Nebraska going through the dark Ages

[NamelessHusker]

Not the victory but the action. Not the goal but the game. In the deed the glory

 

These are the words inscribed on the gates leading into one of the most storied stadiums in the history of college football, Memorial stadium

 

Husker fans have been spoiled the last 40 years. There are those who walk among us who have been to the game of the century. There are those who began watching Husker football in the midst's of it's peak during the 1990's. From a 2 point conversion in 1983 to the climatic touchdown catch against Missouri in 1997, Husker fans have been there and will always be there. Just as we witnessed the good times, we are witnessing the bad times

 

We, as a nation, have lost some of our mystic and class. We were once a proud Husker nation, who cheered the opponents, supported the program, brought our children to get photos and autographs from players, and traveled regardless of wind, rain, or snow.

 

This is the case no more. There are those who have jumped ship to Ohio and are looking elsewhere for a connection to the old Nebraska. There are those who are riding the fence and undecided on what to do, and then there are those who are still behind this University 100%

 

I ask...No i beg Husker nation and it's faithful to maintain our class, continue our support of the program and remember, we cheer for the Huskers not because of a coach, his assistants or because of it's athletic director. We cheer because we love this program with every single drop of RED blood in our veins.

 

Many people lately have been bringing up the issue of firing a head coach 2 years into his 5 year contract. Some of these people are the same ones who were asking for Bob Devaney's head to roll, Others are now the sons and daughters of those same fans who were passing around a statewide memo to remove Tom Osborne, but now have a faster way to do it, the INTERNET!

 

Those fans who were wanting Osborne out are glad they didn't, so are their sons and daughters. They say history repeats itself, but sometimes takes a different route. At times, it takes a short route, other times it takes a longer route to test the patience of humans.

 

We are being tested at the moment. How long before we rise back up to the top is unknown. One thing that is known though is what comes up, must come down. Dynasties come and go, and just like the Egyptian, Roman, Greek Dynaties and Empires have come and gone, so has the Husker dynasty, one thing remains certain, the Husker Dynasty, unlike its other predecessors lives on in the hearts, minds and souls of everyone in this day and age. It will return because we as a nation posses something those other dynasties lacked.

 

Just as those dynasties fell to the attacks of other nations, the Husker Dynasty was attacked by the Kansas St's, Missouri's, and Colorado's. One attack can most of the time be warded off, but when several attack at once, it's no surprise when that dynasty falls and goes through a dark age and needs time to rebuild itself, replenish its supplies, and move back into the top of the dominance pyramid.

 

Husker Nation has already taken the attack head on and fell eventually. And even though we are going through our dark ages, when the time is right and we have rebuilt, we will once again rule the landscape and this time, we will be better equipped, stronger and better prepared.

 

 

Go big Red

[johnny_husker]

 

Well said Nameless!!!!!

 

Go Big Red

[Blackshirt34]

We need an entire overhaul of the program, just as Miami did when it was about to put it's football program out of it's misery. We need a no-nonsense coach that will command respect from his players. A coach that isnt afraid to run up the score to show oppenents they should fear our offense. Then we turn to recruits, we need ATHLETIC talent. Go to the source... go after the big mamoth linemen out of texas and the super athletic skilled positions out of south florida, and a football smart qb out of Cali. There's my formula for success if we want to compete at the top of the NCAA again.

[ownagebomb]

talk about dark times......I live in Lawrence....and play for the KU Paintball team....I might hang myself later

[mcrooks7]

I attend the stupid University, and deal with the "Huck the Fuskers" all day long. Feel your pain Bomb.

[rawhide]

Nice post Nameless,

 

There will be those that disagree and there is no harm in that. When the one successful solution is revealed all the people will say "There I told you that would work." That won't matter either, just that once again NU will rule the gridiron and the fans will be appeased. It's all about the fans and how despondent things really are, not about the athletes and the peaks and troughs in life. That last sentence was just my snide side coming out.

 

On the lighter side, People paintball in Kansas. Cool NPPL rules.

[formerfan]

Idiotic, nonsensical diatribe.

