Osborne's Huskers the standard for Stoops
Published: 10/29/2008 8:47 AM
Last Modified: 10/29/2008 8:47 AM
You'll like this gem from Bob Stoops at his press conference Tuesday:
"I've always had great respect for Nebraska. When we started building the program at Kansas State with Coach Snyder, for us defensively, Jim Leavitt and I and my brother Mike and Brent (Venables), our biggest hurdle was to catch up and be able to slow them down offensively.
"I told Coach Osborne at a meeting this past year that competing against him was a major influence in my career, in finding ways to defend them successfully and to slow them down and give ourselves a chance to win, because of how detailed and how good they were. You really had to be detailed and good in everything you did defensively. To me, that was my biggest jump as a coach and as a defensive coordinator, was competing against them and slowing them down. I've had that respect for a long time.
"In fact, I got a great note from Tom Osborne stating how well we played them, and I always thought that was pretty neat, because he respected the way we challenged them."
It wasn't much of a challenge when Stoops & Co. first arrived at K-State. The Huskers toyed with them, 58-7 and 45-8 in 1989 and '90. Then look what happened:
38-31, Nebraska, in '91
38-24, Nebraska, in '92
45-28, Nebraska, in '93
17-6, Nebraska, in '94
49-25, Nebraska, in '95
The Stoops/Snyder Wildcats made it hard on the Huskers' national champs of '94 and '95 even. They just never quite got over the proverbial hump.
"Just the fight of doing it every year," Stoops went on Tuesday. "Man, those guys were so good and they made you defend them from inside to outside, everywhere, and it was such a challenge. But it made us better and more detailed and fundamental in everything we did defensively that carried on to when we were defending other teams. It really made us better."
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
