Bill Callahan is not Pete Carroll

[Utah_Husker]

I've heard these comparisons made continuously since the end of this disappointing season. The only similarity is now Nebraska is bringing in 'talent' like USC did. But its not like USC didn't have athletes before Carroll got there. Future heisman trophy winner Carson Palmer had already spent 3 years there before Carroll was hired. I would argue that we are doing the opposite of what Carroll did to be so successful with his offense. I posted this article in another thread, but I wanted everyone to see it, so here it is again. In this article published in the USC paper, Carson Palmer talks about new offensive coordinator Norm Chow before their first season together. Note the comparisons he makes between their previous system, and the one USC currently runs. Anything sound familiar?

 

 

The biggest change of all and the reason for Palmer's renewed confidence is the fact that he is working under renowned offensive coordinator Norm Chow, who was brought in during the off season to head the offense and help Palmer realize his potential.

"I love the guy," Palmer said about Chow. "He's amazing. I can never come up with something bad to say about him. He's such an amazing person.

"Outside of football, you just respect the guy more than anything as a person, as a father and as a friend. I've learned so much from him aside from football in only five months since he's been here."

While Palmer doesn't like to compare former head coach Paul Hackett, who tried to implement the intricate West Coast offense at USC, to Chow, it is clear that he doesn't miss Hackett's infamous telephone-book sized play book.

"You really can't compare the two offenses," Palmers said. "Last year's offense was so much more complex. Coach Hackett's offense was really designed for the NFL and it's really tough to run.

"This offense is much better suited for the college game, it's much easier for a college quarterback to learn."

Chow's philosophy when it comes to offense is to keep things as simple as possible.

"When Coach Chow came in, he installed the offense in two weeks," Palmer said. "The simplicity of the this offense is what makes it so effective."

That's a far cry from Hackett's offense, where only he knew the entire playbook.

"I haven't seen the whole thing yet," Palmer said of Hackett's playbook prior to last season. "I think it's as big as the Bible. From week to week it changes.

Chow, who has coached six of the NCAA's top 12 passing efficiency leaders, hopes to change all of that.

"Hopefully [Palmer] will respond to this offense," Chow said. "When we talk about simple we simply mean that it's just 1-2-3. Maybe he's used to something a little more complex but I think he'll benefit from this."

When someone asks Palmer to describe Chow's offense, a smile almost always comes over his face as he pinpoints the differences between this playbook and the one he spent three seasons trying to master.

In addition to grasping the new offense, Palmer is more comfortable this season because Chow is more concerned with the entire offense than analyzing the quarterback's every move as Hackett was.

"Coach Chow doesn't harp on the fundamentals of the quarterback position," Palmer said. "He worries about the offense as a unit. He is more like a father figure and a player's coach than Coach Hackett."

[Pedro Guerrero]

Why did you leave out the part about the quick 3 step drops instead of 7 step drops? Did that not help your case any? I don't know why it bugs you so much that people bring Carroll up when talking about Callahan. I bring it up because people always talk about how Callahan can't coach because of what happened in the NFL. Well look what happened to Carroll in the NFL.

[Utah_Husker]

Why did you leave out the part about the quick 3 step drops instead of 7 step drops? Did that not help your case any? I don't know why it bugs you so much that people bring Carroll up when talking about Callahan. I bring it up because people always talk about how Callahan can't coach because of what happened in the NFL. Well look what happened to Carroll in the NFL.

I was trying to make it as short as possible. I also cut out some stuff at the end where it talked about all the guys that Chow has coached. Besides, that wasn't the point, the point is the offense was ridiculously complicated, Carroll brought someone in to simplify it and a Heisman trophy resulted. You can read the whole article if you want:

 

http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/dt/V144...palmer.01s.html

 

It bugs me because the comparison is not valid. Callahan is bringing an offense in here that is hard enough for professionals to master when they have all day 7 days a week to study it because it's their job. Palmer said it best in the article. USC is not doing what Callahan is doing.

Yes they both sucked in the NFL, they both seem to bring in great players (although we'll see with Callahan) but the comparisons stop there.

[Utah_Husker]

Why did you leave out the part about the quick 3 step drops instead of 7 step drops? Did that not help your case any? I don't know why it bugs you so much that people bring Carroll up when talking about Callahan. I bring it up because people always talk about how Callahan can't coach because of what happened in the NFL. Well look what happened to Carroll in the NFL.

By the way, I base my opinion that Callahan can't coach because of what I saw this season more than anything he ever did in the NFL.

[formerfan]

I base my opinion that the whole staff sucks because not one of them has ever had any real. lasting success. They are a bunch of old, re-tread losers who were just (un)fortunate enough to cross paths with bill the idiot sometime in the past.

[Red-5]

You're right Callahan is not Pete Carroll. Carroll runs the defense for USC. Norm Chow is the OC for the Trojans. Seems like Chow's name comes up more than Carrolls. Besides, USC had been running that stuff for awhile. This is NU's first year with that system. I don't think you can compare the two.

[Utah_Husker]

You're right Callahan is not Pete Carroll. Carroll runs the defense for USC. Norm Chow is the OC for the Trojans. Seems like Chow's name comes up more than Carrolls. Besides, USC had been running that stuff for awhile. This is NU's first year with that system. I don't think you can compare the two.

