Guy Chamberlin

Knapp's original post made me think, no. No real change. BC and BP are cast in their own light. But now skersfan has me wondering. The notion of Callahan being welcomed back and Bo Pelini shunned like a snake was unthinkable six months ago, even though Bo was the same guy he'd been for years. I don't think anyone really wants to rehabilitate and welcome back Callahan, but I don't think we have room for more than one mortal enemy in our brains. Bo Pelini was given a lot of space because we wanted a lot of distance from Callahan. Give Bo credit for 2008 and 2009. There's nothing more a coach can do than get better results from someone else's recruits. When Bo started looking less like a savior, we started looking for excuses. The closest excuse was Callahan. Bo was still cleaning up his mess. The Callahan leftover was Shawn Watson. Watson was replaced with Tim Beck. Like Watson, Beck tried to build an offense around the mercurial talents of an oft-injured quarterback. The easiest way to support Bo was to blame the offense, somehow ignoring that as both a head coach and defensive specialist, Nebraska's problems could be easier traced to Pelini. Then when Bo Pelini proves himself a self-serving a-hole, willing to blame the fans instead of himself, we're finally willing to blame him, even though he's pretty much the same guy he's been for years. Have you ever dumped or gotten dumped by a girlfriend? And you start fantasizing about the girlfriend you had before her? Who was pretty hot, and you can't remember why you broke up? Bill Callahan wasn't that pretty.

Really? Stanford won 1 game the season before Harbaugh arrived......and had several losing seasons in a row prior. Umm...Stanford as an historical football program has a ..576 all time win/loss record, and had a top 10 finish in each of the past six decades. Bill Walsh and Ty Willingham both had success there in the 90s and early 2000s. Meanwhile, Oregon State is below .500 for their all time win/loss record, and had 38 straight losing seasons before Riley took over. Can you help me understand why you feel that Oregon State had a better football program history than Stanford? Stanford had an advantage over Oregon State at the time, but not a huge advantage. Harbaugh took over a pretty horrible team, and as attractive as Stanford is as a recruiting tool, it also means crossing off a ton of prospects who won't meet the academic standards. Walsh and Willingham had their moments, but so did other Pac 12 schools, including OSU's run under Erickson. Stanford also had a small crummy stadium and poor turnout from a less-than-passionate fanbase that had generally accepted mediocrity or worse. Stanford and OSU enjoyed major turnarounds under Harbaugh and Riley. Good coaches, both. The direct comparisons don't get you much. I'm happy with our guy.

It is worth noting that Dad was doing what dad's should do, considering his son's life without football, the statistical liklihood of a professional career being extremely low. Mattison may have been ham-handed and condescending, but it still leaves the fact that Michigan was able to enter the picture because it could offer signficantly better education and career networking than UNL. It's not quite as easy as counting up the academic All-Americans. Academic reputations go a lot deeper than that, unfairly or not. Perhaps the single biggest reason for joining the Big 10 was to access its pipleline to scientific/medical/engineering funding from major corporations. Maybe we'll start seeing a little benefit from that.

Lawrence Phillips at #2 is a little overblown because he came into the NFL as a huge risk, and didn't really surprise anyone with his talent or his demons, having a combination of both. Jerry Tagge in the Top 10 is a reach. If you have to go all the way back to 1971, you'll find tons of serviceable college quarterbacks from the last 40 years who simply didn't translate into the pros. Tagge was coming off a national championship team, but I don't recall any Tagge hype, and I was a huge Tagge fan at the time. Go back to the 2011 draft and you'll find three First Round quarterbacks the equal of Jerry Tagge: Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder. Of the Top 20 Career Passing leaders in NCAA history, only Phillip Rivers has had an envialbe NFL career. Case Keenum? Landry Jones? Graham Harrell? The majority of Heisman winners turn out to be busts, too. As I recall, many considered Dave Rimington a major bust; the surest bet you could have made in the 1982 draft, the most heralded offensive lineman of his day, but not the pass blocker the NFL needed and out of the league after 6 seasons.

It's always a tricky balance between science and faith, but if Christians are going to drive cars, use computers, and have their lives saved by scientific advancements like insulin, they need to accept the fact that around 10% of the human population in every culture, probably throughout history and quite possibly stretching into the animal kingdom, is homosexual. There can be a healthy debate as to why -- built-in population control, a modest anomoly like being left-handed -- but long before "Will & Grace" was a hit on network television, homosexuals walked the Earth just as God made them.

According to Citizens United, corporations are now people. So I am going to marry Chevron and f#*k her silly.

Reponded to a since-edited post, and the "edit" feature doesn't appear to let me delete my post. What am I missing?

