numarimba82

I know it is easy to say the game was boring and all that, but what did people expect?? Did anyone really think they were gonna show up to a real Nebraska football game and see all the tricks let out of the bag? Like others have said, this was a scrimmage. A chance for people to see things and enjoy the atmosphere and for the team to be in some real game situations, not to pull out all the stops. Just with previous years, this is a new staff, a new team, other new stuff. Gotta take these things for what they are worth and enjoy it.

I know a lot of people have said "We need to get a handle on the leadership and discipline of the team." Every college coach faces these talks all over the country. You know it has already been addressed about behavior and consequences. At the end of the day people will do what they want to do. It doesn't matter how much you yell at them and talk up the penalties, people will do what they want to do. It is unfortunate that is how life is but coaches can't walk around holding the hands of players 24/7. These players are old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. They are old enough to know about consequences for their actions. It is their choice then if they choose to step out of line. Simple as that.

I'm happy to see something new to stir up the pot a little as they say. It is a shame that people take two sentences out of context and think that Mo Purify is out to shame our state, our football team, our university. What a joke to even accuse him of that. The guy was speaking his opinion on a matter. I think you need to go talk to Mr. Purify himself and ask him what he really meant and his exact intentions. There are plenty of football players, coaches, athletic directors, etc that are not always well spoken, things get messed up in the media, people take things out of context. Does Mo really think that there is nothing else to care about besides winning? I highly doubt that. Just take a look though at all the junk we have all posted on here in the last 5 months and tell me about many times people wanted to win more games. I appreciate the comment someone said about Osborne in his first few years. He went 9-2, 9-3, 10-2, and 9-3 with 3 bowl wins. He even tells the story that after that 4th year walking off the field after a victory in the Bluebonnet Bowl a regent came up to him and said something to the effect of "well tom, good thing you won or else you would have been out of a job tomorrow." Unless you were ignorant to college football as a whole this year you will know that the tables have turned, the playing field is leveling out. Recruiting is no longer a mystery where some colleges have huge advantages over other. Facilities are outdoing the competitors each year. I do not see the days of multiple undefeated teams and 1 loss teams anymore. I'm happy there is finally some competition.

Why would anyone be nervous there is not a signed contract? I believe if you read articles from the Journal Star and other statements from the Athletic department the official contract was being written up still. It takes a while between the respective parties, layers and all the legal stuff to get a final drafted copy. They said there were already initial agreements in principle.

Look at an interview Osborne just did with Husker Sports Network. He specifically said something along the lines of "....coaching salaries seem to be a little much these days. " I don't take anything away from Joe Pa. Obviously he has had a long tenure there. However, it does not suprise me to see him making what he makes. As someone else said, that might just be his base salary. Doesn't include all of the other bonuses, payments, etc he gets. Also, as of lately, I actually wonder what he really does for that football team. All you see him do on Saturdays is pace the sideline and yell at people when they mess up and yell at the refs....that's really all I have seen the man do. He has no headset, no papers, no playsheets, just a jacket and walks back and forth.

I don't think Wagner was implying anything. No need to try and pick apart his comments or make them into something they are not. He was just being honest about how he felt. I know I forget sometimes that Callahan hired all his assistants. As Dennis said, you do it they way they want to. I'm sure they have mutual respect for each other and work together but at the end of the day, the boss has the final word about how things will be run. I can imagine it being frustrating to feel like you are in a cage of sorts and not able to teach things you believe in. I admire Wagner to the extent of being open about that and not trying to sugar coat things.

Keep in mind again.....these non conference games are not scheduled 2 or three years in advance. Sometimes one is thrown in around that time frame but some of these are 5 plus years in advance. Sure, most good teams will not waver back and forth that much. But how will you ever know if certain teams go to the crapper and others rise up to be much much better than they were. There is no way of knowing that.

There was an article with Tim Cassidy commenting on building a non conference schedule. There is a ton of money involved in setting up games. They have to plan them years and year out in advance. I believe the series with USC was set up 8 years ago or so. Who would have known they would be the caliber of team they are now when we scheduled that. Most teams want puddly non conf games because if you win out, then you only have two more wins needed to be bowl eligible. I think that is a horrible mind set to have but it's true. I do think Kansas gained a lot of momentum with their horribly weak schedule. I think you need balance of a good team, and then pair it down from there. I think NU's non conf schedule this year was pretty good. Unfortunately the USC game took a lot out of our team but that's how the ball rolls sometimes.

