Just your typical first day at a new job — oh, except there was that interview with Jim Rome, ESPN, a half-dozen TV stations, those knucklehead newspaper guys, and a 30-minute meeting with Husker football coach Bill Callahan.

Man, this Tom Osborne guy is popular.

Sure, the day started a little hairy.

“I wasn’t even sure what floor my office was on,” Osborne admitted.

No worries. He found it, along with about every hand he could shake in the athletic department.

On his first day as Nebraska’s interim athletic director, Osborne was apparently a very big hit — looking for every handshake, trying to get to every interview.

“He can’t accommodate all of them, but he’s really a gamer,” said Randy York, associate athletic director for communications.

“He’s a master at this. He truly is. He moves fast and covers a lot of ground. He goes out of his way to introduce himself, very gracious.”

It was noon when the man who coached Nebraska football for 25 years met with Callahan and his assistants.

“One of his main concentrations was to get down to that second floor and meet with coaches, because he understands and empathizes with most with them,” York said.

The meeting lasted about a half- hour, and contrary to the many rumors floating around cyberspace, no one was fired or offered a resignation.

Quite the opposite. Callahan invited Osborne to Wednesday’s practice. Osborne said that’d be great.

“I’m very supportive of Tom being in that position,” Callahan said. “He comes with a lot of respect and a lot of experience. We are certainly welcoming of that.”

Someone asked if Callahan was nervous about Osborne watching practice.

The man who coached under Al Davis in Oakland laughed.

“No, I coached in the Super Bowl,” Callahan said. “I’ve kind of been around the block a little bit.”

Callahan had seemed as resigned as ever when he met with the media Tuesday, a day after the firing of Steve Pederson, the athletic director who hired him.

On Wednesday, Osborne said Callahan was “very professional. It seemed like he was reasonably upbeat. I didn’t detect any real problem. Obviously, it can’t be a lot of fun (being criticized).”

Osborne said he enjoyed coaching under an athletic director like Bob Devaney because Devaney knew what it was like to have a bad game, to get whipped by Oklahoma, to be the object of ridicule.

In that same way, Osborne can relate to this current Husker staff.

“It’s tough to go out in public sometimes. I feel for them in that regard,” Osborne said. “It’s one thing if you as a coach are being criticized. It’s another if your family is paying a price.”

With the Huskers 4-3 this season and a tough schedule remaining, it’s popular opinion that Callahan’s days at Nebraska are numbered.

Osborne said Tuesday the current coaches would at least finish this season and then they’d be evaluated.

“It comes down to us winning. That’s the bottom line. That’s the bottom line in any business,” Callahan said.

“I never worried about anybody looking over my shoulder. I think when you coach like that, then you’ve got a serious problem.”

As for the 70-year-old Osborne, today will be more of the same — lots of handshakes, an interview with ESPN’s Mike Tirico and Kirk Herbstreit. You know, second-day-on-the-job kind of stuff.

“I want to have everybody feel I’m accessible, that I’m willing to listen to them,” Osborne said. “I want everybody to feel like we’re pulling together. I’m not saying that isn’t there, but that’s part of any good culture. Right now, I want to do a lot of listening but not a whole lot of talking.”

As executive assistant AD Marc Boehm watched Osborne on Wednesday, the thing that impressed him most was how much Osborne listened, how he asked questions of most every person he met.

It had been a tough couple days around the athletic department, but Wednesday brought new hope.

“Sure, there were a lot of anxieties and fear, but with Coach coming in, it was like everyone was calm,” Boehm said. “He just has that calming effect.”

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.