Callahan - Oakland History Lesson

H

Husker VA

Walk-on
Wanted to throw out my opinion on this Callahan situation. I became a Husker fan last year when I had a chance to visit Memorial Stadium. Love the people there and love the state. Even got the chance to make it out to the USC and Mizzou game (wow, was that miserable). However, I've been a lifelong Oakland Raiders fan and I thought I would give you some input and similarities to what is happening now.

Now Nebraska folk are some of the nicest people I have ever met, and I understand some of you wanting to honor contracts and continue to give Bill Callahan a chance. If a winning team is not that important to you, than that's fine. There are more important things in life. However, I think UNL is a great source of pride for the residents there and it hurts to watch the program go into this much disarray.

In Oakland, we had Jon Gruden building a great program there. He took them out of the cellar in 1998 and steadily built a winning team that went to the playoffs three times including the AFC Championship. Due to contract disputes, Gruden went elsewhere and Callahan was left with a Super Bowl caliber team. Things went well enough with the talent we had. Rich Gannon had an MVP year and we went to the Super Bowl. Callahan was severly outcoached by Jon Gruden and the Bucs and the Raiders were walloped in the Super Bowl.

The next year, things completely fell apart. Callahan lost control of the team. There was a good deal of in-fighting and player mutiny. Longtime respected verterans were calling out Callahan. Even Tim Brown, the longest-tenured Raider, has his concerns about Callahan. "I don't know if he's the guy who can bring this team back together," Brown said. "This year, he made things personal with this team. You can't do that. If he's back, it's going to take two to three years to fix this, because nobody trusts a word he says."

We proceeded to have one of our worst seasons since 1962 and started breaking all sorts of negative records, similar to the ones you are seeing now with Nebraska. The Raiders have been in a tailspin ever since and only 5 years later are we starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. The Raiders are still several years away, but you can catch my drift on where I see things heading if a change is not made after this year.

Now, I'm sure Callahan is a great person off the field and I'm sure this hurts him deeply to watch his team go through this. There are lots of really nice people in the world who are completely inept at their jobs. Doesn't make them bad people, just not right for what they do. Bill Callahan is not the right person for this job anymore. He is not the guy who is going to be able to turn this around. You can just look at the sideline and know this is ture. Maybe he just inherited an above-average team and was able to ride the wave in a weak Big 12 North for the past few years. I can't think of one big win on his resume. Now that the North is catching up, Nebraska is getting exposed and continually being embarrassed on a week-to-week basis. It kills me to watch these beatings every week and I wonder if it really needs to be this way.

If it wasn't for Pederson's premature extension this year, I don't think this would even be an issue. It definately calls into question his decision making and ultimately will probably end up costing him his job. Anyways, take this for what it's worth. Thought I'd throw out what I've been thinking of the past few weeks. Just gonna have to suck it up this year and take our lumps. Nebraska is a strong, proud program and we'll be back. My only hope is that it is sooner than later and without Bill Callahan.

 
Husker VA said:
Wanted to throw out my opinion on this Callahan situation. I became a Husker fan last year when I had a chance to visit Memorial Stadium. Love the people there and love the state. Even got the chance to make it out to the USC and Mizzou game (wow, was that miserable). However, I've been a lifelong Oakland Raiders fan and I thought I would give you some input and similarities to what is happening now.

Now Nebraska folk are some of the nicest people I have ever met, and I understand some of you wanting to honor contracts and continue to give Bill Callahan a chance. If a winning team is not that important to you, than that's fine. There are more important things in life. However, I think UNL is a great source of pride for the residents there and it hurts to watch the program go into this much disarray.

In Oakland, we had Jon Gruden building a great program there. He took them out of the cellar in 1998 and steadily built a winning team that went to the playoffs three times including the AFC Championship. Due to contract disputes, Gruden went elsewhere and Callahan was left with a Super Bowl caliber team. Things went well enough with the talent we had. Rich Gannon had an MVP year and we went to the Super Bowl. Callahan was severly outcoached by Jon Gruden and the Bucs and the Raiders were walloped in the Super Bowl.

The next year, things completely fell apart. Callahan lost control of the team. There was a good deal of in-fighting and player mutiny. Longtime respected verterans were calling out Callahan. Even Tim Brown, the longest-tenured Raider, has his concerns about Callahan. "I don't know if he's the guy who can bring this team back together," Brown said. "This year, he made things personal with this team. You can't do that. If he's back, it's going to take two to three years to fix this, because nobody trusts a word he says."

