Is It Fair to Pull the Plug on Bill Callahan?

With Nebraska's losing streak now at four games (and counting), the writing appears to be on the wall for Bill Callahan's career at Nebraska. Two weeks ago, most fans were calling for immediate changes, but Tom Osborne has dismissed that talk, pointing out that you can't replace coaches mid-season in football, as there just aren't many replacements sitting around waiting. (And let's face it, there's usually a reason those replacements are sitting around without a job...) So the uproar for "fire 'em all" has subsided somewhat, though you get the impression that everybody assumes that when Osborne "assesses" the program at the end of the season, Callahan's head coaching career will be over. Jeffie over at DoubleExtraPoint notes a Freudian slip by Osborne in an interview with KETV-Channel 7 last week, where he tells Jon Schuetz that the future of the walk-on program will depend "on the new coaching staff."

But is it fair to pull the plug on Callahan after four years? Let's look at the common arguments for keeping Callahan.

You need five or six years to turn around a program. Osborne himself once said that if the rest of the Big Eight wanted to become competitive in football, they need to give some of these coaches more than four years. Osborne had a point. Dan McCarney took five years to post a winning record at Iowa State, though he never was able to take the Cyclones much further than that. Bill Snyder took five years to get Kansas State to a bowl game. But let's be honest; Kansas State was one of the worst football programs in America when Snyder was hired, and Iowa State wasn't much better when McCarney was hired. Callahan took over a team that finished 10-3 the season before...a record Callahan hasn't been able to match. And let's be honest... NOBODY gets 5 years to change things. The going rate seems to be three years now for national programs, if you judge the actions of Notre Dame and Florida.

The problem this season was defense; Callahan was hired to fix the offense and that's been great. That's revisionist thinking; Callahan was hired because Steve Pederson wanted to recreate Husker football in a new image. We've been told that Nebraska was "gravitating to mediocrity" and that "we would not surrender the Big XII to Oklahoma and Texas". We were told to expect championships and asked for money for the "Championship Drive" for "Championship Facilities" to impress recruits. Four years later, Nebraska sits at 4-5 going into November. Missouri and Kansas are in the top 10 of the BCS standings. As for whether the offense is "great", Nebraska is 36th in the country in total offense and 63rd in scoring offense.

Frank Solich got six years, and got a final chance to update his staff. Bill Callahan deserves the same. Oh no, please, let's not bring Solich up again. Technically, yes, Solich got to remake his staff, but did he really have a chance to keep his job long term? Steve Pederson was going to fire Solich anyway. Let's not go through that charade again. Besides, Bill Callahan has known his staff was dysfunctional from the start. They argued in 2004, and Callahan can look at Kevin Cosgrove's records to know that he's sub-par as a defensive coordinator. Heck, just look at Wisconsin who's defense improved dramatically once Callahan took him off their hands.

This system just takes time and experience to work. Former Husker quarterback Zac Taylor wrote the Lincoln Journal-Star last week to point this out. Problem is, I think that Taylor probably doesn't do his former coach any favors in his defense. He confesses that it took him a full year to comprehend the offense, and says that's also affecting Sam Keller. But guess what, we're going to get another new quarterback in 2008, meaning that it will be at least 2009 before we possibly can have a 2nd year starter at quarterback. And that's assuming that Patrick Witt or Zac Lee starts in 2008... In addition, Callahan's system is proving to be extremely poor in developing players. Callahan devotes most practice time for the starters, meaning there is very little opportunity for the backups to progress in this system except in the spring. That simply doesn't bode well for the next few years.

Changing coaching staffs is simply going to kill recruiting. Is anybody still buying this recruiting service bull$--t anymore? A few weeks, the World-Herald pointed out that recruiting ratings is mostly hype. 1620 the Zone pointed out that in the blowout losses to Missouri and Oklahoma State, the Husker defense had the most Rivals "stars" of any other unit on the field. In one of his first talks to fans after taking over as athletic director, Tom Osborne told fans that recruiting hype has not "been the best for college football." Last week, Bill Callahan bemoaned the effects of the turmoil on recruiting, pointing out how tough it was to get to #7 in the Rivals ratings. A few of the remaining recruitniks bemoan the loss of this "special" class, the likes of which we haven't seen at Nebraska. I guess they've forgotten 2005 and that "top five" class featuring names such as Harrison Beck (currently warming the bench at North Carolina State), Leon Jackson (now at Hawaii), Chris Brooks (finally made his first career catch in mop-up duty against Nevada), and Justin Tomerlin (no longer with the program). The fact remains that in college football, it has less to do with the talent that you bring in than what you do with that talent once it gets there. That's why Nebraska is now near the bottom of the Big XII North.

Bottom line: I really can't come up with any reasons to retain Bill Callahan. My opinion doesn't count though; it's going to be Tom Osborne's decision.

Callahan Takes Credit for Ganz to Jumpstart Job Search

Many Husker fans were rubbed the wrong way by Bill Callahan's comments about Joe Ganz' performance on Saturday:

"He's a product of the system," Callahan said of Ganz. "This is a player that we've developed and you could see his development ooze all over the field on Saturday."

He went on to brag about the offense's performance, taking aim at criticism that his offense is too complex for college:

"Everybody’s very critical of myself about how our offense is too complicated, and it’s too pro-like, and it’s this and it’s that," Callahan said. "But the fact remains, the numbers don’t lie. And the performance of these players doesn’t lie. It’s there. It’s all out there ... Somewhere in there, there’s coaching, there’s development, there’s system. There’s some real positive things that aren’t being brought out."

Callahan pointed out that Nebraska is 12th in the country in passing offense and 18th in total offense. What he failed to point out is that Nebraska's offense is currently only 36th in scoring offense (8th in the Big XII) after the Scoring Extrava-GANZ-a the last two weeks; before Ganz took over, the Huskers were 36th in total offense and 62nd in scoring offense nationally.

Even more upsetting to fans is how Callahan chose to marginalize his starting quarterback, saying he's merely a product of his system, and minimizing the work that Ganz put in. (Heck, the way I read it, he minimized the efforts of Zac Taylor and Sam Keller as well...)

Is all this fair? When read as absolutes, no. Callahan deserves some credit for the numbers Joe Ganz put up the last two weeks. He's the coach, and he prepared Ganz. But is this outburst appropriate when Ganz' took his offense from downright mediocre to merely okay? Not really.

Let's be honest here. Callahan knows he's going to be fired in two weeks. These comments weren't about Joe Ganz and the Huskers; these comments were to send a message that Callahan isn't a bad offensive coordinator. Here's my resume (look at it now after I ran up the score on Kansas State); will you hire me?

