re: Why can't Nebraska replicate the Osbourne success?

All the things mentioned in this thread have contributed to their decline but one omission is the fact they had a legendary, visionary head coach in Osborne. They haven't had anything close to that since. Osborne, for all the hypocrisy he had with him, was a great head coach and developer of the talent he had.
A great coach on his level isn't even needed to be better than they are though. Iowa St and Minnesota are better programs than they are now and they aren't exactly in recruiting hotbeds. Nebraska has made bad hires chasing names. When Pelini is the best they've had since Tom that tells you something.