John Mabry: NU-Pittsburgh matchup 7 years in the making
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It's take-a-number week with Steve Pederson. Everyone wants to talk about his return to Pittsburgh and the first football meeting between the Huskers and Panthers since 1958.
Pederson said he and Bill Byrne started discussions in 1997, one year after Pederson became the athletic director at Pittsburgh.
"My reaction was, it's seven years away," Pederson said. "You know, by seven years, I guess I was trying to see how our program would measure up at that point.
"Who could you play better than Nebraska to say we want to challenge ourselves against the best?"
Now Pederson has almost two years under his belt as athletic director at Nebraska. He made a bold coaching change here, and some folks in Pittsburgh believe he would have done the same with Walt Harris.
Harris, who was hired by Pederson, is on the hot seat because the Panthers have not exactly wowed anyone since moving into Heinz Field three years ago.
Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote Tuesday that Pederson "surely would have fired Harris — probably after the 2002 season — if he had stayed at Pitt."
Pederson wouldn't go there in our visit.
"I've never really seen them play since we left," Pederson said. "Walt did a great job of rebuilding our program. He did a great job for me. That's all I can say. At the time I left, I thought Walt had done a great job."
Pederson has been praised in Pittsburgh for the hirings of Harris and basketball coach Ben Howland (now at UCLA) and his efforts in moving the football and basketball teams into state-of-the-art facilities.
He also orchestrated an innovative apparel deal with Aeropostale, toned down the school's bright blue and yellow color scheme and went on a mission to get people to stop calling the school "Pitt."
I'm not sure he won that battle, but there's no doubt he did a lot during his six years with the Panthers.
So what was his greatest accomplishment in Pittsburgh?
"We built, I thought, a can-do kind of a culture," he said. "That was the most discouraging thing when I got there. It was almost like everyone assumed we wouldn't be any good again.
"I think, and I always believed, and I used to tell people this, that was my Nebraska upbringing, that I grew up in a program where you always believed you could do great things."
Incognito exit a relief
The center of attention no more.
It's a shame Richie Incognito's NU career ended this way, but he had to know there were going to be severe consequences for his confrontations inside and outside the Husker family.
Bill Callahan took a hard-line approach, and apparently Incognito got tired of waiting for the head coach to provide more specifics on how long the suspension might last.
Perhaps it was part of Callahan's test to see how much Incognito wanted to mend his ways.
Now we know. And now Incognito's former teammates know. They can move on without the cloud of uncertainty that had been shadowing the offensive line for the last few weeks.
From a talent standpoint, this is a big blow to the NU offense. But from a team standpoint, it's the best conclusion.
Call from the coach
Callahan said he called quarterback Joe Dailey on Sunday night to make sure Dailey wasn't too down about the way things went over the weekend.
"When they don't do well, that's when they need you the most," Callahan said. "I know if my son went through that, I'd want someone to call him to see how he was doing."
Dailey struggled to the tune of four turnovers in the loss to Southern Miss, but he continues to draw raves for the class and maturity he showed after the defeat.
"I thought he was as impressive in the press conference as any young person I've seen for a long time. I thought it was just really special to watch him," Pederson said. "When I watched him in there, I said, ‘Joe's going to be fine. Joe's going to be fine, as a quarterback, as a person, everything.'
"To stand in there like he did was pretty cool."
Reach John Mabry at 473-7320 or jmabry@journalstar.com.
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