Thanks for the post Redtildead. Obviously the boards are stuffed full of coaching opinions and such but I appreciate people who are honest. I think there are some great points here. There could be several coaches out there who would be a good fit. There are plenty of good performance achievements. The biggest point on Pelini, like you said, is his experience at big time schools who play in the best conferences, against some of the best opponents. That is irreplaceable experience. As people always say, you learn by doing. Turner Gill is a fantastic coach and individual...no doubt about that. He did great things for Nebraska football as an assistant here and doing great things at Buffalo. Remember that Buffalo was a bottom feeder school. They won something like a total of 4 games over the span of 8 years. They had no program, no players, no organization, nothing. So to come in there and even break .500 is seen as a miracle. When you are starting at the rock bottom with nothing, even some slight improvement is seen as being huge. Not taking away anything from Turner or his team but be cautious when saying just because he has made some things turn around there he can do it here. There is a lot to be said about the conference your school is playing in. Look at Hawaii. They are undefeated and still ranked #15 or somewhere close. There is a reason for that. They play in a crappy conference where the competition is less than stellar. While there are many things that will make a great head coach, someone who knows what it takes to win at the top level is a huge plus.

I am very neutral on coaching choices.....as I don't have all the information or the one doing the hiring haha. However, when you look at Gill or maybe another one or two of the candidates, there is something I have kept in mind. It is one thing to go to a no name school that has always had little to no wins and take a gutter team to a .500 record or even a winning season for that matter. It is another thing to come into Nebraska and think it will be just as easy. When you start with nothing, any progress looks good especially in a low level conference as well. The Big 12 is one of the tougher conferences out there. Many have said this is an intimidating job....it's not very everyone.

I don't think they were going to a pick a guy after one day. Everyone always says "why rush the process" Even if they announce someone by Friday that seems pretty quick to me...less than a week.

Do we really want this guy as our next coach?

I'm sure it sounds fast but remember that Osborne tapped a professional search agency in Atlanta to gather names of possibilities. Go look at the Baker-Parker Associates website (I believe they are two separate companies now) They are a super high profile company dealing with presidents, CEOs, coaches, deans, etc. They have unlimited sources to gather who would be interested, and get all information and sort that all out as to who "fits the bill the best." They are involved in the decision but do all of the grunt work. I believe Steve P chose to do all of this on his own. Osborne also said he had talked to this search firm previously. Who knows how long ago that was but they can work very quickly too. It is far fetched to say Osborne already knew who the coach was going to be before he even went on this trip. Keep in mind during his interview he said that previous experience at NU was a definite plus...not an absolute must, but most likely a plus for the candidate.

Yes Prince has two great wins over Texas....however there are some not so great losses against a bottom feeder Iowa State team, Fresno State, getting blown out by an average Nebraska team and playing against one of the worst defenses in the NCAA. I'm all about giving credit where credit is due, but there are some flat out embarassing losses for Prince as well.

I too want to wish them the best as well. A recent article that just went up on ljs.com pointed that some of Callahan's best atributes were ones that hurt him as well. No one can argue this staff was professional, hard working and commited to their jobs. Obviously they did not get the results done. I would rather have Nebraska in the media for not winning football games than for NCAA violations, players in trouble all the time with the law, coaches spewing on national TV about the referees, press conference blow ups spreading their face and being the laughing stock of america. Again, I am glad things are changing and the tide will turn, but this staff was professional and ran a clean ship. For that, I can be grateful for.

As stated in the press conference, all of the assistants will be paid through January to help with recruting. It will be up to the next head coach to decide if they stay or not. It is not TO's call.

There are many comments in multiple threads saying how BC has "lost this team" and how he "has lost every team every year" "has no respect from them at all" "the players hate him" stuff like that. Not sure how people are drawing those conclusions. I hope people have read the multiple articles with interviews with Keller, Ganz, Purify, Lucky, Zac Taylor, and other players. They have nothing but respect for that guy. Are we basing our opinions just because they have a losing record?

