NPhusker

This is debated on every year and no one ever wins, but its still fun to talk about. So i want to know what everyone else thinks. I did some research to decide which i thought was the best and here are some stats to chew on. In non-conference games against other BCS conferences: -Pac 10: 5-3 -Big 10: 5-4 -SEC: 5-5 -Big 12: 5-6 -ACC: 7-8 -Big East: 7-8 But those stats alone dont tell us much about which conference is the most dominate. There is no way the Big 10 is a better conference than the SEC or the Big 12 In the BCS top 10: -Big 12- 3 teams -SEC- 2 teams -Pac 10- 2 teams -ACC- 1 team -Big 10- 1 team -Big East- 1 team In the BCS top 25: -SEC- 4 teams -Big 12- 4 teams -ACC- 4 teams -Big East- 4 teams -Pac 10- 3 teams -Big 10- 3 teams The most popular vote for the toughest conference would be SEC, almost of football analysts say that the SEC plays on a completely different level. Now i am not going to argue that the SEC isnt the best conference, but it is a much closer race than most people give it credit for. Lets take a closer look at these non-conference games. Everyone wants to crown the SEC but the SEC teams have not played that great against non-conference foes. LSU over V-Tech 48-7 is really the only win you can look to and say "now that is impressive". The other 4 wins for SEC over a non-conference foe look like this: -Auburn over K-State 23-13 (pretty weak considering what K-State has down recently) -South Carolina over North Carolina ( North Carolina is pretty bad with only 3 wins on the year) -Georgia over Ok-State (Ok-State is very inconsistent and GU is supposed to the #2 in the SEC) -Kentucky over Louisville ( Louisville is also pretty bad) Now lets look at their losses: -Mizzou over Ole Miss (thats to be expected) -South Florida over Auburn (South Florida isnt nearly as good as everyone thought) -Florida State over Alabama (Florida St isnt that great, but neither is Alabama) -Cal over Tennessee 45-31 (This one sticks out, Cal has dropped and dropped fast, and are sitting 7th in the Pac-10 just below Arizona. Tennessee on the other hand has done great in the SEC and has a chance to play for the SEC title) However you can puts stats on here that make every conference look stronger or weaker. So here are my conference rankings and why: 1. Even after bashing on the SEC i still think they are the best conference in the nation(not by that much) right now. I mean you jsut look a there teams and most of them you would probably not be able to predict a win with much confidence. LSU- no way you want to play that D Georgia- I wouldnt want to plan for that very young but very talented offense with Moreno and Stafford leading them. Florida- Tebow is a DC's Nightmare Auburn- Yet another D i would hate to play Arkansas- 2 of the best backs in college football Mississppi State- Even these bulldogs are playing good this year. 2. This one is very close between the Pac-10 and the Big 12, but i am going to have to go with the Pac 10. If it wasnt for injuries to Oregon and USC both teams would still be in the NC hunt. USC is still probably the most talented team in the nation, but no one stays on top forever, If Oregon still had Dixon they would be on there way to face LSU. Arizona St. is tearing it up the year. (On the flip side Notre Dame's only win this year came against Pac 10 foe UCLA) 3. Big 12- Texas is really down this year and that hurts the Big 12, and Oklahoma got beat against T Tech last week. I know the Big 12 still has 2 teams in the top 5, but i still dont trust Kansas, and Missouri probably isnt good enough on defense to win a NC. 4. ACC- The ACC just falls into the #4 spot because i think the Big 10 is very overrated and the Big East still has some work to do to catch up to the other BCS big boys. The ACC does have 4 teams in the top 25 so they have some depth in this conference. 5. Big 10- This is probably the most overrated conference in the nation (Kevin Cosgroves Big 10 defensive philosophy just reassures me on this), the Big 10 had a 5-4 record in non-conference BCS games, but lets see who they actually beat. 2 of these 5 wins came against Syracuse(Iowa and Illinios both beat Syracuse), Mich. st. beat Pitt, Ohio State beat Washington, and Wisconsin beat Washington St. Those 5 opponets have a combined record of 16-38, so not one win is impressive. Also lets take into consideration that 2 team from the Big 10 have lost to DI-AA schools this year (Appl. St. over Michigan and North Dak. St. over Minnesota), and Iowa St. first win of the year came against Iowa and Duke's only win of the year came against Northwestern. 6. Big East- They need to show me a little more before i move them above the Big 10 and out of last place. (But not a whole lot of work) So.......... SEC good, Pac 10 and Big 12 not far behind, ACC kinda in the middle, Big 10 overrated, and Big East is getting there. What does everyone else think?

