It's coaches versus reporters as Huskers fire, hire
By Lincoln Arneal
J Alumni News staff
It was two months that shook Husker Country.
The normally stable and consistent Nebraska football program experienced upheaval and uncertainty. Three assistant coaches were fired on Dec. 2, 2002, and two more retired on Jan. 12, and the Nebraska football coaching staff reloaded after its worst season since 1962.
For the newspaper writers who covered the two months from the firing to the final hire on Feb. 5, it was a period of intense, non-stop work that proved to be difficult at times but also a great learning experience.
Omaha World-Herald football writer Liz Merrill said the experience taught her to be persistent and more aggressive in her reporting.
"It was good practice and challenging," Merrill said. "On one side you had people who wanted information, and then you had another group who didn't want to give information."
The rumors about coaching changes began to pick up momentum after the Colorado game on Nov. 29, 2002. Lincoln Journal Star football writer Steve Sipple said he first knew something was going to change in the coaching staff in the week leading up to the CU game. Normally, Sipple wrote the game story, but for Colorado his assignment was to ask the assistants about their future. Most of the coaches declined to comment or admitted uncertainty about their job status. They wouldn't have long to wait, though.
Three days later, the hammer fell.
Head coach Frank Solich and then-NU athletic director Bill Byrne announced the firings of assistants Craig Bohl, George Darlington and Nelson Barnes. In addition, Solich announced he would no longer hold the title of offensive coordinator.
However, to those on the inside, this move didn't come as a surprise. Van Jensen, a reporter for the Daily Nebraskan, said the mood indicated a change was necessary.
"As the season went on with the team playing the way it did, the atmosphere needed to be changed," he said. "The tension was out of the ordinary, plus there was so much weight with the struggles of the team."
Merrill said she was sure something was going to happen the day following the Colorado game when Solich didn't make himself available to the media, as he usually does following game days.
Soon after the three firings, Solich's search for replacements started. But speculation about who would be the newest part of the Husker coaching staff began immediately. Merrill said she talked to others in the coaching business, used the Internet and looked at some of the other hot names in the business.
Because they were dealing with sensitive information, reporters often couldn't get people to go on the record. One-source stories or anonymous sources became commonplace in Nebraska newspapers' coverage of the situation.
Even if the coaches spoke on the record, their information had to be taken with a grain of salt. For example, the World-Herald used an anonymous source to report in late November that Solich was going to step down as offensive coordinator. Solich blasted the source, saying he didn't know if the person was on drugs or something else. The next week, Solich handed off his play calling responsibilities.
The three different papers had three different policies regarding information that wasn't cited.
The Daily Nebraskan didn't use unidentified sources but instead would credit other news outlets for pieces of information. Jensen said he understood the reason coaches weren't talking: so Solich would have greater control over the situation and not risk losing candidates.
Merrill said she used more anonymous sources in this story than she had during the rest of her seven years as a journalist. To be able to use unidentified information she had to go through a chain of command to get approval, but when the information proved to be correct the anonymous source gained credibility.
Sipple said he never had a strict policy regarding using anonymous sources but took every story individually. But Sipple said when his stories cited only one or no named sources that didn't mean he had talked only to one person. Sometimes 10 or 20 other people were behind the information printed.
"The way I approached it is that I wanted to get guys on the record," he said. "If there was no way we could do that, I would try to check it with guys close to the situation."
The first addition for the new staff was Bo Pelini, who was hired as the new defensive coordinator on Dec. 23, four days before Nebraska's loss in the Independence Bowl.
After the bowl game, the search for the staff intensified as the focus towards the future was more urgent with the 2002 season finished. For Sipple, a lot of the big breaks and leads came at the American Football Coaches Association's annual convention in New Orleans from Jan. 5-8.
While in Louisiana, Sipple was able to talk to coaches who might be candidates or might have known information about the situation at Nebraska. He said the choice to go to New Orleans was a risk, but it ended up paying off as the Journal Star broke a lot of stories about candidates for the new staff. However, Sipple had to do it without talking to Solich. Sipple said he didn't see Solich until the last day of the convention. Instead, he talked to colleagues and other coaches, including NU assistants.
Sipple and Merrill both said the majority of information came from working the phones, which came at a cost. Sipple said his hotel room phone bill in New Orleans was $540 for four days. Merrill used 3,000 minutes on her cell phone during the coaching turmoil. It wasn't fun, but it was part of covering the story thoroughly.
"You might make 30 calls and only get one with something," she said.
Before the first batch of hires could be made, assistants Milt Tenopir and Dan Young both announced their retirements. The next day Solich announced the hiring of four new assistants: Tim Albin, Barney Cotton, Scott Downing and Marvin Sanders. Also, Turner Gill was promoted to assistant head coach.
The introduction of the new assistants was a joyous time not only for those in the football program but also for the reporters.
"That was a great day when they announced the new hires," Merrill said.
The coaching chaos finally ended with the hiring of Jimmy Williams as the linebackers coach on Feb. 5. NU also hired Dan McLaughlin as a graduate assistant to work with the offensive line. Since then, NU has added Bo Pelini's brother, Carl, as a graduate assistant, finalizing the staff for the 2003 season.
Looking back, Sipple said the experience was interesting, yet exhausting. He worked every day, sometimes as much as 16 hours, for more than a month-and-a-half. Sipple said he didn't think he was complete recovered even by the beginning of May.
"I was glad it was over. It was very grueling," he said. "I learned a lot, but I don't think I would want to go through that experience again."