 

Comparing billy c to the great Bobfather or TO is laughable at best. These guys were great coaches. billy c, well..look at his record.

 

If anything the comparison between TO and BD should be made to Solich, not a guy who is around .500 as a coach and who submarined two different teams in consecutive years.

[mcrooks7]

My my Former, you outdo yourself again. Take a closer look at both Devany's and Osborne's first couple years. Their records were much nicer to look at, but still bespeckled with losses, and they weren't overhauling a system. Whether or not BC should have the "audacity" to update the O, this is a big step. And the fans at the time? Demanding both of their heads. They were good coaches, and other than your "Idiotic, nonsensical diatribe" there is no true proof that Billy C isn't either. Are there problems? Yes. But the great coaches of the past were not perfect either. Change doesn't always have to be a bad thing, big guy. Sometimes it brings new and wonderful things, though maybe not immediately. Think of puberty, if you've been through it. Change will occur, but recinding your status as a fan wont make it happen any faster. I for one am ready for this week, and the next, and the bowl, and spring practice, and on and on. I want the team to win, but I can be patient too. Try some Buddist techniques, realign your chi, and move on.

 

Lots of love.

 

Crooksie

 

GO HUSKERS!!!

[NamelessHusker]

Idiotic, nonsensical diatribe.

 

Comparing billy c to the great Bobfather or TO is laughable at best. These guys were great coaches. billy c, well..look at his record.

 

If anything the comparison between TO and BD should be made to Solich, not a guy who is around .500 as a coach and who submarined two different teams in consecutive years.

Why is that? When Devaney started out, he lost homecoming to Missouri in his first year. He also got blown out by Oklahoma in Norman 34-6. The same is true for Osborne. He lost at Missouri and and got blown out by Oklahoma in Norman 27-0.

 

And if you think the teams Devaney and Osborne first went up against in the 60's and 70's are the same caliber teams such as Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas Tech of the 21st century, then you have problems. Kansas St, the worst team in the history fo college football was a guranteed win every year up untill 1993 when they began getting 9+ wins. They were 60-153 from 1973-1993 (avg 3 wins a year). Iowa St was 116-177-7 from 1973-1998. That's not even begining to calculate Kansas or Missouri and Oklahoma St which had consecutive losing seasons from 1989-1996 and other losing seasons in the 80's, and 70's.

 

Some people say losing to teams like Kansas is called medicority, i call it Parity. Tom Osborne, Bobby Bowden, Joe Peterno can no longer stock pile talent upon talent like they use to do in the old days and now smaller teams like Kansas, Utah, Miami-Ohio compete with the bigger name schools and pull off upsets.

 

Devaney and Osborne might not have had losing seasons to begin with, but then again they never had advanced computer equipment to breakdown how many times a team runs a certain play, or the ability to rewind over and over again game film and take that players moves and blow it up on a tv screen and see how to attack them and find weak spots. They also were not tied down by all these NCAA laws and scholarship limits.

[Armistead]

Idiotic, nonsensical diatribe.

 

Comparing billy c to the great Bobfather or TO is laughable at best. These guys were great coaches. billy c, well..look at his record.

 

If anything the comparison between TO and BD should be made to Solich, not a guy who is around .500 as a coach and who submarined two different teams in consecutive years.

I concur

[Utah_Husker]

Idiotic, nonsensical diatribe.

 

Comparing billy c to the great Bobfather or TO is laughable at best. These guys were great coaches. billy c, well..look at his record.

 

If anything the comparison between TO and BD should be made to Solich, not a guy who is around .500 as a coach and who submarined two different teams in consecutive years.

Why is that? When Devaney started out, he lost homecoming to Missouri in his first year. He also got blown out by Oklahoma in Norman 34-6. The same is true for Osborne. He lost at Missouri and and got blown out by Oklahoma in Norman 27-0.

