Are you satisfied with Callahan?

[coyeote]

I'm pretty happy overall with the job BC's doing. If you look at the OU game for example. If you take away a couple of turnovers and a couple of big plays, throw in a couple of big plays by NU and it's a totally different score.

 

If you compare the progression of the O-line, running backs in the program, QB's in the program then BC has done a great job. I also like his game plans for the most part.

 

If you look at what we've got for wide out and big play recievers we really aren't doing as well as I would like. Purify is a good player but we need at least two of big play recievers on the field at all times and some improvements at the TE position. All in all things are looking up offensively.

 

On the D side of things the line was awesome against OU, the linebackers played very well especially if you consider their size and speed. Great heart in the LB's. In the secondary.......well no need in re-visiting that. The D actually played the run far better than I thought they would. The OU simply hit every pass he needed and that is tough to defend unless you've got top notch personell in the defensive backfield. When a ball is put where it needs to be put and the reciever does his job you can't defend it with the personell we have now.

[Touchdown Tommie]

I am very pleased with BC....he has brought this program back to prominence IMO. After the 2001 debacle with Miami, it was clear something had to change. Would I like to see us in a BCS game? For sure, but I am very happy with playing in a January bowl.

The recruits will come...especially now that the WCO is clicking more than the previous two seasons. If kids want to get to the NFL, they will start looking at NU more and more b/c of the offense and b/c of Callahan's coaching tenure in the NFL.

[DaveH]

It's not going too bad IMO. The team had a great chance to take a step forward on Saturday, but squandered it. That's pretty frustrating.

[NU fan in Denver]

I seem to get disappointed w/ this team over and over. I get so excited for these big games (USC, Texas, OU-twice, TT) and regularly get let down. This team always seem to find a way to not pull it out or let it slip away in the end. The Alamo Bowl last year was the only game that I though we weren't going to win and we took that one. There just always seems to be some kind of excuse. I just want to see results. BC has had many opportunities to get that big win for his resume and has not accomplished it yet. Hopefully Auburn will be a different story.

[BGREDSTUCKN IA]

Well after 3 years of Callahan's stint at head coach, we are probably back to where we were in 2003. We have not beaten a top 15 team yet. Also the team is still struggling on the road, and not beating Oklahoma or Texas, as they are a combined 0-4 against both. The south is dominating the Big 12 still. The recruiting has not been great, and we don't really have any big playmakers like top 10 caliber teams do. We don't play with the consistency that top 10 teams do either. Also there have been meltdowns like at Oklahoma St. that are reminiscent of past years.

 

Some may say that it takes time to turn a program around. Well I don't think that much progress has been made since the firing of Solich. I am not defending Solich or saying that we shouldn't have fired him, I'm just saying that if you fire a coach, then the program should be improved 3 years after he left. The offense has been improved, but the defense has gotten worse. The undersized DB's that we have are a joke and they can't compete on a high level.

 

I'm not really sure what to think of Callahan. I think that NU fans will get impatient as time goes on if NU is going 9-4 or 8-4 every year. I also don't think the Callahan is the coach to lead NU back to greatness and a national championship. Also having Cosgrove as DC doesn't help. What needs to happen is we need to fire Cosgrove, and recruit better. I think Nebraska will be a great team again someday. But, now they are just a good team, not a great team, and I expect fans to get tired of that after a while. It is a trend that I see continuing, but the future of Nebraska is not clear.

 

Anyone ridiculing Callahan should question themselves and how much they actually know about the game. We are right where we need to be end of story.

[NU fan in Denver]

Well after 3 years of Callahan's stint at head coach, we are probably back to where we were in 2003. We have not beaten a top 15 team yet. Also the team is still struggling on the road, and not beating Oklahoma or Texas, as they are a combined 0-4 against both. The south is dominating the Big 12 still. The recruiting has not been great, and we don't really have any big playmakers like top 10 caliber teams do. We don't play with the consistency that top 10 teams do either. Also there have been meltdowns like at Oklahoma St. that are reminiscent of past years.

 

Some may say that it takes time to turn a program around. Well I don't think that much progress has been made since the firing of Solich. I am not defending Solich or saying that we shouldn't have fired him, I'm just saying that if you fire a coach, then the program should be improved 3 years after he left. The offense has been improved, but the defense has gotten worse. The undersized DB's that we have are a joke and they can't compete on a high level.