It's certainly not an attempt to justify his return as head coach, as he points out the shortcomings of the defense. As head coach, Bill Callahan is responsible for the whole team, not just the offense. That means he also needs to take ownership of numbers like a 5-6 record, a #105 ranking in scoring defense, and a #112 ranking in total defense. You can't merely explain it away as youth or blame in on Kevin Cosgrove. Callahan chose Cosgrove, knowing well his history of mediocrity at Wisconsin. Callahan chose to focus recruiting on offense, thus leaving the defense undermanned. Bill Callahan is still ultimately responsible for the horrible defense the Huskers have played this season.

Husker fans and players shouldn't take offense at Bill Callahan's comments; we're looking at a man who has already working for his next job. Expect more ugliness as we enter the the final days of Bill Callahan's head coaching career. Bill knows it's over, and is now working to resume his career as an assistant coach, probably as an offensive coordinator as his head coaching days will be in his rear view mirror after failing at Oakland and Nebraska.

Bill Callahan Talks

BigRedNetwork tipped me off to Bill Callahan's recent interview with the New York Daily News, his first since joining the New York Jets' coaching staff. (I wonder why he didn't talk to a "real newspaper" like the New York Times?) One quote jumped out at me, and it further confirms why Bill Callahan was doomed to fail as a head coach:

"At Nebraska, I'd always take the offensive linemen through the individual periods, and really tried to keep my skills sharp."

Wasn't Dennis Wagner the offensive line coach under Bill Callahan? Oh yeah, right. Didn't he have something to say about working for Bill Callahan?

"He is the head coach," Wagner said. "If he says this is what you do, this is what you do. If you don't, then you have problems within your group. It isn't always that you want to do it that way, but it's the way you're supposed to do it. That's just part of doing the things you're asked to do by the person who hired you."

Combine that with Matt Hayes revelation that Callahan took over both offensive and defensive playcalling in the Texas game, you have the textbook definition of a micromanager. If you've worked in an office setting, you've likely encountered one and seen how a micromanager sucks away the productivity of any organization.

That doesn't make Bill Callahan a bad football coach, just a bad head football coach. With the Jets, he'll be free to devote his attention towards the offensive line, and in that role, it's likely he'll excel. An anonymous colleague from his days with the Raiders admits that Callahan will do fine as long as he focuses on the offensive line:

"As an offensive line coach, he's as good as there is in the NFL. He's very, very sharp."

Which raises the question...will Bo Pelini fall into the same trap at Nebraska? He's already declared that he would call defenses initially. It's a risk, though there are mitigating factors as he's worked with all of the defensive assistants before. They all know each other and should be on the same page, which is something that didn't appear to be the case under Bill Callahan as that staff was assembled with recruiting in mind.

How Pelini adapts to being a head coach is one of the key factors that will determine how the Huskers will do in 2008.

Where Has this Husker Team Been All Season?

Over and over as today's game unfolded, you heard this question throughout Memorial Stadium. You read it online in various forums. Where did this team come from? Well, the answer is very simple.

It's been here all along.

How can that be, you ask. I watched this team get wiped out on both sides of the ball by USC, Missouri, and Oklahoma State. We watched this team struggle with Ball State and Iowa State. No way was this team there those days, you insist.

But it was there. And if not for two very stubborn men, we would have seen it long before today. Actually, we did see both halves of it the last two weeks, but today it came together.

Up until late in the Texas game, Nebraska's best quarterback had to patiently wait on the sideline for his chance. We watched Nebraska's offense sputter against USC. We watched them trail Ball State. We watched them get blown out three straight weeks against Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M. Even against Texas, the offense wasn't very effective. Sam Keller came to Nebraska with the big arm, the potential NFL draft pick, and the history of picking apart defenses. We all assumed he was going to be the savior to take Nebraska to the Big XII title game and a big bowl game.

Then the season started. We saw Keller stare down receivers. We saw him misfire repeatedly. We saw him turn the ball over. Yet Bill Callahan stuck with Keller until a shoulder injury forced Keller's season to come to an end. And Nebraska's offense suddenly came to life. Joe Ganz came in cold and led them to a late touchdown. Last week, he led them to 39 points in his very first start. And this week, 73 points.

Now we know who the better quarterback is, at least in this offense. Joe Ganz. The 2-star Rivals recruit who was mostly recruited by MAC schools. Sam Keller might have had the game experience and the big time arm. But Joe Ganz brings many more important things to the game: a solid mastery of this offense, vision to know where receivers such as Maurice Purify are, and a little mobility to buy himself some time and possibly make a play when nothing else is available.

The other factor? Simply put, a much more aggressive defense. Maybe not as aggressive as what Nebraska showed against Texas...but much more aggressive than we've seen most of this season. It wasn't a great performance by the Husker defense, giving up 400+ yards and 31 points. But it was an improved performance by a unit that was setting records for futility. We saw two weeks ago how an aggressive scheme allowed Nebraska to control the game for the first three quarters. Today's game should provide more evidence that CozBohl's "Bend and Break" defense is not suitable for college football.

Some people might look at today's 73-31 victory over Kansas State and ask just how Nebraska could fire Bill Callahan after a huge victory like this. They are missing the point. This team has been there all season long.

Bill Callahan and Kevin Cosgrove just didn't realize where it was. 73 points from Nebraska isn't redemption for Bill Callahan, but rather an indictment of him. As taught by Callahan, it takes years to master it. See Joe Dailey (sub-par in 2004), Zac Taylor (sub-par in 2005), Zac Taylor (Big XII offensive player of the year in 2006), Sam Keller, and now Joe Ganz. With only four years of eligibility, quarterbacks do not have the luxury of spending years to master Callahan's system. The fact that the quarterback switch was forced by injury, and not by recognition by Callahan of the offense's problems only magnifies the problem.

It's simply more damning evidence that Bill Callahan isn't the man to lead the Nebraska football program.

Sunday Night Beer: A Weekend To Forget

Both Nebraska basketball and UNO hockey suffered painful losses this weekend.  I missed much of the Husker hoops game last night, but did catch the sad ending.  I don't know what Doc Sadler was thinking at the end of the game, but waiting until 15 seconds left to start fouling was a major blunder.  I see he admits it as well.  It was especially painful when you consider that Iowa State passed the ball back into the backcourt with eight seconds left on the shot clock.  In that situation, your best bet is to play tough defense and get ready to rebound.

UNO hockey outshot Lake Superior State 82-56 this weekend...and got swept.  I think it's time to put the "hot goaltender" excuse to rest.  UNO just seems to turn everybody into a budding Patrick Roy on the stat sheets.  They're putting the puck on net, but they're not quality scoring opportunities yet.  It shows that UNO still isn't where they need to be under Dean Blais; it's great that they are pushing the offense, but until they figure a way to get it past the goaltender, it's all for naught.  But if they do start finding a way to make some of those shots quality opportunities, this group could start scoring in bunches.

