ForRealBigRedFan

Callahan had his team well prepared. The offense and the defense look sharp, were executing well early, and were motivated. Two bad play calls cost them the game:

 

1. Third and three, call a short slant into traffic where three Auburn guys were? Intercepted, resulted in a 14 point swing. This also let the air out of the Husker Momentum. Marlon Lucky was averaging 6 yards a carry at that point. Why not just hand it off to him twice to get the first down? I have no idea why Callahan kept calling those short passes into heavy traffic. Auburn could not stop the run, so they had all their cover guys up on the line of scrimmage. Why force the ball into heavy traffic? Horrible play calling. If you are going to pass, go play action and throw the bomb for a quick score.

 

It's an option by Taylor to throw to the player he feels is open. Poor decision by Taylor. I love the call.

 

2. UNBELIEVABLE to call a fake punt on your own 30 yard line early in the game. I have never seen such a moronic coaching decision, pro, college, or otherwise. Punt the ball and play field position.

 

These two play calls cost Nebraska the game. After that, they lost their motivation, confidence, and sharpnes. Just goes to show you how devastating turnovers can be, and how a couple plays can be the difference between winning and losing, especially if you are a good, but not great team and need to play error free football to win games.

 

Sigh

 

 

The play worked. An excellent call, that took huge balls that possible could have went for big yardage with Shanle, great speed, had THE PLAYER caught it.

 

I love gutsy calls. He's a great head coach because he trusts and loves his players. He trusted his players to play the game without worrying about making mistakes. That's a great quality to have as a coach...TRUST!!!!!!!!Unfortunately, PLAYERS aren't perfect and sometime make mistakes. Life goes on.

Yep, it's never the coaches fault.

It was a bonehead call, regardless of whether it worked or not.

Plain stupidity.

Yea, he should have called the play where we win.

I agree, Callahan is perfect. After a dozen or so more average recruiting classes, Big 12 North titles, and losses to every ranked team we play, we can put him in the Cornhusker Hall of Fame right next to Osborne and Devaney.

He is blamed because he is the head coach, it is his repsonsibility, he calls the plays, it led to the 7 points that lost the game, and oh yeah, it was a F-ING STOOOOPID CALL!!!!!!!!!

 

ok then. What would you be saying if the play went off without a hitch?.............................that's what i thought.

That it is still a stupid call and he got lucky it worked. Any play can theoretically work at any time. A good coach knows when to take risks and when to limit them.

I don't agree with the fire Coach Callahan sentiment but today coupled with the Oklahoma game certainly shows a disturbing trend. Both games we had great field position we couldn't capitalize on. How could the team dominate the first half then be totally inept in the second half? Coach Callahan is still learning and I hope it starts to click sooner than later. One more season with his own recruits might make a difference. 2007 will be the crossroads.

 

I agree. Let me ask a serious question though. I know there is much that we do not see watching the games on T.V. However, it appears to me that we run the same plays with little variety, weather they worked or not. It feels like we all know the play book in the second half even though I have heard the book is very extensive. Someone want to weigh in with their observations on this or educate me?

I think there are two issues at play here. First is the execution. Coach Osborne used to get the constant harping of predictability but his players could execute the plays. He often stated that the other team might know what he was going to run but they still had to stop it. He did have quite a bit of success.

 

The second is Coach Callahan not always molding the plays to the players. Earlier in the year Damon Benning made the observation that Coach Callahan often looks at the play and knows that the play should work and gets caught in the Xs and Os more than who the personnel are.

So you are saying its poor and inept ability of our coaches?

When alot of the top recruits commit, this class may not be in the top 10. Everyone thought that the 2005 class was great and up to this point its really not that impressive.

He is blamed because he is the head coach, it is his repsonsibility, he calls the plays, it led to the 7 points that lost the game, and oh yeah, it was a F-ING STOOOOPID CALL!!!!!!!!!

No excuses next year. USC is a must win now at home imo, could Callahan be on the hotseat if he has another one of these 9-5 seasons even though we win the north?

 

wow... that's just... wow.

 

so to make up for this horrible season, coach callahan will have to...

1. win a minimum of 10 games.
   
2. win the north.
   
3. win the big twelve.
   
4. compete in a BCS bowl. (bonus if it's for NC)
   

otherwise, pack your bags, billy... cause YER GONE..! clearly, he's not getting the job done 'cause he's an idiot.

 

after that, we'll just find someone to take over our legendary football program. and keep firing and re-hiring until we get the perect match.

 

i mean, how bad could it get? look how alabama is doing.

Or we could just keep losing 5-6 games a year in a weak division of a down conference and lose to any halfway decent team we play. But at least the recruiting has supposedly improved.

All I have to say is look at his recruiting this year. You think solich can do that?

 

And we needed to use purify more often. We shot ourselves in the foot.