That's not what the Lesbians used to tell my wife when they tried to pick her up at college. Their typical retort to a refused offer was, "What's the matter? Afraid you might like it if you tried it?" I have no reason to believe those lesbians were lying, but if you don't agree with them that it is a choice, take it up with them. Anyhow, I'm guessing that if Penn State had a do over and could choose between our Christian ex-coach and their Homosexual ex-coach, they wouldn't hesitate a second to choose Ron Brown. I'm done here, don't bother replying to me, because I'm not checking back. In all of the internet, I don't think a half dozen opinions have ever been changed, so let's not even try. I can see why you are running away from this one. Predatory lesbians? Wow. Also, Penn State did have a prominently Christian head coach named Joe Paterno, and an assistant coach equally revered in the Christian community named Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was a pedophile, not a homosexual. A huge difference you should acquaint yourself with, starting with the concept of "consent." One of many cases where the people who speak loudest against sin and sinners are harboring some screwed up demons of their own.

Straight from Rollerball, 1975.

True. The Bible is just as clear on homosexuality as it is eating shellfish. (spoiler alert: both are abominations)

I don't think you could say that about any team in the last 30 years. It was just one of those things that OSU was extremely lucky with. It proves that to win championships, you gotta be good but also have some dang good luck too. I agree, but odds are still good that there is some outstanding talent sitting on the bench every season, stuck behind better players or worse players and/or with the wrong coaches and schemes. And we'll never know what coulda happened. This is not an endorsement of Ryker Fyfe.

Along with colleges, pretty much every team in the NFL, NBA and MLB has a component of Christian players and coaches, some who visibly express their faith in pre-game chapel services and post-game ritutals. Other players don't join in, but it doesn't seem to create a division. Every player is free to thank God for helping him beat the other team, and many use the national airwaves to do so. It seems more accepted in sports than other public platforms. When the San Diego Padres got Christian-heavy and preachy in the '80s, it started causing them problems. When players like Curt Schilling let their religion and fame bleed into politics, it did not serve him well in the secular world. When the proselytizing Rev. Mark Jackson needed the Golden State Warriors' help in avoiding a shakedown from his mistress, it got a little messy. These are all for-profit businesses, and they don't like it from a business angle. You can see why a public university would prefer nothing to do with it, and use the clear Constitutionality of the issue as their defense. Although to Dbqgolfer's point, some extremely controversial social content is both tolerated and promoted at universities all the time. I have no idea how it works in the NHL, where hockey players are typically Druids, athiests and Canadians.

I'm guessing the Nebraska football culture also nurtures a lot of guys who bang women they aren't married to.

This thread is both smart and funny. I'd like to have sex with it.

Honestly? I would have less of a problem with a UNL professor speaking in defense of gay marriage because that's my personal viewpoint. But I honestly wouldn't want Ron Brown fired for speaking his mind, either. I assume every university runs the full spectrum of personal viewpoints, and can't afford to hitch the institution to any single one. Ron Brown would, of course, be more famous than any UNL professor, and willfully played his Husker association for the attention it would bring, but that's another story. If a fellow Husker footballer had spoken in support of gay marriage, I would have found it pretty courageous. It won't be in a few years. Things are moving fast. Key word remains freedom. Ron Brown is free to express his disapproval of gay marriage. But it is 100% not his business who marries who. Wasn't that long ago Ron Brown could have been thrown in jail for looking crooked at a white woman, and only the "politically correct crowd" would have come to his defense.

Not a popular observation around here, but the Pierson-El fourth down play in the Holiday Bowl reminded me a little of this. They run DPE in that same play action fake for three and a half quarters. You never expect him to actually get the ball, just be a distraction and drag a linebacker with him. Calling his number in that moment wasn't a bad call, just an unsuccessful one.

I think you're spot on, Elf. Which is probably where the trouble comes from. Public universities can't be affiliated with any religion, so if a guy wants to run a program like they would at a private Christian school, or private Mormon school, or private Islam school or whatever, then they'll run into issues. Largely though Ron has really not had issues, at least not that we know of publicly. He leads all those postgame prayers and nobody seems to have a problem with that (and it's also not unique to Ron Brown, right?). It doesn't get much more public than that and that is something that always seems to be applauded. I think the problem is that gay marriage had become a public issue in Nebraska, and Ron Brown enlisted his fame as a Nebraska Cornhusker to draw attention to his views during some very public hearings. It's his right, but a little awkward. His views shouldn't be applauded either, given how much they share with previous generations that had equally strong opinions about who people like Ron Brown should be allowed to marry. Listing his address as Memorial Stadium was not his right, and was in fact, a violation of University rules. By doing that, he made himself a representative of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln at that meeting. He's very lucky to have kept his job afterwards. Agree. Sort of. It would have been pretty ugly had they fired Ron Brown for that reason in that moment. Here's hoping things were explained and apologies made. Not to pile on but......there's something about this kind of evangelical zeal that teeters between unselfish duty to a Higher Power and unseemly self-promotion. We went through something similar here in the Bay Area, where Golden State Warriors coach, the Rev. Mark Jackson was fired after two very successful seasons. Good news: the secular Steve Kerr is doing even better.

