Echoes of Glory Part II: 25 Years of Husker Football and the Search for Redemption

Below is the second part of a 3-part series revisiting the narratives that characterized Nebraska's first 25 years of the 21st century.

Part 1 Recruiting in the Online Era Despite being a perennial title contender at the turn of the century, Nebraska's recruiting was quietly falling behind.

The talent drain was the result of lackluster effort from an aging group of assistant coaches, a shortcoming that became glaring with the rise of online recruiting services in the early 2000s.

Steve Pederson wasnt shy about pointing it out.

Upon returning to Nebraska as Athletic Director, he noted how stark the difference was between the talent on the field under Frank Solich with what he'd left behind when he departed Nebraska for Pitt in 1996.

Casual observers could see it too.

The explosion of online recruiting coverage via Rivals and Scout and later ESPN, 247Sports, and On3 magnified everything.

These websites gave fans and programs a transparent, measurable way to evaluate recruiting success.

The star system came to dominate offseason discourse in a way high school football recruiting never had before.

Some fans and coaches scoffed at the rankings, but the truth became clear: stars correlated strongly to winning.

Fans scrutinized and debated and wrangled their hands over the rankings accordingly.

Solich and his staff were caught flat-footed in this new landscape.

But his successor brought Nebraska to the forefront.

Bill Callahan, along with Associate AD Tim Cassidy, modernized the Huskers approach.

They elevated the program's recruiting operation to a national level, cultivating Nebraskas best selling point the game day experience to sell the program to top-tier prospects.

Callahan also hired renowned recruiters like the late John Blake, who had assembled the roster Bob Stoops used to win his national title at Oklahoma.

With an efficient, organized strategy and a cadre of ace closers, Nebraska landed its most heralded class of the 21st century in 2005, ranked number one by Tom Lemming and Top 5 by other publications.

It offered a balm to fans after the sting of their first losing season since JFK was in office.

And while many of the signees ultimately underwhelmed, the class still produced two eventual conference players of the year: quarterback Zac Taylor in 2006, and of course Ndamukong Suh, whose accomplishments are legend.

Bo Pelini was the beneficiary of that talent when he assumed the head role in 2008.

He lit a fire under the potential languishing in his locker room, culminating in the 2009 and 2010 teams that were the best of the post-Solich era.

But Pelini, a Youngstown-grown, old-school football coach, often showed little interest in the salesmanship required to win over teenagers.

He landed stars, to be sure Lavonte David, Rex Burkhead, Alfonzo Dennard, Maliek Collins, Ameer Abdullah and others but not as many as Callahan.

The product on the field from 2011 to 2014 reflected it, even if the record didnt show it.

The cycle of commitments was also shifting rapidly.

Recruiting Coordinator Ted Gilmore drew ire from fans when, at a Husker Football 202 event in July 2010, he lamented that many of Nebraskas top targets had already committed elsewhere while coaches were on vacation a sign of how early the recruiting calendar was moving.

Today, that timeline has only accelerated; the bulk of a class is now in place by the summer before senior year.

After Pelinis firing, Nebraskas leadership doubled down on recruiting emphasis.

Mike Rileys hiring came with a directive to boost the Huskers' talent acquisition profile and Riley spoke openly about the need to sign Top-25-ranked classes.

He even hired high-profile recruiter Donte Williams to outfit the secondary with the kind of NFL-level talent they witnessed in their trouncing against Ohio State, 2016.

The abysmal 2017 campaign squashed any hope of that plan working out.

Scott Frost brought a strong pitch derived from his Cinderella season at UCF, but it didnt translate to on-field results.

His wide receiver signees, in particular, disappointed.

Conference opponents adjusted to his offense after 2018, and by the time Frost realized he needed to adapt himself, it was too late.

Despite Nebraskas lack of championship success, they consistently out-recruited their divisional opponents, though it often failed to translate on the field.

After all, it was two-star Chicagoan Joe Ganz that set records at NU, not five-star Harrison Beck.

Ameer Abdullah, a three-star afterthought, quickly outshined his ballyhooed classmate, Aaron Green.

And Spencer Long, a walk-on, was the only Husker O-Lineman to make an All-American team after Toniu Fonoti walked out the door.

For every Ndamukong Suh, there were three more blue chippers that never lived up to their lofty prep billing.

Still, there was no denying that talent, real, bona fide talent, was often in short supply.

Now, in the NIL era, the calculus has changed.

Infrastructure and investment can now outweigh geography, long the bane of Nebraskas championship quest.

Whether the Huskers can seize that opportunity and rebuild a talent pipeline worthy of their history is the next chapter.

