Show Steve Some Love
10 comments so far
May 11, 2006 by
No not me. Steve Pederson. The man who had the courage to change course when he saw a team stumble from the pinnacle of college football to mediocrity. Some would say 9-3 or 10-3 is not mediocre. But neither can the Alamo Bowl be considered the pinnacle of the sport. Nevertheless, the Huskers went from 7 straight BCS bowls (what is now the BCS, that is) under Tom Osborne to just 2 in 6 seasons under Frank Solich. Bill Callahan has yet to lead the Huskers to a BCS bowl, yet being the key word.
Bill Byrne had the good fortune to be sitting in the athletic director's chair for Tom Osborne's finest moments. He helped clean up the finances of an athletic program spewing red ink and put the books squarely in the black. Still, Byrne failed to make major investments in the future of the football program that would ensure competitiveness. Rather, he was content to guide the ship through steady waters and then departed for another vessel (Texas A&M) when the waters got choppy.
Pederson came to Nebraska after a highly successful stint as the athletic director at Pittsburgh, where he got new facilities for football and basketball and hired new coaches that were very successful. But when Nebraska called, he came home. Rather than take it easy initially, he immediately came in and cleaned house. Rather than raise prices right away as his predecessor had, Pederson reduced prices for fans, did the thankless work of letting go of employees who no longer could perform, then lead bold initiatives to revitalize the athletic department and modernize facilities. A former recruiting coordinator, he could see the writing on the wall. Frank Solich could not recruit the same caliber of young men as teams like Oklahoma and Texas. Teams like Kansas State, Colorado, and Missouri, which had long been in Nebraska's rear view mirror were now catching up. He didn't sit on his behind and wait for Nebraska to struggle further, he acted. Not the easy course, but the right one.
No one can say whether Solich would have been arrested in Lincoln for drunk driving as he had been in Ohio this past season. Needless to say, if it had happened in Lincoln, it would not have helped the program. Pederson's timing may have indeed spared the Husker Nation a lot of pain.
Nebraska has not yet advanced beyond the level of Solich's final season. But the recruiting has gotten better, the team is getting better, and is now favored to represent the Big XII North in the Big XII championship game for the first time this century. Only an untimely LeKevin Smith fumble, kept the Huskers from representing Nebraska a year ago under Callahan. Top of the line facilities are under construction and Steve Pederson has helped deliver it all. Why some people think he should be fired is a mystery. It makes no sense when you look at the circumstances. Those of us paying attention, simply pray he doesn't leave. NU needs a man of his courage to make the tough decisions an athletic director has to make in order to be successful.
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Red Loon May 11 06
I kinda have to not agree with you on this one today buddy. Solich was cleaning house, and did not get a real chance to have his new staff perform. It is easy to come in - and just build new facilities - nothing special there - no visionary thinking. In fact, he was just following his recipie from before. I still think the guy is a twit.
red in colorado May 11 06
for the first time this century ??
i'm thinking you ment decade or perhaps new milenium ??
spot on article. SP had the courage to make a tough decision knowing full well he would be standing square in the center of a firestorm. he had the moxy to put the long term welfare of the program first.
FYI--here's the best breakdown on the solich era i've come across:
http://www.ourdecay.com/Huskers/SolichTribute.htm
steve May 11 06
I appreciate the comment (and if this is the reknowned Red Clad Loon, I'm psyched you've checked out our site) but obviously we're on different wavelengths on this one.
A couple of years ago the Washington Post ran a table showing the combined winning percentages over a few year period for athletic programs (they sort of botched it by simply adding wins and losses together so that it was weighted 3 times as heavily toward basketball). Anyway, the top 3 programs were Pitt, MD, and OU, in that order as I recall. Pederson had hired both coaches responsible for Pitt's success over that period. Pitt is still in much better shape than Pederson found it and it's all a credit to his leadership.
As my friend Darren puts it, "It's 'good', not 'bad' that is the enemy of 'great'". "Bad" gets addressed, but "good" is often left alone. Steve P. was a recruiting coordinator at Ohio St. (and a tremendously successful one). He gave Solich most of the recruiting year to put his house in order, but things were not coming together in a way that showed much improvement. The writing was on the wall, another middle of the pack class, which means more lost ground on OU and Texas. Rather than wait for more non-winning seasons, he acted. I give him huge credit for having the courage to do it. It would have been so easy to just cash his paycheck and play it safe.