Most of those guys that played so great on the defense today were Solich's guys.

Coach Callahan will learn a lot from this experience, and next year when we have receivers who are just a bit stronger, and a kicker who can nail a kick of over 40 yards, we will not complain about so many playcalling choices as we did this year.

This is a trend of his over his 5 years as a head coach. He's to stubborn. Do you honestly think he will ever learn and change?

Unless I'm not remembering right, this has been only his 5th year as head coach, and only his 3rd as head coach at a major college program. That is new to being head coach.

Maybe he is in over his head, needs to quit, and should go back to being an offensive line coach, is that what you are saying?

Well, I knew all of the trolls would be coming out if we lost this game. For all who think BC should be fired....who do suggest we get to come in here and change the offense again, build a rapport with the fans, players, and future recruits? That might take another few years, but I am sure that the person you suggest would be so much better....hell, if they lost a bowl game you would be asking to fire them too. Screw it, lets just get a new head coach every year.....A$$ES!!!!!

EXCACTLY!!! Most of the so called Husker fans don't remember the years when Osborne would go to the Orange bowl and get his ass handed to him year after year! It only took the guy almost 20 years to get his first NC! Oh well, I expect that from people who only started watching the Huskers in 1995!!!!!

The big difference is that Osborne never lost 4,5,6 games, got whipped by Kansas, and lost by 60. Osborne won his games but was usually beat by teams that were top 5 teams.

It would take superior athletes on the offensive - you simply can't get by with less than superior talent, because it's at that point that the speed an athleticisim of the defense can disrupt the option.

 

Throughout most of the '70s and '80s, the majority of teams we played simply couldn't compete athletically or physically with our talent - but when we matched up against the teams from the south that had speed to burn we suffered.

The same could be said about any offense, however. Did you see how our faster defenses of the 90's handled the pro-style offenses of the Florida's and Miami's?

when your athletes are not as talented as your opponent, the option allows you to keep the scrore close and is difficult to defend when it's not seen often. But the Service Academies don't stand a chance against obviously superior talent. When the gap isn't that great - noticible but not "Grand Canyon" wide - then the Academies can compete.

This statement sounds like a vote in favor of the option. Wouldn't any major program who's athletes are "not as talented" benefit from the option, as you have mentioned?

The other major problem is getting those superior athletes. So long as Nebraska was winning in a huge way, those athletes would consider Nebraska (with the exception of a few specific positions, naturally, such as wide receiver and pro-style quarterbacks). Once that stopped happening under Solich, those type of players dropped Nebraska from consideration. Why? The NFL. When Nebraska was winning national championships, those kids wanted to be a part of it, recognizing the exposure. Now? Not a chance...

It was much easier when Osborne's system was unique and he would recruit guys to fit his system. He could pull almost anyone he wanted. Compare that to the West Coast or any pro-style offense. We are recruiting players from thousands of miles away to come to Lincoln to play in an offesne that is similar to the one that they see in their back yard. Face it it's tougher to fight the Texas schools, LSU, U of G, Florida schools, California schools, and Ohio St for kids in their back yards. Would they rather take on the culture shock of Lincoln, the small town, crappy weather, no beach, no mountain, sub-standard nightlife, far from family and home ambiance of Lincoln? A certain special few will but most will stay in their comfort zone. We now have a pro style offense yet still have not been able to attract the top-notch kids to play in the offense.

Under Osborne, NU used to be special, now we are ordinary.

many will probably not agree, but Norvell does not impress me that much..IMHO he would not be a huge loss

 

The offense only averaged 429 yards and 32 points a game with his help. Zac Taylor has become one of the best if not the best QB in the Big 12 under his coaching. Other then that he really hasn't done anything that impresses me either.

How has the offense done in his entire 3 years here?

Hello again,

 

This situation is painful to watch. John Blake is a tremendous recruiter, further more, a good human being. I just wanted to take a minute to remind everyone that while this is a huge loss, it's important that we all maintain our positive vibe for Coach Blake. It seems to me with both recruits and coaches that when someone chooses to take a non-Husker path, the haters all come out of the woodwork. He was offered a slightly better job in a different place. He appears to be accepting that position. This is not because of any world dominating vision that he has. John Blake would choose to leave because he is a builder. He built the talent framework for Oklahoma's 2000 team. He has done the same for us with the 2007,2008 Huskers. He will move on and do the same thing anywhere else, because that is what he does.

Principals, Ministers, and CEO's do this as well. They lay the groundwork for success, move on, and do it elsewhere. I am thankful as a fan that John Blake has been a builder for Nebraska Football. I wish him all the success in the world, and am proud of what he has been able to accomplish here in both recruiting and helping young men build character.

Not so fast. Reportedly he is leaving cuz he's upset that Watson was given the title of recruiting coordinator.

