Former Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Moos just released his memoir titled “Crab Creek Chronicles from the Wheat Fields to the Ball Fields and Beyond.” Since its release Moos has done multiple guest appearances on Nebraska radio shows and podcasts revealing events about his time as AD at Nebraska. While his book has 697 pages, it only has two chapters about Nebraska and has generated ample interest in the Big Red state.
Hot topics Moos has touched on is that he was hired with the sole purpose of bringing in Scott Frost as Nebraska’s next head coach. Frost, however, was not Moos’s first choice. He wanted to hire Chip Kelly, but when talking to his superiors about Kelly they showed little to no excitement. They wanted Frost. “I felt forced to hire Frost and that I couldn’t afford to have him go somewhere else and succeed,” Moos said, “If I don’t pursue him with everything I got and he ends up at Tennessee of Florida, I’m screwed.” Moos thought Frost was immature, and he was right. Frost wasn’t ready for the challenge Nebraska presented.
While searching for a basketball coach, Moos shared that then regent and now Governor Jim Pillen told him he absolutely could not hire Dana Altman. No reason as to why, just no. Moos eventually hired Fred Hoiberg, who until this season looked like a mistake.
Moos then revealed that he wasn’t part of the decision to extend Frost’s contract. “I’m walking back from seeing the ESPN College GameDay boys and I get a call, it’s a couple of hours before kickoff and chancellor Ronnie Green goes. ‘By the way, I wanted you to know I extended Scott’s contract by two years,” Moos said. “That’s how I found out, but who’s now the hero with Scott. Where’s Scott gonna go next time he thinks he wants something? It was very frustrating to say the least. And all of a sudden, surprise, surprise, I got another $10 million commitment to my football coach, who really hasn’t shown much to this point. Very frustrating.”
But the story Bill Moos shared that surprised me most was Nebraska looking to get back in the Big 12. Moos indicated that this was prompted by complaints from fans about traveling long distances and costly expenses to get too Big Ten games. As Moos tells it, this was conveyed to him on several occasions and not just by farmers, ranchers, and small-town merchants, but also by top-notch professionals, affluent business owners, and even a couple of members of the board of regents. “Knowledge of this prompted me to implement my stealth approach to exploring possibilities by secretly testing the waters to return to what was known as the Big 12, even though it only consisted of ten members,” Moos said. Of course, things didn’t move forward, and for fans like me, thank goodness they didn’t. Even though Nebraska isn’t making noise in the Big Ten, thanks to staying put they aren’t on the outside looking in. Leaving the Big Ten would have been catastrophic in my mind.
Still, I want to read Moos’s book, not just because of the Nebraska chapters, but because he hired Mike Leach at Washington State. You can’t be a fan of college football and not appreciate Mike Leach. With Moos being the storyteller he is, the Leach chapters must surely be entertaining.
Part of the reason there is so much interest in Nebraska over the book is because what Moos has to say puts the finishing touches on what Husker fans already knew. If you have followed Nebraska football for as long as I have then the stories he’s been telling don’t really shock, you. There are obvious things that outsiders like me had no knowledge of and some of them are unbelievable. But the fact the Nebraska football program was so dysfunctional at the administrative level comes as no real surprise to most of us. It’s been going on for years. The question now is, how much of it is still going on.
How Long Has the Dysfunction Been Happening
If it was going on while Bob Devaney was the AD and Osborne the coach, there is little evidence of it. However, that all changed when Osborne went to then AD Bill Byrne and all but demanded Frank Solich be named as his replacement. It didn’t set well with Byrne as Solich wasn’t his first choice. And as for the higher ups Byrne answered to, it sent the message the tail was wagging the dog. Byrne ended up going to Texas A&M and Steve Pederson took over as AD.
At the time I thought Pederson was a good hire and it was clear he had the support of Chancellor Harvey Perlman, who I thought had Nebraska football’s best interest in mind. But Perlman hated how powerful Husker football was. So, when Pederson wanted to fire Solich, Perlman was good with it. After firing Solich and launching a comical 47 day hiring search, including an airplane setting on the runway in Arkansas trying to lure Houston Nutt aboard. Nebraska eventually ended up with Bill Callahan, who may have been a good coach but couldn’t have been a worse fit for Nebraska.
After going 27-22 in four seasons and 5-7 in AD Tom Osborne first year, no one had to tell Osborne what needed to be done. He fired Callahan and quickly hired LSU national champion defensive coordinator Bo Pelini. Looking back, I’m not so sure Osborne wasn’t in the same position that Moos was hiring Scott Frost. Husker fans were clamoring for Pelini before Callahan was even out the door.
After Osborne was forced out Harvey Perlman saw that Shawn Eichorst was hired as the next athletic director. Eichorst first assignment, fire Bo Pelini, who couldn’t have gotten anymore cross ways with Perlman if he tried. Eichorst’s second assignment, hire the anti-Pelini, Mike Riley. Husker fans let out a singular moan and shook their heads in dismay at the painfully obvious dysfunction.
Bill Moos lives the chapters of his book and fires Riley and hires Frost.
Trev Alberts was the next AD after Moos. Alberts fired Scott Frost and it was Alberts and Ted Carter who hired Matt Rhule. And in typical Nebraska fashion, Ronnie Green, Carter and Alberts were gone within a year of Rhule’s arrival. Enter Troy Dannen.
So, is the same dysfunction we’ve seen over the last 26 years still occurring? If so, it isn’t so prevalent, it’s obvious to fans. At least not like Pederson, Eichorst, and Moos tenures.
GO BIG RED!! SIMPLE, FAST, VIOLENT!!
Photo courtesy of The Falls City Journal
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