A LeKevin Smith fumble was all that prevented NU from winning the Big XII North for the first time since 1999. Nebraska beat KSU and CU in the same year for the first time since 1999 as well. If you think that would be the case with Joe Dailey running the option behind a mediocre offensive line, I beg to disagree. Steve's been very patient with Collier, but he's also helped him get some assistants who can recruit some guys worthy of D-I scholarships. The basketball team was good enough to make things interesting down the stretch this year but obviously couldn't do better than an NIT bid.
If Steve survives the critics and remains a Husker I think most folks will have a decidedly more favorable opinion of him 5 years from now (and Callahan as well).
omarhuskerfan May 11 06
I agree with this story for the most part. In fact I wholly agree but I also think that there are somethings not shown pertaining to SP. It should be said according to many even before steve left North stadium while TO was the coach he, and Frank did not get along. A friend of mine mentioned that when we were looking for an AD, he hoped it would be steve, but that it might not happen because of frank's feelings toward him. Once again I think that the action was the one that needed to be taken but, how it happened is what gets me, a coaching search that last forever, Not having a soild man for the job in mind. The rumors of how everyone was let go.
That is what I have to say.
steve May 12 06
Good points about the coaching search. I don't know what to make of the Solich rumors. It was widely reported that there was some friction over assistant coaches' contracts between Steve and Frank. I certainly don't rule out the possibility that chemistry issues contributed to the decision to can Frank.
As for the search itself, it sort of depends on whether you view the job interviews as an essential and meaningful part of the hiring process or whether they are merely a formality. If there's something Steve needed to learn about each coach through interviews, then maybe the search took as long as it needed to take.
Darren May 12 06
Love this article and the discussion it has created. Very thoughtful and civil, despite a tough topic.
I have a few things to add about Mr. Pederson.
First, everyone has to realize that he's playing in a much bigger game than just one sport. His superiors review him on a lot of things, mostly revenue, across all sports. I appreciate the way he's continued to foster the baseball program, and his creativity in getting more revenue from volleyball (courtside seating), though the basketball situation is just horrible right now. But, where Pederson differs from his predecessor is that he knows and demonstrates that football is king, both emotionally and financially. The big dog eats first. And, when it's going well, all other programs benefit. Toward the end of his tenure, I believe Byrne got more fixated on winning the Directors Cup (for all-sports performance) than on putting football first. Pederson understands the nature of the state and program, and has the horse in front of the cart again. It's reflected in the facilities, the emphasis on football fans, and in the (at the time) controversial coaching changes. He knows where NE keeps the family jewels, and took swift action to protect them. And, we will all see how that revenue will benefit other NU athletic teams (like, say, with a new basketball coach).
Next, there are still people, (and I can think of at least 6 off the top of my head) who view Pederson as an "outsider" who doesn't "get" NU football. This is just simply untrue. Where was Steve Pederson when NU had success in the early 80's? He was NU's recruiting coordinator. Don't believe me? I can show you an Omaha World Herald profile of him from 1983, if you like. Where was he in the glorious early 1990s? Yeah, he was the assistant AD for football. Take a look at this video -- http://www.studio425.com/video.php?vid_id=24 -- and pause it at 2:43 mark. Get a good look, everyone. He's firmly grounded in the Husker (TO) traditions, and understands the meaning in this state, maybe more than any other AD NU has ever had.
Matt May 25 06
All I have heard from this blog and its responders is a Steve Petterson love festival party, allow me to present the rebutle arguement.
I attended the 2005 Volleyball National Championship. When Steve Petterson was announced after the game I let out a little boo, A little classless of me I know (especially since I was there with the pep band) double ouch! But c'mon I was a little upset, and belligerent
at the time. Afterall me team had just been beat like a drum. It was quite enough so only the people around me could hear it but immediatley I was mauled by those around me, and not not because I was being a classless bastard, but because these people actually liked Steve Petterson. I think anymore people look for reasons to agree with the guy and it makes me a little sick to my stomach.
