Shatel: Groovy grandpas getting it done

When I grow up, I want to be like Tom Osborne and Bill Snyder.

I want to bound off the recliner and onto my horse, ride back into town, tanned and rested, a gleam in my eye. At 70, I might need help getting off the horse. But I'll strut back into my old job with a swagger, back to save the day, back to show them that the old guy still has it, back better than ever.

And then, of course, I'll need my nap.

Osborne and Snyder don't need any stinking naps. They are too busy reinvigorating the college football programs they built, too busy adding chapters to their own storybook legends.

They haven't met on the field since 1997, but their lives and lessons will intersect once again Saturday night in Lincoln. It's no wonder the Kansas State-Nebraska game for the Big 12 North title looks like a blast from 1997: Snyder and Osborne have their fingerprints all over this season.

Snyder is back on the sideline, and though he looks older, some things don't age, like fundamentals, work ethic and the glare that still shoots laser beams through players. Osborne will be up in the athletic director's booth, but he hired head coach Bo Pelini and lately he's made news as a mentor for offensive coordinator Shawn Watson.

There used to be an old advertising slogan that said, “You're not getting older, you're getting better.'' The new, improved hip version says, “Old guys rule.'' Or, in their case, old guys still rule.

Seriously, is there anything cooler than being Osborne or Snyder right now? There's probably a 70-year-old dude hanging 10 on a boogie board off Pacific Beach waves in San Diego, but that might be it.

Here's Osborne, walking past the statue of himself every day, to an office where he oversees the rebuilding of a football giant— the one he helped create. In his spare time, he drops film cut-ups of his old schemes off at the current football office, like a grandfather dropping off cookies for the grandkids.

Here's Snyder, in the stadium named after him, taking a program that forgot how to win, re-teaching all the lessons and breathing life back into a place that many had thought — or hoped — had been left for dead. He's back in the football complex they call “the submarine,'' because Snyder and his staff go down and don't come up for air. And he looks like he's absolutely having a blast.

There's a lesson in here for us all. Maybe 70 is the new 50.

I think it's this: Don't ever underestimate the heart, the will or the mind of a senior citizen. They have so much to give, and too often they aren't allowed or even asked. Why wouldn't you be more valuable, or do your best work, at 70? Think of all the experiences, all the things they've seen and done.

We live in a world today where folks want to retire in their late 50s or at 60, economy willing. There's an entire other generation that lives to work, even with an empty nest, because work wasn't simply a means to a life, it brought self-fulfillment and self-worth. Because you still have a lot to give.

“My dad worked until he was 70,'' Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. “They grew up in a different time. Now, the entertainment's out there. You've got gadgets. You have all these things out there in the world.

“I give him (Snyder) a lot of credit that he has that kind of energy, because I know the hours he puts in and nobody works harder. Maybe it keeps him young.''

They say the game passes these old birds by. Snyder had been out of it only four years, but college football changes by the autumn. Still, what Snyder has shown this year — and Osborne with his hire of Pelini — is that preparation, fundamentals and discipline never go out of style.

But here's the real beauty of what Snyder has done this year: he's given cynics — at least this one — a deeper appreciation of what he did from 1989 to 2005.

We said “the greatest turnaround in college football history'' was built on shortcuts. We said Snyder's record was padded by cupcake schedules. Guess what? Most everyone does that today; the man was ahead of his time. We said it was all smoke and mirrors, built with easy schedules, with too many junior college nomads, that he did it with Oklahoma down, and then Nebraska down, blah, blah.

But this season Snyder has taken a group of players he didn't know and gotten it to buy into the philosophy and hard work of a 70-year-old coach they could have easily dismissed. What Snyder has shown us is that he is the goods. The man can coach.

Some folks thought he was crazy to come back, that he would ruin his legacy. Guess what? He's enhanced it. Osborne, too. It says it all about Osborne that Pelini wishes he would come around more. That must be the ultimate compliment. Old guys, they just want to be asked.

For Pelini, 41, it's unfathomable to think about what Snyder and Osborne are doing. Florida coach Urban Meyer, 45, has said there's no way he'll be “doing this'' in 10 years.

“It's a pretty stressful business,'' Pelini said. “That's the amazing thing about it. I could never imagine (coaching at 70). Who knows? Someday I might ride off into the sunset and coach high school.''

And sometimes the heroes ride back from the sunset.

Contact the writer:

444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

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