Les Miles is probably going to take the Michigan job, and it is probably the easier job right now anyway. The Big Ten is one of the weakest conferences right now, just barely ahead of the ACC and Big East (or Little East). So winning at Michigan in the Big 10 would be much easier than winning at LSU in the SEC. Also eventhough Miles would have more talent to recruit down there in the south than he would up north, LSU has compete with a Urban Meyer at Florida, a Nick Saban at Alabama, Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, Mark Richt at Georgia, and a few other good teams. All these coaches are great recruiters and coaches, so there might not be enough talent to go around. You always hear how in the SEC the team jsut beat eachother up every week, and how much faster they play in the SEC. So for Miles if he wants a challenge he shuold stay at LSU, but if he wants to win go to Michigan.

Come on man thats not funny.

Well if you read the article in the LJS, (LINK) this doesnt sound like complete BS.

Ronnel has got a lot of talent i will give him that and i think he could definetly help the team. However he is a punk, big time, When he was in sophmore he was playing in the state championship bball game against Bell West and the Martin kid from west (went to UNK to play BBall) was shutting Grixby down and he got frustrated. So Gixby just threw a a forearm at Martin and put him on the groundm, this take place when the ball was at the other end of the court so none of the refs saw it, but they West fans freaked out. Central's coach took Grixby out and Grixby jsut walked right by his coach when he was trying to talk to him, and he went to almost the end of the bench and wouldnt talk to anyone. Also if you watched the championship FB game last night, after he got the penalty for flipping into the endzone, as he went back to the bench his coach was yelling at him and he didnt even achnowledge it and just walked right by him. He is a big time head case and unless some how this kid gets put in his place, by a coach or maybe his older brothers, i dont want him on NU's team.

i dont understand why people are just shooting this idea down. People are acting like this is a petition to change our school colors. I would never dream of changing the school colors, but the coaches could use the black jersey's as a motivator every once on a while. I wouldnt want to see them wear balck jersey every other week or even once every year. If the coaches let the kids wear black jersey's once every 2 or 3 years i think they kids would be really fired up for that one game. They could use it as a motivator instead of having to come up with some speech. I am not saying they should do this next year because we need to restore some tradition before we start somethign like this, but in a few years when things get back to normal it would be sweet If you dont think wearing black jersey's would get a team of college kids fired up you are dead wrong. I guarentee you it would pump these 20 year old kids up.

I think if you went and talked to the kids playing on almost every team in America, you will find out that they like their coach. I mean the A&M kids started a standing ovation at one of Dennis Franciony's press conference, and he still got fired. This clinche that kids will run through a wall for their coach is extremely over used. If you are a starter on a team for the most part you like your coaches because they obviously beleive in you and are giving you a chance to prove you can play. So do these kids like Callahan, yes, heck they even like Cosgrove. But this compassion for this coaching staff doesnt even compare to love Osborne's players had for that staff. If we get a good staff in here these players will really find out what it is to play for their coaches.

There are not a whole lot of Callahan supporters. But there are a few people that i have heard say and a few people on here have posted that they think Callahan should be given another year, with a new DC. This post is why i think those poeple are wrong and BC needs to go. edit: this post actually started out as a response to the question by "are you serious" in his post Not a done deal but it got too long and i decided to make it a topic.