A lot has been said about the idea of Nebraska hooking up with Boise State down the line, but it's becoming apparent that the interest is only coming from Lincoln.  The offer was sent to Boise a couple of months ago, and there's been no response from the Broncos.  I guess Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier isn't ready to walk the talk about "playing anybody."  Even with the risk that neither school would be relevent in six years, I think it's a series worth scheduling for both schools and for college football.

The New York Times feature on Bill Callahan has gotten quite a bit of play this weekend both here and in New York.  The question was raised as to whether Callahan would make a good offensive coordinator, and my stock answer is:  not unless the head coach has an offensive mind and keeps Callahan in check, like Jon Gruden did in Oakland.  I still have the painful memories of October 2007, when Nebraska only scored 59 points in 4 games.  (And people around here were ready to run Shawn Watson out of Lincoln this October when Nebraska scored 64 points!)  I was reminded of Callahan's poor playcalling this afternoon as the Jets ran out the clock against the Chargers.  Four plays with solid power running, thanks to Bill Callahan's offensive line.  But what if Bill Callahan were actually calling the plays?  I'm pretty sure there would have been at least one and probably two passes thrown on that possession.  (Remember that 3rd and 4 against Texas in 2006, when Callahan threw the ball, giving Texas the ball in great position to kick the game winning field goal?)  Would it have worked?  Hard to say for sure, but I'm pretty sure that the Jets would be out of the playoffs by now if Callahan were calling the plays for them.  But that being said, the Jets are in position to return to the Super Bowl because Bill Callahan is coaching the Jets offensive line.

Tim Brown Confuses Bill Callahan's Bad Coaching for Sabotage

In an interview this past weekend, former Oakland Raider receiver Tim Brown repeated his allegation that Bill Callahan "sabotaged" the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII ten years ago.  This morning, the comments are all over the news, from NBC's Pro Football Talk to ESPN and Yahoo! Sports.

What did Brown say?

"We get our game plan for victory on Monday, and the game plan says we’re gonna run the ball,” Brown said last Saturday on SiriusXM NFL Radio (via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com). “We averaged 340 (pounds) on the offensive line, they averaged 280 (on the defensive line). We’re all happy with that, everybody is excited. (We) tell Charlie Garner, ‘Look, you’re not gonna get too many carries, but at the end of the day we’re gonna get a victory. Tyrone Wheatley, Zack Crockett, let’s get ready to blow this thing up'."

Most everybody thinks this is all new...but it's not to readers of CornNation.  Brown said the same thing in March 2011 in an interview with Dallas' Sportsradio 1310, The Ticket.

So did Callahan sabotage the Raiders in the Super Bowl?  Rich Gannon says absolutely not; he had too much to gain by intentionally losing the Super Bowl.  Bill Romanowski said much the same thing.

I don't believe Callahan tried to intentionally blow the Super Bowl, much like I don't think Callahan sabotaged Nebraska during his four years in Lincoln.  Callahan didn't try to lose.

Callahan just isn't a good head coach.  He's a great offensive line coach by all accounts; perhaps one of the best around today.  But as a playcaller and a head coach?  Over his head.

Bill Callahan was all over the board as a playcaller.  He would go into ruts and go heavy run or heavy pass, and almost always at the wrong time.  His offenses looked balanced on the final stat sheet, but when you look at series of play calls, he typically be either pounding the rock on every play or abandoning the run.  Usually with bad results in critical situations.  Throw the ball on third and short, late in the game against Texas?  Oy.  Turtling against Southern Cal?  My oh my.  And that 2004 loss to Iowa State?  Yikes.

That's not sabotage. That's just incompetence.

So now Dallas is thinking about handing Callahan the keys to the Cowboys' offense next season?  Good luck with that, Cowboy fans. That's the best news the NFC East has heard in years.

I mean, we know he's done it before.  But it's a job he's done very badly.  Just look at Callahan's record.  It speaks for itself.

The End of an Error: Nebraska Surrenders To The Rest of the Big XII

On Thanksgiving Weekend four years ago, Steve Pederson stood in front of a statewide television audience and announced that he was ending the 42 year Devaney-Osborne-Solich era, claiming that Nebraska would not surrender the Big XII conference. Since that fateful day, Steve Pederson bungled his way through a coaching search filled with names that have since been fired or are in serious danger of being fired (or both!): Al Saunders (out as the KC Chiefs offensive coordinator and now in trouble with the Redskins), Dave Wannstedt (fired from Dolphins, and struggling at Pitt), Houston Nutt (reportedly coaching his final game at Arkansas today), and reportedly Chuck Amato (fired by North Carolina State). Oh yes, and Bill Callahan, fired by the Oakland Raiders.

Today, Nebraska took the field wearing the "Surrender White" uniform (white jersey with white pants) from the 1991 Citrus Bowl and the 2002 7-7 season. And promptly surrendered to one of the worst teams in the Big XII, the Colorado Buffaloes. Colorado only beat one Big XII North team this season: Nebraska.

Today's 65-51 football loss (yes, that's not a basketball score) finalized the second losing season for the Huskers since 1962. In Bill Callahan's four seasons at Nebraska, Nebraska has gone 5-6, 8-4, 9-5, and now 5-7. Today's game featured yet more "WTF" play-calling from Bill Callahan, as Nebraska goes into a cold and snowy Boulder and plays aerial circus with a leaky defense. Just like at Kansas, Nebraska abandoned the running game, and put the game on the shoulders of Joe Ganz. And after Ganz was injured at the end of the first half, that game plan spelled disaster for the Huskers as Ganz was erratic the rest of the game, getting picked off three times down the stretch and misfiring badly at other times. Oh yes, the CozBohl "Bend and Break" defense was successful in holding Colorado (10th worst offense in the Big XII) under 525 yards and 70 points.

Now Husker fans wait for tomorrow's meeting between Bill Callahan and athletic director Tom Osborne, widely assuming that Osborne will be dismissing Callahan. As I said yesterday at CornNation, while the meeting is tomorrow, I don't expect the dismissal to occur until Monday. Osborne won't steal attention away from tomorrow's Nebraska-Creighton basketball game in Omaha and won't make the same mistakes that Pederson made four years ago. When he acts, the players will be informed before the media is called in. (Not that the rumor mill might take hold before then...)

UPDATE: Tom Osborne has scheduled a press conference has been announced for 9:30 am this moring.

Enough has been said about Bill Callahan and Kevin Cosgrove at this point that it shouldn't be necessary to discuss them further. Hopefully we won't hear anything more about threating phone calls or any other stupidness. I don't believe that these coaches intended to have things work out this way, and the families of these coaches are going to be uprooted as they move on to other jobs. There's no need to make this any rougher than it already is.

It didn't work out. Let's all agree on that, leave it at that, and move on.