We proceeded to have one of our worst seasons since 1962 and started breaking all sorts of negative records, similar to the ones you are seeing now with Nebraska. The Raiders have been in a tailspin ever since and only 5 years later are we starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. The Raiders are still several years away, but you can catch my drift on where I see things heading if a change is not made after this year.

Now, I'm sure Callahan is a great person off the field and I'm sure this hurts him deeply to watch his team go through this. There are lots of really nice people in the world who are completely inept at their jobs. Doesn't make them bad people, just not right for what they do. Bill Callahan is not the right person for this job anymore. He is not the guy who is going to be able to turn this around. You can just look at the sideline and know this is ture. Maybe he just inherited an above-average team and was able to ride the wave in a weak Big 12 North for the past few years. I can't think of one big win on his resume. Now that the North is catching up, Nebraska is getting exposed and continually being embarrassed on a week-to-week basis. It kills me to watch these beatings every week and I wonder if it really needs to be this way.

If it wasn't for Pederson's premature extension this year, I don't think this would even be an issue. It definately calls into question his decision making and ultimately will probably end up costing him his job. Anyways, take this for what it's worth. Thought I'd throw out what I've been thinking of the past few weeks. Just gonna have to suck it up this year and take our lumps. Nebraska is a strong, proud program and we'll be back. My only hope is that it is sooner than later and without Bill Callahan.
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I don't think the firing is a matter of IF anymore, it's WHEN. The reasons for firing The Moron have been catalogued and hashed over to the enth degree, including some of the Oakland stuff. But thanks for the good history lesson on this clown. Ultimately this all rests with the AD Pederson and his foolishness, selfishness, and complete disrespect for our program. He handed our traditions to an outsider who didn't understand them, and then look at what happened. I hope we see a return to our old ways of playing football. From the noise that's raising and the seats which are emptying I don't think it'll be long before we hear something. But the beatings MUST continue until the hammer drops and this whole dirty glass house is shattered.

 
the RAIDERS is my team but personaly the reason why they went 2 the super bowl waznt because of BC it was the team that gruden built

 
I get what you're saying, and it's been what some have said all along since he was hired here. However, I will say that he can't be as bad as "Stache" would have been. I also don't think he's been worse than Nutt(less) would have been. Pud showed his true colors with most of the candidates on his list. IMO, the biggest problem has been rectified. Now, we're just waiting for the smaller ones to be taken care of.

 
Yes, this is beating a dead horse.

But the biggest issue the Raiders players had with Coach Callahan is the fact he went to Al Davis to have the older and overpaid veterans released. Players like Tim Brown, Rod Woodson, Trace Armstrong, etc., were all needed to let go, in more of a youth movement. The players got wind of this, and THAT is why the veterans were the most outspoken. Tim Brown was even quoted in an NFL.com article at the time saying Callahan, "messed with his money."

The only thing HCBC did in Oakland is the right thing -- too bad people still cannot accept that today.

 
One thing I won't agree with is that he inherited an above average team and rode the wave. There was no riding the wave; he took a power option team and transformed it to the West Coast. Completely different system (on offense).

My view on what he's done: ugly transformation at first, with steady improvement thereafter, and a collapse this season which I think does not fall squarely on his shoulders, but as fans, we wouldn't really know. I still believe that in principle, he is not inept. He's in some bad circumstances right now, and I think it'd be a shame if Nebraska fell into the pattern of trying a coach, being excited at first, then running out of patience, firing him and hiring a new one, every few years. Things will turn out really messy this way.

 
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zoogies said:
One thing I won't agree with is that he inherited an above average team and rode the wave. There was no riding the wave; he took a power option team and transformed it to the West Coast. Completely different system (on offense).

My view on what he's done: ugly transformation at first, with steady improvement thereafter, and a collapse this season which I think does not fall squarely on his shoulders, but as fans, we wouldn't really know. I still believe that in principle, he is not inept. He's in some bad circumstances right now, and I think it'd be a shame if Nebraska fell into the pattern of trying a coach, being excited at first, then running out of patience, firing him and hiring a new one, every few years. Things will turn out really messy this way.
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I'm concerned you're right but hope you're wrong. I basically see it the same way. Also, I think one of BC's biggest mistakes was not getting someone on D who could maintain the Husker tradition of smash mouth defense. Withering defense has always been a staple of the Husker program. Something is seriously wrong with allowing 500 yards per game and the players, starting with the D, seem demoralized.

