“So at times like this,” he said, “you fall back on what you know.”
What Warren knows, after 10 years of active Air Force duty, is that stress over a potential job change isn’t the end of the world.
“I used to put bombs in places,” he said. “Off of airplanes flying into enemy territory.”
It’s true. His service time included stints at Warner Robins AFB in Georgia, working cargo aircraft avionics, and Eglin AFB in Florida, where he did bomb installation on the Air Force side on F-16s and the B-2 stealth bomber, and for the Navy on Hornet fighters.
“My background academically and militarily gives me a lot of perspective on things,” Warren said. “Not that I’m not ultra-competitive and don’t want to give up a yard. But I understand there is a little bit bigger picture out there.”
So Warren, after Bo Pelini was fired and Mike Riley was hired, put together a plan.
“You control what you can control,” Warren said. “At that moment, what I could control was to keep recruiting and focus on my current players for the bowl game.
“And when you have a chance to meet with someone in authority — in this case, Coach Riley — you be genuine and tell them who you are and what you believe in. And you hope it’s a match. If it’s not, you buck up and do something else for your family.”
