- If you wanted to make the case that God’s a Cornhusker, there might not be a better place to start than here: Tom Osborne arrived on Nebraska’s campus as a young graduate student in pursuit of a PhD within a month of Bob Devaney taking over as the Huskers’ head football coach.
- Osborne would spend several years straddling the fence between doctoral studies and helping out in various roles as an assistant on the football team.
- Thankfully for all of Husker Nation, he ultimately chose to pursue football full time.
- After two sub-par seasons in 1967 and 1968, Devaney completely overhauls the program. Among many other changes, TO is installed as offensive coordinator.
- That one decision arguably did more to impact the future of Nebraska football than anything else.
- Osborne would play a central role in reimagining Nebraska’s offense, creating Husker Power (the nation’s first ever collegiate strength and conditioning program), emphasizing coast-to-coast recruiting, and ultimately turning the program around.
- A direct line can be drawn from the changes Devaney implemented after 1968 (with TO’s promotion arguably being the most consequential) to Nebraska’s first two national championships in 1970 and 1971.
- All this and much more about Osborne’s days as an assistant to Devaney in this first episode of our summer series about TO!
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