Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
If I had to pick an offensive identity it would be Smashmouth Defense.
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- Thread starter knapplc
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RedDenver
Heisman Trophy Winner
Cdog923
All-American
flfmrredfan
Three-Star Recruit
There's absolutely no truth in that. First, Callahan was incompetent as a HC to begin with. See his stint at Oakland. Second, he could have offered the DC to Pelini, although I doubt Pelini would have worked for him, much less under a department with SPEM at the helm, after the way he was dumped by SPEM. Last, Callahan's offenses were not that good. He padded his stats against scrubs. See USC in 2007 as but one example.
that's not truth. That's pure myth. Callahan's most successful season was carried by the D.
His offensive rankings were mainly a product of garbage time and rarely produced against average or better defenses.
Landlord
Banned
How far up your own a$$ did you have to reach to pull out these imaginary statistics?
Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
That was kinda my point.
If Joe Ganz had one more year of eligibility, we would have been in the NC hunt in 2009.
Funny world, eh?
Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
Yet Callahan was fired in the midst of the worst defensive performance in Nebraska history, with the same talent Pelini subsequently molded into one of the best defenses.
So it's hardly pure myth. Certainly open to conjecture.
It's actually not that hard to figure out what the relationship to resources and wins is. NU comes in probably in the 20 to 30 ranking in terms of overall intrinsic resource rankings (especially if proximity to recruits' parents is heavily weighted, which it should be).
During the past 25 years, the 25th best win percentage is held by TAM at .650. If you only count p5 schools, Iowa at .590.
Coincidentally, Iowa in terms of overall resources is very similar to NU. And their level of success since 1980 is probably a good way to compare variables in how the programs have been run. Iowa is .600 since that time (not bad). NU is .765 during the same time (exceptional).
So, with a little give and take in the numbers, I think it's pretty fair to assume a program that's situated like NU should win about .600 to .650 of its games unless it's led by a good coach or an exceptionally poor one.
In other words, a decent but not great coach like Ferentz would regress to the mean over time. and he has. While he had won two B10 championships during 18 seasons, he also has eight 8-5 or worse seasons since his last B10C. Five of them registered at least 6 losses. He's at .593.
I think based on the totality of evidence, most coaches would win around .650 of their games at NU. Good ones would win .700. Bad ones would be in the .500 - admittedly we (thankfully) only have one data point to demonstrate that during the past 50 years, other than Riley currently.
The question (and red flag) in my mind when trying to discern what sets one program apart from a similar one, "is why did a guy like Fry, who is widely thought to be a great HC and football guy, struggle to get over the hump at Iowa?"
Iowa has more people and is closer to Chicago. It was part of what was considered the premiere football conference in the country for most of his career. Despite arguments about facilities, in many ways Iowa had a strong set of facilities (and would have had better by the 90s had they taken advantage of success like Osborne's Huskers did).
Could it have been his approach to offense? At the time that NU was transitioning to and firing up the scoring explosion, Iowa was running a "balanced offense" that rarely had a QB who didn't finish in the negative zone for rushing yards, let alone one that was actually a threat to D's on the ground.
Perhaps it was a fundamental lack of innovation and creativity on offense that hamstrung Iowa when its neighbor was surging? Seems like when you control for variables, that's the biggest difference between the programs.
Sidenote, Iowa didn't have a lack of talent those years - 5 of their QBs were drafted including a #12 pick, and they had more than 50 players drafted between 1980 and 1993.
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ColoradoHusk
Heisman Trophy Winner
The guy was fired nearly 10 years ago. I don't think he would have been able to sustain the necessary success to keep coaching at NU for that time period.
Also, if he was able to have great success for a 2-3 year period, that dude would have fled back to the NFL in a heart beat. He had no compelling reason to stay at NU long-term. Shoot, the only reason he took the job in the first place was that Pedeyshine offered it to him.
Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
Oh my God.
Please stop putting the words "balanced offense" in quotes.
Then stop using the phrase altogether.
According to my analysis of intrinsic possibilities — weighted for context and mean averages, — your argument is ludicrous.
Please stop putting the words "balanced offense" in quotes.
Then stop using the phrase altogether.
According to my analysis of intrinsic possibilities — weighted for context and mean averages, — your argument is ludicrous.
I put "balanced" in quotes because I think TO's offense was actually balanced.
The "balanced" means the type of offense that Riley has expressed that he desires (a close to 50/50 run to pass ratio).
It's not a dig at the idea - it's a way of differentiating a balanced attack that can take advantage of a D based on counter plays versus an offense that strives to obtain a balanced run/pass ratio.
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RedDenver
Heisman Trophy Winner
In other words, I'm about to make up some stuff to support my argument.