Garrett once an NU candidate

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BY JOHN MABRY / Lincoln Journal Star

LOS ANGELES — USC athletic director Mike Garrett, once a candidate for the position at Nebraska, will be the visitor next season when NU plays host to USC.

Garrett, the Trojans’ athletic director since 1993, said he was not directly involved in the decision to schedule a two-game series with Bill Byrne and the Huskers, but he knows why it was arranged.

“We wanted to start playing like universities with great football traditions,” Garrett said. “We were, at the time, trying to build up. Nebraska was kind of one of the programs then that we wanted to equalize ourselves to.”

Garrett said he’d like to wait until after next year’s game to decide on possible future meetings.

As for NU’s fan representation this weekend in L.A., Garrett said, “It’s probably comparable to Notre Dame.”

Garrett could have been on the other side of this battle. He was a candidate for the athletic director’s job when Byrne was hired to replace Bob Devaney.

“I didn’t get through the first stage. (Nebraska) didn’t like me,” he said, laughing. “I just wanted to get into an (AD) search to see what it was all about.“