I think it is fair to say that any and all praise and blame should funnel up to the head coach. It has been proven that you don't have to be a good "coach" to be a good head coach. The trend with the current generation of "west coast offense" guys has been to take both head coach and offensive coordinator duties, but they are still the head coach. Look at Mack Brown or Bobby Bowden, those guys don't even put on the headset. They have good assistants and they act as the CEO of the team. I think Callahan is a good offensive coordinator, but is having a tough time as a head coach. His job is to evaluate the performance of his assistants and make decisions accordingly. If he doesn't do that, he is failing the team. The most successful coaches are always the ones that have great assistants, Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh, Pete Carrol, Bob Stoops, Les Miles.... all successful coaches mainly because of their ability to evaluate and hire a great staff. Callahan took the buddy approach, which is always dangerous. Like the saying, "don't ever go into business with family or friends". Its always tougher to fire buddies. If his going to bring anything from his experiences in the NFL it should be the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately mentality. You either perform, or we will find someone who will. He consistently talks about competition in practices and how great it is for the players, he needs to apply that to his coaches as well. They need "win" their positions every week. Steve Pederson shouldn't have a problem with this type of mentality, its a page right out of his master plan.
As far as recruiting, I can't stand talking about a coach as a "great recruiter". That just tells me he his a smooth talking salesman. Just like how Callahan can sit there in the press conference and describe the game like he expected Ball State to put up 610 yds and everything went according to plan. I think a winning and dominant football program is the best recruiting tool there is, that and an honest coaching staff and good university. The saying "I play for Nebraska" should mean something, just like how it used to mean something to be a blackshirt.
As far as recruiting, I can't stand talking about a coach as a "great recruiter". That just tells me he his a smooth talking salesman. Just like how Callahan can sit there in the press conference and describe the game like he expected Ball State to put up 610 yds and everything went according to plan. I think a winning and dominant football program is the best recruiting tool there is, that and an honest coaching staff and good university. The saying "I play for Nebraska" should mean something, just like how it used to mean something to be a blackshirt.