A Lack of Leadership In the 21st century, Nebraska built beautiful locker rooms, world-class nutrition centers, and the largest support staff in program history.

None of it replaced the thing they needed most: leadership to hold the program together.

There has rarely been a unified front in 21st century Nebraska football.

It always starts at the top.

The one constant for much of the first quarter of Nebraskas century was Harvey Perlman, chancellor of UNL from April 2001 to June 2016.

Longtime Husker scribe Steve Sipple deemed him an utter disaster of a leader.

Its hard to argue otherwise .

Perlman presided over two disastrous AD tenures and undermined Nebraskas most successful coach of the era.

His first AD hire, Steve Pederson, was received extremely well at the onset.

Pederson publicly backed Frank Solich upon his return in late 2002, saying: I have every confidence in the world that we can get this thing rolling.

Frank has been a head coach long enough to prove that he can coach.

But his actions behind the scenes said otherwise.

After Frank assembled a new coaching staff, Pederson tried to slip a midnight clause into their contracts, which would render their contracts void at midnight the same day the head coach would be fired, should such a thing take place.

Pederson removed it after the assistants threatened to boycott.

During the actual season, amid the worst home loss since 1958 to eventual Big XII champion Kansas State, Pederson reportedly told boosters that Solich would be asked to retire after the season finale against Colorado.

Pederson denied the report but did exactly that in spite of Nebraskas 9-win record.

Pederson neglected to hire a search firm and handled the replacement hunt himself, with poor results.

His dream of turning Nebraska into the USC of the Midwest with an NFL coach failed to materialize at first, being turned down by no less than three coaches while a fourth, Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, withdrew from consideration.

After forty long, embarrassing days, he landed Bill Callahan.

But under the former Raiders coach, things only got worse.

The Huskers hit new lows in 2004 losses to Southern Miss, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma.

Things were just as bad off the field, with Pederson reportedly making the atmosphere of the Athletic Department toxic.

In just his first week as AD, Pederson fired seven staffers and reassigned another eighteen.

He alienated alumni to the point where they created a rival golf tourney to compete with Pedersons N Club.

The alumni got a bigger turnout.

The bottom dropped out during a woeful 2007 season.

Long-time fundraiser Paul Meyers, popular among the administration, abruptly resigned.

NU Regents received hundreds of emails calling for the heads of Pederson, Callahan, and Perlman.

They got Pederson.

His contract, which had just been extended by Perlman, was bought out for $2.2 million shortly after a 45-14 home loss to OK State with the 97 title team in attendance.

In his time of need, Perlman turned to Tom Osborne, newly free after a failed gubernatorial run.

Osborne replaced Callahan with Bo Pelini in short order, a move that felt more than just a little like making amends for the Solich firing.

But Perlman didnt care for how the fiery Pelini represented Pelini, publicly rebuking him after the 2010 A&M game.

In 2013, he installed Shawn Eichorst as AD without Osbornes input with a clear mandate to sever ties with Bo.

Some, including Bo , claim that the beloved Osborne was forced to step down by Perlman because of his unwillingness to do so.

Pelinis tenure unraveled from that point on.

He railed at officials, clashed with fans and reporters, and infamously dared the administration to fire him after the 2013 Iowa game.

Though it was no secret both Eichorst and Perlman wanted him gone, he was retained for 2014, possibly because Mack Brown reportedly turned down Eichorsts overtures to take the job.

The 2014 blowout loss at Wisconsin with the division on the line gave them enough cover to fire Pelini after the season ended with a win against Iowa.

Eichorst, like Pederson before him, made remarks that day hed come to regret: In the final analysis, I had to evaluate where Iowa was.

Nebraska has beaten Iowa once in the ten years since.

Its easy to revisit Eichorst and Perlmans ill-fated decision to hire Mike Riley, a career .500 coach feeling the heat at his long-time school and wonder what on earth they were thinking.

But they likely believed the same thing as many fans: that most anyone outside of Bill Callahan could regularly win nine games a season at Nebraska.

Bo left wins on the table from 2008 to 2010 and scratched for nine in the downtrodden Big Ten from 2011 to 2014.

It rarely looked pretty.

But in hindsight, Pelinis winning seasons and ability to close tight games looks awfully appealing.

Eichorst did not anticipate the Big Tens resurgence on the wings of cable TV money and a reshaped mindset towards recruiting in the wake of Urban Meyers audacious entrance to the league.

He also, like so many others, did not recognize how difficult the Husker head man job was.

"I didn't know it was going to be like this," Bill Callahan once told friend and former Husker coach Charlie McBride.

"I didn't realize it was that intense around here." When Perlman retired, Eichorst began to feel the heat himself.

