LINCOLN, Neb. -- Barney Cotton choked up as he described the hardships that come with serving as Nebraska's interim head coach.
He wants to accomplish what is clearly difficult to do -- maintain a business-as-usual atmosphere after Bo Pelini's firing. He promises to make sure the players have the best experience possible at the Holiday Bowl.
Yet, he still feels the punch in the gut from Pelini's firing and sadness for assistant coaches who don't know what the future holds after new coach Mike Riley takes full control after Saturday's game against Southern California.
"Little by little, guys are being given notices that this spot will be filled by someone else and that spot will be filled by someone else," Cotton said. "Those are the hardest things. You're talking wives and kids and moving and new schools and all that. That really tugs at you. I wish I could make it all go away, but obviously that's not the reality we live in."
There were five interim coaches in charge of teams when bowl season began on Dec. 20: Cotton's Nebraska team, David Gibbs at Houston, Joe Rudolph at Pittsburgh, D.J. Durkin at Florida and Dave Baldwin at Colorado State.
Nebraska, Houston, Pittsburgh and Florida have yet to play. Baldwin's Colorado State team lost to Utah 45-10 in the Las Vegas Bowl, and Georgia's Mike Bobo has already been named as the Rams' new coach, replacing Jim McElwain, who is now at Florida. Baldwin had been a candidate to replace McElwain.
One school not using an interim coach this year is Arkansas State, which was 2-1 the past three seasons in bowl games using an interim coach after the departures of Hugh Freeze to Ole Miss, Gus Malzahn to Auburn and Bryan Harsin to Boise State after the 2011, 2012 and 2103 seasons. It appears that first-year Coach Blake Anderson will be around to lead the Red Wolves into the Jan. 4 GoDaddy Bowl against Toledo.
ASU showed it's possible to compete without a head coach, winning the past two GoDaddy games with former defensive coordinator John Thompson as the interim coach.
"There's limbo, but we accept that in this profession," Baldwin said, even before the Las Vegas Bowl. "If you're worried about it, you shouldn't have gotten into this profession."
Some of the men already know what their next move is, others don't.
Cotton already has landed his next job as offensive coordinator at UNLV. Gibbs said he hopes to stay on as defensive coordinator for Tom Herman, the new Houston coach. Rudolph might join the staff of former Pitt coach Paul Chryst at Wisconsin. Durkin has been connected to several defensive coordinator jobs since finding out this week he wouldn't be retained by McElwain.
The bowl games amount to auditions for soon-to-be unemployed coaches, said Gibbs, who will be across the field from Rudolph when Houston plays Pitt in the Armed Forces Bowl on Jan. 2.
"If you're good at your job," Gibbs said, "you realize that if you go out there and coach your butt off and your kids play hard and play good, you have a better chance of getting a job than if your kids go out there and lay down and get beat up on national television."
Durkin, who was Will Muschamp's defensive coordinator, said because of the transitory nature of the business, it's not awkward when an interim coach takes over for a departed head coach. He said he appreciated the trust Athletic Director Jeremy Foley showed in asking him to lead the Gators against East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl on Jan. 3.
"I've been here five years with our guys," Durkin said. "I want to make sure they get my very best as a head coach to go win this game and finish things off the right way. That's where my focus is."
For Cotton, his imminent parting with Nebraska will be more difficult than perhaps it will be for other interim coaches who will be somewhere else next year.
Cotton, 58, grew up in Omaha, played offensive line for the Cornhuskers and served as a graduate assistant under Tom Osborne. He was Frank Solich's offensive coordinator in 2003 and held several jobs on Pelini's staff since 2008. He has had three sons play for Nebraska.
"I wouldn't have traded my playing experience, certainly wouldn't have traded working for Frank and working for Bo and having Coach Osborne as the (athletic director) here," Cotton said. "And having the chance for Bo and Coach Osborne to give my boys the opportunity to come play at Nebraska, where their dad played and where my folks have lived. ... I'll always be thankful and always be blessed."
Sports on 12/27/2014