OK i will entertain the crazy idea of keeping Callahan and look past all the off the field comments Callahan has made. For example, "I have done an excellent job in every area", "crusty old f-----", "Now thats a good system" and the list goes on, these comments alone should get Callahan fired, but i will look past all those and just focus on the play of his team and his philosophies. If you are ok with having Nebraska play very inconsistent every year and just hope that they can play like they did in the good games for an entire year the next season, then hey what the heck. Just look at the numbers(according the BC numbers dont lie): 2004-ill give BC a pass cause it was his first year 2005- pretty good at the begining of the season and NU is 5-1 and should have beaten Tx Tech, so going into the Missouri game NU is feeling very good cause they should be 6-0, then suddenly the bottom drops out and we go 0-3 the next 3 games topped off by losing to Kansas 15-40(OUCH). We get lucky against K-Sate and win 27-25 and turn it around and beat CU and Michigan to finish the season. 2006- Once again NU starts out great and going into the Texas game Nebraska is 6-1, with that one loss being to USC. Then once again we cant pull out a big win vs. TU and then drop the ball at Ok. St. Callahan does a good job at getting it turned around and wins 3 in a row to close out the regulare season, with a great win at A&M. Then the offense falls of the side of the earth and puts up a total of 21 points against OU and Auburn, granted those were two good D's, but you have to produce in big games. 2007- Nevada game good, Wake Forest game is ok but makes you wonder, then everythink just falls apart starting with USC and not ending until the Kansas game, and K-state game great. So there were 8 games in a row that not a single husker fan can say they felt good about, and then the huskers get so much emotion built up and add senoir day to that and they just explode on a struggling K-state team. My grandmother could have been coaching the huskers on that day and i still say NU beats K-State by 14. So if you are ok with having a Nebraska team that has one or two great games every year and then the rest of the season you are kinda wondering what happened to the team, then ya we need to keep Callahan. But if you want a team that competes every game, plays a consistenly all year, then we need a different coach. and if you want to know what is wrong with Callahan's philosophies, take a look at this article, take out Charlie Weis and insert Bill Callahan, this should tell you almost everything you need to know. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writ...weis/index.html (This article was first posted by Hollywood Husker on the husker football forum, but i wanted to make sure the Callahan supporters saw it)

Can someone email this article to Steve Pederson i think he might want to know where he went wrong.

We dont even have a tight end anymore. Callahan had the wonderful idea to change them to H-backs, now that was a good idea.

I am jsut curious Dave why you think it is so dumb? If you think it looks stupid, fine everyone is entitled to an opinion. Just wondering why it is dumb?

I am not saying this is all false, cause if it is true that would be freaking sweet. Almost all of those guys are people that i have thought about being great fits at NU. However, i could have pretty much put the exact same thig together just be reading message boards. Except for Phil Bennett, i havent heard anything about him. But very very interesting

Keller really is a good guy, and i wish we had him for another year. But then again i am really glad we have Ganz for next year also. Also I think we need to quit bashing Callahan so much. Eventhough Callahan deserves a lot of what he gets for the comments he has made off the field and in press conferences, i think a lot of the players like him and atleast he isnt an a-hole to all the players(exception- Zac Bowman). But having said that i dont think these players actually know what it is to love their coaches. I am sure the players like their coaches a lot and have a lot of respect for them, but TO's players would have taken a bullet for that man. I highly doubt you can say any of these players would risk their lives much less run through wall for these coaches.

Well i guess i didnt really think about a bowl, how bad things are going this year i havent really been planning on one. But now that i think about it, I think TO should announce BC firing the Monday after the CU game(if not before) and then he should either make his head coaching choice before the bowl game and if possible bring that guy in to coach the bowl game. Or if the new coach still has a game to coach(for example Pelini would probably want to coach in the NC game is TO picks him) then TO should explain the Watson that there is going to be a new coach next year and we would love to have him stay on as OC, and then ask Watson to coach the team until the new coach is available.

haha now that is a good idea HAHA now that is a great idea, Army's opponet would have no idea where the army players are cause everyone would just blend in.