Bill Callahan's Demons

How does a win feel like a loss? That's the sensation Husker fans are experiencing after today's 20-17 victory over Wake Forest. It's kind of a glass half-full, glass half-empty situation. Problem is, after last week's Nevada game we really thought the glass was overflowing. I know my expectations increased; heck, I put them 7th in my "Power Poll" last week. (Here's a shocker... they won't be there after this week...) With last year's ACC rookie of the year on the sidelines, I expected more out of the Big Red.

Not that they did some good things at times on defense, especially to open the game and for much of the second half. Ndamakong Suh played like a man possessed at times today. But at other times, Wake counteracted our physical play by putting more speed on the field, and on several key plays, Wake Forest's speed killed us.

On offense, it was mostly a muddled mess. The offensive line wasn't creating the push they did the week before. Maurice Purify had a few key drops. But more importantly, Sam Keller is really struggling at quarterback. At first glance, numbers weren't horrible... 24 for 41 passing for 258 yards and a touchdown. But then read on... 2 interceptions plus a 2 fumbled snaps. Even more disturbing was watching Keller staring down receivers all afternoon, though fortunately, Wake didn't capitalize on this.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by this. Joe Dailey struggled as a first year quarterback in this system. Zac Taylor struggled early in his first year starting in this system, and even though he improved towards the end of the season, still had a fairly low pass efficiency rating. But Sam Keller was the NFL prospect, the quarterback with the strong arm. He once torched LSU, right? How can he be struggling too? Here's the scary thought... it may be the system.

Over at Corn Nation, Corn Blight absolves Bill Callahan from blame, pointing out receivers were open. I'll disagree on this point, as it doesn't matter whether the receivers were open or not when the plays aren't successful. The West Coast Offense is most productive when it tries to be balanced, and Callahan seemed to abandon the rushing game at times to put the ball in the hands of a struggling quarterback. That's on Bill Callahan.

Once again, we have yet another entry into Bill Callahan's "Calls of Shame". These are calls that make you jump up and scream "WTF?", and it's starting to become a sad tradition at Nebraska. It started against Pitt in 2004 with the 18 yard field goal attempt from the 6 inch line that resulted in no points. In 2005, there was the screen pass out of the end zone that resulted in an easy safety for Kansas State. And last season, there was the fake punt in the Cotton Bowl that gave Auburn control of the game. The latest entry? Bill Callahan called on his inner Gary Pinkel by deciding to go for it on 4th and 2 with 2 minutes left, running essentially the same play that got blown up on 3rd and 2, just running it to the other side of the field. Guess what... it got blown up as well, giving the Deacons one more shot with great field position. Yes, if the play is successful, the game is over. But the downside of this play was simply not worth taking the risk. Take a delay penalty if necessary, then punt the ball and pin the Deacons deep in their territory.

The officials also had a bad day as well. Wake fans will wonder where the holding or pass interference call was on the last play. Holding was a real possibility, but pass interference wasn't possible since the ball wasn't really catchable. On the other hand, how can someone lose control of the ball then step out of bounds, yet retain possession? And when using the chains to measure for a first down, it's usually considered good form to fully stretch the chain out tight rather than push the stick back towards the ball and calling it good.

So while it's a win, it was an ugly win. Glass half full folks will see 2-0, while glass half empty will see a team that didn't play well and really was lucky to win this week.

I'd rather be lucky than a fan of Iowa State or the Weasels, both of whom are now 0-2...

Mavs Sweep Ohio State; Senior Day; Callahan's Agent Throws a Tantrum

UNO's hockey team got a much needed sweep tonight at Ohio State, winning both games convincingly at 5-2. Jerad Kaufman seems to be settling back into the 2005-06 mode that lead this team to the NCAA tournament, all the while showing a much more physical presence on the ice that seemed to be UNO's Achilles heel in recent years. The 0-4 start in conference looked horrible...but when you consider that those games were against #1 Miami and #2 Michigoon... Now with 6th place Ferris State and last place Alaska coming to Omaha the next two weekends, UNO has a chance to make their move in the standings.

Tommorow is Senior Day for Husker football, and one can only wonder what kind of reaction the team will get. In fact, I wonder just how many people will show up. I've seen lots of tickets for sale with almost no interest. (I had someone back out on a couple extras I had earlier this week, and the only offer I got for them was to pay THEM $50 to go...) Only 150 people bothered to show up to this morning's Big Red Breakfast in Omaha, which makes me think that some fans have already given up on the season. Which is too bad, because no matter what you think about this team and this coaching staff, it's still Nebraska football. These players, especially the seniors, deserve a proper sendoff as they won't be finishing their careers the way they envisioned. What makes Nebraska football special is how we treat former players...and everybody that put on the scarlet and cream deserve our thanks. I'll be there cheering for these players.

Last night, KMTV reported that Bill Callahan told the team that he had been asked to resign, and while he refused to resign, he told the team the staff was unlikely to return next season (video). Today, the Lincoln Journal-Star asked players to confirm the KMTV report and was unable to do so, raising a lot of questions about Travis Justice, who broke the story. What's the truth? Well, I firmly believe that SOMEONE has personally approached Bill Callahan and asked him to resign, likely between the time Steve Pederson was fired and Tom Osborne took over. Has he told the team? Hard to say, but it doesn't sound that way. Is he going to resign? Absolutely not. If he hasn't by now, it's not going to happen. Bill Callahan is going to be the head coach of Nebraska for the next 14 days, and fans need to just accept that fact, no matter how painful it is.

Apparently this is starting to take it's toll on people associated with Bill Callahan and his staff. Today's Omaha World-Herald reports on the abuse that the sons of Kevin Cosgrove and Phil Elmassian are enduring at Lincoln Southwest this fall. Shameful? Yep. Even if kids can be cruel, it's not fair to transpose the problems of parents onto their kids. The families of these players are already facing an uncertain future, likely having to move away from their friends as their fathers restart their careers elsewhere. Absolutely no reason to pile onto the families. Absolutely no reason at all.

On the other hand, Callahan's agent, Gary O'Hagan, went into meltdown mode today with the World-Herald, lashing out at Nebraskans over the continued uproar over Callahan's job performance:

"Listen to how stupid you people are. You people need to start studying soil content or something. Why don't you find out how many pair of socks get washed every day in the locker room?"

If this is what we have to look forward to over the next two weeks, this promises to be a most enjoyable leadup to Thanksgiving. Not.

Trev Puts Callahan on the "Hot Seat"

Trev Alberts, now of Westwood One radio and CSTV, turns to Bill Callahan first when speaking about coaches on the hot seat:

I think Bill Callahan is on the hot seat at Nebraska. They haven't beat anyone of substance. His record in three years is just not good. They've become a bad road team and lost to unranked teams. Callahan needs to produce a big year. He needs to win the Big 12 North. I think a step backward could be the end of his regime.

Naturally folks on both sides of the great Husker divide are focusing on the first sentence (or five sentences), rather than the last couple of sentences or the rest of what Alberts said:

I don't see anyone in imminent danger of being fired if they lose some early games. But if Callahan and Nebraska, playing at home, lose to USC, 50-7, that changes the complexion of the seat.

