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Transcript
00:00 Welcome to the Carriker Chronicles, the people's show.
00:12 Checking the pulse of Hesker Nation brought to you by DPS Construction, your local Concrete
00:16 experts.
00:17 Check them out at dpsconstruction.net.
00:20 I got a special guest with me today, but before we dive into a 5-time national champion and
00:26 College Football Hall of Famer, if you missed my interviews last week with Prince Amu Kamara
00:31 and Roy Hulu, go back and check them out.
00:34 And then in a couple days, I'll be releasing my interview with Tony White or Marcus Satterfield.
00:38 I'm going to interview them both.
00:39 I'm not sure which one's going to come first.
00:41 I may throw Tony out there first and then Marcus in a couple of weeks, but check those
00:46 things out in the near future.
00:47 But today, I want to get to our special guest.
00:50 Like I mentioned, College Football Hall of Famer, 3-time national champion as a head
00:53 coach, Mr. Tom Osborne.
00:55 How are you doing, Coach?
00:56 >>I'm doing fine, Adam.
00:57 >>Well, I appreciate you joining me.
01:01 And my first question right off the top, we've got a new head coach in Nebraska.
01:05 So what are your first impressions of Matt Rule and what do you think the biggest thing
01:10 he'll try to improve on in year one as Nebraska's new head coach?
01:14 >>Well, I've interacted with Matt several times in the last few months and I've been
01:23 impressed with him.
01:24 And anyway, some people say, "Well, you've been impressed before."
01:31 Yeah, that's true.
01:33 But the things I like about Matt are that, number one, he's a very hard worker.
01:38 And people may say, "Well, what's so new about that?"
01:43 But Nebraska's got some uniqueness about it in that we have 1.8 million people.
01:52 And so we might have, oh, three or four fairly highly rated recruits in the state and then
02:01 some others that are potential great players, but they're not there yet.
02:07 Whereas a lot of schools are going to have maybe 15 or 20 highly rated players within
02:14 a short distance.
02:15 And so you have to work hard at recruiting.
02:18 And I think you've done that.
02:20 And I like the idea that he's going to probably do a few things with a tight end and a full
02:30 back.
02:31 I don't know if that's going to be the whole part of his offense, but I think he's going
02:36 to do part of that.
02:37 I think that he understands that he has to be able to run the ball and maintain some
02:43 ball control.
02:44 But one thing that we, I remember we played a game I think last year where Illinois had
02:49 the ball 100 snaps and we had it 50.
02:53 And that wears your defense down.
02:57 And so you have to be able to grind the ball out at times.
03:02 And of course, you want to have a good passing game too.
03:06 So I think his approach has been good.
03:08 He's a likable guy.
03:13 I think he'll relate well to players.
03:15 And so as I would say, my impressions are definitely very positive.
03:21 All right Husker fans, Coach Osborne mentioned the full back being back in the Nebraska offense.
03:27 Like he said, it's not going to be the be-all end-all, but if you're like me and you're
03:30 excited to see a full back back in the Nebraska offense, smash that like button real quick.
03:36 I'm curious your thoughts on Coach Prime.
03:40 Deion Sanders, obviously we're going to be playing at CU week two.
03:43 He's an exciting guy, he's an electrifying guy, personality, had great success at Jackson
03:48 State.
03:49 Do you think Coach Prime, in the next three to four years, let's say, it's going to take
03:53 time to build Colorado back up, he's overhauled 95% of that roster it seems, but in the next
03:59 three to four years, do you think he can have Colorado, especially with USC, UCLA gone from
04:04 the pack, what I assume would be the pack 10 at that time, do you think he can have
04:08 Colorado in the conversation at least, or potentially competing for championships in
04:13 the pack 10 sometime in the next three to four years?
04:16 Well, anything's possible.
04:17 I know that he has lost a lot of players and brought a lot of players in.
04:25 I guess you'd wonder a little bit, with that amount of turnover, is that going to be good
04:30 or not so good?
04:31 And obviously he thinks it's what he needed to do, but a lot of change, a lot of volatility,
04:38 and he does have a track record down at Jackson State, and I'm assuming he's a good coach.
04:47 I've also heard talk about Colorado trying to go to the big 12, and the pack 12 or pack
04:55 10, as you say, if they lose another team or two, which they could, like Oregon or Washington,
05:05 they're in big trouble.
05:08 I wouldn't say they're going to fall apart completely, but it's going to be hard for
05:14 them to survive without the marquee schools.