 

I'm not really sure what to think of Callahan. I think that NU fans will get impatient as time goes on if NU is going 9-4 or 8-4 every year. I also don't think the Callahan is the coach to lead NU back to greatness and a national championship. Also having Cosgrove as DC doesn't help. What needs to happen is we need to fire Cosgrove, and recruit better. I think Nebraska will be a great team again someday. But, now they are just a good team, not a great team, and I expect fans to get tired of that after a while. It is a trend that I see continuing, but the future of Nebraska is not clear.

 

Anyone ridiculing Callahan should question themselves and how much they actually know about the game. We are right where we need to be end of story.

 

And where would that be??

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

The program is headed in the right direction and with the next recruting class will be just that much better. There has been improvement each year Coach Callahan has been here.

[alairguard]

I love what Callahan has done with the offense. Keep in mind that it will be another year, possibly two, until we have a team that is nothing but his recruits. The defense is another story, not at all happy with the inconsistancies. I was proud at how the D played during certain times of this season and yet not so proud other times. I don't know what to think or what needs to be done to rectify that situation. On the other hand, we are playing in January again and against a tought Auburn team. Living in Montgomery, surrounded by Tiger fans, I have just three words for them and the members of my unit and those words are....GO BIG RED!

[Redman]

Well after 3 years of Callahan's stint at head coach, we are probably back to where we were in 2003. We have not beaten a top 15 team yet. Also the team is still struggling on the road, and not beating Oklahoma or Texas, as they are a combined 0-4 against both. The south is dominating the Big 12 still. The recruiting has not been great, and we don't really have any big playmakers like top 10 caliber teams do. We don't play with the consistency that top 10 teams do either. Also there have been meltdowns like at Oklahoma St. that are reminiscent of past years.

 

Some may say that it takes time to turn a program around. Well I don't think that much progress has been made since the firing of Solich. I am not defending Solich or saying that we shouldn't have fired him, I'm just saying that if you fire a coach, then the program should be improved 3 years after he left. The offense has been improved, but the defense has gotten worse. The undersized DB's that we have are a joke and they can't compete on a high level.

 

I'm not really sure what to think of Callahan. I think that NU fans will get impatient as time goes on if NU is going 9-4 or 8-4 every year. I also don't think the Callahan is the coach to lead NU back to greatness and a national championship. Also having Cosgrove as DC doesn't help. What needs to happen is we need to fire Cosgrove, and recruit better. I think Nebraska will be a great team again someday. But, now they are just a good team, not a great team, and I expect fans to get tired of that after a while. It is a trend that I see continuing, but the future of Nebraska is not clear.

 

Anyone ridiculing Callahan should question themselves and how much they actually know about the game. We are right where we need to be end of story.

 

I also think that anyone NOT questioning BC should question themselves. If the coach were never questioned, we would still have Solich. I believe that we are heading in the right direction, but I am not about to shrug off anyone who is disenchanted with the current staff. A Callahan team has not beaten a top ten team as of yet. Will they? Who knows? They have improved season to season over the last three years, but they are still a far cry from an NC contender. We beat all of the North teams, but lost to 3 of the south teams (and a questionable USC team), so it is difficult to gauge the level of this team. As fair as it is for you to have your beliefs, it is as fair for other people to have theirs. We may get better or we may not, nobody is able to predict the future with absolute certainty, just sincerity in belief. It may be the end of your story, but many read from a different book.

[indianahusker]

Well, I believe things are headed in the right direction...with the offense.

The defense could have as many as 4-5 players drafted in the spring, and could have as many as 7 potential NFL players on it. As far as recruiting goes, wasn't Grix a 4-star? Wasn't Jones a 4 or 5 star? If they were so good, what went wrong? Why did NU even recruit these guys?

The record speaks for itself. If NU loses the Cotton, they will finish the season unranked for the 2nd year in three with Callahan. A promising season won't amount to nearly as much as we thought it would.

As well as the defense played Saturday, NU will never win anything besides the North with Coz as D-Coordinator and Elmo as DB's coach. Cally's offense is the only reason NU has gotten this far. If he doesn't fire his good frined soon, he's gonna find himself in the bread line in the next few years. NU won't settle for 8-4 and 9-5 seasons...

[roadrat]

No real complaints with the progress. Callahans game calling is still questionable. Rather than overstocking on RB's, It's time to start recruiting blue-chippers on defense cause defense still wins in football.

