Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Is Nebraska A Good Job for a Football Coach?

Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald had a nice article yesterday about whether Nebraska's soon-to-be-vacant head coaching job is a desirable and attractive job. And in short...yes. Pretty good facilities. (Steve Pederson's positive legacy.) A rabid fan base, where the stadium has been sold out for 45 years and 85,000 fans still showed up after watching their team lose 86-20 the previous two weeks. Bill Callahan has successfully lowered expectations. And while Tom Osborne will make the hiring decision, we're enough removed from his legendary 60-3 finish that the shadow shouldn't overwhelm the next head coach.

But wait a minute... Bill Callahan is still the head coach, correct? Yes... for now. Barfknecht noted in an interview on KOZN radio (podcast) that when Osborne was introduced as athletic director two weeks ago, the first things he mentioned was restoring the walk-on program and restoring the culture. That can't be a good sign for the man who changed both.

Also today on the radio was a report that CozBohl said that "we were lucky" to get away with blitzing so much against Texas. I'm sure it was a difficult decision for Coz to put aside his patented "bend and break" defense, but what he apparantly is oblivious to is the fact this blitzing scheme gave Nebraska it's best chance to win a game the entire month of October. Granted, he recognized that much-maligned Texas' offensive coordinator Greg Davis' scheme was vulnerable to an attacking style, but the fact that he doesn't realize that the attacking style put life into the Husker defense that hasn't been seen all season.

Those type of comments are just more of an indication that this coaching staff is not long for Nebraska. Everybody knows it. Bill Callahan knows it, as he left his official Addias coaches shirts in the closet for the third straight week. Fans know it, as talk this season doesn't focus on the games at hand, but rather as to who is going to take over once the inevitable firing takes place.

Heck...right now, I think Missouri fans are more excited about this Saturday's Husker/Kansas game than most Husker fans.

1 comment:

American Libertarian said...

Hi Mike,

Do you have access to information about how former players that have left the team early or transferred?

Any information on how Callahan treated them?

Doak Ostergard's book is shining light on how Callahan treats players and staff.

Do you know any sites that list these transgressions?

Thanks!