Never mind a football coaching search controversy that had every Husker fan -- and many others as well -- weighing in on the end of an era, the beginning of a new.

Never mind a presidential search that some say was conducted illegally, in secret meetings Perlman attended.

Never mind all the criticism, the hostility, for now. Closer to the ground, places the media doesn't look, are successes building Perlman's legacy, he says.

A Guggenheim award-winning faculty member. A Fulbright scholar. More federal research dollars granted this year, a number creeping ever upward.

Besides, he has three quiet summer months for the controversy to die down.

"They always do," he said. "Some more quickly than others."

* * *

Last year, it was budget cuts.

This year, it was football.

And though each issue involved two, some say competing, realms of the university, for Perlman, the outcomes were essentially the same.

Some people are satisfied. Some aren't. And so it goes.

Perlman takes his share of responsibility for the decisions made last fall -- including the firing of Frank Solich and the subsequent 40-day search for NU's next head football coach.

In hindsight, Perlman said he would have tried to keep the process more open, though the high-profile nature of the position would have made it difficult.

The residue of a messy coaching search, for some, still lingers.

"I don't approve of one-person searches," said John Wunder, a history professor and outgoing president of UNL's Academic Senate. "I don't approve of secret deals. That's not what we in Nebraska like to do."

Some members of Husker Nation, including boosters, still cringe with bitterness over the coaching controversy, alienating some from the $40 million donation drive to fund a touted $50 million athletic expansion.

Others remember rumors of multi-million contract deals, midnight flights to the University of Arkansas and later, a teary-eyed Tom Osborne reluctantly keeping his name attached to the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex.

"Those (issues) made us all feel that things are out of control," Wunder said.

Wunder and other faculty members are more attuned to intercollegiate athletics since October, when the Academic Senate joined a national alliance examining athletic reforms.

Wunder said issues pertinent at other universities -- such as rising athletic costs trading off with university funding or issues with drug use among players -- don't apply to UNL, thankfully.

But the coaching search highlighted problems, he said. Wunder's inner football fan wanted changes to NU's program, but he's not quite comfortable with how the change unfolded.

Perlman knew he'd be criticized. As UNL's chancellor, he said the final decisions were funneled through him.

He wasn't expecting the hostility, though, not the intensity of outrage. He figures the process polarized the public into two positions: those willing to see the new program through, and those loyal to Solich.

The latter likely never will be satisfied.

"My guess is they will never believe that we didn't make a mistake," he said, "and I respect them for that."

He doesn't expect the talk to end, even after new Coach Bill Callahan begins his era this fall at NU.

* * *

Talk of the presidential search, on the other hand, is another story.

Perlman seems a little baffled at the media and public attention given to the 18-member presidential search committee, of which Perlman is a part.

Perlman and other committee members met with seven of eight remaining finalists in Kansas City, Mo., two weeks ago. Some say the meetings constituted interviews, which must be made public under Nebraska law. Perlman, along with the chairman of the search committee, argues the meetings were social in intent.

"Beyond the headlines, I don't sense that there's a controversy," he said.

"I feel almost like an observer on this one."

The ambiguity over the law may be moot, now that the committee has publicly announced four finalists for the next NU president position. One of them will replace Dennis Smith, who will step down June 30.

Wunder said the question of the meetings' legality now remains with the media. Several media outlets, including the Lincoln Journal Star and the Omaha World-Herald, requested the names of candidates that committee members met with in person. NU denied the request.

Letting the issue slide, Wunder said, would set a precedent for future searches.

"It's a step in the direction of conducting closed and secret searches," he said.

But, Wunder said, with four of the final eight candidates named, it will be "awfully easy" to forget the university may have subjugated the law.

* * *

UNL isn't perfect, Perlman will say, but it's trying.

The challenge in the coming year, again, is continuing to improve despite an ever-tightening budget.

Next on Perlman's agenda is shaving $2 million from the university after a 0.5 percent cut handed down by the Legislature.

This time around, Perlman doesn't anticipate cutting any programs. Tenured faculty, affected in previous rounds of cuts, should remain unharmed. Instead, part of the funds could come out of the administration's budget, he said.

But budget woes, seemingly mild now, likely will continue. A $310 million-plus state deficit will loom ominously over Nebraska in the coming months.

Said Perlman: "I don't think we're out of the woods yet."

In the meantime, small steps will have to move the university forward.

Perlman said he'll continue improving UNL's measures of academic quality: pushing for more federal grant dollars, improving undergraduate education, building successful academic programs. Graduating more worldly, mature students.

And making sure the public sees it, despite more visible issues.