TrumanBD

Rucker was ours for the taking until the coaching staff seemed to have lost his number and didn't contact him again. Gabbert was ours until the coaching shakeup. If I were a big time recruit, I would keep in the back of my mind what Pinkel did to Smith who accomplished something only one other QB in D1 has ever accomplished. The thing Pinkel has been successful at has been to some degree sealing our borders and picking off recruits from Texas overlooked by the Big 12 south. No doubt closing the borders has been aided by the fall of the Nebraska program under Callahan. It remains to be seen if we can continue to keep recruits in Missouri if Nebraska experiences success under Peilini. Nebraska certainly has a recruiting edge with tradition, game day atmosphere and facilities, although Mizzou has narrowed the gap to those advantages to some degree. I do think however that biggest thing going for us is recent success. More and more high school kids probably won't remember much about Brad Smith and most of them probably don't remember much about Nebraska's last National Championship.

I am not sure if it is even Bo. If its not, then it is kind of funny that someone looks so much like him. If it is, probably taken way out of context. Lord knows I look pretty bad in some pictures that have been taken of me before. http://deadspin.com/343223/nebraskas-new-c...-quite-handsome

Yes Bo does fit. But many coaches may "fit". Are there better coaches out there? Of course there are. There are worse ones also. Back on point-- I definitely think a Head Coach should have absolute say over his choice of staff, even the inexperienced Bo. I'd hate to think that he didn't pick his own staff, after all -- his job depends on the performance of his coaches. Bo will do ok. GO BO!! I would agree. It seems somewhat unlikely that Osborne would interfere like that. It goes against a lot of things he said about how much he apprecited Devaney not looking over his shoulder. It also seems somewhat unlikely that Pelini would have taken the job if he was being handtied like that.

I think the other thing about hiring coaches is that it is similar to recruiting. You have to find the right fit. Most people probably wouldn't deny that if you were rating coaches, Petrino going to Arkansas would look like a better hire on paper, but in reality, Petrino would be a horribly fit at Nebraska. At the same time, Pelini probably wouldn't have been a good hire for a place like Michigan. Peilini seems like a good fit for Nebraska.

After the Oklahoma game you should ask how far behind is the Big 12 to other top ten teams? After all the team that handled Missery 2 times with ease just got run over by a better team. Do you think Sooner fans are hoping/praying Mike Stoops falls on his a$$ next year at Arizona so they can get him back? Venebles D got lit up like a Christmas tree last night. As much as I like Bob Stoops and think he's a great coach, I just don't understand why he has so much trouble in the bowl games. Have they even won a bowl game since the NC game in 2000? They had a month to prepare for the spread. Mizzou runs the spread. I realize Daniels isn't White, but is West Virginia this much better and faster than Mizzou? Slaton was on the sideline for the better part of the game. I was embarrassed even watching that disaster last night and I'm not a huge Sooner fan. some of you guys have to realize that, the sooner team you saw last night was missing 4 defensive starters (including all of their linebackers) and they were playing a team that would have been in the NC if they beat one team. if OU has their starters in, then the game would have likely been within 7 points. and i also believe that they were missing an offensive starter but im not sure. i also think that a healthy mizzou like the one we saw in the cotton bowl would have hung with WVU if not beaten them. what i am trying to say is that we are not as far behind as many of you are thinking (based off of the OU WVU game). Look at our talent level and then tell me we are way behind. You really cant say that without at least thinking in the back of your mind that you are wrong. can you? You do realize that OU, KU, Mizzou, USC, and Georgia would have all been in the NC game if they beat one team. WV made OU's D look slow. Florida State was missing like 35 players for their bowl game against Kentucky who btw beat LSU who is in the NC game. They made the game respectable and took only a 7 point loss despite losing so many players. I was glad to finally come on here and see some good football talk. Tigerboard is in a complete meltdown because KU won. The thing I think I have noticed about recruting this year is all of the stars can be deceiving. I think you have to recruit the right players for your system and player development is also important. Pinkel seems to have finally turned the corner, now we will see how long he can sustain it. I am optimistic about next years as we have 16 of 22 starters returning (unless More or Coffman go pro, which is unlikely). I give Kansas props for their win last night, but I am still not completely sold. It will be interesting to see how they do next year with a tougher schedule. I have no doubt that Nebraska has some great athletes. I wonder how quickly Pelini will be able to get things turned around. Player development may take more than just the off season, but I think it will be easier to right the ship at NU than it was at KU or Mizzou. You have more recent success and overall a more storied tradition. I think the gap in facilities has been narrowed, but Nebraska still has an advantage their with recruits, and certainly the game day atmosphere in Lincoln game in and game out is superior to Columbia or Lawrence. My goal as a Mizzou fan is to see us get to the point where we have 60k-65k in attendance every game, no matter the opponent. The one advantage I see with Mizzou in all of this is that the attention span of these young kids in high school is such that they are more impressed with recent success. I also firmly believe that it has to be a little easier to get athletes to come to USC, Florida, ect than it is to get them to come to Lincoln, Nebraska. Mizzou has a small edge here with two major metropolitan areas in the state to recruit from, but the resuretion of your walk on program should somewhat negate that, and I also think that athletes that come to Nebraska and Mizzou may be more willing to work hard than some of the prima donnas who go to USC or Florida even if the athetes at those schools may have better raw talent. Sorry for the long rant!

