Bounds time was short but impactful
Earlier on Monday, it was announced that University of Nebraska system President Hank Bounds was stepping down.
"I have made the difficult decision to step down as president of this great university," Bounds said in a statement.
On the surface, it's hard to know what to make of this news, other than the battles on the state and academic side of the University probably have worn Bounds down during his short time at Nebraska.
However, what I do know about Bounds is the current state of the Athletic Department would not be where it is without him.
Bounds came to NU with a previous background in football. He was once a high school football coach in Mississippi and before that a graduate assistant coach at Southern Mississippi.
He understood the game, and he understood what it meant to Nebraskans.
He once said to HuskerOnline that the football program is the "front porch to our University."
I began to notice Bounds around a lot when Mike Riley and Shawn Eichorst were at NU.
He would attend several football practices over that time and even involved himself in the recruiting process spending time with athletes when they made their official visits to campus. He also attended several of Nebraska's Friday Night Lights Camps.
He hosted recruits at his home multiple times for Sunday brunches on recruiting weekends.
He knew how big football was in the grand scheme of everything, and he did what he could to help.
In September of 2017 Bounds had seen enough. He knew if the Huskers were going to get back to the level Nebraska fans wanted the program to be, it wasn't going to be under the leadership of Eichorst and Riley.
He made the tough decision at that time to fire Eichorst after an embarrassing loss to Northern Illinois in Memorial Stadium. This came days after University leaders made Eichorst go back on his statement that NU was no longer going to play Iowa or anyone on Black Friday when the future schedules were announced.
Bounds had seen enough. He stepped in over Chancellor Ronnie Green and fired Eichorst. That then set the stage for Mike Riley to be let go and bring in Scott Frost.
Ultimately I think Eichorst probably even knew the Riley hire wasn't going to work. I've heard theories that's why Bob Diaco was brought in to eventually set up a succession plan after Tanner Lee delivered a couple of 8 win type seasons. None of that happened as we know. Bounds hired Bill Moos, and that set the stage for Frost to be hired after Moos fired Riley.
I'm not sure Bounds will ever receive the credit he deserves for how things played out the last year in Lincoln, but I truly believe without him none of it would've happened.