He had few friends among the Board of Regents, many of whom were reportedly miffed they were not consulted on the Riley hire.

The tone of Eichorsts message changed from student-athlete experience to win now, coaches recalled.

After Nebraskas awful home loss to Northern Illinois, the notoriously elusive Eichorst tried to play damage control with an impromptu press conference of his own.

It went for naught he was fired the next week.

Leadership continued to be in short supply under Bill Moos, a confident, affable man who gave too much latitude to a coach clearly in over his head.

The team kept losing, which heated his seat.

He, along with his successor Trev Alberts, allegedly clashed with head coach Scott Frost.

Frost took thinly veiled shots at his former bosses at the recent Big XII media days event.

For a brief moment, it seemed like stability had finally returned when Ted Carter and Alberts teamed up to lure Matt Rhule to Lincoln.

Within a year, both were gone.

But regardless of who was in charge, Nebraska failed to return to championship form.

The closest anyone came was Pelini, whose teams played for three conference titles, losing two in heartbreaking fashion and the third in a still-puzzling romp.

But even Pelini struggled to serve in a manner befitting the highest paid public position in the state.

His sideline tirades became message board fodder and the inspiration for a famous Twitter handle.

One of the primary lessons of the past 25 years is that shiny buildings and big staffs dont matter without strong, steady leadership.

And while a good coach can still win nine games a year at Nebraska, it takes a great one to win championships.

Whether Nebraska has found that great coach in Matt Rhule remains to be seen.

What history makes clear, though, is that without unified leadership behind him, even he wont stand a chance.

In the Shadow of Glory Nebraska was like a Midwestern highway in summer for most of the first 25 years perennially under construction.

And every rebuilding project starts with an unspoken understanding of what worked before.

Nebraska has a script everyone feels obligated to follow, at least to some degree: Blackshirts.

I-Backs.

Walk-Ons.

Squats.

Option.

Native sons.

That shadow never left.

Every coach after Tom Osborne lived in it, either trying to copy his methods or run from them.

Different approaches yielded the same result.

Every one of them was measured against a ghost, and everyone came up short.

At some point, you wonder if Nebraska would be better off striking a match and burning the past behind them in a beautiful blaze.

Maybe then todays players wouldnt buckle under the weight of tradition.

Even the trappings of the program have become questions: Should the Blackshirts still be handed out? Should Sirius still blare during the Tunnel Walk? Should the sellout streak even matter? And all the while, the 90s haunt Memorial Stadium.

HuskerVision opens every home game with ghosts of the past: Fraziers Fiesta Bowl run, the kamikaze sack of Wyomings quarterback in 94, Mike Ruckers de-cleating hit, and Terry Connealys Orange Bowl roar.

In the YouTube era, the past is never past.

At the heart of Nebraskas lost decades is a deep and persistent identity crisis.

What kind of team is Nebraska supposed to be? One that honors tradition or one that looks forward? Power-run or spread? 4-3 defense or 3-3-5? Grit or glitz? Over 25 years, Nebraska has tried on more identities than there are names on the Lettermens Wall.

Thats the cost of living in the shadow of glory: you forget how to move forward into the daylight.

Until Nebraska finds a successful blend of old and new, the roadwork will drag on, and the destination will stay the same.

Wilting in the Spotlight In November 2001, Nebraska hosted second-ranked Oklahoma in a showdown that felt like old times.

The Blackshirts suffocated Jason White and the Sooners 20game win streak, and Eric Crouchs now-legendary Black 41 Flash Reverse sent Memorial Stadium into delirium.

From thereafter, the big stage has been a curse.

The Huskers havent beaten a Top 5 opponent since.

In fact, they havent beaten any ranked opponent since 2016.

27 games.

27 losses.

Dirk Chatelain did the math the odds of Nebraska losing 27 straight games to ranked teams was somewhere in the vicinity of 2,000 to 1.

Primetime has been particularly cruel.

ESPNs College Gameday came to Lincoln in 2007 for USC and again in 2019 for Ohio State.

Both nights ended the same way: the Huskers were buried before halftime.

Even Bo Pelinis best wins top 10 upsets of Missouri in 2010 and Michigan State in 2011 came under the noon sun, not the lights.

Primetime television almost always spelled doom for Big Red.

Opportunities to change the narrative repeatedly slipped away.

Terrence Nunns fumble against Texas in 2006.

One blown coverage that doomed them at Virginia Tech in 2009.

The kickoff out of bounds and a horsecollar penalty that squandered a Big XII title later that season.

A 17point collapse to Oklahoma the very next year.

Youll notice many of those games involved Pelini teams.

