I wish Callahan was still our HC

[Conga3]

This is the quintessential example on why BC failed. His ability to use talent effectively was non-existent.

 

I dunno. Marlon Lucky was an exceptional talent and used effectively. I'm not sure Lucky ever had the raw desire it takes to explode through holes on the line, but BC knew what he had with Lucky, and the Keller>>Lucky short passing game was incredibly successful.

 

I suppose some look at using a check-down receiver like Lucky and an indication of a poor QB - and some have said as much on HB - but I thought BC was very good at getting skilled players into space and letting them make plays against poor match-ups.

 

His stubborness in year one ended NU's bowl run. His blind loyalty to Keller, despite the clear signs that Ganz was not only 1A, but also a guy the team wanted to battle for, cost BC dearly.

 

You can try to say it was about offensive scheme, but even if that was true, it was clear in August camp that Ganz and Keller were neck & neck running that offense.

 

BC went with Keller's "on paper measurements" and it cost him.

 

It is a forgivable offense by itself, but for BC it was only the second to last example of poor personnel judgement (Not canning Cosgrove mid-way into the season was the other).

 

I think it's easy to say some of those things about the Keller vs. Ganz QB battle now...but back in the day during fall camp BC had to make a decision which QB was going to get the majority of the snaps and be the starter. He had two good choices, and went with the guy with more in-game experience, seniority, and physical measurables. Surely Keller being a transfer might have weighed a little into the equation, but many fans simply look at the results and think it was obvious Joe was better because by the time he played, he lit up the field.

 

In reality, Joe Ganz was a nobody back then. Yeah, there were reports of a Keller vs. Ganz battle in fall camp, but most folks just chalked that up to good preseason football drama and it was mostly assumed Keller was going to start.

 

---

 

I just don't like to see people pile on a former Husker coach or player, whoever it is.

 

If Callahan hired Bo as his DC and said 'do whatever you need to do on defense, I'll get out of your way.' the results would have likely been different. Watson and Bo were more 'player' coaches and Callahan was the organized CEO guy who knew the X's and O's on offense. Callahan calling offense plays and Bo calling the defense and Watson developing our QB's would have been very interesting combo for sure.

 

239+ days until the next Husker football game. Let's make sure we cover all the topics we can!

[Goal-line]

You have to admit one thing, Billy C's offense could score points. The problem was with the defense. And, I might add, he recruited some top notch talent.

 

I have only agreed one time in my life with Lou Holtz. (Actually, I cannot stand the man.) That is when he said (referring to Bill Callahan's defense), "The most difficult thing for a head coach to do is to fire his friends, even if it costs him his job."

 

I do not think Bill Callahan was the man for Nebraska because he did not belong to this culture. He was a "no connect" to the fans and players. I wish Pelini could recruit the talent that Callahan had here because I believe he could coach them. Callahan could not.

 

Who?

Everybody we sent to the NFL in the last couple of years was a Billy C recruit. Not supporting this thread at all, but it's the truth.

Yeah but, I'm just trying to remember both of them...Suh and Bowman?..

 

Slassen?

 

Sam Keller?

Suh, Slauson, Hagg, Amukamara, Dillard, Gomes, Helu, Potter, Nicks, Henery. Probably a couple others I missed.

How about Josh Freeman and Blaine Gabbert who both bailed on NU?

[Goal-line]

You have to admit one thing, Billy C's offense could score points. The problem was with the defense. And, I might add, he recruited some top notch talent.

 

I have only agreed one time in my life with Lou Holtz. (Actually, I cannot stand the man.) That is when he said (referring to Bill Callahan's defense), "The most difficult thing for a head coach to do is to fire his friends, even if it costs him his job."

 

I do not think Bill Callahan was the man for Nebraska because he did not belong to this culture. He was a "no connect" to the fans and players. I wish Pelini could recruit the talent that Callahan had here because I believe he could coach them. Callahan could not.

Six points against Missouri, 14 against Okie Lite, and 14 against Texas A&M. Offense definitely wasn't the problem that year, but those three games were still pathetic performances.

 

Cactusboy, you're quite clearly ignorant to the Bill Callahan era, and there's truly no nicer way to say it. The state was divided and in an uproar, our players flat out gave up on the season, there was little unity and the program was in shambles. There is no bone in my body that things Callahan remaining on as HC would have been a good thing. All that "talent" brought in was underutilized and poorly developed, and there's absolutely no argument to be made against that.

 

You're just wrong. Flat out, undeniably, inconceivably wrong about this.

Colorado 65-NU 51 bring back any memories?

[zoogs]

Come on Knapp. Keller got spooked in the pocket by the slightest hint of a pass rush and had little-to-no downfield vision.

 

Sure, WCO depends on short passes. But to open up the long passes (and some long runs hopefully). Keller didn't ever excel at that second part in 07. Especially after the SoCal/Ball St. games. Completely lost his confidence after that.

 

Keller won the job, but he didn't win his team over. That was a big, divisive issue that year and what led, in my opinion, to Ganz's later success - Joe having the team behind him and ready to go to work for him.