Quite a bit different context, and one I generally agree with. Remember where opinions were in November 2005 after Callahan's squad was rolled by a mediocre Kansas squad 40-15? 3 weeks later, Callahan turned the corner against Colorado, then Michigoon, then had a much improved season in 2006. Definitely progress over the first 20 games. That progress has silenced much of the criticism.

By that same token, Nebraska still hasn't improved from 2003, which had a Sagarin rating of 82.02 versus 2006's 81.64. We're now in year #4, and it's time for Callahan's squad to take things to the next level. The excuses of the past shouldn't apply anymore; most of the players are his and all should be familiar with his system.

Continue to show progress and the talk of "hot seat" can be dismissed as idle, irrelevant off-season chatter. Progress means being competitive against the likes of Texas and USC, not to mention competing for the Big XII championship. Progress means not blowing a big lead and getting outscored 41-7 down the stretch against a middle-of-the-road conference opponent. Progress probably means winning at least 9 and preferably more games in 2007.

I get a feeling from many of optimism for 2007...that's why talk of a hot seat seems so out of line. But a failure to meet those expectations will put Bill Callahan on the hot seat.

Bo Knows Mizery

As I drove home from Lincoln this morning, I listened to Bo Pelini take the blame for Missouri's demolition of the Huskers. And while that's fine, and there's no shortage of blame to go around, I think Missouri's 52-17 victory makes two things very clear.

• Bill Callahan may have gotten too much of a bum rap for for his game day coaching.
• Bill Callahan might be the worst recruiter of any head coach at Nebraska since Bill Glassford (1949-1955). And that's only because there probably (a) aren't many people still around that can remember what Glassford's players looked like and (b) the game of college football has evolved to the point that any comparison is futile.

Tom Shatel repeated his statement that Frank Solich was a better recruiter than Bill Callahan to the Columbia Tribune this past week. Is anybody going to dispute this statement? Do you see many players on the 2008 Huskers that would start for the 2003 Huskers?

I don't think we'll have many takers on that one. To be sure, there are some decent players in Lincoln, but no difference makers. None. Zippo. Nada.

We saw plenty of difference makers on the field tonight. All wearing white. Chase Daniel is a machine out there. Derrick Washington was lethal tonight. And Jeremy Maclin was, well, Jeremy Maclin.

Want some salt in those wounds, Husker fans? Jeremy Maclin seriously considered attending Nebraska...but Bill Callahan only offered Maclin a grayshirt opportunity at first. Pay your own way to Lincoln at first, and then go on scholarship. Eventually, Callahan offered a full scholarship, but by that time, Maclin had decided to go elsewhere.

It gets even worse. Derrick Washington grew up a Husker fan...but Callahan wasn't interested either.

Think Nebraska could have used those two guys tonight?

And as long as we're thinking... what does the prognosis look for the Huskers for the rest of this season? In August, I had the most optimistic prediction was 11-1. That ain't happening. My most likely prediction was 8-4/9-3. That's looking kind of high now. My pessimistic? 3-9.

Well, I'm not sure that's happening. Kansas State looked horrible this afternoon, as did Colorado tonight. Iowa State nearly upset Kansas. An awful lot of football still to play.

But first, Nebraska has to travel to Lubbock to play Texas Tech. Remember what happened last time in Lubbock, with a new coaching staff?

To be sure, Bo Pelini deserves plenty of criticism. How many penalties did the Huskers take tonight? WTF was Joe Ganz doing in the game at the end? And what about that game plan that Mike Ekeler was so pumped up about?

I don't want to throw Pelini and this staff under the bus yet. It's only their fifth game, and they are merely playing the cards they were given. Earlier this week, Bo Pelini remained silent when the Denver Post's John Henderson asked Pelini about the defensive talent he inherited.

That non-answer says it all, really.

Buh, buh, buh, Billy and the Jets

Former Husker coach Bill Callahan is back in the NFL, taking over as run-game coordinator and assistant head coach of the New York Jets. When the announcement was made earlier today, it looked like Callahan might end up being offensive coordinator, but Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer didn't get the Baltimore Ravens head coaching job.

Good for Bill. Although it seems bizarre for Callahan to be named the "run-game coordinator" given his love-hate relationship with "pounding the rock", it sure seems that the NFL is a better fit for Bill Callahan. Callahan usually said the right things about being the head coach, but I never really got the feeling he really meant it. I really question whether he'll get another shot as a head coach in the NFL or a BCS-level college program with his history with the Raiders and the Huskers, but that doesn't preclude him from a long successful career in the NFL as an assistant.

That might be construed as a cheap shot at Callahan, but it's more of a statement of reality. Callahan is 51 years old, and generally speaking, programs are increasingly looking towards younger blood for head coaches. This year in the NFL, 12 men were interviewed for head coaching jobs, and only two of those coaches had previous experience as a head coach.

But there's no need to feel sorry for Bill Callahan. Not only is he moving on in his professional career, he'll get a lump sum payout of $3.125 million before taxes on Tuesday.

Setting the stage for the 2008 Huskers by revisiting 2007

Before even trying to prognosticate the 2008 Husker football season, there's a fundamental question that needs to be answered first: “What the hell caused Nebraska to go 5-7 in 2007?”

And the corollary: “What is being done to change that in 2008?”

Right now, the answer to the first question is pure speculation. I think that we'll have a better idea as this season evolves what it was, but until the season kicks off, it's simply speculation.

To be sure, there were some talent and experience issues in 2007, starting at quarterback. Sam Keller may have started eight games at Arizona State, but that was in a completely different type of offense. The battle with Joe Ganz, who had only seen sporadic mop-up duty in his first three years in Lincoln was very much real. Bill Callahan's variant of the West Coast Offense depends primarily on an experienced quarterback to lead the team, such as Rich Gannon (2002 Super Bowl season) or Zac Taylor (2006 Big XII North Champions). Don't discount the departure of I-back Brandon Jackson, who was able to run both inside and outside, catch passes, and pick up the blitz. While Marlon Lucky, Roy Helu, and Quentin Castille each had their abilities, none of these backs provided the full package like Jackson did in 2006 or Cory Ross did in 2005.

On defense, no returning starters on the defensive line created issues right up front at the line of scrimmage. It all starts up front on defense, and that inexperience was exploited early and often last season. In the secondary, inexperience with the arrival of junior college transfers Armando Murillo and Larry Asante combined with Zackary Bowman's slow recovery from both ACL and patella tendon injuries raised issues there. The linebacker corps had experience, and were supposed to be the strength of the team, but they were literally caught in the middle trying to fill the gap between the problems up front and back.

