Osborne discusses his plans as AD
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON AND STEVEN M. SIPPLE / Lincoln Journal Star
Somewhere out there is a lonely fishing hole.
Some say retirement is bliss, but Tom Osborne wouldn’t know. There’s little time for courting salmon and trout these days. Having just turned 71, the Nebraska athletic director estimates his new job requires about 60 hours a week.
And that’s “maybe conservative” he said in that recognizable monotone from his office in the building that bears his name.
“But I find it interesting, I find it challenging, and I think we’re able to get some things done that are good, so I’m OK with it.”
Osborne’s contract as Nebraska athletic director runs through June 30, 2010, at which point it’s assumed the reins of the program will be handed to someone else.
He took the position Oct. 16, a day after Steve Pederson was fired, in the middle of a royal football mess. Osborne fired a football coach, hired a new one, and now his priorities have shifted.
Osborne said the biggest goal in his new role is to relate to people, “trying to make sure that everyone in the state understands that they’re important to us and we’re trying to serve them as best as we can.”
But there are long-term building projects on his mind also, chiefly a new academic center and perhaps a Nebraska hall-of-fame building and indoor practice facility for basketball.
Osborne wouldn’t mind seeing a downtown arena to help the basketball teams, but wants to take the proper precautions before entering into any bold financial ventures.
“The No. 1 issue is to make sure we don’t do something that proves to be an albatross, that pulls the whole athletic department down and jeopardizes all the sports,” he said Wednesday in a half-hour meeting with the Journal Star.
Here’s more of the discussion with Osborne about his plans as athletic director.
With the football staff in place, what are your priorities now? What do you absolutely want accomplished here before you finish as athletic director?
“I think probably the most important issue is to deal with people, really. One of the first things we did when I got here is assemble everyone in the athletic department, and we wrote a mission statement. The input came from members of the athletic department. It wasn’t top-down. It wasn’t me saying, ‘Well, this is the mission statement.’ We talked about core values, things that were important and we wrote that, trying to make sure everybody in the athletic department is really clear on what we’re about, how we’re going to treat people and getting people moving in the same direction.
“There were divisions. (We’re) trying to make sure that everyone in the state understands that they’re important to us and we’re trying to serve them as best as we can.
“The other thing is to make sure that student-athletes have a good experience here. I feel that this is an educational institution, so a big part of what we do has to do with education. Make sure that everybody has a great opportunity to graduate, and that the life skills part of it is something we’re probably going to put more emphasis on. We’ve done a good job of that but we’re going to make sure that’s got even greater emphasis. So are graduation, networking with former players within the business community, internships, job interviewing skills, resume writing.
“And we’ll spend a lot of time on substance-abuse issues, issues of character. And I would hope that people would leave here as athletes and know a little bit about the nuts and bolts of how to handle finances, just preparing them for the next 40 years after they leave here.”
During the latter part of Steve Pederson’s tenure, he talked about a new academic center. Is that in the works?
“Probably the first thing we have to look at right now is the improvements to the facilities.
“We’re looking at fairly large capital improvements this year, about $6.5 million worth because HuskerVision is now converting to digital. That’s about $4 million. And we’re renovating all the skyboxes. They’ve been there now for about 10 years. That’s $1.2 million.”
What long-term projects might be on the docket?
“We’d like to do something to enhance the academic area. That whole thing started back in 1983. We played in the Kickoff Classic and I think we received $500,000 net profit for playing in that game, and I asked (former AD) Bob Devaney at that time if we could build an academic center. So that’s kind of where the Hewit Center started. And, of course, we had some investment from the Hewit family and others, so it’s been enhanced.
“But, really, not a whole lot of changes have been occurring there for some time. So we think that’s really an integral part of the program. It serves all programs and we usually have been right at that top of the Big 12 Conference in graduation rates, in terms of NCAA and national honors we’ve done very well. I think the statistic is 94 percent of the players who completed their eligibility here have a degree, which is very high. And so we’re really proud of that and want to make sure that that is enhanced. But part of that academic center will be a life-skills center. We’ll focus on all these other ancillary areas that have to do with performing well outside of the academic arena.
