Callahan Walking a fine line

[Benard]

Nebraska football coach Bill Callahan prefaced his comments by saying that his intent wasn't to sound arrogant. In the end, it didn't work.

 

Asked about the Cornhuskers bogging down offensively in last Saturday's 24-17 victory at Pittsburgh, Callahan seemed to leave the young players who are attempting to learn his complicated West Coast offense blowing in the wind.

 

When questioned if the Panthers, who held the Huskers to 123 yards rushing, exposed some weaknesses in Nebraska's running game, Callahan even seemed a little irked.

 

"This is certainly not a matter of arrogance, but when you're confident in what you're doing, it really comes down to your ability to sustain blocks and to really execute the techniques at the position that you're called upon, and that's what occurred," said Callahan, whose team didn't score in the final 35 minutes of the game and produced just 75 total yards in the second half. "We had some technical breakdowns, not schematically, but techniques that can hurt us ... just a small thing that could've added to the yardage."

 

Translation: There's nothing wrong with Callahan's offense. It's just the players who are messing things up.

 

Callahan didn't stop there.

 

"I think our players realize that the system will work for them, but the discipline and the detail and the definition of what we do has to pick up," Callahan said. "That means dropped balls -- I think we had five dropped balls in that game that were huge plays on early downs. When you drop the ball on an early down that just puts you behind in the down and distance and makes it tougher to recover."

 

"You can't have that. I don't care what level you're playing at or who you're playing against, it comes down to making plays and we certainly didn't make enough plays on Saturday to ice the game or put Pittsburgh away."

 

Now everyone who has ever played a down of football knows what Callahan is saying is essentially true. Even the best-devised play in the world isn't going to work if it's not executed correctly.

 

However, it would seem that Callahan might want to be just a tiny bit more careful with his choice of words and where he places the blame for poor production. Sure, his players might be the ones missing the blocks, hitting the wrong holes and dropping the passes, but ultimately, isn't Callahan responsible for the end result on the field?

 

One might think that an ex-NFL coach who is one season removed from losing the support of several players in Oakland, might be a little more careful with his tone. After all, who can forget Callahan's "dumbest team in America" comment he let fly about his Raiders last season?

 

That will probably go down in the books under the what-not-to-do category when it comes to building team unity.

 

The fact that Callahan has the ultimate confidence in his offensive scheme is great, but he might do well to acknowledge that the West Coast offense -- or any offense for that matter -- isn't unstoppable. Otherwise, how do you explain the Raiders going 4-12?

 

Must have been the all players' fault.

 

It's not that Callahan hasn't taken some blame when Nebraska has struggled. Saturday, he admitted that he was late getting plays onto the field, although he was quick to point out that the officiating crew seemed to have a quick trigger on the 25-second clock. The previous week, Callahan said he put sophomore quarterback Joe Dailey in some unfavorable situations.

 

Still, Callahan needs to do a better job of deflecting the criticism from his players. After all, this is Nebraska -- not Oakland. The players he's coaching now aren't likely to quit on him as long as he gives them a little support and doesn't make them the scapegoat.

 

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