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Ronnie Green Author

12/14/2017 Added

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Ronnie Green discusses the hiring of head football coach Scott Frost, recent recognition of the university's support of students who are military veterans and the appointment of new College of Business Dean Kathy Farrell.

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[00:00:00.344]Sitting right here with me is UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green.
[00:00:03.362]Great to see you.
[00:00:04.195]We saw each other for a brief time
[00:00:05.899]on Sunday for that joyous press conference.
[00:00:08.809]Congratulations again on that.
[00:00:11.056]I'm sure you've heard a lot of positive news,
[00:00:13.074]just like those positive responses,
[00:00:15.538]just like our last two callers have had.
[00:00:17.869]Yeah, it's one of those high points, right,
[00:00:20.697]where you don't experience those kind of days that often.
[00:00:24.884]And I'm still excited from it, a little tired from it too,
[00:00:28.304]you know? Sure.
[00:00:29.204]But to have the opportunity to see this leadership change
[00:00:32.824]and see it occur in the way that it's fallen together
[00:00:36.446]so well, to bring someone of Scott's caliber in
[00:00:40.037]as our new head football coach,
[00:00:42.456]and the whole home-grown story.
[00:00:46.281]It was a just really touching day
[00:00:49.850]to go through that with him.
[00:00:52.903]You know, Scott's background obviously
[00:00:55.010]made him a really special candidate
[00:00:56.642]for this head coaching role.
[00:00:58.988]Not surprising that he would end up where he is,
[00:01:01.532]if you think about his pedigree.
[00:01:03.109]I'm a geneticist, so I think a little bit about that stuff.
[00:01:06.649]His parents both being successful coaches
[00:01:09.296]and lifelong coaches and athletes themselves,
[00:01:11.673]his mom an Olympic track athlete.
[00:01:13.455]And he talked in the press conference
[00:01:15.465]about getting run over when he was two-year-old
[00:01:18.078]on the track at UNL when his mom was coaching.
[00:01:22.231]But then what he's done since,
[00:01:25.339]his own resume here at Nebraska stands on its own
[00:01:29.518]as one of the all-time greats, as one of our players.
[00:01:33.738]Then he's gone on and played at the pro level,
[00:01:37.572]both sides of the ball, so to speak.
[00:01:39.908]He's coached on both sides of the ball.
[00:01:41.909]The experience he's had under the coaches
[00:01:43.680]that he's worked with and been mentored by.
[00:01:47.220]And then to go to, in his first head coaching role
[00:01:50.604]that he had at UCF these last few years
[00:01:54.294]and see the turnaround that he enabled
[00:01:57.188]with his leadership and with his team there,
[00:02:00.287]it's a really special story.
[00:02:02.396]And for us to be able to be part of that now
[00:02:06.151]and to see him coming to Lincoln,
[00:02:09.010]and the reception that he's receiving from Husker nation.
[00:02:13.539]I'll never forget, I said this, I think, to you on Sunday,
[00:02:17.292]walking out of the athletic director's office on Sunday
[00:02:21.731]and then walking down to the weight room,
[00:02:24.554]and walking across that mat
[00:02:26.690]and seeing on the other side of that mat this,
[00:02:30.479]I don't how many it was, but it was a bunch
[00:02:32.904]of these former letter winners there
[00:02:36.011]to lift him up into this position.
[00:02:38.689]You could almost see him lift off the ground.
[00:02:41.471]I mean it literally was, that's the way I would describe it.
[00:02:44.944]And it's a special moment.
[00:02:46.066]I've heard other people describe it,
[00:02:47.722]they won't forget it for probably the rest of their lives.
[00:02:51.173]So we are very, very pleased.
[00:02:53.107]I can't give enough kudos to Bill Moos
[00:02:55.544]as our new athletic director.
[00:02:57.623]To come in and analyze this situation
[00:02:59.732]in the way that he did and handle it so gracefully,
[00:03:03.910]both in the change of the previous staff,
[00:03:07.234]over now to the incoming of the new staff
[00:03:10.890]that we're welcoming to Nebraska.
[00:03:14.520]It's just gonna be a special time ahead of us,
[00:03:17.750]to have a unity of purpose,
[00:03:19.732]as Scott said over and over again,
[00:03:22.373]I think, in his comments over the weekend.