He is a great human being and was a great recruiter but finding a better coach shouldn't be difficult.

Good luck to him!

Got it!!!!

 

I love how under "weaknesses" they put our pass defense......remind me again what happened in the Fiesta Bowl??

And punting game, WTF? If you don't ever use your punter, how can that be a weakness? Also, nice touch adding in the LP blast and the mentioning of "only one All-American" instead of telling about how we kicked everyones asses that year. ESPN sucks and always will hate Nebraska.

ESPN=POS

There was also a BJax fumble in the 1st qtr that was not called. When we were throwing out of our own endzone, there was holding on that play that wasn't called, it would have been a safety. Shanle got burned, grabbed the arms of an OU wr and got away with it.

Bad calls go both ways, and Patrick did get out of the endzone.

Also, when was the last time(if at all) that NU has faced 4 top 10 teams in the same season? It'd be nice to get one out of four.

95 maybe?

Some valid points are made by all. I think one thing we all can agree on is that we ar not back where we would like to be. Only time will tell how this will shake down. Here's hoping for the best!

It seems to me like Callahan was more annoyed/pissed then anything. He did take responsibility for some bad play calls but it didn't sound real sincere for some reason. He also said something along the lines of hearing the criticism of Coz, made a couple of antimated references to walkons, and called out the officials for not calling holding. It was pretty interesting comentary on his part, maybe the pressure is getting to him?

He said that the first fumble by Purify was his fault. I don't agree, Mo was trying to make a play, and the ball got stripped like Nunn's fumble agianst Texas. It was just a good play by the D. If Callahan made any mistakes IMO it was the reverse on the kickoff, and calling so many pass plays when the running game seemed to work well. I think that the D gameplan was pretty solid. Watching the replays, the tackling was rather good too, the only problem was the coverage. Even that wasn't terrible, but OU had guys make plays. Our special teams won the field position game all night. All in all, the team didn't seem to be overwhelmed, and the gameplans weren't terrible except for lack of balance on offense.

Where I see that OU won the game was turnovers, they had better "playmakers," they seemed to have a little more speed then us, but they seemed to be much more physical. Almost all of the big hits were made by OU. You got to hand it to Zac. I don't know how that guy walked off the flield as much as OU blew him up.

We are in for another tough one in a month, so let's buckle up those chinstraps!

It seemed to me like the crowd was VERY loud at times, both our fans and there fans.

He is now a "soft commit". NU and Louisville are now even. Says he not happy about all of the running backs nebraska has recruited. Can you blame the guy? Jax - 1 year left, Wilson - 1 year left, Lucky - 2 years left, Glenn - 2 years left....plus Castille, Mendoza and Helu will be coming in.

Maybe he sees how Glenn is used and wants to be more of a feature back then a specialty back?

Link

 

That was an amazing pick.

I saw the pass and was like "Touchdown!!!" and that guy came out of nowhere for that ball.

To play with this level of competition in his third year is a major improvement. The past staff was never able to do it.

Not to beat a dead horse but in the interest of fairness, the previous staff won on Big 12 championship, acutally beat Stoops, and had what many considered the best team in the nation (99).

What saddens me is that we will likely never have another year like this one. The 2 teams from last years NC game lost tons of great players and were shells of there previous teams. OU lost its starting QB and the Heisman front runner RB and still defeated NU soundly. OU and UT will be great for years to come. CU hired a great coach who is putting together a very solid recruiting class they will be back. KSU hired a very good coach who is a nut, but put togther a truly outstanding season. Even though he is 1-2 againt Callahan, Mangino has outcoached NU in every one of those games. ISU just hired a guy who by all accounts, is an outstanding coach who will likely surpass what McCarney did. Gundy is great at OSU, everyone knows what Leach can do. Franchioni is a good coach who is brining A&M back, even Baylor is improving.

Wake looks to be better next year, and if USC has every one return, NU will be hard pressed to win that game. It's not getting any easier.

The thread starter's intentions were to rub it in.

 

I like how he calls our players underrated and then says, "hayyy don't hate dudezz, I've got nuthing but respek for Nebraskers@!!!!"

 

Just like the boisterous :asshat from OU that sat in front of me at the game last night, who threatened to "punch a hole in" me after I called him "Billy Bob" and said that I was just happy "that my family tree had at least branched in the last fifty years." Dude had been talking sh#t to NU fans leaving the game the entire 4th quarter, and then wondered why I called him out.

 

Basically, if the last 8 OU fans I've had interaction with are indicative of the overall class and values of Sooner nation, Oklahomans are fat, ugly, arrogant, childish half-wits that probably beat their wives when OU loses and rejoice when an opposing player gets injured (see previously mentioned :asshat at the game last night).

 

Boomer incest.

 

Also, if he really did say that it sure is a refreshing turn around from his comments after the USC game. How foolish do those comments look now?