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I heard it... just a quick breaking news piece before going out to arrowhead...

Mizzou - 56 Huskers - 28 Pass - 350 Rush - 125 Career game for Chase Daniels. Callahan sees positives in the way we didn't quit in the 4th quarter. I puke my guts out...

I hate his little "witty" remarks, like constantly referring to Memorial Stadium as 10th&vine, "And the masses are uneasy here at 10th and vine"... "and 85,000 give a collective sigh of relief here at 10th and vine"... Its like, wow, I thought of a witty thing to say.. I'll beat it to death.

What I am really saying is that he is a better coach OC than HC. If the defense is regressing, ultimately it is his fault.

Tom Osborne was the Head coach and Offensive Coordinator. That seemed to work out quite well. GBR!!! Please stop using TO as an example. The era's are completely different. And Cally is never going to come close to being TO. Not saying he or anyone else will ever be the next T.O. Just pointing out it "can' be done. GBR!!! The point of which was never in question..... Thanks though.

I think the crowd should respond to what is happening on the field. If there is nothing to cheer about when the defense is on the field, than don't. Again, we aren't a bunch of sheep and these kids aren't 5th graders. The silent treatment makes no sense.

Callahan has my support, I'll say that. I think he is an asset to an offensive staff. Its hard to transition to being head coach. He had two seasons in Oakland, both with Gruden's entire staff. He didn't exactly keep the train a-rollin', super bowl team to a 4 win team. I hope he learns to make the big decisions his job requires and realizes his own strengths and weaknesses, and buddy loyalty doesn't get in the way.

I didn't say it can't work, I said a person still needs to be a head coach. Calling plays in the West Coast offense can be very taxing. I read Jon Gruden's Book "Do You Love Football" and he states that his biggest weakness is not being as visible as he would like with his defense. The jobs of Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator are actually two jobs, its tough to do both without neglecting one. And just because a guy is a good Offensive coordinator, it doesn't mean he is a good Head Coach. My argument is that Callahan is doing a much better job as an Offensive Coordinator. If you remember Osborne was a huge reason McBride went to the 4-3 alignment. He had his assistants travel and learn from Florida State and Miami in the early 90's. He recognized things needs to change and made them.

I agree with no booing or chanting, silence or emptiness gets the point across just as well. I hate to say it, but the sellout streak shouldn't be considered a universal constant. We are either "knowledgeable fans" or sheep. I truly love husker football. I believe I can be a fan and still voice my displeasure. I don't think it makes me less of a fan to choose not to pay for a ticket to watch a defense that is humiliatingly bad.

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.

I agree.. publicly a coach should take responsibility.. On the practice field, is a different story....

Amen... I will say this... he didn't get fancy against USC. We lined up in our base defense and they ran right at us. Defense is part scheme and part heart, tenacity, emotion, and drive. We had none of the latter on Saturday night. We have no real play makers or leaders on the team. A good DC gets the best out his players as well as trying to get good matchups and mis-matches. Coz does neither. He makes great players irrelevant, as he did with Carriker in your example. I want mean, hungry blackshirts who will take the game on their shoulders if needed. Until we have that, any offensive progress is irrelevant, no matter how good it is. Take the best offense ever assembled in college football, Turner Gill, Irving Fryar, Mike Rozier, Dean Steinkuhler... and pair it with a mediocre defense... we all know what happened.

Lucky always seems to be looking for a place to fall down... not a lot of moves or drive... its usually contact and down

I care more about how many points ball st scores.... and zero would be nice. At this point, its all about the defense

Wll...Lincoln was a tough place for #5 Texas to get a win last year. For all intents and purposes they lost. And I dont think there is a place on the planet that's tough for this USC team to get a win. We'll see how they do against PAC-10 opponents. Those are the only two home losses in 06 and 07. Also, I don't see how you can say our recruiting classes aren't getting better. Maybe we're not rivaling USC for recruits and maybe all those recruiting rankings are worthless, but I'll take the incoming classes we have now over the ones we had 3-4 years ago. I'm frustrated we no longer have "elite status" too, but you can't expect to turn a program around from where this one was in 2002-2004 in a matter of a few years. Competition for recruits is more intense than ever. I know I sound like Bill Callahan, but as long as we stay headed in the right direction, I'm confident that in less than five years we can be back to elite status. I am stating where we are right now. That #5 Texas team didn't even win the south. Texas lost at K-State last year, I sure hope that doesn't mean Manhattan is a tougher place to win than in Lincoln. In fact, since the Big 12 started we are 0-3 against Texas in Lincoln. So we now have all these 4-5 star recruits... where are they? I can't think of 1 position where we have a legit All-American, or even All-Big12 except maybe Purify and Kunalic. How can you say our recruiting classes are getting better if we have maybe 1 All-conference player? We have no playmakers, plain and simple. We have slow linebackers and undersized d-backs. And yes, you can turn around an elite program in a matter of a few years... Florida, Oklahoma, and USC are few good examples. The success at those schools is the combination of the program and the right head coach. I don't think you send Pete Carroll to Iowa State and see a NC contender ever... but Florida State or Tennessee.. maybe.

Um... sorry, but that's getting a little old. I live in St Louis.... Gabbert got pulled in the 3rd quarter a week ago after 2 interceptions. This year he's completed 43% of his passes, totaling 390 yards, 1 TD 3 INT.

Not to mention they give out like 15 blackshirts now.... I agree, giving 1st teamers "by default" a blackshirt should stop. They would mean more if they where earned, and they would play to keep them.

I agree that Ruud and McKeon are not good. It pains me to say that... but its so true. I'm not 100% sure its the talent or the desire and tenacity that is missing. I know this, if those guys didn't have their game faces on while that Stadium was rocking Saturday night, they never will. Ruud has even more of a reason to play his heart out with the lineage and local connection. The only conclusion I can make is that they are just overmatched. Once SC doubled Suh, they put the outcome on the shoulders of our linebackers... and they knew what they where doing.