[00:03:26.185]It's just an exciting time to be a Husker.
[00:03:28.319]No doubt.
[00:03:29.152]And I go back to your press conference in September
[00:03:31.175]when you decided to make a change
[00:03:32.497]at the head of athletics about wanting
[00:03:33.971]to be more competitive as an athletic department.
[00:03:37.103]And Bill Moos, since he has arrived in town,
[00:03:39.367]has pointed at Husker volleyball as the benchmark.
[00:03:42.015]That's what we want our programs to get to,
[00:03:43.769]and I know you're really proud of that volleyball team.
[00:03:45.348]Yeah, absolutely.
[00:03:46.181]And before we leave the Scott deal,
[00:03:47.776]I wanted to say one more thing about Coach Frost.
[00:03:51.834]You know, I was kidding a few weeks ago with him
[00:03:54.239]at several events around the state about having
[00:03:56.924]the privilege of sat in the Orange Bowl in 1998
[00:04:00.574]and having watched him play that game against Peyton Manning
[00:04:04.118]and end up being the quarterback of the co-champion
[00:04:08.861]National Champion team that year,
[00:04:10.940]and kidded about his cousin being
[00:04:12.857]my wife's freshman roommate in college.
[00:04:15.142]You know, that's so Nebraska,
[00:04:16.117]you can't make those Nebraska stories up.
[00:04:17.709]That's a Nebraska story.
[00:04:20.352]But when I sat down with him
[00:04:22.558]and looked in his eyes and saw the aggressiveness he has,
[00:04:26.347]the competitiveness he has,
[00:04:28.172]the intellect he has for the game,
[00:04:30.061]I mean, you just can't miss it.
[00:04:31.046]So I just can't gush enough about that.
[00:04:33.500]But absolutely about competitiveness
[00:04:36.176]in John Cook, a treasure, another Nebraska treasure.
[00:04:40.644]I mentioned not too long ago
[00:04:42.140]that I was finished reading his book
[00:04:44.502]that he put out earlier this year.
[00:04:47.643]It's quite a story.
[00:04:48.591]I would recommend everybody to get that book and read it.
[00:04:51.489]He talks a lot about what makes him as a coach,
[00:04:54.471]what makes his team, his teams,
[00:04:57.297]what a developer of young people he is
[00:04:59.736]and what educational talent he is.
[00:05:01.979]So proud of the fact that he's Big Ten
[00:05:03.508]Coach of the Year again this year.
[00:05:06.780]We've got so much success on the court.
[00:05:09.865]We're excited about the upcoming weekend
[00:05:13.072]and wishing our ladies the very best in Kentucky,
[00:05:16.757]as they take on this next round of the Sweet 16,
[00:05:19.810]but Big Ten Center of the Year,
[00:05:22.290]Papillion native, Kelly Hunter.
[00:05:23.915]Very proud of Kelly's accomplishments.
[00:05:26.181]Another all-Big Ten selections in Annika Albrecht,
[00:05:30.178]and Mikaela Foecke, and I always have to give
[00:05:32.879]a shout out to my buddy, Mikaela,
[00:05:34.276]who's an animal scientist. She sure is.
[00:05:36.309]Go with that animal science background and my history.
[00:05:39.704]So it's just remarkable what they achieve,
[00:05:42.264]year in and year out.
[00:05:44.240]You go into Devaney and you look at those banners
[00:05:47.388]up across the ceiling, and you just realize
[00:05:50.471]what a special program we have,
[00:05:53.474]built on what Terry built here before
[00:05:56.221]and the success that John just continues to have
[00:05:59.861]with our women's volleyball players.
[00:06:02.078]Let's jump out of the sports world for a minute.
[00:06:04.084]The university recently received yet another
[00:06:05.991]high ranking for its commitment to serving students.
[00:06:09.064]What can you tell our audience about that?
[00:06:11.597]We've been very pleased the last few years.
[00:06:15.099]Development of new programs around success
[00:06:17.430]for veterans, students who come to us
[00:06:20.161]with military service in their background and are veterans.