In my opinion, those problems were minor in comparison to the much larger problem with Nebraska fooball: the direction of the football program, if you will. Ever since Bill Callahan was fired, the picture of a football program in disarray began to emerge. (I personally call it a clusterfool.) Just this week, Matt Slauson talked about how the team would try to prepare 250 plays for each game, even though they'd actually use a fraction of them. Of course, they never really mastered any of them. We've heard the reports of how the strength and conditioning program emphasized physical bulk at the expense of speed and agility, allowing players to be dominated by smaller, quicker opponents.

Last year's team ended pre-season practices by chanting “National Championship!” Of course, that talk pretty much ended after the USC game as the season began to spin out of control. Much was said about the coaching staff, though Bill Callahan tried to twist it around and divert the blame towards the players. Not surprisingly, as the season went on, the team performed worse and worse. A 4-1 Septebmer led to a winless October, and a November where the Huskers gave up 172 points in three games.

All this took a toll on the mental psyche of the team. Several players suggested that they would not have returned if Bill Callahan had remained with the team. Tom Osborne touched on this last week when he told the Associated Press that his goals for this season have less to do with wins and losses, but rather with "a team that is well-organized, plays with a lot of heart, gives great effort and is well-prepared."

When you review the 2007 games, there's no question that USC and Missouri were clearly better teams and deserved to win those games. But what about the other games? Kansas had a great season, to be sure. But do many people really believe that the Jayhawks were a more talented team than Nebraska? What about Texas A&M? Or Colorado? Or Oklahoma State? Only with Texas could you make an argument (and a very solid argument at that) that the Huskers were out-talented.

Maybe it's just me, but I think Nebraska had better players than those teams. Don't get me wrong, they outpeformed Nebraska in every way and deserved those victories. I just don't believe those opponents were more talented than Nebraska.

Call me a homer, call me delusional, call me insane, (please don't call me Shirley) but I think Bill Callahan turned an 8-4 (or possibly even 9-3) team into a 5-7 team. Some of the results from last season (losing 45-14 to Oklahoma State at home, eighth worst defense in college football) just boggle the mind.

During the day (and occasionally at night), I frequently have to troubleshoot problems with computer systems. Frequently, I've found that when systems fail, frequently it's the result of the failure of some key component of the system. If that key component fails, everything dependent on that component will not perform...and in some cases, it makes the whole system malfunction. When you finally trace the problem back to it's root cause and correct it, the system starts performing as you originally expected.

I believe that last November, Tom Osborne traced the problem with Nebraska football back to it's root cause. Did he correct the problem? We'll find out this fall, but if it turns out that he did, Nebraska football could rebound very quickly.

Husker Football 14, Maverick Hockey 13

Today, I got a rare Husker Football/Maverick Hockey doubleheader, and believe me it was a tale of two programs heading in opposite directions. When UNO hockey nearly outscores the Huskers in football this weekend, that pretty much says it all.

Three weeks ago, I told JJ from CornNation after the Iowa State game that the Huskers had to significantly improve or they'd go 0-for-4 in October. Since then, the Huskers have been blown out three weeks in a row and now have to head to Austin to face the Longhorns. Followed by a road trip to Lawrence to take on the undefeated (yep...that's right...) Kansas Jayhawks. Nebraska still needs to find two more wins after getting blown out in two of the more winnable games down the stretch.

A lot is being made of Shawn Watson taking over the playcalling in the early part of the game...a definite sign that this staff hasn't completely given up on this season. If the coaching staff reviews the results, you'd have to argue that Watson should get the job permanently. Callahan's play calls in the two minute drill featured short throw after short throw to Marlon Lucky which weren't going to get the Huskers anywhere near scoring range. And the goose egg on the scoreboard in the second half with Callahan back in charge speaks volumes. Do I really expect Watson to take over play calling next week? Of course not. Remember, Bill Callahan is doing an excellent job, remember?

Meanwhile, we watched that old obsolete option offense run through the Husker defense like a hot knife through butter. You'd think that after watching A&M struggle to throw the ball last week, you'd see the Huskers try to stack the line and try to stop the Aggie run game and dare them to throw. Of course not. Stephen McGee ran for 167 yards, but could have easily run for well over 200 if he would have turned several runs upfield instead of being satisfied to dart out of bounds after a moderate gain.

Now the rumor mill is alive with talk that Callahan and Cosgrove are close to accepting a buyout to resign. Is it believable? Hard to say. The same rumor mill says that Nebraska is already talking to Bo Pelini at LSU (very unlikely in the middle of the Tigers' season) and would bring Turner Gill back as offensive coordinator (yeah, he'd give up a head coaching job to become a coordinator) Heck, why not suggest that Charlie McBride was going to take over. (Oh wait, we heard that one too...)

Bottom line... such talk is more wishful thinking than anything else. Tom Osborne told us yesterday that there are no easy fixes. Repairing the damage that Steve Pederson and Bill Callahan inflicted to this program is going to take time. The question is...how much more damage can be done? We already see that the players are disenfranchised. But what if Bill Callahan starts pulling the redshirts of guys like Marcus Mendoza or Patrick Witt? Would the minimal playing time and contributions that newcomers seem to make under Callahan be worth the loss of a season of eligibility in the future? Frankly...I see more downside than upside to desperation moves.

Hold your breath Husker fans... 4-8 is looking more and more like the Huskers final destination this season. Who saw this coming? Nobody. Even AJ the Huskerh8er predicted a 6-6. How we now hope that AJ was right?

I did make it back to Omaha in time to catch most of UNO's 5-1 victory over Alabama-Huntsville in the season opening Stampede. Considering the number of players out this weekend due to injuries and other issues, a very impressive debut for a freshmen dominated team. Yes, Manitoba and Alabama-Huntsville is not tough competition, so you can't gauge much from it. But it was a nice start. The next two weeks will tell us a lot about UNO... next weekend is a road trip to #2 Miami, followed by the #6 Weasels of Michigoon.

Right now, I'd rather put my money behind the Mavs than the Huskers the next couple of weeks.

A Ruud Awakening for Some

I'm no fan of the New England Patriots, but you do have to respect a franchise that has won three Super Bowls this century. So when they selected Bo Ruud in the sixth round of the NFL draft yesterday, they proved the critics of the Ruud brothers wrong once again. They were wrong about Barrett, who nearly made the Pro Bowl this season. Now they're wrong about Bo as well. Heck, if it wasn't for Bo's interceptions against Ball State and Iowa State, Nebraska might have gone 3-9 this season. Why the hate for two of Nebraska's native sons, I'll never understand.

Many people want to point to this season's mediocre NFL draft results as some sort of indictment of Bill Callahan's recruiting. That may be...but the jury is going to be out on that for some time. This class of NFL draft picks is tough to assign to any coach, since it contained some fifth-year Frank Solich recruits. Much like the argument as to whether Callahan was able to fully develop players either... we'll see this fall just what kind of improvement these players have made, but for now, it's all speculation.