I think I feel comfortable with where I think we are right now: 1. Our program is no longer in the elite status 2. Memorial Stadium is not a difficult place to win 3. Our players are not better conditioned, stronger, more disciplined, or tougher 4. Our recruiting has not gotten better (recruiting rankings are a joke... see Notre Dame and Blaine Gabbert's stats) 5. We are no longer feared by anyone, anywhere, especially in our conference This isn't a knee-jerk reaction to the loss. The game was simply a validation for what we all feared. Simply put, I'm no longer in a state of denial. If I hear that debate centered around the West Coast offense and Callahan getting "his" players one more time, I going to lose it. We are getting dominated because we have not gotten o-line or defensive play like we expect. If you are going to build a team from the ground-up, you have to start with defense. The recruiting ranking are a joke as well, Mike Brown, Jared Tomich, Grant Wistrom, Ed Stewart, Baron Miles.. where they all Parade All-Americans? Both Carrol and Stoops are defensive guys who brought in fresh Offensive minds. Callahan is an offensive mind that brought in tired defensive guys from the Big Ten. Wisconsin no less... Not to mention Pederson and Callahan showing Bo Pellini to the door. Seriously, if we lost every game 3-0 I would feel 100x better than I do right now, because we would at least have something to build on. I'd put our program at the level of Mizzou/KState... We win when we are heavily favored, we lose at least 1 game a year to a team we should definitely have beaten, and we constantly look for a signature win that never materializes. I live in Missouri, believe me, I recognize the pattern. Speaking of Mizzou, anyone see how they are lining up Macklin to run the end around/reverse type plays. Judging from the last two games, that should work.

To be honest, I really can't stand this type of attitude as a fan. I put tremendous amounts of time and money, as well emotional energy into being fan. I love the huskers and I always will. However, I won't sit there in Memorial Stadium and watch defensive play like that. I left in the third quarter. If Stevo says that "we won't stand for mediocrity".. I'm just walking the walk. All that best fan stuff is crap... most knowledgeable fans... enjoy seeing good football... That was one of the most boring, one-sided games I've seen in awhile... and I feel I was knowledgeable enough to know it was time to go. To lay it on the line, defense is about schemes, but it mostly about heart, tenacity, and the burning desire to win. That is what I take pride in our team for having. Our blackskirts humiliated themselves and us... in front of the entire Nation. Needless to say, I was sick to my stomach. Its a slap in the face to the past blackshirts. Not to mention like 15 guys get blackshirts now... what a joke. I am definitely upset, but I am finally happy to have put the denial behind me. The huskers are no longer what I keep hoping they are: 1. We are not an elite program 2. Memorial Stadium is not a difficult place to win 3. Our players are not better conditioned, stronger, more disciplined, or tougher 4. Our recruiting has not gotten better (recruiting rankings are a joke... see Notre Dame) 5. We are no longer feared by anyone, anywhere, especially in our conference

Its tough to comment on the secondary... Nevada ran 1 or 2 receivers at a time while moving the QB out of the packet. Makes it easy for the linebackers and DB's. Lots of speed upfront.. and linebackers... I was great to see. Octavien is good... his health is important. As long as Coz doesn't get too cute with the formations... they should keep us in every game.

He cannot be counted on to: 1. Make the catch. 2. Hold on to the ball after making the catch 3. Make good decisions between the catch and possible fumble Drives me crazy

I also can't wait for him to graduate. He runs decent routes.. and gets alot of balls thrown to him. That's the only reason he has the stats. Putting his name anywhere near Johnny "the jet" makes me cringe. I would not call him a student of the game. A student of the game doesn't call fair catch and then try to run. A student of the game holds on to a ball he just caught with two hands after making a first down, enabling this team to run out the clock against Texas. He hasn't learned if four years how to tuck the ball away. They should do what my high school coach did, make him carry a ball around all day.. to class, everywhere. If anyone sees him, try to knock it out of his hands. He drops it, he runs.

I agree that he is underachieving, but he still regarded as one of our go-to-guys. That's why I think he is overrated. Its tough to blame coaches for dropped balls. Receiving drills, repetition, reminding them to look the ball into their hands... that's about all a coach can do with a receiver dropping balls. Its up to the receiver to make the catch. Plus, this isn't high-school ball... I think practice time is better suited towards learning routes, recognizing coverages, timing, etc.. I'm sure every receiver catches at least 50 balls a day in practice, without specific catching drills. With Nunn, I'm more worried about what he does after he catches the ball.. like, um.. Fumble!!

Does anyone else think Terrence Nunn is overrated. I know he has the stats, but he's played since he was a freshman. That's the first receiver to have 4 years in the Callahan era, of course he'll some receiving records. First off, he doesn't have great hands. That was a huge drop against Nevada. Nice pass, splitting receivers, should have been 6. Second, he doesn't know how to run and carry a football. Besides his big time, game changing fumbles (Missouri, Texas, etc.) it looks he is going to fumble every time he as the ball. Somebody show him how to tuck the ball or carry it with two hands. Something, anything. Third, he doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable about the game of football. Constant mental mistakes and bad decisions. The call fair catch and run anyway penalty was perfect example, just plain stupid. He had 4 or 5 bad decisions in Nevada game, it just never fails to amaze me. A positive would be his routes. He runs nice routes. He's 6' -185 so he's big body-ish, but still not dominating. So if he can run a nice route, he can get open. Again, however, his pushoff on the 2-yard line, which resulted in a pass interference, was a bad route and just plain stupid. I just feel much more comfortable with Swift, Peterson, Purify... (I won't even mention Hardy.)