Shatel: Osborne's fountain of youth

Sorry, Nancy.

The fishing boat will have to wait. So, too, will the retirement. Mrs. Osborne has shared her husband with the University of Nebraska for nearly five decades. What's a few more years?

Or perhaps more than a few?

NU Chancellor Harvey Perlman announced on Wednesday that Osborne would stay on as athletic director “indefinitely.'' In related news, the Huskers will wear red this fall.

No, this was no surprise. Osborne stay? The man has given so much to NU, as an assistant football coach, head football coach, adviser and athletic director. He obviously feels that he has much more to give.

How much longer? Osborne had no contract. He had agreed with Perlman to stay through 2010 and see how things looked. Here's how they look: pretty darned good. So good, Osborne and Perlman have agreed to survey things every year and go from there.

I see Osborne going at least five more years, perhaps longer, for a few reasons.

1. Osborne's health is good. At times in recent years Osborne looked old. But since he took over as athletic director in 2007, the 72-year-young coach looks and sounds younger. You talk to people who work with him and they confirm it: The job has been a fountain of youth for a man who is a fountain of wisdom.

Chalk that up to being around student-athletes, coaches, practices and locker room camaraderie again. The fisherman was a walleye out of water in Washington, D.C. This is where he belongs, for as long as he wants.

What's the hurry? I can hear some out there — though they are a quiet minority — saying Osborne is acting selfishly here, a warrior in his 70s who can't let go.

Please. We are too quick in this world to banish our older generations to pasture when they still have so much to give. The world today moves at warp speed. Standards and ethics get trampled in the process. Exactly why experience, savvy and common sense should mean so much more.

If this is Osborne's final role at NU, then it's the role of a lifetime. Big-time college football, now more than ever, is about money — making it, spending it, slashing it and managing it. Nobody, especially college presidents, knows how to stop the insanity.

This isn't 1971 anymore. Which is exactly why you need the influence of someone who remembers 1971.

I see Osborne as a welcome elder statesman, on behalf of 1971 and common-sense folks like Nebraskans, who don't want to buy a new BMW every year like some people in Texas and Oklahoma.

I think that he sees himself in that much-needed role, too.

2. There's still much to do at NU. Osborne wants to see through projects like the academic center and the basketball practice facility, both of which should be up by 2011. But there will always be something to build. Financially, NU is in good shape. But NU's smorgasbord of sports will need to be cut at some point, in the name of making budget.

Football looks like it's on the way back up, but Bo Pelini is just starting. Bottom line: I don't see Osborne walking away until football, men's basketball, fundraising and facilities are, as he would say, on solid ground.

Would NU have to win a national championship in football before Osborne would leave? I don't think so. But the man does know how to leave on top.

3. Osborne is seeing that he's pretty good at it. Some questioned whether he had the stomach to ask for money, but Associate Athletic Director Paul Meyers told me that Osborne has become an adept “closer.'' He is surrounded by a capable young staff. The hours and stress aren't like they were in 1997. The system is in place for him to go many more years.

4. This is the job he wanted all along. It's not like he can erase the disappointment he felt when Bill Byrne was hired or the Steve Pederson years by staying longer. But he can finish the legacy Osborne always saw for himself: leading Nebraska into an uncertain future and leaving the place better than when he found it.

Osborne says he won't pick his successor. I believe him when he says he doesn't want to pick one protégé over another. Will there be a committee? Yes. Will they listen to what Osborne says? You bet.

Fortunately, that will be for much later. Sorry, Nancy. The fishing boat can wait. That's good news for the fish of Nebraska. The fans, too.

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com