 

From that standpoint, I can fault Callahan for overlooking the non-football factors in deciding on his starting QB. I disagree that Keller's starting spot was a done deal, he still earned the position, although of course his resume and attributes gave him a huge leg up from the start.

 

If the source Cactusboy quoted was at all correct, I think it shows two things:

 

1) Steve Pederson made some incredibly inept management decisions

2) Bill Callahan is completely at fault for not being too lax: making a stand and calling the shot.

 

One thing I am curious about is the timing of these supposed events.

 

We are heading into the fifth year after the 2007 debacle. Time to move on from treating Bill Callahan - a good person, knowledgeable coach who tried hard but didn't succeed here - as the antichrist, especially for completely nebulous reasons as "he wasn't a NU guy". He had good qualities and he made mistakes that were the reasons for his dismissal. It doesn't mean that everything he did was wrong or that Bo would be ill-served to learn from some of the better things he did here.

 

And on that whole 'disconnect with the fans' thing, what about Bo, who treats the fans as vultures against whom he has circled the wagons with his team? He could certainly embrace the fanbase more, one that wants to cheer for him and see him succeed, and one that by and large, loves him.

[B.B. Hemingway]

Callahan lacked (insert your reason here) to actually start Ganz over his golden boy Keller. This type of favoritism was foolish in the extreme, and may very have costed him quite a few of his earlier games.

 

I will go to my grave disagreeing with this. Keller was the better option for the offense we intended to run when the decision had to be made in August. Of course, the day Keller came in he was going to be declared the starter and everyone knew that, but he was better for the offense Callahan had in mind. Ganzy came in after Keller's injury and lit it up, but they changed things for him, adapted what they were doing to suit his skills, and basically let it all hang out. There are a lot of things I'll fault Callahan for, but the decision to start Keller won't be one of them. That was a decent football decision.

 

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Callahan, and he was a class act. Great guy, who I would have no problem drinking some brews with and talking football. But as a head football coach, he didn't know what he was doing at the college level.

 

This I definitely agree with. I have no problem with Bill Callahan the person, or the position coach. He just wasn't a good fit here. Doesn't make him evil, just wrong for the job. He was in need of a job, and he was put in a tough position by his need for a job and an idiot Athletic Director.

 

I respectfully disagree with you on this one...You go with the guy who is going to give you the best chance of winning, and if Ganz is that guy (obviously he was) then you go with him and adjust the system accordingly, if necessary.... If Callahan had the ability to adjust the system for Ganz, then he should have went with Ganz to begin with.... In my opinion the Keller had the starting job before he ever competed in practice against Ganz.... There was a definitive difference between the performances of Keller, and Ganz, and given that much of a difference in talent/performance you shouldn't let the system stop you from starting the right guy at QB....

[B.B. Hemingway]

You have to admit one thing, Billy C's offense could score points. The problem was with the defense. And, I might add, he recruited some top notch talent.

 

I have only agreed one time in my life with Lou Holtz. (Actually, I cannot stand the man.) That is when he said (referring to Bill Callahan's defense), "The most difficult thing for a head coach to do is to fire his friends, even if it costs him his job."

 

I do not think Bill Callahan was the man for Nebraska because he did not belong to this culture. He was a "no connect" to the fans and players. I wish Pelini could recruit the talent that Callahan had here because I believe he could coach them. Callahan could not.

Six points against Missouri, 14 against Okie Lite, and 14 against Texas A&M. Offense definitely wasn't the problem that year, but those three games were still pathetic performances.

 

Cactusboy, you're quite clearly ignorant to the Bill Callahan era, and there's truly no nicer way to say it. The state was divided and in an uproar, our players flat out gave up on the season, there was little unity and the program was in shambles. There is no bone in my body that things Callahan remaining on as HC would have been a good thing. All that "talent" brought in was underutilized and poorly developed, and there's absolutely no argument to be made against that.

 

You're just wrong. Flat out, undeniably, inconceivably wrong about this.

Colorado 65-NU 51 bring back any memories?

 

Yes it does.... Don't bring it up again....

[knapplc]

I respectfully disagree with you on this one...You go with the guy who is going to give you the best chance of winning, and if Ganz is that guy (obviously he was) then you go with him and adjust the system accordingly, if necessary.... If Callahan had the ability to adjust the system for Ganz, then he should have went with Ganz to begin with.... In my opinion the Keller had the starting job before he ever competed in practice against Ganz.... There was a definitive difference between the performances of Keller, and Ganz, and given that much of a difference in talent/performance you shouldn't let the system stop you from starting the right guy at QB....

 

Ganz wasn't "obviously" the guy giving us the best chance of winning. Keller was far ahead of Ganz in WCO principles. Keller outplayed Ganz in the Spring Game and it wasn't until the season was pretty much over that Ganz started, and we slung the ball around like it was a hot potato. To Ganz' credit he had a boatload of yards in the final 3.5 games of the season in 2007, but let's also remember that Ganz had half as many pass attempts as Keller in one third the number of games. We drastically changed the offense to pass-first, pass-often in Callahan's last-ditch effort to save his job.

 

Coincidentally, this super-go offense happened to occur at the same time Osborne took over as AD. Or perhaps not so coincidentally.

