Huskers Guttless?

[Durango53]

Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson on Tuesday defended himself and the university's athletic department against a wave of criticism from his counterpart at the University of Houston.



Houston athletic director Dave Maggard last week called Nebraska "gutless" for allegedly backing out of a verbal agreement to play Houston in a football game next fall. Maggard also said Pederson had acted unprofessionally and that he had lost respect for the Nebraska athletic program.



Maggard repeated his comments to media outlets in Nebraska on Monday.



In his first public comments on the matter, Pederson said in a statement, "I do not believe that concerns between two schools should be played out publicly. I have tried not to respond to the attacks from the Houston athletic director out of respect for the game of college football. However, with misstatements and unfair criticism of our University of Nebraska Athletic Department made public, I want to set the record straight."



Pederson said Houston failed to assure him that certain requirements would be met regarding a possible game, but he did not specify what the requirements were.



"With the football season nine months away, I felt it necessary to protect our program and move forward with completing our schedule," Pederson said. "I informed Houston of this before we proceeded with signing the contract with Wake Forest."



Pederson said Maggard's contention that Nebraska replaced an away game with Houston for a home game with Division I-AA Maine was inaccurate. He said Wake Forest is the opponent that replaces Houston on the schedule.



Pederson reiterated that no contract had been signed by either Nebraska or Houston.



"And I want it to be known that the University of Nebraska does not have a history of backing out of signed game contracts," Pederson said


Does this guy have a clue on anything? He cant get a coach and now he cant get games done without everyone calling him a dumb ass?

[PopTop]

I'm not sure who the "he" is in your comment, Durango?

Doesn't matter, really. This is exactly why the NCAA needs a scheduling committee and/or a rigid scheduling format. No school from Div I-A should be playing a I-AA school unless you want to call it a "preseason" game and have none of the stats, wins and losses count.

You could practically take the S.O.S. out of the BCS formula if the "league" was setting the schedules instead of each team working their own out 5-6-7-8 years in advance.

[Durango53]

Sorry Pop the "he" in my statment is directed at Steve Pederson. The donkey dung who fired a 9-3 coach because he had a bad year and hired a coach that got ran out of town for trashing a team that quit on him and hated every thing he did. And now is making the Huskers look bad by having other AD's come out and call him and the team gutless.

And I hear you Pop I think the NCAA should have a scheduling committee but who the hell knows they might leave it up the AP unofficially and to help them get some accountability back.
I think we would see some better football instead of teams playing 4 cupcake teams a year and hoping for 2 more wins to get a bowl game then...

[Durango53]

Man I am really really getting down with the Huskers!!!! :(

I am glad the Cowboys are a up and coming team that are looking like they can give reason for people to cheer for them...

[imgreat95]

Shad, you do realize that the team that Callahan played with this year was Frank Solich's players, right? Do you also realize that Nebraska is rated as having had a top 3 recruiting class by many publications for Callahan's first season on the job?

I think that what most people fail to realize is that it often takes 2-3 seasons for a cocah to make a team his "own" team and to show what he is capable of. Most ADs, however, never give the coach that kind of opportunity.

[imgreat95]

In fact, Rivals.com has Nebraska ranked as the #1 recruiting class in the nation.

[Durango53]

Oh ya I know that Nebraska does have a high ranked class.
And I have said many many times I hope that they give Bill a chance and when I say a chance I mean 5+ years. Yes you are very right in saying that most AD's dont give the coachs a chance. I have said that if Tom Osborne was a head coach today and did the same thing he did when he took over the Huskers he would have been fired just because it took him a while to get the team up and going.

I am just red assed I guess from firing a 9-3 coach and then finding a coach that turned into the joke of NCAA football for the offseason because 5 other coachs said NO WAY, letting go one of the best D-coachs in the game then having one of the worst season in the history of the program that saw a final score of 70 to 10. And now this with one AD calling the other "gutless".

It just seems to be chaotic in the Husker athletic department.