And here's to a Happy New Year of renewed Nebraska tradition!

Yeah, I'm afraid Ohio State and Kansas are in for a reality check in their respective bowl games. I hope so, we would never hear the end of it from Kansas if they beat OU. I think that is unlikely because even though our game was close, we dominated Kansas for the better part of three quarters. We were totally dominated by OU, so I would imagine they will thrash KU. As much as I hate Bob Stoops, he can coach. I hope someone from the north can knock them off next year. Preferably Mizzou, but if not us, then you guys.

Yeah, it has been a tough day for me. I had booked a number of hotel rooms for different bowl options for Mizzou. One of them being New Orleans of course. Now I have turned that reservation over to my brother who is an Ohio State fan. I think LSU will totally destroy Ohio State just like Florida did last year.

Congrats on your new coach. I missed the press conference because my wife drug me out Christmas shopping. Anything earth shattering about what Pelini said? I'm looking forward to our game in Lincoln next year. Maybe it will live up to the hype we were expecting for this years game. Looks like Mizzou is about to get screwed by the BCS. It makes me puke to think about Ohio State in the NC game again. I hate Bob Stoops, but I hope OU destroys KU in the Fiesta Bowl.

"The real great football kids want a chance to play in the NFL, and right now, Nebraska is not that kind of program. When NU was great back in the 90's what kind of NFL players did we have, NU didnt have All-Pro QB's or All-American WR(besides Irving Fryar). No we made our living on O-Linemen, and RB's on offense and then we would recruit great D-ends, LB, good cover corners, and ball hawking safeties. Callahan almost did the exact opposite and tried to get great QB's and WR's, which is not going to work cause those kids are going to the Floridas and USCs. I dont want to go back to 30 options a game and pounding the FB and RB, but NU needs to somewhat get back to their roots and go after the great O-Linemen, and RB's find a hidden gem to play QB(there is plenty of those in TX-Chase Daniel, Todd Reesing), not a NFL prototype. Then focus on defensive recruiting." I think that is one of the best points I have heard about Nebraska's sitaution. I couldn't agree more. If you can recruit the linemen, running backs and defensive players, you don't have to have a NFL quarterback to win at the college level. It will always be hard to get the next Joe Montana to come to Nebraska.

I have lived in Nebraska, but have also lived in several other states in different parts of the country. The perception by others outside the Nebraska family is drastically different than what is generally found here on this board. I love the Nebraska football tradition, but I would also tend to agree that the Nebraska job maybe isn't quite as good as most Nebraskans would like to think. There are the obvious "downsides." 1. The challenges of being in a moderate sized down in sparsely populated state 2. Extreme pressure and somewhat unrealistic expectations. (a coach with a 9 win season who had been the conference coach of the year twice was fired.) I think if Nebraska was so appealing of a job to so many coaches out there, then Callahan would probably have never been hired. Look at who the two finalists supposedly are for this job: Pelini and Gill. It doesn't appear that either one is being courted by a lot of other schools. I would agree with ESPN that a big name like Saban, Meyer or others does not look at this job as being apealing, but I also don't think Nebraska is looking for that type of coach. Devaney, Osborne, Solich. For the most part those guys would have had a difficult time transitioning to another school. To me, this is the true beauty of Nebraska football. The job is probably only appealing to a small group of coaches, but hopefully this time a coach will be hired that fits the unique situaition in Lincoln. I think comparing Michigan, Notre Dame and any other traditional powerhouse school to Nebraska is flawed, because Nebraska is such a unique sitation, but that is what makes it so great.

So the "he played for Nebraska in '83" argument didn't work...how about the "he was named MAC Coach of the Year" argument? Gary Pinkel was MAC coach of the year at one point too, but I know a lot of people don't think he is a good coach.