 
IMO, you guys are giving BC a pass on something and placing the blame squarely on Pud's shoulders. A poster started a thread a while back stating that the first thing Clownahan did when got the job here was take a picture down in his office of the stadium and put a picture up of himself standing on the sideline during the Super Bowl. Next, he fired all the old office staff within 2 weeks. After hearing this, what makes you think that Clownahan isn't responsible for not wanting any contact with former players and things like that? He took down the picture of our stadium. What makes you think he isn't responsible for taking down pictures of the former Husker greats? What makes you think that the reason former players, coaches, etc. weren't really welcomed here wasn't due to BC not wanting them here?

BC came in an completely changed Husker tradition especially when considering going to a West Coast Offense from a power running attack. I'm sure he didn't want former players or coaches coming in messing with things because in his mind he felt they didn't know much about it.

Pud had a huge ego and this is what utlimately got him fired. However, I am not in the camp that believes he wanted to leave his mark or rubber stamp on this program by changing the direction of it. If you look at his resume, he spent a lot of years working for this University and under TO. TO gave his approval for Pud's hiring because Pud I think was probably very good at his job while serving under TO. I think BC convinced Pud that the best thing for the program was to try a fresh start. Pud agreed and let BC have too much power which ultimately cost Pud his job.

 
junior4949 said:
IMO, you guys are giving BC a pass on something and placing the blame squarely on Pud's shoulders. A poster started a thread a while back stating that the first thing Clownahan did when got the job here was take a picture down in his office of the stadium and put a picture up of himself standing on the sideline during the Super Bowl. Next, he fired all the old office staff within 2 weeks. After hearing this, what makes you think that Clownahan isn't responsible for not wanting any contact with former players and things like that? He took down the picture of our stadium. What makes you think he isn't responsible for taking down pictures of the former Husker greats? What makes you think that the reason former players, coaches, etc. weren't really welcomed here wasn't due to BC not wanting them here?

BC came in an completely changed Husker tradition especially when considering going to a West Coast Offense from a power running attack. I'm sure he didn't want former players or coaches coming in messing with things because in his mind he felt they didn't know much about it.

Pud had a huge ego and this is what utlimately got him fired. However, I am not in the camp that believes he wanted to leave his mark or rubber stamp on this program by changing the direction of it. If you look at his resume, he spent a lot of years working for this University and under TO. TO gave his approval for Pud's hiring because Pud I think was probably very good at his job while serving under TO. I think BC convinced Pud that the best thing for the program was to try a fresh start. Pud agreed and let BC have too much power which ultimately cost Pud his job.
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If your right the Pud is a fool who was duped by BC. If you are wrong Pud is just a jerk. Either way he had to go. I will say you might be right though. He was fooled into sending a jet to Arkansas for the Nutt, thinking he could get Sanders from KC. Vermeil spoke openly that Sanders never had any intention of going to NU at any time. The again who cares. He's gone and it's now a part of history. While I am a history buff this is one chapter I'd rather close for a week or so.

 
sarge87 said:
dedhoarse
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Please... don't be an a$$. There are a ton of new people around here that are becoming more interested after the OSU game, Pud being fired, hiring TO....

I have not heard this yet, and was curious for info about the Raider days.

Thanks for the lesson!

 
I guess we should have expected a season like this. If you look at BC history, he takes a team to the Super Bowl and falls apart the next year.

Now it is the same at Nebraska, we win the North and then all hell breaks loose the following year.

Al Davis fired his a$$, now it is T.O. turn to fire his a$$.

Good riddance Mr. Callahan; now get the hell out of Nebraska and never come back again.

 
nebraskan-N-texas said:
I guess we should have expected a season like this. If you look at BC history, he takes a team to the Super Bowl and falls apart the next year.

Now it is the same at Nebraska, we win the North and then all hell breaks loose the following year.

Al Davis fired his a$$, now it is T.O. turn to fire his a$$.

Good riddance Mr. Callahan; now get the hell out of Nebraska and never come back again.
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Going to the Super Bowl and winning the Big 12 North are not comparable. So pretty much he accomplished less at Nebraska then at Oakland.

 
He had a Super Bowl team when he became the Raider's coach. I thought he was on the right track here, but he unwilling to make changes when they are needed. That will be what he is remembered for in both places. Can't handle the pressure that success starts to bring. Folds like a lawn chair.

GBR!!!

 
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