05:18 So we'll have to see.
05:20 I would say Colorado's in a little bit of a volatile situation right now as far as where
05:26 they're going to end up.
05:28 Alright, ladies and gentlemen, real quick, just so you know, the website's coming out,
05:33 I've been promoting it for a while, it's August 15th, just over a week, CarrikerChronicles.com
05:40 will be launching.
05:42 You can check out all Carriker Chronicles episodes, the Big Ten show that we've been
05:46 doing lately as well, myself and my co-host Jeff Tern, everything on 93.7, the ticker.
05:50 It's going to be a lot of stuff.
05:52 Okay, Connor Hayden from Corn Craze is going to be on the site, John Johnston, who's not
05:55 boring at all, quite entertaining, Ashley Spitznagel, her awesome artwork will be on
06:00 the website as well.
06:02 There's going to be merchandise, Fan of the Week section eventually, and Where Are They
06:07 Now section for past Huskers and what they're up to now, and so much more.
06:11 So stay tuned for that website to launch August 15th.
06:14 Now Coach Osborne, I've been on both sides of the mic.
06:17 I've been asking questions as a player, I'm asking questions as a member of the media
06:21 now, but I wanted to ask you this question, alright, because obviously we all wish Scott
06:27 Frost nothing but the best.
06:28 He's a Husker legend, okay?
06:30 And I do predict one day he's going to come back to Memorial Stadium and Husker fans are
06:33 going to clap for him.
06:35 That's my prediction, I don't know when that'll be, but I predict that.
06:37 Okay, we were all rooting for Scott, but here's my question, why do you think the Scott Frost
06:42 era unfortunately didn't go quite the way we had all hoped?
06:46 Well, it's a little hard to say.
06:50 I think he went through a very difficult time in that he came on the tail end of a not very
06:58 successful recruiting regime from the Goats previously, so it wasn't like he was dealt
07:05 a real good deck.
07:08 And then he had COVID, and the thing that was a little puzzling was that if you looked
07:15 at the score at the end of three quarters, Scott would have had a pretty good record.
07:19 But for whatever reason, they didn't seem to be able to hang in there in the fourth
07:25 quarter and they lost a lot of games.
07:29 As you know, this is a business of what have you done lately, and so it's really hard to
07:36 stay employed if you have four losing seasons.
07:41 But I think Scott did a lot of good things, and I know that social media is always brutal,
07:53 and some of the stuff that you see and hear, although not on social media, is a little
08:00 bit over the top.
08:01 And so I wish Scott the best, and he had great success at Central Florida and turned a program
08:10 around that had won zero games the year before he got there.
08:15 I think he went about six and six, and then he went undefeated.
08:19 And so he had done a very good job as an assistant out at Oregon as an offensive coordinator.
08:26 >>GREG: There are a lot of great points there.
08:28 And again, we wish Scott Frost nothing but the best wherever he lands up with his next
08:31 job opportunity.
08:32 All right, now I want to look back at some of the teams that you coached.
08:36 In your opinion, what's the best team you ever had that maybe didn't win the national
08:39 title?
08:40 Was it '82, '83, '93?
08:42 I mean, in your opinion, what team sticks out in your mind?
08:45 >>SCOTT: Well, probably '82, '83, we were 12-1.
08:52 We lost the game back to Penn State on their home field.
08:58 And there were a couple of calls there that were a long way, certainly.
09:07 And so if you win that game, which we certainly could have, I would imagine we would have
09:13 been in the conversation for a national championship.
09:16 And then of course '83, we went down and played Miami on what was their home field too.
09:25 That was one thing that a lot of times people didn't realize the Orange Bowl for a long
09:30 time was in Miami Stadium.
09:33 And I remember talking to Howard Schnellenberger, and he said, you know, he figured that playing
09:40 in Miami, particularly that time of year, was about a 10-point advantage because we
09:45 would be coming out of humidity levels of 10-15% in Nebraska, and you'd be going into
09:53 85-90, 95% humidity in Miami.
09:57 It wasn't the heat, it was the humidity.
10:02 And we, for whatever reason, fell behind.
10:04 I think we were down 17-0 early in the game, and we kept clawing back.
10:09 Mike Ruggiero got hurt, and then we ended up going for two points at the end and didn't
10:15 quite get it done.
10:17 I knew what they would be in.
10:19 I knew they'd be tight man-to-man defense.