It’s not just about winning the MNC, it’s about competing for it. TO was competing for the MNC early in his career. He should have won it in 1983, but Miami played a heck of a game against us. The main issue people had with Callahan was that his team often was simply not competing. You’ll find that we’re very much a forgiving fan base if our players are giving their all every game, but still getting beat. Oh I certainly didn't mean to insinuate that Callahan shouldn't have been fired. He wasn't competing and he needed to go. I know I am beating dead horse, but I go back to the Solich firing. While he had some down years, I think it is hard to fire a coach with 9 wins, and I totally think a coach needs time to build his program. The great thing about Nebraska football was continuity and tradition. All of that was lost when Solich was fired. That was was the turning point for me on when I became more of a Mizzou fan. As a Mizzou fan, I have been a big fan of Pinkel because of his integrity and loyalty to his players, and I am so glad that he was given the time to develop his program. Now we will see if he is able to maintain a level of success. I for one am torn on whether going back to Nebraska tradition with someone like Turner Gill is the best thing to do or no, but I am sure TO will make a good decision.

Why would anyone want a HC with no experiance? Gill and Bo have 1 year of head coach exp between the 2 of them... and anyone thinking that Gill would be the OC for any coach we hire is an idiot. The head coach picks his assistants not the AD. Everyone should be praying for B.Kelly or J.Grobe Good thing Devaney didn't think like that or we would have never gotten TO How many years did it take TO to win a national championship? Will Nebraska fans be that patient this time? TO is obviously a great coach, but it seems like often times people forget that he was often the target of critics early in his tenure. Expectactions sometime seem to get very unrealistic.

Do you guys think that Osborne will hire the OC? I would think that most head coaches would want to make their own hiring decisions.

Not really a surprise there because he wasn't even mentioned for the NU job. Giving what he did at Arkansas I don't think he would've been good for NU. JMO Yeah, I guess I am a little surprised to see Ole Miss hiring him considering what happened at Arkansas. I always thought Ole Miss had a pretty classy clean program.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3129559 Any thoughts from Husker fans considering he was considered last when you guys hired Callahan?

congrats on the win truman.... you have got to be fired up. daniel was incredible. Thanks for the congrats. I am definately fired up. This is a once in a lifetime kind of thing for Mizzou, although I will hope we can continue to see more success.

Talking about how much he feels for the seniors who have now missed a bowl game for 2 years. Said he thinks either Turner Gill or Bo Pelini would be great coaches. Talking a lot about Gill and his connections to the program.

Hey Huskers, I was glad to hear of your coaching change, and to no one's surprise, Tom handled the situation like a real class act. Good luck finding a new coach. I have been so consumed with our Mizzou victory I haven't kept up with you you guys are looking at. Still looking at Pelini and Gill?

I appreciate what you just said up above and I hope that we are appointed a new coach. But I'll be rooting for Kansas because I think that Kansas will have a better shot at beating OU than Mizzo will and plus Mizzo has already played OU. This is a first for Kansas and it's great to see them do this and they've never done this before where Mizzo has been a good team for the past 3-4 years. I would argue that whoever wins on Saturday will have the best chance to beat OU. We did lead that game going into the 4th quarter and actually statistically outgained them on offense. A few key mistakes cost us the game. I like our chances of a rematch on a nuetral field. I think it is always hard to beat a team twice in one year. Cu is probably my least favorite team in the Big 12 (other than Kansas), so I hope you guys beat them down good.

I think if you guys can get some scores and get an early lead and shut down Hugh Charles you have a good chance of winning. I thought Charles was one of the best running backs we faced all year. Very fast. I also hope you guys hear some news about coaching changes after the game. I hope I can at least count on a few of you to cheer for the Tigers on Saturday night!

Exactly. Hawkins has a reputation for running trick plays simply because he coached at Boise, but he really hasn't run many trick plays at all this year. He ran a fake fumble/pass play earlier in the year (that was awesome, by the way), but other than that he really hasn't run any outright deceptive plays at all. Except for the "If you don't get a first down or get out of bounds with 17 seconds left in the game, have your players stand around like idiots until you burn the clock down to 1 second then try to kick a field goal after time expires and complain that you got screwed when the refs don't allow it" trick he tried to pull last week...that was one we didn't see coming. When we played them, we they did a lot of direct snaps to Hugh Charles.

That's okay, when we played at Colorado last week, the announcer in the stadium called Chase Daniel Chase McDaniel the ENTIRE game. Stupid Buffs! Kick their A$$ next week!

I was at the Mizzou game, so I didn't get to watch you guys, but it sounds like Ganz played awesome!! He is only a Junior right?