Big red rebirth

[Blackshirt]

Getting some front page ink in the KC Star.. nothing else better going on down there anyway, but still nice to see.....

 

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/16126603.htm

 

THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP | 7 p.m. Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium

 

Big red rebirth

Nebraska hit bottom under Bill Callahan, but now the coach has the Huskers back on top.

By BLAIR KERKHOFF

The Kansas City Star

 

L INCOLN, Neb. | Nebraska linebacker Corey McKeon didn’t make the trip to Lubbock in 2004, but this was one of those moments when you really didn’t have to be there.

 

“I turned it off at halftime and got out of my room. I couldn’t take it,” McKeon said. “That wasn’t Nebraska football. I don’t know what it was.”

 

To some, that game marked the most embarrassing moment in Nebraska’s modern history, a period that begins with the arrival of Bob Devaney for the start of the 1962 season and, many feared, ended with coach Bill Callahan that night at Texas Tech in a 70-10 loss.

 

For others in the Husker Nation, the greater plunge came the next season when Nebraska was blasted at Kansas 40-15. Radio play-by-play broadcaster Jim Rose turned nostalgic driving back along Interstate 29, and not in a good way.

 

“I was thinking Nebraska went to the Rose Bowl in 1941 and then had 20 years of futility,” Rose said. “We had gone to the Rose Bowl a few years ago, and were we about to go through another 20 years like that?

 

“Because if we were, I wanted a semi coming southbound to cross the median and take me out, because that way I wouldn’t have to watch 20 years of that.”

 

Saturday’s appearance in the Big 12 championship game against Oklahoma shows how quickly things have changed.

 

The Cornhuskers are back as a division winner for the first time since 1999 and are in a position to reach their first Bowl Championship Series postseason game since the 2001 season.

 

Has the program accomplished the “Restore the Order” command on the T-shirts sold in Nebraska gift shops? Callahan won’t get pulled into that discussion just yet. The slogan works for laundry, even on the shirts worn by players under their jerseys. But as a guiding principle for public consumption, well, Callahan chose his words carefully during championship week.

 

“It would be great if we won,” Callahan said. “We came here to win and play for championships.”

 

No open declarations of greatness yet. But those nightmare games in Lubbock and Lawrence seem distant now — Nebraska is 12-3 since the Kansas loss — and the occasion of the Big 12 championship-game appearance is tangible proof that the Cornhuskers are heading in the right direction.

 

•••

 

Athletic director Steve Pederson caught flak immediately after firing Frank Solich, who had just won at Colorado and improved to 9-3 in the 2003 season. Fans seemed split over whether it was the right move, but one player, defensive end Benard Thomas, wasn’t torn.

 

He confronted Pederson at a news conference, quizzing him about the situation as the Huskers prepared for a bowl game. Thomas’ parting words: “This is bull…”

 

Before hiring Callahan, Pederson reportedly was turned down by at least three candidates, including then-Chiefs assistant Al Saunders. The search lasted 41 days before Callahan, fired from his Oakland Raiders job after taking the team to the Super Bowl the previous season, took the position.

 

Pederson’s decision to make a change came down to a simple question.

 

Why wait?

 

Pederson had seen enough in Solich’s final two seasons that produced a 17-10 record to know the standard was slipping.

 

“The question was whether or not we wanted to wait for the decision to make itself,” Pederson said. “We felt like it was appropriate to get started heading to where we wanted to go instead of staying in a holding pattern.”

 

If the coaching transition was disorienting to Nebraska fans, only two seasons removed from watching their Cornhuskers play for the BCS championship, it would be nothing compared with changes they were about to see.

 

Out with the option, an attack good enough to win three national championships under Tom Osborne and 75 percent of the games under Solich. In with the West Coast offense that stressed offensive balance.

 

Quarterback Joe Dailey and running back Cory Ross and bulky offensive linemen were recruited to run the old-school offense. But Callahan didn’t ease into the transition. He changed the pace immediately, and the result was the program’s first losing record in more than four decades.

 

“That season was tough on all of us,” Callahan said. “We had tremendous respect for coach Solich and his staff, but when you take over a program, you’re going to do it your way. Things change.”

 

Even on the sideline. Nebraska fans, used to the stoic demeanor of Osborne and Solich, were shocked when Callahan left the field after a 30-3 loss at Oklahoma that first season and was caught on tape yelling to Oklahoma fans, “(expletive) hillbillies” in response to being pelted by oranges as the Sooners were gunning for an appearance in the Orange Bowl.

 

“I made some errors, said some things I probably shouldn’t have said, and I apologized for it and moved on,” Callahan said.

 

But the program moved backward. Nebraska lost its final three games, including the home finale against Colorado, and fell to 5-6. The Cornhuskers had their first losing season since 1961 — the year before Devaney was hired — and would not play in a bowl game for the first time in 35 years, ending college football’s longest such streak.

 

“Nobody was feeling good about themselves,” senior defensive end Jay Moore said.

 

Pederson had said change was necessary if Nebraska was going to continue to compare itself to Texas and Oklahoma, but this was painful.

 

“Still, I spoke to a lot of groups, and the pulse then was he would get a pass for 2004 because people understood how difficult the transition would be,” Rose said. “Maybe not a full endorsement, and I think the honeymoon period accelerated a bit, but for the most part the fans were supportive.”