I know most of the attention right now is on the game at hand and probable staff changes as well but wanted to shed light on the offense that most people think is a scam. I will certainly admit I think the WCO is way too complicated (at least BCs version) for an offense to swallow in a reasonable amount of time. We forget these athletes are students as well and have many academic responsibilities beyond the hours and hours of practice, meetings, film study, and everything else that comes with being on a football team. Asking them to file through a gigantic playbook is daunting to say the least. Here are some stats though that I found this morning: Nebraska Team Totals 2005: Avg Points per game: 24.7 Total Offense per game: 320.7 Nebraska Team Totals 2006: Avg Points per game: 30.6 Total Offense per game: 414.7 I think that clearly shows improvement fairly significantly. Zac Taylor improved with his numbers in 2006 as well. I think the WCO, as we know it, warrents someone who understands the system immaculately and can make the proper reads, scramble a bit when needed, make some extra time. This year up until the KU game, Nebraska averaged 425 yards a game of total offense. Between the KU and KSU game we averaged 593. Sure the KSU game was out of the ordinary but so be it. We played against some fairly average defenses on paper. The up to date team stats for ranking in total defense in Div I has these rankings as of today: Texas-45 Missouri-57 KSU-63 Texas A&M-87 Oklahoma St.-99 And then there was Kansas who is sitting on a number 8 national ranking for total defense. So was it a fluke that we put up 484 yards and almost 40 points against a team averaging only giving up 14 pts? Was having a quarterback more experienced with the system the reason? I hope we don't use the excuse with them that "well we certainly got the ball plenty from them since they scored so much." They could still have shut us down far more than they did no matter how many times they kicked off to us. Is it just pure luck that Ganz threw for 405 yards against a passing defense only averaging 214 yards per game and one of the top cornerbacks in the nation? Please understand again, this is not a post about whether or not BC should remain head coach, this is not a post saying the WCO is a gem and the greatest thing on earth. However, for everyone that says it is a sham and doesn't work then why have we had that kind of offensive production? Obviously we failed to score points in some of those contests and having an embarassing defense does not help the cause in any case. I went back and looked at NU's average offensive yards per game starting in 1998 and one of the only years that was fairly higher was in 2001 when we went to the Rose Bowl and that team averaged 459 yards per game. Which is not too much more than what we are doing now. What was the biggest factor there? We had a stellar defense. Certainly not one that ranks 111th right now. I know the flood gates might open again just like with many posts, but remember that I think Callahan is not a fit for this program...I think his offense was way too complicated to work with first year players and to learn in a timely manner.

Take this lightly.....this is not a sarcastic or mean statement, but go read all of the past threads about Callahan on here. It will answer your question over and over and over :-)

I have a feeling that unless someone names Tom Osborne as their source and someone here can find a way to dial up his number and hear from the man himself, everything will continue to be a rumor :-)

I agree very much about the traditions of football here. Many other schools have amazing traditions as well that I am sure they hold very close to their heart. I think we have been spoiled to have a coach like Osborne who was in the seat for 20 plus years, and then passed off to a coach who had been there with him for many years as well. Sure there were some great times under Bob Devany and great players, but most of Husker football has been defined by the Osborne era by and large. It is a shame that times change for the better or for the worse sometimes. I can imagine as a coach coming into a place like NU and having the expectations that "it will be run just like it always has period." That's a tough place to be. There is a lot of responsibility with that. I guess we shall all see what the next coach brings to the table.

Sometimes you all crack me up on here. I think I am guilty just as everyone else. How many thosands of posts on here have people been saying "Callahan sucks....Cosgrove sucks....our defense is bad...." Seems to be that is pretty blatant obvious stuff that everyone here knows but many people state over and over again. I don't think I am any different than anyone else on here. Sorry if my posts are more than just fumbled words thrown together with cute smiley faces on there. I am just posting my views on football matters and such just like everyone else on here. Most everything posted on here are things many people know or realize or have seen with their own eyes. I'm just making conversation. And as for my point about turnovers is that I have not scoured these boards hour after hour to find related posts, but so much of the talk on here has been about the horrid defense, and our piss poor coaches. I was bringing up a topic that I personally have not seen brought up before or talked about much. Again, I will be the first to apologize if I was way too elementary in talking about it. Sorry if I was not meeting the high standard of sophistication that apparently some people expect around here haha.

Not sure why the one poster thought I am trying to take blame off of Callahan and the coaches. That was not the point of this post at all. The point is that turnovers are a HUGE turning point in any football game. I hope that most people on here could agree with that at least in some sense. I fully realize there are many many factors that go along with it as well...many variables. Tipped passes for one, that is just pure chance sometimes on those. Many times those fall to the ground, or the guy had his hand exactly the right place at the right time, or someone happened to be close to make an interception. There are tons of situations that is part of playing any sporting game. At the same time there are plenty of things that can be controlled like holding on to the football. I know the game is full contact and players are moving at very high speeds. There are plenty of people that are taught how to effectively secure a ball though. Learning when to throw a ball away instead of forcing it into coverage. I'm not any expert on sports or football for that matter. Just making observations that are pretty clear and obvious.

Thanks for the nice stats there Junior4949. I think if you look back in previous years, those stats are very consistent across the board....not ever time in every situation, but pretty consistent.

I think we also remember some of the tight ends back in the option football days because they were great blockers or when we did pass, people remembered that. We pass so much more now that people forget about it. I can't honestly run down a list of the receivers we had in the mid and late 90's...I don't remember hardly any of them. Just a change in offense style.