I think you're spot on, Elf. Which is probably where the trouble comes from. Public universities can't be affiliated with any religion, so if a guy wants to run a program like they would at a private Christian school, or private Mormon school, or private Islam school or whatever, then they'll run into issues. Largely though Ron has really not had issues, at least not that we know of publicly. He leads all those postgame prayers and nobody seems to have a problem with that (and it's also not unique to Ron Brown, right?). It doesn't get much more public than that and that is something that always seems to be applauded. I think the problem is that gay marriage had become a public issue in Nebraska, and Ron Brown enlisted his fame as a Nebraska Cornhusker to draw attention to his views during some very public hearings. It's his right, but a little awkward. His views shouldn't be applauded either, given how much they share with previous generations that had equally strong opinions about who people like Ron Brown should be allowed to marry.

Man, it's pretty messed up those guys are just walking away from a field and not planting it or anything..... I saw what you did there and almost gave you a +1. Almost. Don't want to encourage too much wordplay.

And just for the record, Leviticus 11:6-8 clearly states that touching the skin of a dead pig makes you unclean. Okay, I'm off to the politics and religion forum. Sorry.

Marriage is between Man and Woman, Zoog. Not Man and University.

This is my understanding, and why Osborne gets credit for his foresight and patience. The Schleisinger fullback trap is the play-action fake for 3 and a half quarters. The defense gets used to him being the lead blocker and going around him. A team with Lawrence Phillips and the recently inserted Tommie Frazier isn't suddenly going to its fullback with the game on the line. But then we did.

That's a pretty soft landing. I know I used a similar opportunity to defend Tim Beck's tenure at Nebraska. That's not gonna happen here. By all accounts a decent guy, though. Absolutely no problem wishing him good luck.

One of those picks were not worse/better than the other. They were equally bad. And also recall the detail as to why we were about to score when Berringer threw the pick. It had nothing to do with anything Brook or the offense did. And before Tommie threw his int?, well the offense was cuttin and carvin up the Miami defense already for 40 yards or so on that drive before taking a deep shot. I dont think you can say that about Turman in 95 either. Frazier was the Heisman runner up. he was the 2nd, and arguable, the best player in the country that year. Combine that with our issues at running back before Green emerged and the fact that without a dynamic playmaker like Frazier, the stretch of 3 games against top ten opponents in 4 weeks become closer, thus putting more pressure on a qb, and I have a hard time believing that as well. There was a reason Turman was 3rd string. There was a reason he didnt start in '96 over the dreaded Frost. There was a reason shortly after halftime that Berringer deemed himself "good enough" to play against Kansas St and essentially help seal the deal. Nothing Turman did in that stretch of 8 quarters was extraordinary. Frazier and Berringer? They made plays. Does Frazier throw that 19 yard TD pass right before halftime keeping us in the game? Considering he was throwing it into the dirt when he did pass, I highly doubt it. I stand by my opinion that Turman could have easily won us a NC the 95' season. You talk about running backs, but you don't even mention how completely stacked we were at that position. Clinton Childs and Damon Benning were starters on any other team in the Big 8. Plus, our defense was stacked. One of those top ranked teams you mention was KState. We scored the lions share of our points in the first half when we owned the game by our defense and special teams. Against Kansas, our defense pretty much gave us that game after our offense laid an egg in the first half. Well you can talk about how we did against other teams, but the fact was we were struggling mightily against the Miami team in question and with all the weapons you mention. To my eye, the fourth quarter was about pure guts and leadership. Great Nebraska teams had lost a string of big bowl games. To my eye, Tommie Frazier simply put the team on his back and decided that wasn't going to happen on his watch. The rest of the team picked up on that. Tom Osborne, too, in making the decision to pull Berringer. If Nebraska could have beaten Miami with Turman, Tommie Frazier shouldn't be recognized as one of the college football greats. I'm just not ready for that.

Cardale Jones is a helluva quarterback and a helluva story. Imagine how good he'll be next year. Or not. He turned down the offer to go to the NFL after only three games, with draft experts pegging him as a second rounder. Which do you suppose is more likely to happen? a) Cardale Jones has a great season at OSU and goes in the first or second round of the 2016 NFL draft? b) Cardale Jones slowly slides into oblivion; a trivia answer but never an NFL quarterback?