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Nine Wins, No Satisfaction: Tom Osborne’s Early Days as Nebraska’s Head Coach
Sep 1986; Lincoln, NE, USA; FILE PHOTO; Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Tom Osborne talks to a referee during the 1986 season at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

“I think Cornhusker fans are pretty smart about what the program has done over the last 60 years and Tom Osborne is a huge part of it. Taking over for Bob Devaney; I had the good fortune of playing two years for both of them. They are as good a coaches as there have been in college football.”

Most Husker fans wouldn’t disagree with those words from Husker legend and all conference linebacker Tom Ruud. But when Tom Osborne took over for Bob Devaney in 1973, and for the remainder of the 1970s, it was very much an open question among the fan base about whether or not Osborne could emerge from Devaney’s shadow.

This week on the Common Fan Podcast, we launched Episode 2 of our series focused on Osborne’s coaching career. This episode, The Head Man, looks at TO’s early days as a head coach, from 1973 through the rest of the 1970’s. 

Thanks to Tom Ruud for joining us, and sharing so many memories from his playing days and reflections on the program. Thanks also to longtime sportswriters Mike Babcock (formerly of the  Lincoln Journal Star and Huskers Illustrated) and Brandon Vogel of the Counter Read Newsletter, which is some of the best Husker content you can find anywhere. 

Near-Misses and Narrow Margins

From 1973 to 1977, Osborne went 46-13-2. His teams beat top-20 opponents, won major bowl games, and were consistently ranked in the top 10. By almost any standard, it was an extraordinary stretch. But after Devaney had completely turned the program around in the early and mid-1960s, and then won back-to-back national titles in 1970 and 1971, success was defined by 1) beating Oklahoma and 2) winning championships. 

The Sooners beat Nebraska five straight times from 1973 to 1977. The losses weren’t always close. The pressure mounted. The narrative began to emerge that Osborne “couldn’t win the big one.”

This is not fair, of course. Osborne’s teams were having high levels of success, and the program had experienced hardly any drop-off from the Devaney days. As Brandon Vogel pointed out, TO would finish the 1970’s with a record of 17-12 against ranked opponents. He also had a 4-3 record in bowl games. 

But in those early years, some in the fan base wondered if Osborne could achieve Devaney’s levels of success. 

"It didn’t end in national championships, so people didn’t see it that way," said longtime Nebraska sportswriter Mike Babcock. "You had to beat Oklahoma. And they weren’t doing that."

The 1978 Pivot

Everything seemed to change in 1978—at least for a moment. After opening the season with a loss to Alabama, the Huskers ran off nine straight wins and finally beat Oklahoma, who came into the game ranked #1 in the country. Ruud’s brother, John, delivered a famous, crushing hit that helped swing momentum in that game. Osborne had gotten the Oklahoma monkey off his back.

But the elation was immediately followed by disappointment: a stunning loss to unranked Missouri, and then, a rematch with Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, which Nebraska also lost. Despite winning the Big Eight title, Osborne hit an emotional low.

As he explains in his book More Than Winning, the end of the 1978 season almost pushed him over the edge. “What a blow. Losing to Missouri and learning that we would have to play Oklahoma twice within a period of seven weeks, particularly after finally having beaten them for the first time in seven years, put me as low as I've ever been in coaching.” He goes on to say, “There were two times in those first six years when I wanted to chuck it all. The first was in 1976 when we let Oklahoma off the hook in the final moments of the game…this was the second time.”

It’s somewhat jarring to read that, but it’s quite clear how much the pressure of following in Devaney’s footsteps was weighing on Osborne. After the 1978 season, he would even interview for the Colorado job, and seriously consider making the move to Boulder (which we discuss in great detail in the episode; we’ll have a second article focused on the Colorado aspect later this week). 

Legacy in Progress

Thankfully for all of Husker Nation, Osborne stayed in Lincoln. The 1979 season proved he hadn’t lost his edge, serving as a springboard to the early 1980s and some of Osborne’s best teams. The Huskers started 10-0, beat Penn State, and finished the season ranked in the top 10 again. More importantly, Osborne had settled into his role as the head man for the long haul. As he outlines in More Than Winning, “The whole exercise proved to have some unexpected results. After looking at Colorado, I had a renewed appreciation for the positive features we have at the University of Nebraska. And when we appeared to be on our way to Colorado, the Nebraska fans showed a little greater appreciation for the accomplishments of our coaching staff and expressed the desire to see us stay. It was a turning point.”

Today, it’s easy to forget the doubts. But in the 1970s, nothing was guaranteed. TO was an unproven coach replacing a legend, losing to his biggest rival, and carrying the weight of an entire state’s expectations. "We were spoiled," Babcock said. "Nine wins wasn’t good enough because we had Devaney’s national titles in our heads."

By the dawn of the 1980s, the doubters had grown quieter. Osborne was evolving. The wins would keep piling up. And that stoic coach who “couldn’t win the big one” was beginning to look a lot more like a legend in the making.

Let us know what you think, Common Fans. We’d love to hear your contribution to this discussion. Send us an email at commonfangbr@gmail.com, or message us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PODCAST EPISODE: Tom Osborne: The Head Man

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More From Nebraska On SI

This article first appeared on Nebraska Cornhuskers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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