Things Callahan did right..

papersun87 said:
eoltmer said:
Had the balls to bring a pass happy mentality to the option minded people of Nebraska. Most coaches nationwide new that they would face ridicule from the Nebraska fans if they were to even attempt what callahan did. It really hurt him in the end to jump head first into that fire. But now we have Watson and NU fans have become somewhat accustomed to a passing offense, but we will see a better run team in the future with Pelini.
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This is a brilliant point. We NEEDED to modernize the offense and he was the one who came in and did it, despite all the heat he took for it.
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Funny..

I was saying the same thing about Osborn in the late '80's through the early '90's

"We NEEDED to modernize the offense "

Lucky for us I was ignored about all the predictable play calling, too.

(Might never have had the best team ever..)

 
I think we can mostly agree that the offense change wasn't a bad thing. It was a little pass heavy, but that was mostly because we had to come from behind so often last year. It added a new wrinkle for the opponents to figure out. What irritated me was his conservative coaching against teams like Auburn, USC, and OU. Instead of taking it to our opponents, he would play it close and play not to lose.

BC's downfall was Coz plain and simple. He should have threw that dead weight under the bus after the OSU game, but he refused. Also, his pigheadedness to tradition and his arrogance to anyone not in the "know" was wearing everyone a little thin. Now the Jets have him, and he can be their headache.

 
sarge87 said:
I think we can mostly agree that the offense change wasn't a bad thing. It was a little pass heavy, but that was mostly because we had to come from behind so often last year. It added a new wrinkle for the opponents to figure out. What irritated me was his conservative coaching against teams like Auburn, USC, and OU. Instead of taking it to our opponents, he would play it close and play not to lose.
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Are you kidding? We threw 50 times against OU. We also outperformed them in total yards. How exactly did we play conservatively? Also, we didn't play conservatively against USC at home, nor did we against Auburn. You could maybe make that argument against SC in LA, but we were in that game for the majority of the time, and a few huge plays in terms of momentum made it nearly impossible to win.

 
I think the best thing he did while he was here had to be recruiting. Opinions on Lucky vary, but getting him to come to NU over the more successful programs of that time was HUGE.

Biggest thing he didn't intend to do while here:

Got a lot of spoiled cornhusker fans (myself included) to really appreciate the decades long run of success we've been fortunate enough to have had.

 
skersfan said:
I think he filled the offensive trenches. I think Coach Pelini will reap the rewards from BC's efforts there.

He also brought a good bunch of QB's to the fray.

He made it apparent we needed a defensive mind in the program.

I still like the guy and wish him luck with the Jets. I hope as time goes by some of us lose this hate for him. I did not like what happened under his watch, but I turly believe he did the best he could do. That is all you can ask from anyone. Some can, some can not. It proved he was not the right fit for Nebraska. But he was not an evil person on a mission to destroy the program. He may have set us back, but it clearly was not his intention.

Let by gones be by gones.
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Agree. I'm sure this has been brought up in some form before, but I think the situation we are in some what parellels what Oklahoma was going through in the late 90's or whenever, just before they got Stoops. John Blake acquried a lot of good talent, but couldn't seem to get everything out of the players. Stoops comes in a you see a big improvement in year one, and then bingo bango, they are national champions. Not saying it will happen that fast for us (it will be faster, huh) but I think it's an interesting perspective.

TF

 
The comparison that was made between Cally and Blake regarding talent is true. The crazy thing to me about people saying we don't have talent is that these people were saying at the beginning of last year that we were going to beat USC, win the Big 12, and go to a BCS bowl. What?, all of a sudden we don't have the talent to do that anymore? All those prized recruits that people made such a big deal about aren't any good now?

If I was in the players' shoes last season and the coaches kept telling me to do the same things that kept getting our butts burnt time after time, I would have said the heck with this too. I have heard from a few witnesses that during one of the games that Ruud and Coz got into it and Ruud was yelling at him to cut them loose, and that he(Coz) had their hands tied. Its kinda hard to be a leader when the coaches are coming up with the wrong game plans.

