What NOT to learn from the Nebraska Cornhuskers under Coach Bill Callahan

[Eric the Red]

College Football Playcalling, Ball Control and Time of Ball Possession - What NOT to learn from the Nebraska Cornhuskers under Coach Bill Callahan

 

 

How important is ball control and the time of ball possession in modern college football?

 

Hawaii vs. Utah State

 

We are looking at Hawaii's 63-10 win over Utah State this past week, a game in which the winning Warriors from the Pacific islands held the ball a mere 23 minutes and 15 seconds, while the losing Aggies "controlled the ball" with a possession time of 36 minutes and 45 seconds.

 

It looks to us like controlling the SCORE is substantially more important than controlling the clock of possession. No team wins football games today solely by marching up and down the field between the 20-yard lines. To win in football, you have to get the ball into the end zone. During regulation play, some football coaches seem to forget that.

 

Overtime Games : Toledo, Nevada and Missouri

 

We see this particularly in overtime games, where teams unable to score in regulation may suddenly develop the ability to score from 25 yards out - the reason in our opinion is different playcalling - because in overtime the pressure to score is overwhelming. (See generally Overtime system still excites coaches by Kelly Whiteside, USA Today, August 25, 2006).

 

Playcalling during regulation time is most assuredly a subtle science, often dependent on the personalities of the coaches and the strategies that they follow in guiding their teams on the field.

 

Nevertheless, we do not believe in coincidences, and statistics make some interesting points in this regard. A good example is Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, who not only was involved in the first college football overtime game (Toledo vs. Nevada, 1995, in the Las Vegas Bowl, which Toledo won 40-37) but whose Missouri Tigers also hold the NCAA Division I-A record for the most overtime games played, with an 8-3 record in those games. That record would suggest that Pinkel is not aggressive enough as a coach in his playcalling during regulation time.

 

The Nebraska Cornhuskers and Bill Callahan

 

The current Nebraska Cornhuskers under their coach Bill Callahan seem to have playcalling problems in the second half of their games, showing a lack of ability to finish strong, a development which is visible for Callahan's entire tenure as Husker coach (since 2004) - one need only look at the 70-10 loss to Texas Tech in 2004 where the Huskers collapsed in the 2nd half after being down 21-3 at the half.

 

The Huskers have not scored in the 3rd quarter in 2006 in the following games (USC, Kansas, Iowa State, Texas, Oklahoma State, Missouri), a 3rd quarter record of futility matched by few teams with aspirations to a top 20 ranking. During this same season Callahan's teams have shown a great talent for getting out in front to substantial leads in the first quarter, only to blow those leads during the rest of the game. Indeed, the Huskers under Callahan seem to have no power in the second half. That is evidence of either a poor team or poor coaching or both. As Urban Meyer, one of the nation's most capable coaches, was quoted as saying yesterday after his Florida team's shaky win over Vanderbilt:

 

"Championship teams take a big swing at you in the third, fourth quarter and knock you down. We're not doing that."

 

As far as the Huskers are concerned, exactly the opposite is happening. Other teams are taking big swings at the Cornhuskers and knocking THEM down in the 3rd and 4th quarter.

 

We think the answer is that Callahan and his coaching staff, rather than following a strategy "to win", revert to an extremely conservative "fear of losing" strategy in the 3rd quarter. This introverted strategy not only does not lead to scores, but worse, often seems to throw off the Husker momentum, leading to fumbles and errors, and gives the opponent a chance to catch up, if previously behind. Take a look at the play-by-play for all those games at Yahoo Sports or ESPN and you will wonder what the Nebraska coaching staff is thinking about in calling its 3rd quarter plays.

 

As one can see by viewing game reports, reading Callahan's comments to the press and looking at the playcalling of games, Callahan, especially to start out the 3rd quarter, seems to be fixed on "establishing ball control" and stretching out the time of possession, rather than looking to put points on the scoreboard. This Callahan strategy has already backfired several times this year and yet the Nebraska coaching staff does not appear to have learned from their past mistakes, generally carrying this meek offensive strategy into the 4th quarter.

 

Here are our comments on the individual 2006 games [we exclude here a) the games where Nebraska was mismatched with very weak opponents and B) the Kansas State game, where they did score 7 points in the 2nd half, in the 3rd quarter, on a 40-yard run by Marlon Lucky immediately after a 32-yard pass completion, one of few times that NU was not rushing on 1st down in the 3rd quarter]:

 

1. Nebraska did not score in the 3rd quarter against USC and the Huskers persisted on trying to run the ball against stonewall Trojan rushing defense against which they had had no success in the first half and even though the Trojan pass defense had shown that it was quite vulnerable. Still, Callahan did not switch to a passing attack, which, as shown later in the season by Oregon State, was the way to beat USC. Even TV commentators wonder at Callahan's "stalling" during the USC game.

 

2. Nebraska blew a 17-0 1st quarter advantage, leading ultimately to a tie game of 32-32 after Kansas outscored the Huskers 22-8 in the second half. Nebraska did not score in the 3rd quarter. The Huskers were lucky to win in overtime.

 

3. Nebraska fumbled the ball away in the closing minutes, allowing Texas to make a last-second field goal to win 22-20. Nebraska did not score in the 3rd quarter.