“Right now we’re kind of going back and forth about where we want to put that (academic center), how we’re going to raise the money to do it.
“We also need some kind of hall of fame. Most major universities have a hall of fame recognizing their past history. We kind of have bits and pieces scattered around but there’s no one hall of fame. Again, we’re in the process of searching for the best place to put that and what it’s going to cost.
“We’re looking at the downtown arena. Of course, that would involve approval by the voters and by the chancellor and by the regents. I think it would be helpful to our basketball programs to have a new arena. If it’s financially doable and we get approval from all the different people involved, then we’d like to see that through. So those are the things that are most on the horizon right now.”
Is there a process underway looking at potential candidates to succeed you as athletic director?
“My thinking is that they would probably a couple of years from now start that process. Maybe someone will have somebody in mind before then, I don’t know. I think they assume a six-month search process and I would assume that would start sometime around January, two years from now, 2010.
Would you prefer the candidates be in-house?
“Well, that’s really up to the chancellor and the board of regents. I’m sure there will be some people who are here who are very capable who will be looked at. But that will certainly not be my decision. I would imagine I might be able to make a recommendation, but I will not be making that decision.”
What qualities would you like to see in that person?
“I think it’s important that they understand something about the state, the way people view the athletic department. I think that not everybody in the state is locked into the athletic department here, but there is a strong sense of ownership around the state. No matter where you go, they somehow feel that this belongs to the people, and I think that comes from the fact that we don’t have a Nebraska State.
“Most states have two or three, maybe a dozen (major) universities, and so here you maybe have more of a unified approach, particularly in regard to football, because it’s the only major Division I football program in the state.”
With your past experiences in Washington, D.C., is there anything you took from that time that has served you well in this current role?
“I remember talking to (former Rep.) Bill Janklow. He was from South Dakota. Bill had been a governor for many years and when he went to congress, he said, ‘This is like going back to college. You really learn a lot.’ You had to learn something about agriculture. You had to know something about environmental issues. You certainly had to understand renewable fuels. You need to understand health care to some degree, and the military, so many different things.
“But I think it was a very valuable experience just from the standpoint of being exposed to so many things that make this state work. So I think I can hold a reasonable conversation with a farm group, or an insurance group, the chamber of commerce. I have a pretty good idea of what needs to happen in some of the rural areas to make them more viable and sound. So when you’re dealing with an organization like this, that really connects with the state, I think all those things help to some degree.”
Do you like your role as athletic director more than being a congressman, where you had more voices in the way of getting stuff done?
“Yeah, this is more like being in charge of something. … If you’re the chairman of a committee, you can get a lot done. But if you’re one of 435 people, then you’re really reliant upon other people to help you get something done. So even if I was able to get (Speaker of the House) Denny Hastert’s ear, which I was able to do quite a bit, and get something through the House, then I’d get somebody over on the Senate side to carry the ball. John McCain was very helpful to me on occasion. Ben Nelson was helpful. So you really couldn’t just call the shots. You had to have a lot of help to get something done.”
When Pederson was fired, (prominent Husker donor) Dan Cook was very vocal about his displeasure. Have you since talked with him?
“I’ve talked to Dan three times or so. I think one of the first things I did was I just had a list of some of the major contributors. During that first week, I talked to all of them and it seemed like the level of acceptance that I experienced was good.
“I think there were lots of people that didn’t understand all the dynamics that were behind the change. I didn’t either. I just got a phone call one day. It kind of came out of the blue. I had no warning that there was going to be any change here.”
Are you still actively pursuing donations for the North Stadium renovation?
“Certainly if somebody wants to contribute, we’d be delighted to have the money. But we’ll probably focus more on the academic center (and) hall of fame right now. You know, after a building’s built and it’s been sitting here for a couple years, it’s a little harder to now say, ‘Well, we need to clear up the debt.’ It’d be nice to do that. But right now we are solvent and we’re doing OK.”
What is the fundraising status on that project?
“I’d have to check exactly, but it runs in my mind that we’re about $16 million short.”
So at this point in your tenure as athletic director, you haven’t actively pursued donations for these other potential future buildings, like the academic center?
