What if Nebraska football never hired Bob Devaney?

brunohusker

So given the Husker's losing ways recently, this has made me wonder, what would Nebraska, not just as a football team, but as a state be like if the man who started it all never came here? I ask this because my dad, who while not necessarily a fan, followed Nebraska football as a student at UNL in the 60's, said that Devaney was reluctant to come to Nebraska but was convinced by his old boss, Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty.

But what if things hadn't turned out? We did have other candidates who turned us down before Devaney obviously. What about the state and the school in general? This state loves Nebraska football so much that its hard to think of Nebraska without it being successful (until recently.) Like if we had kept losing, there is no expansion on Memorial stadium, no Tom Osborne. Local players like Ahman Green or Eric Crouch might end up leaving like Gale Sayers who went to Kansas in spite of being from Omaha. How does this affect other teams as well? Oklahoma probably stays on top in the Big 8 but might Colorado or Missouri fill the void a bad Nebraska team leaves? Not to mention does the Big 12 even happen, let alone Nebraska heading for the Big Ten. If anything we are more or less just like Kansas or K-state without the basketball. So any thoughts?
 
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AltSptHst

If Devaney doesn't go to Nebraska, I wonder if he ends up at Kansas State sometime in the 60's. If he does, is he the one to turn them around?
 

brunohusker

AltSptHst said:
If Devaney doesn't go to Nebraska, I wonder if he ends up at Kansas State sometime in the 60's. If he does, is he the one to turn them around?
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Maybe, but Kansas State never gave the resources to football Nebraska gave. If he wins, maybe that changes, but K-State cared much more for basketball. Football was an afterthought.
 

AltSptHst

brunohusker said:
Maybe, but Kansas State never gave the resources to football Nebraska gave. If he wins, maybe that changes, but K-State cared much more for basketball. Football was an afterthought.
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I'll say. Football became so much of an afterthought that the university almost left the Big-8 by the late-80's.
 

brunohusker

AltSptHst said:
I'll say. Football became so much of an afterthought that the university almost left the Big-8 by the late-80's.
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I heard that. I remember reading the SI article from 1989 calling them the worst college football team ever. As much as I dislike Snyder as a Husker fan, the guy is a legend. You can't deny he is the Kansas State program.
 

AltSptHst

brunohusker said:
I heard that. I remember reading the SI article from 1989 calling them the worst college football team ever. As much as I dislike Snyder as a Husker fan, the guy is a legend. You can't deny he is the Kansas State program.
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I know. And to think that the fans thought he was a joke when he took over. I was on a site where some K-State fans were talking about the time when he was hired. One person said that they went to the press conference to see the next sucker that they brought in to be football coach. Another one was at the basketball game where Bill was introduced right after his hire. He got a standing ovation, and this person said that the guy next to him said something about how it will be the last standing ovation he ever gets. Boy, were those people wrong!
 

TonyA

I remember reading in Street & Smith about this new head coach coming to Nebraska, and his prospects for some success, but, I was pretty much in the "big 8 was going to remain Oklahoma and the seven dwarfs" forever group along with most of the US of that era. Boy, was I wrong...
 

brunohusker

TonyA said:
I remember reading in Street & Smith about this new head coach coming to Nebraska, and his prospects for some success, but, I was pretty much in the "big 8 was going to remain Oklahoma and the seven dwarfs" forever group along with most of the US of that era. Boy, was I wrong...
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Yeah, my dad was in college in that era and Oklahoma was very dominant and Missouri was also kind of trending up with future Notre Dame coach Dan Devine (quite a character btw, apparently once while playing Kansas he flipped off the camera and the Kansas coach after the Jayhawks HC flashed a peace sign after beating him in the late 60's.)
 

brunohusker

KaiserWilhelm said:
Maybe he eventually ends up at Arkansas instead of Lou Holtz?
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I wonder if maybe he ends up in the Big Ten. Wisconsin and Iowa had HC vacancies in the mid 60's though from what i've heard with Iowa fans, their AD and former head coach Forrest Evashevski had a huge ego and after he left coaching to become AD, he kind of sabotaged the program, hiring less then stellar HC's. So maybe Bob goes to Wisconsin? Or possibly he just remains in Wyoming forever and is a legend out there, but not much known about in other places.

Also, some other effects might be

- No Tom Osborne. Osborne probably still goes to UNL to get his masters but with another HC, Osborne might not get the chance to help with football. Granted the guy was a decent small college player and was in the pros for a few years. But he might just end up being a high school or small college coach in Nebraska. He might also eventually go into politics as he did OTL, but might be governor by the 90's or early 2000's if he gets enough traction. Granted he would have to build name recognition. But given he's a republican and might stay in the rural third district, he'd be a shoe in once he wins the primary.

- No Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin. Barry played for Devaney. If I recall Barry was from PA or OH and he might stay East. Also, Devaney was his model for Wisconsin's success in the 90's and through today.

- Monte Kiffin might not be the respected D-Coordinator he became OTL. Monte was from Nebraska and played for the Huskers and became DC in the late 60's. He might still play for the Huskers but as a coach, who knows what happens

- No Frank Solich. Besides being a coach after Osborne and a long time assistant, Frank was arguably the first big time star for the Huskers, being the first Husker player on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Being he's from Ohio, he ends up somewhere else. He might still coach somewhere else.

- Depending on how many instate kids stay, more talented players from Nebraska might leave, or without good coaching might not do much. That means no Johnny Rodgers heisman

Those are only a few I could think of, and obviously if there is no Osborne, a TL with no Bob Devaney would have Nebraska be unrecognizable and i'm guessing Missouri or Colorado might make the jump to being that 2nd team or Oklahoma just dominates the Big 8 with an occasional 2nd team moving up. It might even lead to some arguing over whether Oklahoma should leave for the SWC where it would have better competition, though most laugh this off. The Big Ten might also be different in that it might focus more on the east and forget about Nebraska, or instead take Missouri. Also, the Big 12 might not happen as if there is only one good Big 8 team unless someone else gets it together, the bigger Texas schools might just say no and you might see teams go all over, like Texas going to the Pac 12 or A&M to the SEC much earlier. Who knows?
 
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AltSptHst

If Devaney was at Arkansas, and there was no Lou Holtz hire, I wonder how that would have affected Jimmy Johnson. He was an assistant, and he was all but assured of getting the HC job until Holtz came out of nowhere in 1977.
 

brunohusker

Another wrinkle that could prevent Bob Devaney to Nebraska: When he was an assistant at Michigan State, he was offered the job at Missouri twice. He first lost out to Frank Broyles, who left after a year to go to Arkansas, and then lost out to Dan Devine. So this might present even more butterflies.
 
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