They often looked like they were ready to take the next big step until something spun the game on its head.

He once said it looked as if his team had seen a ghost .

Years later, the Huskers still grapple with ghosts.

Their futility under the spotlight extended to games with rivals in recent years.

Theyve gone 1-3 versus CU since 2018 and 1-9 against Iowa in the last ten tries.

Against Wisconsin, theyre 2-11 since entering the Big Ten.

Their failure to topple nemeses was never more pronounced than against the Longhorns of Texas.

Even prime 90s-era Nebraska dropped three to the hated Horns before vanquishing them in the 1999 Big XII Title Game.

The 21st century was even worse.

Nebraska went 0-6 in the series, including their final matchup in 2010, the heavily touted Red Out Around the World game.

Nebraska was the far better team but lost because of several dropped touchdown passes.

It was the one non-Bowl team Pelin lost to in his seven years at the helm.

Then theres the stat that defines modern Nebraska over the last seven years: The Huskers are 10-35 in one-score games since 2018.

They've won one just one contest when tied or losing by a score on their final possesssion during that span, the lone win being Northwestern in 2019.

One win in thirty-three games.

It defies belief.

Its almost as remarkable as 33 consecutive 9-win seasons.

Nebraska is nothing if not exceptional at whatever it does.

Talent wasnt always, or even usually, the issue.

Sure, they often lacked a dude, the kind of guy who could make a big play to turn the tide the way Maurice Purify did against Texas A&M in 2006 or Ameer Abdullah did to set up the Hail Mary against Northwestern.

What Nebraska really lacked was the composure to finish.

As the losses mounted, the weight of the moment grew heavier.

In the 21st century, Nebraska football went from being the team everyone dreaded to the team that dreads the big moment.

A Bitter Departure When the Big Ten announced expansion plans in the late Aughts, it set off a chain of events, the aftershocks of which are still felt today.

In what became a decades-long arms race for brands that would attract cable TV dollars, it was Nebraska that ultimately fired the first shot.

Facing the prospect of six teams all four Texas and both Oklahoma universities leaving the Big XII to form a super conference with the Pac-10, Nebraska needed to make moves.

Then-Athletic Director Tom Osborne did just that in securing a place with the prestigious Big Ten.

Colorado also headed west with Utah to form the Pac-12.

The proposed Pac-16 fell through, thanks in part to an 11th hour TV deal that kept the conference intact for a time.

But Nebraskas exit wasnt without animosity.

They had one more season in a league theyd called home in various forms for over a century.

When Nebraska visited Manhattan, Kansas State fans let their feelings be known : they booed the players, wielded signs that branded the Huskers treasonous quitters, and even staged a mock Herbie Husker takedown by Willie the Wildcat.

Too bad Willie couldnt tackle Taylor Martinez too.

On Bill Snyders birthday, Nebraska steamrolled the Wildcats, racking up more rushing yards than K-State had surrendered in 21 years.

Missouri came to Lincoln hot, having just beat No.

3 Oklahoma on primetime TV.

Roy Helu left them holding their jockstraps.

Kansas and Colorado barely put up a fight.

That was how the final season went Nebraska stuffed their Big XII North brethren in a locker one more time.

But they sustained bruises, too.

Husker linebacker Eric Martin was suspended for a helmet-to-helmet hit in the Oklahoma State game.

A flagrant act of targeting, the conference called it.

When a Texas A&M player was caught on live TV violating Ben Cotton, the same administration was tellingly silent.

Bo Pelini was anything but.

His tirades against referees, and his own quarterback , became national talking points.

By the seasons end, fans wondered aloud if the league was conspiring to keep Nebraska from leaving with a trophy.

Yellow flags flooded the stands in protest during the finale against Colorado.

And in the Big XII title game, Oklahoma linemen were allowed to hold with impunity, not unlike their 2005 match when Callahan made his infamous throat-slash gesture.

At the center of it all was ineffectual conference commissioner, Dan Beebe.

Beebe never cultivated consensus among the conference on cable money distribution.

He never managed to slow the Longhorns from making the conference their personal playground, either.

Texas A&M left a year after Nebraska in response to Texas ill-fated Longhorn Network, as did Missouri.

And he never hid his disdain for the Huskers and their imminent departure.

Beebe went public with alleged death threats he received a common occurrence for conference commissioners from Husker fans after the officials jobbed Nebraska in the A&M game.

His last vindictive act was to squash a potential Nebraska-Iowa bowl match and relegate the Huskers to a rematch with Washington instead.

The Huskers barely showed up for it.

And with that, the Huskers left behind the Big XII and a century of history for the Big Tens promise of shared revenue and academic prestige.

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