Osborne is best known as the former head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Osborne was the head coach from the 1973 season until 1997, and led the Huskers to 13 conference championships and three national championships.

His 255-49-3 record gave him the best winning percentage (83.6%) among active NCAA Division 1-A coaches at the time of his retirement and the fifth-best of all time. Osborne was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2000, he recieved the Jim Thorpe Lifetime Achievement Award.

As a college football coach, Tom Osborne was respected by his peers, and that legacy continues to the present time. His second national championship team, in 1995, is widely regarded as the best college football team in history, and especially in the modern era. The team won by an average score of 52-14 in the regular season and beat four top 10 teams (as ranked in the final polls) by an average score of 49-18. The team crushed second-ranked Florida in the Fiesta Bowl 62-24.

After retiring from coaching, Osborne became the Athletic Director at the University of Nebraska. On September 26, 2012, he announced that he would retire as Athletic Director effective January 1, 2013.