously.

It’s not like he was dealt a really good deck. Then you had COVID and the thing that was a little puzzling was that if you looked at the score at the end of three quarters, Scott would have had a really good record.

Frost was dismissed three games in the 2022 season following the Cornhusker’s 45-42 loss to Georgia Southern. The former quarterback went 16-31 in his four-plus seasons on the sideline.

Osborne went on to talk about the current state of the coaching profession in modern college football.

For whatever reason, they couldn’t hang in the fourth quarter and lost a lot of games. As you know, this is a business of what have you done for me lately.

It’s really hard to stay employed if you have four losing seasons. I think Scott did a lot of good things.

I know social media is brutal, but a lot of the stuff you hear is over the top. I wish Scott the best.”

While the former Husker was linked to several coaching jobs across college football this offseason, he ultimately will remain off the sideline in 2023.

Find a photo gallery of Scott Frost’s college football career below.

Nebraska to honor 1983’s “The Scoring Explosion” team with alternate uniform

Nebraska will remember “The Scoring Explosion” squad with new threads for one game this season.

The University of Nebraska has unveiled their football team’s alternate uniforms when they host the Oklahoma Sooners on September 17th. The Huskers will honor the 1983 team known as “The Scoring Explosion.”

The ’83 squad was the top scoring offense in college football that year, averaging an astounding 50.3 points per game, while the defense gave up an average of 16.7 points per game. They would also score an NCAA record 654 points on the season, a record now held by the 2019 LSU Tigers. In addition, the team would boast an impressive roster of talent, including the 1983 Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier. He would run for a school-record 2,148 yards and 28 touchdowns for an average of 7.8 yards a rush. Quarterback Turner Gill would finish fourth for the Heisman throwing for 1,516 yards, 14 touchdowns, and four interceptions. He would also run for 531 yards and 11 touchdowns. The team also had both the first and second overall picks in the 1984 NFL Draft in Wide Receiver Irving Fryar (No. 1 – New England) and Offensive Lineman Dean Steinkuhler (No. 2 – Houston).

The ’83 squad finished the season with a 12-1 record and No. 2 national ranking after losing 31-30 to Miami in the Orange Bowl. The game famous for seeing head coach Tom Osborne, late in the fourth quarter, go for two and the win rather than kick the extra point to more than likely preserve a tie and a probable national championship. Instead, Osborne would be forced to wait 11 more years until he won his first title.

And now Nebraska will honor “The Scoring Explosion” with throwback uniforms during this season’s matchup with longtime rival Oklahoma.

Nebraska kicks off the season on August 27th against the Northwestern Wildcats in Dublin, Ireland. Below is a photo gallery looking back at just a few moments of the 1983 Nebraska Football season.

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Sixty years ago a new head coach would change Nebraska Football forever

Three other coaches had to turn down the job for this future Hall-of-Famer to get the offer.

It was 60 years ago this season that the new head football coach for the University of Nebraska took the sidelines for the first time. The school had dismissed head coach Bill Jennings who accumulated a 15-34-1 record after five seasons on the job. He would be replaced as head coach by the man who would make Nebraska Football a household program. That man would be College Football Hall of Famer Bob Devaney.

Devaney would begin his career coaching high school football in Michigan at spots like Alpena, Big Beaver, Harbor, and Saginaw. His success at that level would lead to him being hired as an assistant coach at Michigan State under head coaches Biggie Munn and Duff Daugherty in 1953. Devaney would remain in East Lancing until 1956, when he would be hired to lead the Wyoming Cowboys. In five seasons, he would finish with a 35-10-5 record and would win a Skyline Conference title his last four years in Laramie.

Following the 1961 season, Devaney would leave Laramie to become the head coach at the University of Nebraska. The Wyoming head coach would only be offered the job after Utah’s Ray Nagel, Utah State’s John Ralston, and Devaney’s former employer, Michigan State coach Duff Daugherty turned down the job. Daugherty would recommend his former assistant to Nebraska athletic director Tippy Dye for the job.

In his first season as the head coach of the Cornhuskers, he would finish with a 9-2 record and a victory over the Miami Hurricanes in the Gotham Bowl. Devaney would finish with nine wins or more each of his first five seasons on the job. Then, after back-to-back, 6-4 seasons in 1967 and 1968, Devaney would promote one of his assistants, Tom Osborne, to become the team’s offensive coordinator. The next four years would see Devaney finish with 42 wins, four losses, and two ties. He would also secure a share of the 1970 National Championship and the outright title in 1971.

Devaney would retire as head coach in 1972 but would continue as Athletic Director, a position that he held since 1967. He remained the school’s AD until his retirement in 1992 and would serve as AD Emeritus until retiring from public life in 1996. His career record was 136-30-7 with a 7-3 make in bowl games. He would end his Nebraska career with a 101-20-2 mark with eight Big Eight titles (1963-1966, 1969-1972) and two National Championships (1970, 1971).

Below is just a small collection of some of Devaney’s big moments as Nebraska head coach.

The last 30 opening day quarterbacks for Nebraska

Take a trip down memory lane!!

We’re officially under 55 days till the start of the college football season. Nebraska will be heading across the Atlantic to Dublin, Ireland, to take on the Northwestern Wildcats in a European Big Ten battle. As we’re all aware, the Huskers have added several new coaches after last season’s disappointing 3-9 campaign in 2021. Scott Frost and company have also added a couple of new quarterbacks to the team via the transfer portal, Casey Thompson (Texas) & Chubba Purdy (Florida State) after the transfer of four-year starter Adrian Martinez (Kansas State). It appears that Thompson will be starting under center (or in the shotgun) in the Week 0 clash in Europe.

If Thompson is the starter, he will join a storied history of Nebraska opening day quarterbacks. The program features QBs that have won the Heisman, the Walter Camp Trophy, the Davey O’Brien Award, and the Johnny Unitas Award. Below is a list of the last 30 opening-day quarterbacks for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. I’ll be honest. There were a few names that I had forgotten were once starters for the Huskers, but the list does contain a few memorable players and Nebraska football legends.