First of all TO really is a man of his word (not a word of his man), and knows how many people firing Callahan really would affect(the coaches do have families). So TO is a better man the Pederson and doesnt want to put a family through that situation. Secondly did everyone forget what happened in 2003. Just think if TO were to fire Callahan and let Watson take over as interim, then if Watson shows some improvement and wins a few games(which i think he would have done). At the end of the year we would have half of husker nation saying we need Watson as our coach and everyone else saying we need someone with more experience, more this or that, etc. We would be right back where we started, with no head coach and a divided husker nation. Also i think TO wants to keep Watson on staff as our OC and if he gives him the interim HC, then that automatically makes Watson a candidate, and if TO hires someone else then Watson would either leave(like Monte Kiffin did) or Watson would have a small amount of bad blood against the new coach cause he was chosen over Watson. This bad blood would just intensify if NU went through a bad season and Watson didnt agree with the way things were being run. So if TO lets Callahan finish, 1) TO comes out looking like a very nice "crusty old f-----" for not jumping on Callahan and just firing him, 2) Starts with a clean slate next season with almost all of husker nation on board with the new coach, 3) Can keep watson on staff with no ill will towards anyone.

If it was some gay color like Purple or Orange i would say the same thing, this is a bad idea, but its not jsut a gay color, it is the most intimidating color. can someone tell me a color that is more intimidating than black? Also if Penn. St. came out in purple they would just be reffered to as the "purple poeple eaters" so of course thats a bad idea Dont we still yell "Go Big Red" when we are away and wearing our white jerseys?

I dont know why there are so many people on this board who think it would be such a bad idea to wear black jerseys every once in a while. No body is staying we should where black ever game and should change out school colors to grey and black. Of course NU is scarlet and cream and will always be that and i for one do not want to see that change, but you cant tell college kids wouldnt jump at the chance to change things up a little wear black jerseys. The kids would love it and i guarentee you that tunnle walk would be one of the most passionate tunnel walks ever. However i dont think we should do this for the CU game next week, or even do it next year, cause our defense is not even close to as intimidating as they should be and need to earn the right to wear blackshirts in practice before they get the right to wear them in a game. However in a few years when the new coach restores NU football to where it should be, i think it would be awesome to wear black jerseys at a home game against say a K-State, I-State, or Colorado ( a team that is somewhat of a rival) as long as we are big favorites and there is no chance of us getting embaressed. Its not like we a destroying the Scarlet and Cream or trying to seperate ourselves from tradition, it would simply add to tradition and add more prestige of the Blackshirts.

Are you serious?? that would be freaking sweet. I think it would look so awesome, in some youtube video it shows Benard Thomas after a sack and the creator of the video made his jersey turn from red to black and it looked awesome. I think this would kinda give our team a defensive mind set also with the blackshirts tradition. edit: I found the video, about 1:06 into the video it shows Thomas throwing the bones and his jersey flashes balck. Tell me that doesnt look sweet.

Ohh Dear that could be ugly. I bet McFadden would love that, boost his NFL status by rushing for 400 yards.

I would love to see the Kiffin's roaming the sideline at NU, but do you really think Lane would leave the head coaching position at Oakland to come be our OC? Think about this though, they were talking about this on unsportsman like conduct, Monte Kiffin has said that he would have taken the head coaching job at NU if he was offered back in 2004. If Steve Pederson wasnt such an idiot and given Kiffin a chance at the job instead of going after all these coaches who failed in the NFL, just think if Monte Kiffin got the job. Monte would have brought in his son as the OC(was at USC at the time), and he is good friends with Pelini and would have gotten him to stay on as our DC. So our staff would look like this..... Monte Kiffin-HC, Lane Kiffin-OC, Bo Pelini-DC, and i am sure the Kiffin's have plenty of connections to bring in a bunch of great assistants. Talk about a Huskers Dream Team If only Steve Pederson was such a Jack Ace.

I dont know what you are all talking about. According to Bill Callahan this is all just production of the system. If I was in the system for say 3 years i could have thrown for 500 yards also, its not like what Ganz did was that great because Callahan runs the greates system ever conceived by a football coach.

God that is freakin sweet, stupid kid forgot to MOVE.

I heard Jason Peters saying something along the lines of that he was very surprised by the lack of work that the team did during practice when he was with the Carolina Panthers, and i am sure it is the same all over the NFL.