Nebraska’s Tom Osborne: On Texas rivalry and leaving the Big 12
When the Big 12 was formed, Nebraska was dominant in football. Now in your final season in the conference, you are again very strong. How do you look at the return to prominence?
Osborne: Bo Pelini and his staff have obviously done a very good job. They’ve done a good job of recruiting. The biggest difficulty we were having was stopping people. … I thought Bo was probably the one coach I knew who could turn around that most quickly and he has done that rapidly. Of course, our offense has changed significantly. They were primarily a West Coast Offense under Bill Callahan and have now evolved more toward a running quarterback and one that can pass well, too. A lot of things have changed. I agree with Bo that we’re probably a work in progress but we’re improving.
Osborne: Well, I really don’t know. Personally, I like Dan Beebe very much. He was presented with a difficult situation and I think he made the best he could of it and showed some significant leadership capability. How the Big 12 will do from this point on, I don’t know.
But I will say this, I was very happy to see it stay together as a conference. We had so many good friends such as Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri and Baylor to some degree that were really in difficult positions. I was glad everyone decided to stay together. It was a very sincere feeling on my part. I didn’t want to see it blow up. So I think Dan has done a good job, and I consider him a friend. I feel the same way about DeLoss Dodds and also Mack Brown. I have great respect for them, and we’ve always gotten along well.
dallasnews.com
10/14/10
Magnolia Tribune