Did you read what Palmer said? USC has not been running this for a while. They were trying the Bill Callahan professional school of ridicuously complicated playbooks. When they simplified the whole thing, that's when they exploded.

[DaveH]

You're right Callahan is not Pete Carroll.  Carroll runs the defense for USC.  Norm Chow is the OC for the Trojans.  Seems like Chow's name comes up more than Carrolls.  Besides, USC had been running that stuff for awhile.  This is NU's first year with that system.  I don't think you can compare the two.

Did you read what Palmer said? USC has not been running this for a while. They were trying the Bill Callahan professional school of ridicuously complicated playbooks. When they simplified the whole thing, that's when they exploded.

I am not conviced that anything he and the staff tried to do this year is simply too complicated for college football. Look at the plays we were running from about the middle of the season forward. They were more or less straight forward. Contrary to popular belief, I think Callahan did simplify his game plan considerably over the course of the season.

 

But back to the topic, no, Callahan is not Carroll. I think the biggest comparison that was being used was comparing what went on at that university in it's first couple years and what is going on now in this program. At least, that's as far as I would take it.

[Benard]

You're right Callahan is not Pete Carroll.  Carroll runs the defense for USC.  Norm Chow is the OC for the Trojans.  Seems like Chow's name comes up more than Carrolls.  Besides, USC had been running that stuff for awhile.  This is NU's first year with that system.  I don't think you can compare the two.

Did you read what Palmer said? USC has not been running this for a while. They were trying the Bill Callahan professional school of ridicuously complicated playbooks. When they simplified the whole thing, that's when they exploded.

I am not conviced that anything he and the staff tried to do this year is simply too complicated for college football. Look at the plays we were running from about the middle of the season forward. They were more or less straight forward. Contrary to popular belief, I think Callahan did simplify his game plan considerably over the course of the season.

 

But back to the topic, no, Callahan is not Carroll. I think the biggest comparison that was being used was comparing what went on at that university in it's first couple years and what is going on now in this program. At least, that's as far as I would take it.

It's hard to compare though because usc was terrible when he got there, nebraska was not terrible when callahan got here. I think usc had 3 wins when carroll got there, callahan had 10 and most the team back. As far as simplifing, I dunno what you would call his play calling. ONe game he runs it every down against a poor secondary team and the next he passes every down when you could run right at them. You figure it out.

[DaveH]

It's hard to compare though because usc was terrible when he got there, nebraska was not terrible when callahan got here. I think usc had 3 wins when carroll got there, callahan had 10 and most the team back. As far as simplifing, I dunno what you would call his play calling. ONe game he runs it every down against a poor secondary team and the next he passes every down when you could run right at them. You figure it out.

We were talking about simplification of the plays themselves. Not what plays to call. As far as the play calling yea at times the plays called didn't seem to fit what everyone thinks he should have done. I know at IA State, those routes were there they just didn't get connected.

[Benard]

It's hard to compare though because usc was terrible when he got there, nebraska was not terrible when callahan got here.  I think usc had 3 wins when carroll got there, callahan had 10 and most the team back.  As far as simplifing, I dunno what you would call his play calling.  ONe game he runs it every down against a poor secondary team and the next he passes every down when you could run right at them.  You figure it out.

We were talking about simplification of the plays themselves. Not what plays to call. As far as the play calling yea at times the plays called didn't seem to fit what everyone thinks he should have done. I know at IA State, those routes were there they just didn't get connected.

Did you watch Iowa State's offense? Now that was an offense. I loved what they were doing.

[Pedro Guerrero]

Did you watch Iowa State's offense? Now that was an offense. I loved what they were doing.

If Cotton wasn't running the Offense you wouldn't care one bit about it. Didn't they throw the ball 38 times against the Huskers?

[Benard]

Did you watch Iowa State's offense? Now that was an offense. I loved what they were doing.

If Cotton wasn't running the Offense you wouldn't care one bit about it. Didn't they throw the ball 38 times against the Huskers?

We couldn't stop barney I know that much.

[DaveH]

Did you watch Iowa State's offense? Now that was an offense. I loved what they were doing.

If Cotton wasn't running the Offense you wouldn't care one bit about it. Didn't they throw the ball 38 times against the Huskers?

We couldn't stop barney I know that much.

And what does this have to do with the complexity of the offense?

[Benard]

Did you watch Iowa State's offense? Now that was an offense. I loved what they were doing.

If Cotton wasn't running the Offense you wouldn't care one bit about it. Didn't they throw the ball 38 times against the Huskers?

We couldn't stop barney I know that much.

And what does this have to do with the complexity of the offense?

I dunno maybe Bill knows something I don't know but I don't think you want to be so complex. I'd rather run 10 plays awesome then run 400 poorly. Callahan tries to out think himself sometimes I think. I don't get the philosophy of running all 400 plays once and then starting over. If it's me I pick out 20-25 plays run them over and over and then expand. That's just my coaching philosophy I guess.

 

The whole omg our offense is so fantasy,we run tons of motion, blah blah blah....it gets the fans attention but doesn't do much for our team.