“Well, until you have some blueprints and you have a plan and you can say this is where you’re going to put it, you really can’t go and talk to people very intelligently about it. We’re in the process of putting it together and it’s probably going to take a couple months before we have anything really definitive and know exactly where we want to put them and what it’s going to cost.”
At this point, can you estimate a price tag for any of these projects?
“I really can’t right now …”
Is this job what you envisioned when you signed up for it? How’s the overtime? What’s an average day like?
“I usually get here about 8 in the morning, 8 or 8:15, and leave at about 6 at night. I’d say at least three nights a week I’m somewhere, either at a game or a reception or making a speech. And most weekends I do something. Saturdays I’m usually at a game or reception or speaking, and I try to keep Sundays free, but even then, sometimes I’m at a game. So I’d imagine 60 hours would be fairly accurate, maybe conservative.”
How are you with that?
“I’m OK with it. I don’t think it’s quite what Nancy envisioned, wasn’t quite what I envisioned, but I find it interesting, I find it challenging, and I think we’re able to get some things done that are good, so I’m OK with it.”
Did you seek any advice from anyone upon taking this job?
“No, I really didn’t, because I didn’t have much time. But I’d been around it. In Bob Devaney’s last four or five years, I was named assistant AD, and he turned over the scheduling and a few things to me. So it wasn’t like I didn’t have somewhat of a grasp of what athletic directors do. So it wasn’t just uncharted territory, and I really haven’t encountered any major surprises here.
“The football thing was difficult. I was hopeful that that staff would be able to pull things together, then when we had the results we had, I just felt there were enough things that weren’t right that we had to make a change.”
How has the message board/blog scene changed since 10 years ago, when you retired from coaching?
“It’s escalated, but it isn’t that we didn’t have bloggers and Internet. We had that when I was here probably the last three or four or five years. And it was becoming more and more prevalent in recruiting, where there were all kinds of messages out there about this recruit, that recruit, most of which was not very accurate.
“I know that it impacted recruits. And stuff would be written about players and athletes and they would see it. So you began to have to deal with things that you hadn’t dealt with in maybe the first 15, 20 years you were coaching. But I’d say the last five years I was coaching, you know, we had talk radio on sports, we had Internet. But I think it’s probably ramped up.”
What is your scheduling philosophy for football and basketball?
“I think you have to be cognizant of the fans. I think, yeah, you ought to try to play someone home-and-home that’s pretty good, a recognizable name that has a national image. I’d like to play at least a couple of games from major conferences. You never know when you schedule them. Sometimes you schedule them seven, eight years out. You schedule somebody, and then all of a sudden two years later, they’re not very good or really good.
“I know the first several years I was coaching, we seldom played a team that wasn’t from a major conference. … Now it seems like we’ve gotten into scheduling, once in a while, a I-AA team. I’d prefer not to do that. I’d like to make sure we’re playing reasonably good opponents.”
Basketball practice venues have become all the rage in the facilities arms race. Is a practice facility for NU basketball a high priority?
“Well, it’d be something that would be desirable. And we’re looking at different arena plans, and if we have to build a stand-alone practice facility and pay for the whole thing it’s probably anywhere from $10 to $20 million.
“Then the question is: How are you going to pay for that? Because the practice facility doesn’t generate revenue. And so the No. 1 issue is to make sure we don’t do something that proves to be an albatross, that pulls the whole athletic department down and jeopardizes all the sports. So you have to make sure that whatever we do is financially sound, so right now we’re putting that sort of on hold. We’d like to see the arena, but unless there’s a major donor or somebody that comes forward, I don’t see quite how financially that works to just build (a practice facility).”
Would raising funds for an academic center be the first opportunity to see what impact your arrival has had on “prominent donors?”
“It could be. I don’t know quite how to measure that. That’s something that we think is pretty important. Hopefully that would appeal to a wide range of donors. Some people are really into one sport or the other, but this really complements the academic mission of the university and has some long-term benefits to the student-athletes. So hopefully it’d be appealing.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at bchristopherson@journalstar.com or 473-7439. Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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