One thing is clear... there are a lot of four and five star recruits whose eligibility expired that never came close to meeting the buzz that was showered on them when they arrived in Lincoln. Were those expectations overrated, or did Callahan and company fail to develop players? Right now, I'd have to go with "all of the above."

Speaking of Billy C, Matt Hayes of the Sporting News reveals yet another juicy tidbit about the Bill Callahan Clusterfool that provides yet more insight what really happened:

Compared with where the process was last fall in Lincoln, the Huskers have made bigger strides than any team this spring. How bad was the dysfunction? Consider this anecdote:

Former coach Bill Callahan was obsessive about his offense; he made the game plan and called the plays. Sources say before the Texas game -- and at the height of Nebraska's failures -- Callahan let his assistants build the game plan and said he wouldn't call one play.

After the first series, Callahan not only called every offensive play, he called the defensive sets, too. The Huskers gave up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and lost, 28-25.

Hayes also listed Nebraska as one of his top five teams making progress this spring. Yeah, it's spring practice and it's hard to get a good read on it. But maybe it's not insane to hope for a huge improvement this fall, especially if the Clusterfool was as bad as it seems.

Is Michigan A "Must Win" Game for Bo Pelini?

CornNation's Jon Johnston calls this year's Nebraska vs. Michigan game the biggest of Bo Pelini's career.  It reminds me of an past conversation with AJ the Huskerh8r and whether this is a "must win" game.  In 2006, Nebraska was muddling through year three of the Bill Callahan experiment; was beating Missouri a "must"?  I didn't think so at that time...though it was getting pretty close.  (And for what it's worth, Nebraska and Callahan did just that in 2006.)

Is this the case in 2012 with Michigan?  I tend to lean towards the same answer, but the circumstances are different.  2012 Michigan is much better than 2006 Missouri.   2012 Nebraska is much better than 2006 Nebraska as well.  But the circumstances do parallel.  The Big XII North wasn't terribly strong in 2006...just like the Big Ten's West division in 2012.  And you do have a fan base that isn't completely sold on the head coach.

Bill Callahan was able to skate through his first few years by merely showing progress each year from his inept first season.  Bo Pelini's fourth season wasn't an improvement on his third, and if Nebraska loses to the Weasels at home, it's going to be impossible to show improvement from 2009 and 2010.  Nevermind that every one of Pelini's teams has been better than any of Bill Callahan's teams; Husker fans aren't satisfied with the current level of the program.  "Better than Bill Callahan" is not necessarily an achievement.

Win this game, and Nebraska is 6-2.  Bowl eligible, and in the driver's seat for a trip to the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis.  That's a clear sign of progress IMHO.

Lose, and Nebraska is 5-3.  Almost no chance to make it to Indianapolis, and needing to win out just to have a nine-win season.  Nine wins almost seems like the bare minimum for Husker football; heck, nine wins wasn't enough to save Frank Solich's job.

Can Nebraska beat Michigan?  Absolutely, but the maddening mistakes need to be cleaned up first.  Last week, many of them were, but new ones sprung up in special teams.  Nebraska has the best offense in the Big Ten, and the defense has shown signs of being closer to what Nebraska needs.  (Second half against Wisconsin, first quarter against Ohio State, and most of the Northwestern game.)  Meanwhile, Michigan has been blasted by the good teams they've played and overwhelmed the bad ones.

@mattrhinton @solidverbal Michigan's last five gamesteams ranked 123rd, 73rd, 80th, 115th and 88th in total offense. C'mon man!
— CornNation (@CornNation) October 26, 2012

It's not a guaranteed win.  Nothing is for sure with this Nebraska team.  But it's a game they can win.  More importantly, it's a game they really need to win.  Not quite a must win....but really a need to win game.

Tom Osborne Did What Needed to Be Done

Some initial thoughts about Tom Osborne's press conference after dismissing Bill Callahan this morning.

• I believe Osborne struggled with this decision until yesterday. The coaches asked for benchmarks after the Texas A&M game, and he told them that they likely needed to win 7 or 8 games. Six wins might be okay if the losses were close, though the die may have been cast after Kansas hung 76 on the defense for the sixth loss.
• Osborne revealed that he was told after winning the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl in his fourth season that a regent informed him that if he hadn't won, he would have been fired.
• He said that Bill Callahan worked hard and recruited well, but there was "something not right" with the program.
• The meeting between Osborne and Callahan only lasted 10 minutes because Bill Callahan didn't want to continue the meeting.
• All of the assistants remain on contract and will be paid at least through January 2009. They've been asked to help with recruiting while a new head coach is selected. The next head coach may or may not choose to retain any assistants.
• Osborne said that the head coach was in charge of the whole program. He wouldn't tell the head coach who the assistant coaches should be or should not be. With that philosophy, Bill Callahan was ultimately responsible for the horrendous performance of the Nebraska defense.
• Osborne called in a third party a few weeks ago to begin identifying possible candidates for the head coaching job in case he needed to make a change, but said that he stayed completely outside that process. He did not that effort to conflict with or influence his decision. The Lincoln Journal-Star reports that Bo Pelini has been contacted by this firm.
• No guarantees as to how long this process will go, but Osborne expects to act quickly. I believe that this search process will likely be completed next week. (After the SEC Championship game to be precise.)

My first take is that this coaching change will be far less contentious than the last one, and I think Husker fans will end up being far more united when this completes than after the last one.

World-Herald takes a look at the state of the Huskers

Today's Omaha World-Herald dedicates most of the front page of today's football section to disecting the enigma that is the Nebraska Cornhusker football program. Not there aren't any positives to note, namely the improvement on the defensive line. The emphasis on recruiting is clear here, with Ola Dagunduro, Barry Cryer, and Barry Turner making an immediate impact. And more importantly, this also allows LeKevin Smith and Titus Adams to stay fresher.

But there are some areas where either we haven't improved or regressed, namely at wide receiver, tight end, offensive line, and the secondary. The secondary is to be expected, with the loss of Fabian Washington and Josh Bullocks to the NFL. Zac Bowman has not lived up to the recruitnik hype, in part due to injuries.

The offensive line is in desperate need of playmakers, and unfortunately, it doesn't appear that there are a large number of them coming. Until last week, Lydon Murtha was making more of an impact in the training room than on the field. Andy Christensen is out for the season. Craig Roark and Rodney Picou are redshirting. Dennis Wagner has his work cut out for him here; fortunately for Husker fans, he's a top offensive line coach.

Wide receiver has to be considered a recruiting failure at this point, with only Frantz Hardy making any impact, though Chris Brooks is still recovering from knee surgery. But the West Coast Offense requires big receivers - and Bill Callahan still hasn't recrutied any. Yes, Callahan may have signed Tyrell Spain, Wallace Franklin, and Broderick Hunter, but none of them are enrolled. And only Spain is 6' 3", and even he was under 200 lbs. It's obvious that Callahan's offense misses Matt Herian, so one has to wonder why with this being Herian's senior year and his injury, where were the replacements? If a player like Herian is a requirement for Callahan's offense, then this has to be viewed as a recruiting failure on Callahan's part.