 

And if you think the teams Devaney and Osborne first went up against in the 60's and 70's are the same caliber teams such as Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas Tech of the 21st century, then you have problems. Kansas St, the worst team in the history fo college football was a guranteed win every year up untill 1993 when they began getting 9+ wins. They were 60-153 from 1973-1993 (avg 3 wins a year). Iowa St was 116-177-7 from 1973-1998. That's not even begining to calculate Kansas or Missouri and Oklahoma St which had consecutive losing seasons from 1989-1996 and other losing seasons in the 80's, and 70's.

 

Some people say losing to teams like Kansas is called medicority, i call it Parity. Tom Osborne, Bobby Bowden, Joe Peterno can no longer stock pile talent upon talent like they use to do in the old days and now smaller teams like Kansas, Utah, Miami-Ohio compete with the bigger name schools and pull off upsets.

 

Devaney and Osborne might not have had losing seasons to begin with, but then again they never had advanced computer equipment to breakdown how many times a team runs a certain play, or the ability to rewind over and over again game film and take that players moves and blow it up on a tv screen and see how to attack them and find weak spots. They also were not tied down by all these NCAA laws and scholarship limits.

Did you use the 'parity' argument when Solich was going 9-3? My guess is you didn't. I think Former's comparison of Solich to BD and TO is much more valid than yours of BC to those guys. Look, you've proven to me by your arguments (and your new nifty pictures in your signature) that you really dislike Solich and blame him for all our problems right now. Those of us who disagree with you think none of this was necessary. Pud removed a successful coach who was on the rise after a bad season and sold us a bill of goods that turned out to be a sack of crap. That's all Pud is, a sleazy door to door salesman. And this coach is his product. After each rant like this I always leave a disclaimer that I could be wrong. Maybe, by some miracle, BC will get this turned around. But right now momentum is definitely headed in the wrong direction and I don't believe that it is going to be corrected with these clowns. Now, tell me I'm a bandwagoning, fair-weather, spoiled fan. Because I know that's what's coming next.

 

By the way...are you trying to say 'Karma' in your signature, or is 'Karam' some sort of play on words that I'm not getting? I honestly want to know because I'm a little slow on the jokes sometimes.

[Husker_fan_in_KC]

I always find it amusing when I hear we are "spoiled" when what was promised to us was to be back on top of the Big 12 at the COST OF OUR DYNASTY. I would call that "greedy" so who is worse, those that were spoiled or those that were greedy, because thruout history all dynasities fell to greed in some form or another. So maybe the comparison is apt, greed did cause the NU dynasty to fall as well.

[NamelessHusker]

Those of us who disagree with you think none of this was necessary. Pud removed a successful coach who was on the rise after a bad season and sold us a bill of goods that turned out to be a sack of crap

 

It was all neccessary. NU became 1 dimensional and could not pass the ball to save its life in solich's final 3 years. At least when Devaney and Osborne were around, we could rely on SOME kind of passing game, but with Solich, he made it a mission to make the team a 1 man army with his QB this, QB that, QB here, there and everywhere mentality. Solich's offense became to predictable and lacked creativity. The QB was running more with the ball then the DAMN RB/IB was.

 

The only one who sold us a bill of goods that turned out to be crap was Tom Osborne. That's something that will be held against him untill he dies. Had we conducted a proper coaching search back then, this wouldn't be an issue. Instead, he decided to play the loyalty card and appoint a guy simply because he wanted to keep the old offense going, not realizing that teams were on the rise like Texas (which beat him in 1996, that should have been a sign of things to come), Colorado (which won a title before he did in the 90's), Kansas St which went from consecutive losing seasons to realing off 9+ consecutive win season begining in 1993.

 

Solich was not succesful without Tom's recruits, plain and simple. Whether you like it or not. Under him every streak had begun to fall. The constant losses to Kansas St, the humiliation in Colorado and the Rosebowl, the poor recruiting, the inability to form a passing game untill his throat was on the line, the lousy record on the road.

