10 July, 2017
First-year Nebraska defensive coordinator Bob Diaco obviously held Elliott in high regard.
Elliott had 38 years of college coaching experience with stops at Iowa State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, and Iowa, where he coached while his father was the athletic director of the Hawkeyes. He was thrilled to be back on the field, having spent the previous two seasons as a special assistant to Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly, an off-field position. Iowa football's Twitter page posted a four-minute video tribute to him.
"Just a great mind for the game of football".
Elliott was a defensive back at Iowa from 1972-1975, earning Academic All-America honors as a junior and senior. "I can say that with confidence", said Don Patterson, a former Iowa assistant who worked alongside Elliott.
Nebraska head coach Mike Riley, in a prepared statement, said Sunday he is deeply saddened by Elliott's passing. "In his over 40 year career, he was committed to excellence and integrity, south to bring out the best in everyone, and instilled a sense of hope to all he touched".
Less than three weeks after it was announced he'd be unable to work on the field during the 2017 season, Bob Elliott has died, the university announced Sunday.
"He was a big part of the Hayden Fry staff and certainly would have been in the mix to be the head coach when we hired Kirk Ferentz", Bowlsby said.
Elliott endured several health scares during his career.
"His coaching of football players was everything that is good about college athletics", Bowlsby said.
He never got to coach a game at Nebraska. Elliott worked for Bill Snyder at K-State and Dan McCarney at Iowa State - both were assistants on Fry's 1985 Iowa coaching staff. Bob was a wonderful man with a great family. He coached at Kansas State when the Wildcats hung losses on Frank Solich's Huskers in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In 2006 he joined former Hawkeye quarterback Chuck Long when Long became coach at San Diego State. "He's one of the toughest people I've ever met".