 

•••

 

The winning came at the end of last season, and not a moment too soon.

 

As Callahan walked off the field at Lawrence, his Nebraska record stood at 10-10 overall and 4-8 in Big 12 games. Nebraska had defeated Baylor twice, Missouri and Iowa State.

 

The next two games were against Kansas State and at Colorado, and the Cornhuskers needed one of them to qualify for a bowl game. Lose both, finish 5-6 for a second straight year, and there’s no telling what might have happened to one of the most loyal fan bases in college football.

 

But the Cornhuskers eked out a victory against Kansas State and, in Callahan’s finest moment in red, thumped the Buffaloes in Boulder 30-3.

 

“That was a huge win, beating the team that would win the division,” Callahan said.

 

The next one would be even more so, for reasons other than a bowl trophy. Nebraska, trailing by 11 in the fourth quarter, rallied past Michigan 32-28 in the Alamo Bowl.

 

The Cornhuskers had spent much of the previous month working on a running game that had gone nowhere during the regular season. The program that had led the nation in rushing 13 times since 1980 had gained more than 100 yards on the ground once in the final five regular-season games.

 

Nebraska worked on running schemes against Michigan, went for 151 yards and laid the foundation for this year’s balanced attack. The team that ranked 107th in rushing last season is 18th this year at 183 yards per game, boosting the game of quarterback Zac Taylor to the point where he was chosen Big 12 offensive player of the year.

 

In rolling to a 9-3 record, Nebraska swept its North opponents for the first time since 1999. The victory at Texas A&M stands out, as the Cornhuskers looked like a loser after Taylor threw an interception with Nebraska trailing by six and less than 3 minutes remaining.

 

But the Huskers got it back and drove 75 yards with no timeouts. Taylor lofted a 9-yard touchdown pass to Maurice Purify on a fade with 21 seconds remaining for Callahan’s biggest triumph in three years.

 

There have been disappointments this season. A conservative approach at Southern California kept Nebraska from being part of the game. The Cornhuskers coughed up a big lead at Oklahoma State.

 

But here they are, preparing for a conference championship, and the growing pains of a program in transition have subsided. Nebraska may even be ahead of where Pederson thought it would be.

 

“I never felt that we weren’t on the right track,” Pederson said. “The reality is we’re very excited after only three years to have this chance.”

 

The new offense is working, there have been recruiting successes, and two years after allowing a team to score 70 points, Callahan no longer preaches patience when he’s asked whether the program is turning the corner.

 

“We’re getting there,” Callahan said, “but we’re not there yet.”

To reach Blair Kerkhoff, Big 12 reporter for The Star, call (816) 234-4730 or send e-mail to bkerkhoff@kcstar.com

[DJR313]

“That season was tough on all of us,” Callahan said. “We had tremendous respect for coach Solich and his staff, but when you take over a program, you’re going to do it your way. Things change.”

 

Do things your own way? Oh my goodness, what a concept?!?!? It always killed me when people would fail to realize that he had to do things the way he knows them to be successful.

[HuskerBCS]

Pederson had said change was necessary if Nebraska was going to continue to compare itself to Texas and Oklahoma, but this was painful.

 

This is why I believe Pederson must go......the program will never be back where it was until he leaves. Ever since I was born a Nebraska fan, We have set the standard, We have raised the bar, and other teams compared themselves to US! Not until Pederson came in have we been comparing ourselves to everyone else.

 

That being said, I still do and always will support my Huskers.

 

24-17 Huskers over OU

[ttheKid1*18]

Pederson had said change was necessary if Nebraska was going to continue to compare itself to Texas and Oklahoma, but this was painful.

 

This is why I believe Pederson must go......the program will never be back where it was until he leaves. Ever since I was born a Nebraska fan, We have set the standard, We have raised the bar, and other teams compared themselves to US! Not until Pederson came in have we been comparing ourselves to everyone else.

 

That being said, I still do and always will support my Huskers.

 

24-17 Huskers over OU

Just let me get this straight. You pick us to win the game, with a coach that the AD hired, which would send us to a BCS bowl, and keep us on the upswing for next year with Keller and a lot of others coming back, but you think the ad should go? Great hire by Pederson imo, and it's showing right now. GBR

[strigori]

Pederson had said change was necessary if Nebraska was going to continue to compare itself to Texas and Oklahoma, but this was painful.

 

This is why I believe Pederson must go......the program will never be back where it was until he leaves. Ever since I was born a Nebraska fan, We have set the standard, We have raised the bar, and other teams compared themselves to US! Not until Pederson came in have we been comparing ourselves to everyone else.

 

That being said, I still do and always will support my Huskers.

 

24-17 Huskers over OU

Teams stopped comparing themselves to us after the debacle in boulder to end the 2001 regular season. the 7-7 mess from 2002 should have been enough, but with Bryne moving to another school in the conference he wasnt going to remove a coach he knew wouldnt make regular runs at the conference title. Pederson takes alot of flak. It really isnt justified. Solich may have been a good guy, but I dont think he was the right guy. If we dont compare ourselves to teams that are regularly in the title talk, then we are not in the title talk. And we were not going to get back into it with Solich at the helm. Change needed to be made.