As Dave Kennedy departed, Bo Pelini was looking at Shawn Simms as Nebraska's next running backs coach.
BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Sunday, December 9, 2007 6:00 pm
Nebraska needs to hire another coach — a strength coach this time.
Dave Kennedy, who took over as head strength coach of Nebraska in 2004, resigned over the weekend.
The departure of Kennedy comes less than two months after Steve Pederson was fired as athletic director, and just two weeks after Bill Callahan was fired as football coach.
The Husker football program went 27-22 in Kennedy’s time as head strength coach.
Mostly free from criticism during his first three seasons on the job, Kennedy took some heat from fans this past fall when the Husker defensive line was pushed around on a weekly basis. Nebraska finished ranked 116th out of 119 teams in rushing defense.
The 47-year-old Kennedy graduated from Nebraska in 1985 and assisted in NU’s strength department under Boyd Epley from 1982-88.
He moved on to become the head strength coach at Ohio State (1989-2001), and then Pittsburgh (2002-03) while Pederson was the athletic director there.
John Cooper, who coached the Buckeyes from 1988-2000, said Kennedy “was one of the best things” that happened to Ohio State during that time.
“If I ever got back into coaching — and of course I won’t because I’m 70 now — Dave Kennedy would be one of first people I would hire back on my staff,” Cooper said.
While he was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Callahan tried to hire Kennedy.
He failed in that attempt, but got his man in 2004 when Kennedy followed Pederson from Pittsburgh to Nebraska.
It seemed a natural fit for Kennedy, an Omaha native who got his start in the Husker program.
Still, the move came as somewhat of a surprise since Nebraska was coming off a 10-3 season with Bryan Bailey in charge of the strength program.
Callahan offered Bailey a job as an assistant to Kennedy.
Bailey, part of the NU program since 1986, left to work in the USC strength department in 2005.
“I made a change, and with all due respect to Bryan Bailey, I made that change for the betterment of our team,” Callahan said in 2004. “I wanted to retain Coach Bailey because he does have expertise and value here. He’s very well-respected by our team and players, and I wanted him to be a part of this program.”
Upon his arrival, Kennedy said the new No. 1 word in football players’ vocabulary would be “burst.”
“That’s what we’re going to try to develop. The players will be hearing that, hearing that and hearing that,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy described “burst” as the ability “to move from zero to 60 mph as fast as possible.”
“Burst is a huge, huge factor in the game of football,” he said. “When you read about guys in the NFL Draft, you hear that word all the time. Everything we do will be geared toward that.”
As Kennedy departs, new Husker football coach Bo Pelini is finalizing his coaching staff.
It’s believed that an official announcement on those coaches could come by Wednesday.
The Journal Star learned Monday that Randy Jordan will not return as Nebraska’s running backs coach.
Two sources say Nebraska has interviewed at least one potential replacement, Shawn Simms, a former assistant at both Colorado and Iowa State.
The 44-year-old Simms was actually coach of the outside linebackers at Iowa State in 2006, working alongside Barney Cotton, who just joined Pelini’s staff.
Before that, Simms coached running backs at Colorado for three years, working with Shawn Watson, who is NU’s offensive coordinator.
Among the running backs Simms coached at CU was Bobby Purify, nephew of NU receiver Maurice Purify.
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.