Nebraska Football Was Weirdly The Talk Of Big 12 Media Days

The Nebraska football team got plenty of mention during the Big 12 media days, and that’s a bit odd since the program hasn’t been a member of that conference since 2011.

Traditionally, conference media days are ways for teams in those conferences to answer questions about the upcoming season and where they think they’ll fit in, in the national spotlight. The Big 12 certainly tried to make last week about the Big 12, as they discussed expanding to a possible 14 teams.

Despite being able to grab headlines with that news, it was truly odd to watch several Big 12 coaches bring the topic back to Nebraska as often as they did. It was also odd in the way in which the coaches managed to bring Nebraska football back into the conversation.

First, there was Jim Grobe drudging up the “did they or didn’t they” storyline centering around rumors on whether he was offered the head coaching job for the Huskers after Bill Callahan was fired.

During his turn in front of the microphones, Grobe talked mostly about his new stint at Baylor but also managed to drag the Huskers into it by claiming Tom Osborne had told him if he took the Nebraska football job, he would need to keep three assistants from the old staff.

While this story seems somewhat believable, considering how many former Husker coaches worked under eventual head coach Bo Pelini, Osborne has said the story is completely made up. Talking shortly after those comments, Osborne told the World-Herald he was puzzled by those comments.

“I interviewed Jim Grobe, and I think he’s a good coach, but I never offered him the job, and there were no stipulations on assistants,” Osborne said.

Then it was Bill Snyder’s turn to focus on the Nebraska football team rather than his own. At his press conference, the longtime Kansas State coach said he knew of two teams who left the conference that wanted to come back.

ESPN quoted Snyder “When push comes to shove,” he said of Nebraska, “I don’t want to speak for anybody, but I’m not so sure they’re pleased with the decision they made.” Snyder didn’t say the other team he thought wanted back. It could be Colorado, or Missouri, or Texas A&M.

None of the teams have had great success since leaving the Big 12 for the Pac 12 and the SEC respectively. Still, Snyder centered on Nebraska. Once again, Nebraska had to refute comments made by a Big 12 coach who seemed to be talking about things he didn’t really understand.

Just like Grobe’s comments had to be responded to, so were Snyder’s. This time, Nebraska AD Shawn Eichhorst tweeted out just how happy he was to be part of the Big 10 conference.

With Nebraska football’s own media days coming up fast, there will likely be at least some questions about the Big 12. The difference between what went down last week and what will likely happen this week is that Nebraska would much rather not talk about it’s former home.

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Maybe we should take it as a compliment and a sign that Nebraska football is still a big player on the National College Football scene after all.