Nebraska Sacks Athletic Director

Chancellor cites mismanagement, not recent blowout losses
By Jesse Andrews,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 15, 2007 11:12 PM CDT
Nebraska Sacks Athletic Director
Nebraska head coach Bill Callahan speaks during a news conference on the first day of fall camp, in Lincoln, Neb., Monday, Aug. 6, 2007. Callahan has been given a new, five-year contract for $1.75 million a year, athletic director Steve Pederson said Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007. It will run through Jan....   (Associated Press)

After two thirty-point football losses, Nebraska's athletic director Steve Pederson has been relieved of duty—but chancellor Harvey Perlman says he had made up his mind before the second laugher, a 45-14 homecoming debacle against Oklahoma State. Perlman announced that Pederson's faulty leadership, more than the win-loss record, troubled him.

Fans and alumni have been wary of Pederson since his own firing of coach Frank Solich in 1993 after the Cornhuskers went 9-3. Under his replacement, ex-Raiders coach Bill Callahan, Nebraska has gone a mediocre 8-8 so far against the rest of the Big Twelve. But it's the A.D., not the coach, who has paid. Said Callahan: "We're going to continue to lead in a very positive manner." (More NCAA stories.)

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