Lawrence Phillips

Showtime has had free access for the last month. Watched a documentary on the former Nebraska RB. Interesting how at a press conference Tom Osborne was defiant towards a reporter who asked whether he would feel the same way if it was his daughter. Worth a look.

 

Ah yes, when Dr. Tom finally decided selling his soul was worth it for a national title.

 

Just waiting on @SabreHorn

 

Beat me to it

 

I personally thought the question & Osborne's reaction by storming out was the highlight of his career and showed his true character or lack there of.

At least he didn't reply, "I have a daughter?'

 

He didn't storm out. And there's indisputable video evidence.

 

I was looking up info about this and cornnation.com came up. Man, if you ever need a good pick-me-up, their misery reliving all of the games against Texas from 1996 through 2010 does the job.

4th and 1
Ricky
Major to Wane
Anthony Hicks
Fumble at the 1 recovered by Hampton
Mike Jones rumbling in for the TD
Vasher's pick at the 1
VY's first huge game in 2003
Snow game with Bailey's first ever kick
Charles with the million yards in the 2nd half
CCG 2009
The gut-punch of losing to us while we sucked in 2010 and forced them out of the conference

**chef's kiss**

 

so what's the title of the show you are discussing? asking for a friend...

 

Running for my life: the Lawrence Phillips story.

 

Watching LHN UT vs. Nebraska's games back to back to back it is easy to understand why Nebraska left instead of trying to fix their problem.

The only thing I miss is their fans. Very classy. I mean you have a team come in and end your 7 year home winning streak and they give Texas a standing ovation when the game is over.

 

They were classy in 1998. And mostly the ones who visited Austin in 1999. It went downhill from there with their frustration level. The 2009 CCG attendees were on par with Aggie fans and their ref-blaming ways.

 

Nebraska fans stopped caring about indisputable video evidence in December of 2009.

 

In my experience, a majority Nebraska fans are classy regardless of the situation but for a not insignificant portion of their fan base that classy outlook only remains so long as they are consistently beating you and only the occasional upset happens. But that changes pretty quickly if the script is flipped as happened with Texas or say Colorado in late 80's and early 90's, lest we forget this is the portion of that fan base with bumper stickers "Sal is dead go big red" back when CU was beating them more often than not. Nebraska fans moan and groan about 2009 in spite of the fact that (1) it was unquestionably the right call and (2) They got the exact same freaking call putting a second back on the clock (which was also the right call) in a national championship game against Florida State years earlier but missed that kick and lost. That 1-9 record against Texas while in the Big 12 is something they just cant mentally handle to this day so they seek any excuse they can for it.

 

They may have been the world’s greatest fans in football, but in baseball it was a different story.

 

Like most fans, class comes easier when they are winning. They once had what was considered the the best college fans, but they could not handle what became of their record against Texas.

 

Interesting how it is very difficult to find any thing on the famous Makovicka rule. Just shows how good Osborne was/is at hiding his little indiscretions.

 

There was a whole MF PBS documentary about it that aired on the local Nebraska station!

Walk Ons Huskers' Edge | netnebraska.org

The way the story was told to me around the mid-80s, Tom would mafia-style intimidate the rural coaches into not allowing other colleges to evaluate their players, so that they couldn't offer scholarships to the best players. Then Tom would be their "savior" and "allow" them to walk on, even though they clearly deserved scholarships. Omaha (who also called themselves Big Red) had a coach named Sandy Buda. He basically had to cancel all in-state recruiting trips, because every kid who had a chance at playing I-AA ball was holding out hope to be their district's pick to walk on for Tom. That program is defunct now.

 

Colorado fans are so much worse than Nebraska fans, as a whole. Remember when whole sections of the stadium had to be emptied b/c they were throwing stuff at visiting fans?

Even better, the same thing happened to Nebraska just five years later, in their 2014 bowl game: (link is set so video will start playing at the appropriate time)

 

11,

Are you/y'all calling the "community scholarship program" the "walkon program"?

Dean Steinkuhler was the best example of that. Did the video deal with his accomplishments and later problems?

Strangely enough he never held Osborne or Nebraska responsible and sent his two sons to play for the Huskers.

 

They worship Osborne. I never knew that Steinkuhler was one of those recipients there... he was massive and I always figured he was just a regular old scholarship guy and not a Makovicka.

It doesn't appear that they link the walk-on program to the "community scholarship" ******** that violates all sorts of NCAA rules.

 

As the story was relayed to me by their old OL coach:

Steinkhuler was a HS RB at about 240 pounds and ran a 5.2 forty. He was on a "community scholarship" and was moved to defense to be a blocking dummy. He was big, slow, and not very strong.

In a coaches' meeting, the OL & OC wanted a DL to turn into an OT. Apparently a very heated argue ensued with Osborne intervening and telling the DC to pass the kid to the OC, but as "compensation" the OC had to take Steinkhuler as well. A couple of years later Steinkhuler was 300 pounds and running a 4.9 forty thanks to the Nebraska "player development program".

Unfortunately, I understand he had serious health problems in his thirties.

Not sure how much is true, but that was the conversation at Otto's Hamburgers on Memorial when I asked Coach Bill Michael to introduce me to the OL coach because I wanted to know why they wanted a kid that I wouldn't have let Fred use as a walkon.

 

Interesting story Sabre. Did Steinkhuler become what he did because of heavy steroid use and or something else besides the Nebraska PDP?

 

There is a difference?