The hypesters were counting on Harrison Beck and Marlon Lucky to be on the field and contributing this season. However, the hypesters fail to account for the complexity of the Callahan offense, and the core issue as to whether or not it is too complex to run in college. That becomes a catch-22 for Callahan and his recruiters: recruits want to come to a program where they are going to have an opportunity to contribute, but the complexity may start to scare people away.

Finally, Missouri alum Tom Shatel once again sounds the warning siren of starting a coaching revolving door. Fans are obviously split; the fans who supported the former coaching staff are now howling as Nebraska gravitates below mediocrity and approaches futility. Some of the fans who called for change now realize that sometimes change makes a situation worse, and are calling for another change. And ironically, fans who howled for a change in South Stadium are now pleading for patience.

My own $0.02: I've steadily grown dissatisfied with Bill Callahan as head coach, and am very unsure that he was the correct man for the job. However, barring any major blunders (NCAA violations or another "f'n Hillbilly" outburst), firing him probably creates more problems than it solves. Give him more time to recruit and get some more of his recruits on the field.

However, without any improvement on the field, his boss probably doesn't get the same pass. Demand for tickets is at a low, and with 6000 new seats scheduled to open next season, the sellout streak is in serious jeopardy. Steve Pederson may have done some nice things (stadium improvement project, pre-game pavillion), but his bungled coaching search and Callahan's struggles have made him the focal point of fans angst. A new athletic director would be the first step towards reuniting the Husker fan base, and will buy Callahan more time to implement his system.

Please Make It Stop!

Not sure if anybody yelled "Dead Coach Walking" towards Bill Callahan as he walked out of Kansas Memorial Stadium, but if they had, they wouldn't have been far off from the truth. Today's 76-39 drubbing certainly makes the inevitable all the more clear. I'm sure it's going to be difficult for the families of these coaches who are going to be uprooted as these coaches try to resurrect their careers elsewhere. But today's game was simply more proof that this coaching staff is overmatched at the coaching level.

Example in point: Joe Ganz making his first start since high school. Callahan hands him the ball and has him throw the ball on every down in the second quarter. Absolutely no running game in the 2nd quarter, save for a few scrambles. First start against a top ten opponent, and Callahan goes one-dimensional and puts it completely on the shoulders of a green quarterback. Ganz did pretty well for his first start, but it's completely shameful that his coach put the onus on him. But we've come to expect that of Bill Callahan.

Kansas and Nebraska are simply polar opposites with respect to football. Nebraska has tradition, facilities, history, and more Rivals stars than you can shake a stick at. But Kansas has superb coaching, great preparation, and dedication. And today, they have scoreboard to prove that all that those Rivals stars are meaningless if you don't have great coaching, preparation, and dedication.

I've rated Kansas in the top 10 of my Power Poll most of the season, and I've been ridiculed by some, saying that Kansas was a fraud. Is 9-0 Kansas a fraud? Absolutely not. But today's game was simply more evidence of the fraud that was committed on Nebraska and it's fans by Steve Pederson and Bill Callahan.

Speaking of frauds, if Nebraska's defense is no longer wearing black practice jerseys, why is Kevin Cosgrove wearing a black shirt on the sideline? All of those reasons for revoking the Blackshirts apply to Cosgrove over and over and over again. Cosgrove wearing black on the sidelines is an insult to past Blackshirts who set the standard for Husker defense. Why is the architect of the worst Husker defense in nearly 50 years allowed to wear black?

Those of you who listened to the broadcast probably noticed that Jim Rose was absent from the booth. Last week, he was suffering from a cold, though he was absent from KFAB yesterday as well. Greg Sharpe, former Kansas State Wildcat announcer, was called in on Thursday to replace Rose; however, nobody is mentioning illness as a reason. Is Rose's support of the "Vichy" Nebraska regime coming back to haunt him? Hard to say. Rose has tried to distance himself from Steve Pederson in recent weeks, but it may not be enough to salvage his career as the Voice of the Huskers, as they'll likely want to remove any aura of the last four years as the Husker football program tries to recover from the damage Pederson and Callahan did to this program. Keep in mind, it may just be a bad cold, in which case every Husker fan needs to wish him a speedy recovery.

Recruitniks Panic as Callahan Recruits Decommit

Oh my! The sounds of despair from Husker recruitniks is becoming deafening as recruit after recruit decommits. "Our Top Ten Recruiting Class is disappearing!" "This new staff has no idea what they are doing!" Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!

Here's it in a nutshell: Chill out.

This is to be expected for the most part, for a number of reasons. First of all, decommitments are nothing new. Remember two years ago when Josh Freeman dumped Bill Callahan for Kansas State? It happens. High school kids change their mind all the time.

But to this extreme? Well, consider what has happened since most of these high school kids committed to Nebraska. Nebraska extended Bill Callahan's contract, he promptly went 5-7, and was fired. Quite a roller coaster for coaches, players, fans ... and recruits. And while players do consider the school, in many cases, the commitment is to the coach more than the school. When they do sign, it's to the school, but until the signature occurs, it's a verbal promise based quite a bit on the coach.

And for the most part, the guys who sold these high schoolers on Nebraska are gone, replaced by complete strangers to these guys. Yeah, the building is the same. The academics are the same. But the football program is completely different now. For the most part, these guys are strangers. It happens. It's the price of change.

Another factor was created by Bill Callahan himself, and now is working against Nebraska. Callahan had a unique (at least unique to me) idea of using big-name recruits to help recruit other big-name recruits. We saw Harrison Beck working to lure others to Nebraska in 2004. Blaine Gabbert did the same this past summer. It was a powerful ally for Husker recruiting, and players decided to "stick together" and sign together.

Suddenly that solidarity between players backfired. They start questioning their commitment to Nebraska, and start looking at their options. And when these players started changing their mind, the solidarity meant that players were jumping together.

So is this a disaster for Nebraska? Are the Huskers screwed? Chill out. It's a good bet that this incoming class will not be as highly ranked as it would have been if Callahan had been retained. But what does that recruiting ranking really mean? What has it meant for Nebraska football in recent years?

The fact is that we'll miss some of these players in future years. Some of them we'll see on the other sideline. But here's another thing to think about... if the new coaching staff would have been in place a year ago, some of these players probably wouldn't have been pursued nearly as much. It's a question of perception and evaluation.

And there's still a month left for this staff to find other players. Players that they think could be better than the guys we lost. Or guys who are a better fit with what this staff plans to do in the future.

Bo Pelini's only been on the job for three weeks, and now things are on hold for a couple more weeks due to the NCAA-mandated holiday dead period. It's a little premature to hit the panic button. Give the man a little time.