[EbylHusker]

Callahan's done a great job with what he was given (which wasn't much, despite what people that only look at records think). You can usually expect 4-5 years until you really start to see the fruits of your labor with such a major change in thinking with a college football team.

 

He's not a perfect coach and it's obvious he's still trying to get some things figured out. You don't rebuild a program with huge leaps and bounds, you do it in small steps. You make some progress each season, impress a few more higher caliber recruits than last year, make some more progress next season, etc.

 

A national title contender after 3 years? rofl...anyone that truly thought so was completely delusional. It'll still be a few more years before the program is solidly back on its feet and any realistic talk of a national title shot can be anything but a dream.

 

Callahan is pretty much right on schedule for where he should be.

[Aim9]

Callahan has us headed in the right direction and that is something that Solich could never claim. Solich inheirited a national championship team with top notch players, and look at what happened once they were gone. We went 7-7. We were damn lucky to get to 10-3 the next year, and we were only going to get worse. His recruits were TERRIBLE. Joe Dailey isn't good enough to cut it at North Carolina- should he really have been quarterback at NU?

 

Basically, Solich inheirited a national championship team and it gradually became a train wreck because of poor recruiting and an outdated offensive scheme. Callahan inheirited a train wreck and will gradually take it to the next level if given ample time, I believe.

 

*The old offensive system WAS outdated. Due to the increasing parity in Div I football, NU could no longer depend on simply running straight at opponents without a balanced attack and relying on superior athleticism to win the game.

[strigori]

I dont have any complaints really. Acouple personel issues on why who is playing a possition maybe, but nothing else.

 

It is a matter of looking at the big picture. We are making progress year to year. We are closing the gap in talent level between us and the bigger powers in the nation.

 

The turnaround here seems slower than what was done at some other schools on the surface, but look deeper. Oklahoma had years of John Blake recruiting to help stoops look briliant when he arrived. Talent at Texas and USC has always been shooting fish in a barrel. Texas and USC get top list talent without even trying, and it has always been that way, even with awful coaching staffs. It isnt like that at Nebraska. We get a handfull of top talent without much effort, usually the top couple players from instate. But the classes of 25 blue chippers like USC, Texas, OU, LSU, and the like get, we have to work 5 times as hard for.

 

Callahan has to start from the sadly depleted talent that solich leftbehind. Now while I'm sure some people are going to jump on me becuase there have been a few players drafted that were solich recruits and alot of the current defensive starters are his as well, look deeper. Where is the depth? When the Bullocks brothers left, and Washington, what did we have left?

 

Callahan went about overhualing the offensive side of the ball first. He spent the majority of the first couple classes getting players in to fit the WCO. The defensive side was left to make due with what we had on the roster already. And now this year you can see they are putting alot more focus on the definsive players.

 

I wont call for Cosgrove's head just yet either. Think back over all the years we had with Charlie McBride. Everyone thought he was an idiot until he got elite talent like Mike and Ralph Brown, Grant wistrom, the Peters brothers, and a host of other geats. Look at our roster. We dont have a list of talent like those guys.

 

Us Nebraska fans are not patient. But unless we show some, we could end up like Alabama. We want to be in the BCS picture every year. We were closer to that this year than anywhere in the last seven years. Our time will return, but it will take a little time. Keep the faith and Go Big Red.

[np_husker]

I go back & forth with Callahan. I still get upset thinking about the USC game (sorry to bring it up again), but I really think we could have won that game, but Callahan coached to minimize the loss and not to win. That disgusted me because Devaney, Osborne, Solich, never would have coached that way. For the record, I am glad that Solich was replaced, I think it was time.

 

Callahan will show great moments and be creative with his play calling ala the Colorado game. But at the same time, was it necessary to show what was in the bag against a 2-9 team? That confused me.

 

As for next season, we all know Sam Keller is good, but hopefully he can learn this complicated offense and make it work in one year. What happens the year after that? I just don't see that we're building a program for the long run. The one year at a time thing only goes so far. We have to have building blocks for the future and a coach who coaches with passion and "gets" what Nebraska is about.

 

One more thing... I would love to see Callahan more relaxed with the media and with the fans. He seems to talk a lot at media conferences but never says much and never lets us in.

 

Having sad all that, I do think that slowly we are getting better.