10:22 And the guy who was covering Irving Fryer on a slant pattern, for some reason came off
10:28 of him and got a fingertip on the ball that was going to Jeff Smith in the flat.
10:34 So it was just one of those things, I think, probably most of the time we'd convert that
10:38 two points, but in that case we didn't.
10:42 And I felt good about those two teams because I knew we played at a high level.
10:49 And probably the third team that I would say certainly would be in that category would
10:55 be the '93 team because we played well, we were undefeated, we went down and played Florida
11:03 State in Florida.
11:06 And I remember coaches sometimes complain about officiating, and this is not an alibi,
11:16 we didn't win the game.
11:17 But we sent the film and conference commissioners, and they're an independent rating body, and
11:24 they said, "Tell me what you think."
11:26 And they came back and said, "Well, there were 13 bad calls in the game and 10 went
11:32 against Nebraska."
11:33 And we had a return for a touchdown that was called back, and they had a potential fumble
11:41 to one in the end zone, and we recovered it.
11:45 They were awarded a touchdown.
11:48 So it was close, and they had a great team, they had a lot of great players.
11:54 And I was very proud of our team that year.
11:58 The only thing that's unfortunate is those guys, a lot of them, Trev Alberts was one
12:03 of them, didn't have another chance, and that was their last chance at a national championship.
12:09 And so I'd say those three teams there, even though we didn't win national championships,
12:16 we played at a pretty high level.
12:19 And those were all very good teams that didn't get the championship.
12:25 All right, last question I got for you, and I wanted to ask you this question really since
12:30 I was about 12.
12:32 So after the '97 season and the Orange Bowl went over Peyton Manning and Tennessee, it
12:37 took you a while to place your vote on the coaches' poll ballot that night.
12:42 Now I can speculate and guess, but why did it take you so long to cast your vote that
12:46 night?
12:47 >>Golly, I didn't know that it took a long time.
12:55 What I did after every game, I would grade the film.
12:58 And usually it would take me till midnight, one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning.
13:06 But I voted, and unapologetically, I voted for Nebraska.
13:14 Because if you look at that Tennessee team, they had Peyton Manning, they had Peterless
13:21 Price, they had three or four first-round, second-round picks in the NFL, and very talented.
13:32 And I think certainly that Michigan had a good team that year, too.
13:41 They played out in the Rose Bowl against Washington State.
13:45 And so I thought we played very well that night.
13:50 And we had to play an extra game.
13:53 We had the playoff in the Big 12.
13:55 We played Pepsi and M down in San Antonio.
14:01 And in the Big 10 at that time, they didn't have a playoff in their conference.
14:07 So we ended up playing one more game against a good opponent.
14:14 So I guess I voted for Nebraska, as expected.
14:21 I'm sure Joe Paterno voted for Penn State.
14:24 But anyway, Joe and I were good friends.
14:29 And they won a couple of national championships later on, and I was glad to see them do that.
14:36 The last question I got for you.
14:38 I'm not going to ask for a specific win-loss total or anything like that.
14:43 My question is simply this.
14:44 Do you think Nebraska goes to a bowl game this year?
14:48 Well, I would think the odds would be very good they would.
14:56 I think the talent level certainly probably isn't what it is in four or five of the top
15:04 schools in the country, but we have some good players and I think we have a good coaching
15:12 staff.
15:13 Probably the big question will be just how quickly Matt Ruhle and his staff can get everybody
15:22 doing what they want to get done.
15:25 Because when you come in new, there's a pretty massive teaching project.
15:31 Some of that goes on in spring ball, but then you get new players in that are transfers
15:38 or freshmen.
15:40 And so as a result, you've got a lot to get done in a short time.
15:45 And I expect that they'll improve steadily throughout the season because of that process.
15:53 And I'd be a little surprised if they didn't go to a bowl game, but who knows.
15:58 All right, Coach.
15:59 Well, I appreciate your time.
16:00 Thank you for joining me.
16:02 Husker fans, comment below.
16:04 Comment below, let me know.
16:05 Obviously, I hope you enjoyed this interview.
16:08 Let me know if you enjoyed it, but also let me know Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, the comments
16:12 below what questions you want me to ask Nebraska defensive coordinator Tony White when I have
16:16 him on here in the near future and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield as well.
16:21 Let me know in the comments below.
16:22 And until next time, Husker Nation, Go Big Red!
16:24 And always remember, throw the bones!
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