 
I have to jump in here. I thought callahan did what was expected of him. Did we really expect that callahan was the guy how would win national championships? that is answer is no by everybody. I feel that everyone knew how this would end, even pederson. Nebraska had to replace a legend. That is why Solich was canned so soon. The winning ways were not met. Callahan proved that the tradition of Nebraska is alive and well. He recruited good players and kept alive academics and good off the field behavior, i believe even more so than Osborne did. Callahan's demise was his close relationship with Cosgrove. Callahan fires Cosgrove after Okie St. and he would still be here. Like it or not but Callahan know his offense worked and I believe it did to. It is just like the option, your defense gives up points early and you are screwed. I feel he took an option offense school and changed into what he did faster than anybody else could. My argument is Callahan did what he knew best and hoping the development of the defense would progress with the offense. It didnt and we all knew he was fired for that reason. As far as the "throat slash" goes, we all new that the officials were cutting our throat. And f%^$ oklahoma anyway. We all knew that Callahan would not be the guy that eventually would create a dynasty but he did prove no matter how far Nebraska is down, great players across the country want to play in Memorial Stadium. The tradition lives.

 
bbhusker said:
The comparison that was made between Cally and Blake regarding talent is true. The crazy thing to me about people saying we don't have talent is that these people were saying at the beginning of last year that we were going to beat USC, win the Big 12, and go to a BCS bowl. What?, all of a sudden we don't have the talent to do that anymore? All those prized recruits that people made such a big deal about aren't any good now?

If I was in the players' shoes last season and the coaches kept telling me to do the same things that kept getting our butts burnt time after time, I would have said the heck with this too. I have heard from a few witnesses that during one of the games that Ruud and Coz got into it and Ruud was yelling at him to cut them loose, and that he(Coz) had their hands tied. Its kinda hard to be a leader when the coaches are coming up with the wrong game plans.
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Coz's defense was Coz's defense.

Whether you buy into it or not, go out there and bust your a$$. Could you imagine Tom Ruud or Barrett mouthing off to a coach or playing half-hearted?

The biggest problem with our defense last year were players like Bo who were complete babies. People like Bo and Corey who would not play football, but like it was freakin' touch football in a pool of pillows. Watching a game like the USC game where they took themselves out of plays because they were about to get hit made me sick to my freakin' stomach.

The biggest problem with our LB's was not Coz's defense, but the simple fact that each and every one of them (minus Lance and occasionally Octo) would not stick their nose in and get dirty on any play. They were pansies regardless of any defense we played.

I will be happy if Bo never walks back through our doors again and anywhere near our team.

For all the hard nosed play and leadership his family before him brought, I seriously think Bo had to be adopted.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
sarge87 said:
I think we can mostly agree that the offense change wasn't a bad thing. It was a little pass heavy, but that was mostly because we had to come from behind so often last year. It added a new wrinkle for the opponents to figure out. What irritated me was his conservative coaching against teams like Auburn, USC, and OU. Instead of taking it to our opponents, he would play it close and play not to lose.
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Are you kidding? We threw 50 times against OU. We also outperformed them in total yards. How exactly did we play conservatively? Also, we didn't play conservatively against USC at home, nor did we against Auburn. You could maybe make that argument against SC in LA, but we were in that game for the majority of the time, and a few huge plays in terms of momentum made it nearly impossible to win.
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Most of those 50 were dink passes. You may out perform teams in stats, but the only stat that means anything is scoreboard. You can't keep passing in goal line situations. As for momentum, who made the big plays all the time? I'll answer it for you....Our opponents. You can dink pass it all over for two and three yards all day, but when it came down to needing that momentum push....nothing. If you do not have faith in your lineman and running backs to plow that ball in the end zone in short goal line situations, then there's something seriously wrong. Getting big stats between the 30's doesn't mean crap in this league. Putting the ball in the end zone earns you a paycheck.

This is what I meant about conservative. :rant

 
Big Willie, I agree that the effort wasn't always there. But, it is hard to stay motivated when you are constantly being told to play out of position. I mean, some of the game plans that Coz came up with made absolutely no sense. And to stay with the same scheme throughout a game where we were getting killed and not make the neccessary adjustments, it would have been hard to listen to the coaches and not get frustrated to not let the players just go after teams.

I know the past is in the past, but results speak for themself. Osborne and McBride used to make adjustment on the fly. I remember seeing them on the sidelines with a marker board in hand adjusting as the game was in progress. The players always had confindence in what the coaches were doing because the results were there. This can't be said about our defensive coaches last year. I know that there were way too many missed tackles and I was ticked off about our lack of effort too. But when a player listens to his coach and ends up 10 yard out of position time after time, how are they supposed to believe that their coach is making the correct calls and play with the intensity and confidence to win?

 
Good points, Sarge and bbhusker.

And Joe Husker.

I cannot imagine hiring a coach that I didn't expect to take us all the way to a MNC!

I also can't imagine a coach believing he can win it all without sharing some talent with the Defense.

Power football...

No one runs 2/3 back sets pn a consistant basis anymore. It doesn't matter if you know whats coming, you still have to be able to stop it.

The leaner, more athletic LBs/DBs of today would not be able to consistantly stop the attack.

 
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