The Bone Yard

You want to believe I disagree with you more than I actually disagree with you. You're lumping me in with other people and I believe misconstruing what I've said.

By definition, Urb in '03 and Kelly in '07 were up and coming. They had not accomplished their most notable achievements prior to joining FLA and ND, respectively, during Nebraska's coaching searches. Yes, they had some buzz surrounding them even at that time, but nowhere near the level of Chris Petersen today. In '03, Urb had three years of HC experience with one ranked finish (#21). In '07, Kelly had five years of FBS HC experience, a 62% win rate, and one ranked finish (#17). Right now, Petersen has more experience (7 years), a better win rate (91%+), more conference titles (five), more top-15 finishes (five -- two in the top ten and two in the top five), and an undefeated season. Petersen can write his own ticket. Yeah, I'd rate Chip Kelly ahead of Petersen -- personally, I think Kelly's the most innovative college coach of his generation and arguably the best. However, like Kelly, I think Nebraska would struggle to secure Petersen's services. I've been wrong int he past and would love nothing more than to be wrong about this point -- believe me.

If you're going to define every young coach with three years of experience and one top-25 finish under his belt as "top-tier", then yes, I agree, we can sign top-tier coaches.

There are PLENTY of great coaches out there, as you said, but you have to take risks to find them. Urb in '03 wasn't a sure thing, nor was Kelly in '07. Both would have worked out wonderfully. For those two, like every great coach in the history, someone took a chance on them. I think, if/when we go for a new coach, we need to be the program that takes chances. The way I see it, those top-tier known quantities (Saban, Kelly, Meyer, etc.) are out of reach. So what do we do? We can either go for a second-tier known quantity and hope they'll be more successful at NU, or we can go for top prospects. They won't always work out, but we will eventually strike gold. I say we go the prospect route.

Off-topic here... Scooby (from earlier in this thread): It was pretty cool how you completely disagreed with what I said but managed to refrain from condescending. Thanks, buddy.