Steven M. Sipple: Pederson brought about his own timely demise
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
You didn’t want to kick the guy as he went out the door Monday.
But you probably were glad to hold it for him.
Steve Pederson’s hiring as Nebraska’s athletic director was greeted with toasts and cheers five years ago.
Dec. 3, 2002
Nebraska athletic director Bill Byrne announces he is resigning to take the same job at Texas A&M University.
Dec. 20, 2002
Pittsburgh athletic director Steve Pederson, a North Platte native and a former NU associate athletic director, is hired as Nebraska’s new AD.
Nov. 6, 2003
Pederson and UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman introduce long-rumored plans for upgrades to athletic facilities and expansion of Memorial Stadium. The cost of the project is expected to be near $50 million.
Nov. 29, 2003
Pederson fires head football coach Frank Solich after the Huskers’ 9-3 regular season that ended with a win at Colorado the day before.
Dec. 29, 2003
With Bo Pelini as interim head coach, the Huskers beat Michigan State 17-3 to finish the season 10-3. Pederson says he maintains his “no-comment” policy about questions as they pertain to the search for a new head football coach.
Jan. 2, 2004
Arkansas coach Houston Nutt decides not to board a plane at the Fayetteville, Ark., airport to fly to Lincoln to be introduced as Nebraska’s next head coach for what some media members report as $25 million for 10 years.
Jan. 3, 2004
Pederson ends a self-imposed “gag order” and holds a news conference to discuss the coaching search, refuting reports of the salary offer to Nutt and saying nobody had been offered the NU job, despite reports that Al Saunders and Nutt had turned it down.
Jan. 5, 2004
Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer arrives in Lincoln and interviews for the head coaching job. NU assistant Turner Gill is expected to be interviewed soon. Gill and Pelini are still considered candidates.
Jan. 6, 2004
Bill Callahan, fired just seven days earlier as head coach of the Oakland Raiders, surfaces as a candidate in Pederson’s coaching search.
Jan. 9, 2004
Pederson introduces Callahan as Nebraska’s new head football coach, less than one year after he had guided the Raiders to a Super Bowl. Callahan is given a six-year contract that pays him an annual base salary of $1.5 million.
April 24, 2004
At a meeting in Kearney, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents unanimously approves $53 million in bonds for a project to upgrade the athletic facilities at Memorial Stadium and to build a new indoor football practice facility. The project would add nearly 8,000 seats to the stadium.
Aug. 1, 2006
Barry Collier resigns as Nebraska men’s basketball coach to take the athletic director’s job at his alma mater, Butler.
Aug. 7, 2006
Pederson introduces Texas-El Paso coach Doc Sadler as NU’s new men’s basketball coach, replacing Collier.
Feb. 28, 2007
Paul Miles resigns as NU’s associate athletic director for corporate marketing after three years in the position.
July 23, 2007
Pederson signs a new five-year contract that will reportedly pay him more than $2 million in base salary.
Sept. 4, 2007
Three days after the season-opening win against Nevada, football coach Callahan signs a new five-year contract through the end of the 2011 season.
Oct. 4, 2007
Associate athletic director for major gifts Paul Meyers resigns his job without comment. Pederson informs the NU athletic staff that the Meyers resigned for “personal reasons.” The resignation is effective Oct. 15.
Oct. 15, 2007
Perlman announces he has fired Pederson as Nebraska’s athletic director.
His firing elicited the same reaction in most quarters.
You always got the feeling Pederson was trying just a little too hard to create his own legacy at Nebraska, and in a sense he did.
He’ll go down as the AD who stripped Nebraska football of nearly everything that made it unique for four decades. It’s not exactly what we expected from the North Platte native with deep roots in the program’s exalted past.
Pederson hired an ex-NFL coach who has made it feel a little too much like the NFL down on Stadium Drive. Pederson figured four years ago that Nebraska needed to change its ways. He had the audacity to level a unique culture and replace it with one that, best I can tell, emphasizes its potential to send players to the NFL.
That probably helps explain the 2007 Nebraska team’s lack of chemistry and overall effort, traits that have resulted in some of the program’s worst showings in the modern era.
“To see the way the program’s declined, it’s heart-wrenching,” said former Nebraska offensive lineman Matt Hoskinson.
However, Nebraska football’s precipitous decline under Bill Callahan wasn’t the primary reason for Pederson’s firing. It was his management style. The culture Pederson fostered in the athletic department had become a deep concern for Chancellor Harvey Perlman. Pederson had lost the support of many people who had supported him initially.
Indeed, top lieutenants were dropping like flies. Some who have worked in the athletic department will tell you Pederson created a culture of fear. He used fear as a motivator, they say. Employees looked over their shoulders. The culture felt oppressive and wore out some folks.
Nebraska’s sudden vulnerability on the gridiron emboldened some of those folks to seek out Perlman with their concerns about Pederson. The two factors generated a perfect storm of sorts, at least if you’re in the anti-Pederson camp.
Perlman decided Pederson had to go, and one could surmise that Paul Meyers’ surprise decision two weeks ago to leave the athletic department essentially represented the tipping point in Perlman’s decision-making process.
Meyers, an associate athletic director and former Husker baseball All-American, was a key figure in attracting million-dollar gifts to the athletic department. Howard Hawks, a university regent and one of the most prominent boosters, was among those rocked by Meyers’ decision to leave NU.
Pederson suddenly had some explaining to do, and Perlman evidently didn’t like what he heard.
In short, Pederson had become a Nixonesque figure. He could be deceptive in the eyes of many. He wasn’t always trustworthy.
What’s more, Pederson no longer was making a strong connection with many donors, fans and former athletes.
“The alienation, he brought that on himself,” said Hoskinson, voicing a familiar complaint among ex-Huskers. “We never knew what was going on. Steve would say, ‘Just trust me.’ But he wouldn’t give you a reason.
“For a ton of guys, this (firing) comes as a sense of relief. I know that sounds negative. But we care that much.”
Tony Davis, a hard-charging Husker fullback from the 1970s, seemed energized by Pederson’s firing, “because of the obvious,” he said.
“The loss of our identity was very concerning to me and to everyone who has worn the uniform,” the Tecumseh native said.
Nebraska’s football program now has an “every-program” feel about it. That’s what bothers many people the most. Pederson, through his hiring of Callahan, essentially robbed many fans of something they held dear to their hearts — a football program that felt like no other. Maybe it can return.
The next athletic director — and the next head coach — absolutely should have Nebraska roots. Ideally, Tom Osborne becomes the next AD, or perhaps Barry Alvarez, or Dave Rimington. The NU brass tried to look outside the Big Red loop for help after Frank Solich was fired. Pederson seemed bent on hiring an NFL coach. It’s been a terrible fit. Now it’s time to turn to someone familiar.
It’s too early to speculate. But it’s not too early to say the AD should be somebody with a deep understanding of the Husker culture and tradition. It should be somebody with the presence of mind to understand the importance of the program’s uniqueness to millions in Husker Nation.
Fans simply want that “feeling” back. It has to happen.
In a sense, Perlman completed only half the job Monday. He also should have fired the coaching staff, effective at the end of the year. The program has sunk to depths nobody could have imagined. It’s time to cut the cord. But that’s another column for another day.
Perlman made a strong move in firing Pederson.
“There is no joy in my heart for having to do this,” Perlman said.
There is no joy in my heart for having to write this. Pederson no doubt returned to Nebraska in December of 2002 with noble intentions. Maybe he just became carried away with his power. Maybe he became a tad arrogant. Whatever.
There is no joy in seeing any person get fired. In this case, however, it was clearly the right move at the right time.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
Most Commented news