 

4. Nebraska blew a 16-0 lead in the 2nd quarter and had a margin of only 23-20 at the half and then (in a sad reminder of several 2nd-half blowouts at the hands of other teams in 2005) the Huskers were outscored 21-6 in the second half by Oklahoma State, with the Huskers losing ignominiously 41-29. Nebraska did not score in the 3rd quarter.

 

5. Nebraska led 27-6 at halftime but is outscored by Missouri 14-7 in the second half. Nebraska did not score in the 3rd quarter.

 

There are only four alternative answers for the Husker malaise:

 

1. The coaches of the other teams simply make better adjustments at the half

2. The Husker adjustments - if any - as made by the coaching staff at halftime - are poor

3. The NU players get tired during halftime

4. Players from opposing teams pick up renewed energy at halftime

 

We think the answer for all of the above games is that Callahan and his coaching staff generally revert to an extremely conservative game in the 3rd quarter which not only does not lead to scores, but worse, often seems to throw off the Husker momentum, leading to fumbles and errors, and gives the opponent a chance to catch up, if previously behind. Take a look at the play-by-play for all those games at Yahoo Sports or ESPN and you too will wonder what the Nebraska coaching staff is thinking about in calling its 3rd quarter plays.

[DaveH]

Yea, at times he probably should have thrown it more, but I don't know if I would call a tight end pass on 4th and 2 at roughly midfield against MU "conservative".

[Washusker]

Huh, sounds a lot like my complaints after the USC game. Can't tell you how thrilled I am to see that those fears have borne fruit...

[Nalow]

They need to give all the players a shot of espresso during the half.

[Aim9]

He really rips Callahan. It will be interesting to see how 90% of the people on this board rush to his defense. Callahan has the program moving in the right direction, but he has some faults. Serious faults that need to be acknowledged.

 

It drove me crazy reading all of the posts from the USC game on this board because everyone defended Callahan's awful playcalling. Yes, we were two turnovers away from a potentially close game, but when it comes down to it the playcalling never gave us a chance. Running the ball up the middle wasn't working at all. TRY SOMETHING ELSE. Since then it has been proven that even mediocre teams can throw against USC. CLEARLY that was the way to beat them. Who knows, maybe he learned something, as evidenced by the excellent playcalling in the Texas game.

[gamecocks]

Maybe the team shouldn't go to the locker room at halftime. Just sit on the bench and let their position coaches talk to them so that they can still feel the atmosphere of the stadium and stay pumped up. They need to try something different as we have some tough ball games coming up in the next four weeks.

[FriscoTXHusker]

Do you guys think the Mizzou game supports his agrument, i.e., beyond the fact that we did not score in the 3rd? We were running well in the 1st half and continued to do so in the second. There didn't seem to be much reason to change that. If Phillips had not dropped that pass in the open (clearly nobody's fault but the receiver) that would have just about been game over. I don't think Mizzou fits the argument (or, at least not as well as the other examples). The others might be more interesting.

 

There are other possible explanations to the apparent pattern. Maybe there's a real concern about keeping our offense on the field due to issues on our defense. Maybe it has nothing to do with a general philosophy of getting ahead and sitting on the lead.

 

It is interesting, but the article doesn't say much we on this board haven't already seen.

[Spartness]

There is no question a pattern, and why I really don't know. But we perhaps had our score in the third quarter if Phillips had hung onto the ball and ran forward on that fourth and 1. Perhaps all those second halves this season would had been different if we would had scored on our opening possessions. Against OSU, we were driving on our first possesion in the second half and then Congdon missed a FG. It's important we score, especially TDs, on the opening possesion in the second half to imediately take the fire out of the opponents. That could had made a huge difference at OSU.

[NU fan in Denver]

Do you guys think the Mizzou game supports his agrument, i.e., beyond the fact that we did not score in the 3rd? We were running well in the 1st half and continued to do so in the second. There didn't seem to be much reason to change that. If Phillips had not dropped that pass in the open (clearly nobody's fault but the receiver) that would have just about been game over. I don't think Mizzou fits the argument (or, at least not as well as the other examples). The others might be more interesting.

 

There are other possible explanations to the apparent pattern. Maybe there's a real concern about keeping our offense on the field due to issues on our defense. Maybe it has nothing to do with a general philosophy of getting ahead and sitting on the lead.

 

It is interesting, but the article doesn't say much we on this board haven't already seen.

 

The Missouri game was a little better, but games like KU and USC were bad.

[AZ4NU]

Do you guys think the Mizzou game supports his agrument, i.e., beyond the fact that we did not score in the 3rd? We were running well in the 1st half and continued to do so in the second. There didn't seem to be much reason to change that. If Phillips had not dropped that pass in the open (clearly nobody's fault but the receiver) that would have just about been game over. I don't think Mizzou fits the argument (or, at least not as well as the other examples). The others might be more interesting.

 

There are other possible explanations to the apparent pattern. Maybe there's a real concern about keeping our offense on the field due to issues on our defense. Maybe it has nothing to do with a general philosophy of getting ahead and sitting on the lead.

 

It is interesting, but the article doesn't say much we on this board haven't already seen.

 

 

Interesting, too, that last week people ripped Callahan for passing it too much in the second half against OSU and not controlling the ball like we did to start the game. Just a thought!!

[HuskerFan06]

I know this didnt happen but....we only had 1 drive against Mizzou in the 3rd qtr and it was the one where Phillips dropped what would have been a walk in TD....After mizzou got the ball and scored we scored the very next possesion