 

Streaks that neded under Solich:

1-33 consecutive seasons with 9+ wins

2-being ranked in the final USA Today top25

3-being ranked in the final AP poll for 348 consecutive weeks

4-Losing 3 games in November since 1961

5-40 year streak of consecutive winning seasons

6-24 game winning streak against Missouri

7-47 game winning streak at home

 

There's more, i just can't think of them. Lets not count his 1-11 record against top25 teams on the road, his 2-4 record against Kansas St, his 1-4 record against Texas, and ending a god knows how long streak of beating Colorado in Lincoln. What about being blown out by Colorado (2001), Miami (2001), Penn St (2002), Iowa St (2002), K State (2002), Missouri (2003), Texas (2003), Kansas St (2003). Or his 4-9 record on the road since 2001.

 

It was time for a change..the records speak for themselves. I am not saying Callahan has a better record at the moment, but i am willing to be patient

[formerfan]

It was all neccessary. NU became 1 dimensional and could not pass the ball to save its life in solich's final 3 years.

 

And now they can’t run OR pass to save their lives. Brilliant!

 

Solich's offense became to predictable and lacked creativity. The QB was running more with the ball then the DAMN  RB/IB was.

 

But qb sack on 1st down, 3 yard out to the TE on 2nd, and unsuccessful screen pass on 3rd down is more creative.

 

Solich was not successful without Tom's recruits, plain and simple. Whether you like it or not.

 

Whether you like it or not, billy c has not been very successful anywhere. Someone else brought up his records as a HC and an assistant, something like 27-28 as a head coach, 8-10 vs NCAA Div 1 opponents. His record as an assistant wasnt much better.

[sgfdhusker]

It was all neccessary. NU became 1 dimensional and could not pass the ball to save its life in solich's final 3 years. At least when Devaney and Osborne were around, we could rely on SOME kind of passing game, but with Solich, he made it a mission to make the team a 1 man army with his QB this, QB that, QB here, there and everywhere mentality. Solich's offense became to predictable and lacked creativity. The QB was running more with the ball then the DAMN RB/IB was.

 

The only one who sold us a bill of goods that turned out to be crap was Tom Osborne. That's something that will be held against him untill he dies. Had we conducted a proper coaching search back then, this wouldn't be an issue. Instead, he decided to play the loyalty card and appoint a guy simply because he wanted to keep the old offense going, not realizing that teams were on the rise like Texas (which beat him in 1996, that should have been a sign of things to come), Colorado (which won a title before he did in the 90's), Kansas St which went from consecutive losing seasons to realing off 9+ consecutive win season begining in 1993.

 

Solich was not succesful without Tom's recruits, plain and simple. Whether you like it or not. Under him every streak had begun to fall. The constant losses to Kansas St, the humiliation in Colorado and the Rosebowl, the poor recruiting, the inability to form a passing game untill his throat was on the line, the lousy record on the road.

 

Streaks that neded under Solich:

1-33 consecutive seasons with 9+ wins

2-being ranked in the final USA Today top25

3-being ranked in the final AP poll for 348 consecutive weeks

4-Losing 3 games in November since 1961

5-40 year streak of consecutive winning seasons

6-24 game winning streak against Missouri

7-47 game winning streak at home

 

There's more, i just can't think of them. Lets not count his 1-11 record against top25 teams on the road, his 2-4 record against Kansas St, his 1-4 record against Texas, and ending a god knows how long streak of beating Colorado in Lincoln. What about being blown out by Colorado (2001), Miami (2001), Penn St (2002), Iowa St (2002), K State (2002), Missouri (2003), Texas (2003), Kansas St (2003). Or his 4-9 record on the road since 2001.

 

It was time for a change..the records speak for themselves. I am not saying Callahan has a better record at the moment, but i am willing to be patient

 

 

nameless,

very good post and i agree with all, except

 

Instead, he decided to play the loyalty card and appoint a guy simply because he wanted to keep the old offense going

 

 

i do agree that TO played the loyalty card. this was another staple of past husker football. IMO, i think TO saw the writing on the wall and realized that changes needed to be made from an offensive perspective. TO was and is a genius on the matter of offensive football. i am just not sure if TO had the energy to put up with the BS from the husker faithful to completely change his entire offensive sturcture. just my thoughts!