HUSKER 37
All-American
I'm almost positive Carriker made those comments after his first or second week with the Rams training camp.....You cannot deny Callahan as a quality offensive mind though . You can go back to look at all his statistics in his time here to see that.
And no, his biggest problem wasn't that he didn't scrimmage in pads. Although it did breed some sissies, his biggest problem was that he was simply too loyal. Callahan actually had a chance to stay our coach for at least one more season if he had a coaching overhaul and he refused because he wanted to be loyal to his friends. In the end, it cost him his job...
Cosgrove wasn't horrible scheme wise. His base scheme worked as long as you had disciplined, hard nosed players willing to stick their nose in to take on blocks so that someone else could make the play. However, he had players like Bo Ruud and Corey McKeon who refused to do this. Couple that with guys like Octavien, Asante, Thenarse, 'Dre Jones, among others who honestly had little grasp of the system and you had a disaster. Instead of adjusting, he stuck by it.
His defense worked when he had animals like Ola, Cryer, Carriker and Moore eating up blocks everywhere, as his scheme enjoys, but once they were gone, he tanked.
Cos was only good while he had players that fit his scheme. As far as teaching them to fit his scheme or having assistants to teach his players to fit his scheme, he was horrid. Same goes for even attempting to adjust.
And not really. Pelini has the same mindset as Callahan did. Pelini has no say so in the offense. Callahan had no say so in his defense. Pelini spends the majority of his time working with the defense. Callahan spent the majority of his time with the offense.
The difference in these two situations is that Watson is an offensive genius and Cosgrove was just a clown.
Could you imagine Cosgrove changing his defense the way Watson has changed this offense? I mean, how many teams do you see that essentially run the WCO out of the gun? That is what Watson has installed here.
Sometimes I wonder if Cosgrove could lead our team through tackling drills, much less run a defense.
John Blake was overrated. He got lucky having talents like Carriker, Moore, Turner, etc., on his line while he was here. He left as they was leaving.
But he basically mailed in his final season here which is why he was gone before the bowl game.
And remember Carriker's comments when Buddy Wyatt came aboard? I'm not going to quote him, but Carriker stated he had learned more in just a few weeks under Wyatt than he had in his entire time at Nebraska.
Blake was a great recruiter, when motivated. Offered little else though.
Callahan as a quality offensive mind ?
Watson is an offensive genius ?
It's amazing how many times that "genius" title is thrown around when it comes to Nebraska Football.
Did Callahan even add anything to Walsh's playbook? I was under the impression he just kept the old WCO playbook and shuffled the pages once or twice.
Watson does seem to show a much better ability to adapt than we got used to with Cally/or Coz, but I doubt we'll see rules changes designed to stop us like we did with those crazy plays Dr. Tom "borrowed" from watching obscure Highschool recruiting tapes. (Fumbleroosky, Bounceroosky..Red Menace)
Taken from a Book I've just about finished reading..Tom was thinking Uwe Von Schamann, the OU Kicker from Germany? wasn't very tough (based on watching some film? or just seeing him warm up)...So he assigned one of our LB's on the Receiving team to just Level him after he keecked off...The rest of the game. he just dove to the ground and curled up in the fetal position after he kicked.
The next season, the NCAA put in a rule to help protect the kickers..I think it was you had to give them 5 yards or something.
With Cally's Offense, and even Watson's a little..We just can't seem to get those "pesky short yardage situation third down when it really counts" yards...At least not consistently
I also think Cally was a little more "loyal" to Coz out of guilt.
He pretty-much stockpiled the talent on the Offensive side of the ball, and only left the Defense as an afterthought..I also suspect Coz didn't really try all that hard after the threats to his family and neither expected to be here for the full term of their contracts.
Yards is Yards, but I still feel there's a little more quality to Rushing Yards..Mainly because it eats clock and wears out your opponent..And keeps your Defense on the sidelines jawing with the crowd.
"Air Coryell" could get you yards..just not that many Championships.