Stevie Pett's firing of Frank Solich was a public relations disaster. It was a situation in where Steve evidently didn't use any kind of PR rep. His timing was terrible and the way that solich was fired was gelastic. And this all coming after we beat colorado. So, was Petterson actually hoping we would lose? after all that would have made his decision much easier to stomach, right? If Petterson would have been the AD in the early 90's Osborne might have been fired for quote: "never winning the big one." Remember the joke? Why does Nancy serve Tom him cereal on a plate?
If it was in a bowl he's lose it.
Well Solich didn't lose that often the season he was fired so one thing Petterson said must be true, "This isn't about wins and loses." He's right, his motives must have been personal.
Petterson it the AD now, nowhere in his title does it mention he is the AD specifically for football?
And as for success in other sports, where is that new basetball coach? hmmmm?
steve May 25 06
I'm not sure that "people look for reasons to agree with the guy" is generally true. Remember, this is the guy named "Enemy of the state" by most Nebraskans when polled by Sports Illustrated. I agree that the PR was hardly textbook, but I loved hear him say he would not let the football program gravitate to mediocrity and that he would not surrender the conference to OU and Texas. NU has been able to maintain a dominant program in football for decades and an AD shouldn't wait too long when he see things going badly. I think that would have been the easy thing to do, but in his judgment the wrong thing.
With hoops he has to be more patient because that program simply doesn't have enough support of the alumni or the citizenry of Lincoln to draw a top guy in. I'm not sure Collier's the guy, but if they do fire him, I'm also not sure there are too many standout coaches waiting to take his place.
Lothar Jun 14 06
I couldn't agree more with the original article posted. No offense to Matt (and I certainly don't want to lower the civility of this discussion) but your arguments - though well put, lose a lot of their credibility when you don't spell Pederson's name correctly. Consider it constructive criticism if nothing else.
At any rate, leadership is a tricky thing to define. If you don't believe me, ask 10 people to define what leadership means and I guarantee that you will not receive 10 consistent answers. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that you would get 10 very different answers. Having studied leadership and numerous leaders in depth during my masters program, the best definition that I found regarding leadership is that leadership is taking people where they otherwise wouldn't go on their own. Steve Pederson exemplifies this definition in my opinion. The easy thing to do would have been to avoid the controversy that firing Solich would have caused, especially after the victory over Colorado, by not firing him.
A leader also must have a vision for their organization and must have a plan to achieve the vision. That requires the complete and total commitment of every member of the organization. We will never know but perhaps Solich (as well as the other people that were let go) were unwilling to buy into Pederson's vision. Noone will ever know what went on behind closed doors between Solich and Pederson except for the two of them. I'd also be willing to bet that you'd get two very different stories from both of them.
As for Pederson's handling of the firing of Solich and the subsequent "coaching search", clearly that wasn't handled as well as it should have been and I believe that Pederson would be the first one to admit that. As far as the coaching search, I think the general public had unrealistic expectations regarding how quickly the search would end. I personally believe that Pederson had a short list of his top candidates but since many of these coaches seasons didn't end until early January, he had no intention of hiring somebody within a week or two after firing Solich. The coaching search, didn't start in earnest until at least the end of December or early January. That shaves at least 30 days off of the unending search. The Nutt debacle was a nutty situation (pun intended) blown way out of proportion by Nutt's academy award winning performance. He played his hand perfectly and walked out of the situation with a better deal with his alma matre while at the same time looking like the local hero for turning down an obsene salary offer from Nebraska (which was completely denied by Pederson by the way).
I remain convinced that Pederson will remain a controversial figure until the football returns to dominance or falls apart again. Even if the program wins three consecutive championships, some people will continue to despise Pederson. This is nothing more than petty personal animous.
RICK Dees Oct 30 06
Your suport ofthis ARROGANT Bigheaded boob,of an idiot,just for starters is apppalling and unfair to REAL HUSKER fans of old AND new! You obviously dont know much about Husler tradition,WHICH THIS BOOB STEVE, Singhandidly STOPPED cold in its tracts! He wastn all that successful,or He would have not been to so many schools,for work!!! Get a clue YOU!! Solich was doing better at a 9-3 season.PLUS carrieing coaches from long ago along with him,for a potential at making the History and tradition Susrvive.Win or Lose... Steve Pederson`s actions set off a Laughing stock Tirade from surrounding states,and their still laughing,.Ive heard them,at stores etc. Harvey Perlman otta go too,For hiring the bullshitter.