 

I'm not going to tell you Ganz sucked because he didn't. But Keller was not the wrong guy. Nothing that happened in 2007 is the fault of Sam Keller, no matter the results of the games or what he did after he left Nebraska.

[majech]

[junior4949]

2006 was BC's best year here. We were 9-5. We put up gigantic offensive numbers like 10 against USC and 7 against OU. In the time BC was coach, we put most of our points up against teams with a pulse when the game was clearly lost. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was what a BC recruited QB could have done his jr. or sr. year. However, BC could never keep a QB around long enough to get there. Beck bolted. Freeman decommitted. Gabbert decommitted. With another couple of BC coached years, Suh would have been lucky to be a mid-fourth round draft pick. BC was good at getting the talent, but he rarely ever developed it once he got it to Nebraska.

[The Duke]

Ummm...let's see here, Callahan had two losing seasons at Nebraska in four years. Our consecutive bowl streak went away under his watch. 2007 was and still is one of the worst Husker seasons this program has had over the last century. And yet you wish Callahan was still our Head Coach??? Yeah....no thanks. Give me Bo Pelini any day of the week.

[zoogs]

Also, Ganz put up a buncha his numbers in meaningless garbage time, so you know, it doesn't matter anyway

[majech]

This is the quintessential example on why BC failed. His ability to use talent effectively was non-existent.

 

I dunno. Marlon Lucky was an exceptional talent and used effectively. I'm not sure Lucky ever had the raw desire it takes to explode through holes on the line, but BC knew what he had with Lucky, and the Keller>>Lucky short passing game was incredibly successful.

 

I suppose some look at using a check-down receiver like Lucky and an indication of a poor QB - and some have said as much on HB - but I thought BC was very good at getting skilled players into space and letting them make plays against poor match-ups.

 

His stubborness in year one ended NU's bowl run. His blind loyalty to Keller, despite the clear signs that Ganz was not only 1A, but also a guy the team wanted to battle for, cost BC dearly.

 

You can try to say it was about offensive scheme, but even if that was true, it was clear in August camp that Ganz and Keller were neck & neck running that offense.

 

BC went with Keller's "on paper measurements" and it cost him.

 

It is a forgivable offense by itself, but for BC it was only the second to last example of poor personnel judgement (Not canning Cosgrove mid-way into the season was the other).

 

I think it's easy to say some of those things about the Keller vs. Ganz QB battle now...but back in the day during fall camp BC had to make a decision which QB was going to get the majority of the snaps and be the starter. He had two good choices, and went with the guy with more in-game experience, seniority, and physical measurables. Surely Keller being a transfer might have weighed a little into the equation, but many fans simply look at the results and think it was obvious Joe was better because by the time he played, he lit up the field.

 

In reality, Joe Ganz was a nobody back then. Yeah, there were reports of a Keller vs. Ganz battle in fall camp, but most folks just chalked that up to good preseason football drama and it was mostly assumed Keller was going to start.

 

---

 

I just don't like to see people pile on a former Husker coach or player, whoever it is.

 

If Callahan hired Bo as his DC and said 'do whatever you need to do on defense, I'll get out of your way.' the results would have likely been different. Watson and Bo were more 'player' coaches and Callahan was the organized CEO guy who knew the X's and O's on offense. Callahan calling offense plays and Bo calling the defense and Watson developing our QB's would have been very interesting combo for sure.

 

239+ days until the next Husker football game. Let's make sure we cover all the topics we can!

 

Marlon Lucky? Are you serious? He was not very effective and not used well. Hell, BC kept Brandon Jackson off the filed so we could watch Lucky get repeatedly tackled by stiff breezes. Did that guy EVER break a tackle? He was good in space I guess, but we rarely got him there.

 

If my aunt Sally had nuts, she'd be my uncle Sal.

 

One phrase sums up the total failure that was the BC era..."half-pack" We couldn't tackle on defense, yet we were not smart enough to go full pads so our players could LEARN to tackle? This is not the NFL. CFB players need to be taught the basics. And don't blame that on Cos. The head coach decided to "half-pack".

[junior4949]

Ganz also threw a lot of INT's. Most of his yards he got against KU came against a prevent defense. In BC's tenure, we had to bring bandaid QB's because BC couldn't develop one.

[Excel]

I for one, would really like the Huskers to rehire Callahan

[majech]

2006 was BC's best year here. We were 9-5. We put up gigantic offensive numbers like 10 against USC and 7 against OU. In the time BC was coach, we put most of our points up against teams with a pulse when the game was clearly lost. The only thing I would have liked to have seen was what a BC recruited QB could have done his jr. or sr. year. However, BC could never keep a QB around long enough to get there. Beck bolted. Freeman decommitted. Gabbert decommitted. With another couple of BC coached years, Suh would have been lucky to be a mid-fourth round draft pick. BC was good at getting the talent, but he rarely ever developed it once he got it to Nebraska.

 

DING DING DING. We have a winner. It amazes me when people talk about how good the offense was under BC. It sucked. Oh, against cupcakes, and good teams that had pulled their starters, it could score.