Checking For A Pulse #2

For the most part, we've avoided talking sports on this blog, and for good reason- it's covered well elsewhere (for example).  But this letter to the Pulse by Rick Fetters from Council Bluffs is to ridiculous to pass up.  Talk about apples and oranges.  

Quite a few people are happy over Tom Osborne’s firing of Nebraska baseball coach Mike Anderson, who had a winning record.
Some of these same people were probably mad as could be when then-Athletic Director Steve Pederson fired Husker football coach Frank Solich, who also had a winning record.

Firstly, the author neglects to mention that there was some evidence that the NU football program was improving under Solich with his new coaching staff (which of course starred Bo Pelini, who would go on to win a National Title as a defensive coordinator) although Husker football was certainly not at the level that we were accustomed to (and spoiled by).  Conversely, the baseball program hasn't even qualified for the Big 12 conference tournament over the last two seasons, which should have been a slam dunk.  Nor did they have anything close to a winning record in conference play- which is a better sign of the competitiveness of the team.  



And the playing field (no pun intended) between the two sports is totally different.  While the football program certainly fattens up on lower level programs, there's a limit to how much you can do that over the course of a season to build up a winning record during a 12-game schedule.  The baseball program has no problem reeling off wins against lower-level competition over it's much longer season.  So again, apples and oranges.  The cases of Frank Solich and Mike Anderson were completely different.  

While this wouldn't come out until after this letter's publication, one would be remiss to not mention the difference in coaching searches as well.  Pederson clearly had no plan and nobody to take the job even if he did have a plan.  Osborne was able to quickly identify candidates and line up interviews, and then identified the individual he wanted to hire and made the deal without anything of significance leaking to the press.  

In short, what a pointless letter that fails to see the big picture, typical of a lot of the drivel that people send in to the Public Pulse.  Thus concludes our latest installment of Checking for a Pulse.