[00:06:24.134]And for the second time now,
[00:06:26.494]we're ranked among the nation's top-leading
[00:06:29.024]30 institutions of higher education
[00:06:31.858]in our way we support the success
[00:06:35.424]of students who are veterans.
[00:06:38.024]So we're very pleased about that.
[00:06:39.760]That's the Military Times best college rankings,
[00:06:42.893]that we're in that top 30 with.
[00:06:44.278]And I'd give a shout out to our friends at UNO,
[00:06:47.330]who are also, actually a little above us
[00:06:50.816]in that top 30 ranking.
[00:06:52.337]Very proud to have two Nebraska institutions
[00:06:54.616]in the university at that level of recognition.
[00:06:58.924]It's a reflection of the university's dedication
[00:07:01.389]to providing opportunities for our student veterans
[00:07:04.383]to be successful in their degree programs.
[00:07:07.216]It's also a really strong reflection
[00:07:09.836]of the work of Darrell Everhart, himself a veteran,
[00:07:13.189]who's the director of Military and Veteran Success Center
[00:07:16.032]that we have and the City Campus Union,
[00:07:17.974]very heavily used by our student veteran,
[00:07:20.998]you know, veterans who are students here at the university.
[00:07:24.835]So it's just impressive.
[00:07:25.839]We're very proud of that accomplishment.
[00:07:27.399]Very proud that we have about 800 students here,
[00:07:30.148]studying with us who have military service
[00:07:32.799]in their background and service to our country.
[00:07:34.873]Yeah, that's fantastic.
[00:07:35.758]Now well, this semester has not only seen
[00:07:37.949]you hire a new athletic director and football coach,
[00:07:40.286]but you've made a hire now in your College of Business.
[00:07:43.161]What can you tell us?
[00:07:44.211]We're very excited to announce earlier this week,
[00:07:46.392]the appointment of Dr. Kathy Farrell
[00:07:49.393]as the permanent dean now of our College of Business.
[00:07:53.005]Donde Plowman doesn't let me forget very often
[00:07:55.610]that I plucked her up out the College of Business
[00:07:57.818]just as they were getting ready
[00:07:58.876]to move into their new facility this year
[00:08:02.194]that we've been in since August,
[00:08:04.007]in Hawks Hall now and that new home of College of Business.
[00:08:07.815]Kathy began serving as the interim dean of the college
[00:08:11.002]when Donde became the executive vice-chancellor,
[00:08:13.529]January of this past year.
[00:08:15.878]So she's done a great job as the interim
[00:08:17.947]and was one of our finalists through a search
[00:08:21.227]identified for the permanent dean's position,
[00:08:23.759]and Donde selected her to become that permanent dean here
[00:08:28.354]and announced it earlier this week.
[00:08:30.091]She's been a former associate dean in the college,
[00:08:32.975]started in that capacity in 2010.
[00:08:35.667]Has been a member of the faculty here since 1993.
[00:08:39.458]So a longtime veteran, if you will, of our college.
[00:08:42.659]Her area's in finance.
[00:08:44.810]Has recently been the chair
[00:08:46.196]of the Finance Department in the college.
[00:08:48.686]Very highly respected leader in higher ed
[00:08:51.351]and particularly in the Lincoln community,
[00:08:53.017]in the business community.
[00:08:54.139]She serves on two corporate boards in the finance industry.
[00:08:57.928]And has worked in that area all of her career.
[00:09:00.930]So with a new dean like Kathy,
[00:09:04.899]who is going to lead us, continue to lead us
[00:09:07.010]up and forward in the College of Business
[00:09:08.870]in that new facility we have,
[00:09:10.466]and the growth we've had that we've talked about,
[00:09:12.886]I know on this program in the past,
[00:09:15.156]we couldn't be more bullish on the future
[00:09:17.359]of the College of Business under Kathy's leadership.
[00:09:19.875]Been a great week.
[00:09:20.708]Have a great week and let's go get some wins
[00:09:22.957]on the hard court this week.
[00:09:24.666]Absolutely, and good luck to our women's volleyball team
[00:09:26.925]this weekend as well, Go Big Red.
[00:09:28.835]Ronnie Green, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor,
[00:09:30.928]joining us here on Sport Time.

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