Huskers Finish Outside The Top 25…Again
(A guest posting from BigRedFred)
Bill has out done Frank Solich again. One time in six years did Frank’s team finish outside the AP top 25. Here we are with Bill Callahan, finishing outside the AP Top 25 in two out of his three years in Lincoln. Bill seems to be very consistent.
By the way, a mediocre team would be sitting somewhere in the bottom of the Top 25. We are officially NOT EVEN MEDIOCRE.
But then, you will get all the new age Nebraska fans who keep saying to us here on this board, “If you can’t see the progress, you don’t know anything about sports.”
Well, I know several things from being around all these years. I have watched the team very closely since the 70s. The talent and the players we have at NU this year are just as good, or at least comparable to any other Top 25 school. They are comparable to all other good Nebraska Teams of the past as far as talent is concerned.
Every single game this year that was lost, was due to coaching, or, just a plain bad day. It wasn’t that we didn’t have the talent.
The problem is we no longer have a program based on pride, tradition and Nebraska roots. We have Steve’s new program that is based on winning and money and running the Husker program like a Fortune 500 company. No longer does anyone look at NU as a Nebraska institution that belongs to the folks of NE and their children. And to families of kids across the country who choose to get their education here.
This isn’t a Fortune 500 company! This is our college and it belongs to the people of Nebraska! You can’t BUY a winning program, or the best coach or quality players.
A quality football program comes from a sense of community, a sense of “team,” and a tradition of what it was in the past, that got us to where we are today. It comes from coaches who care, and are vested in the system. Oh you will see talented coaches for “hire” but they are not loyal and will be gone with the next sky high offer from somewhere else.
Steve Pederson threw all that was Nebraska away. And Bill Callahan is concerned about HIS career, and HIS 2 million dollars a year.
If Steve would have only listened to what Dr. Tom was trying to teach him over the years.
January 10th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I want heads to roll, but I’m not sure we can fault Pederson for attempting to modernize the program. He picked the wrong coach to do the job–that’s been well established. The best thing he can do now is admit he was wrong and work hard to make things right. Yet, I fully expect us to suffer through more of the same for another year or two. Pride is a hard thing to master, especially at the upper echelons of big time college athletics, which is in fact a business.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
your wrong callahan will do good things at this program. Do you even read any columns from guys like kirk or lee or any of those writers. If you were a true fan(which your probably not) you would have to accept what we have. We will be winners in 2007. Just sit back and watch!
February 4th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
If you were a true fan(which your probably not) you would have to accept what we have. -Pete
This isn’t politics. Callahan’s critics don’t need to move to Canada, nor Iowa for that matter.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
i agree with you CA 4 NE. u have a good point. i dont think we can fire him just yet. if he has a season next year like the one we had this year then he should be gone. but at least wait out his contract. we should be a top ten team neaxt year. if we arent then callahan is GONE!!! (but i would like to say that we arent following all the other programs in the country because most arent a west coast offense. about 85% of division 1 football teams are a spread offense)
February 7th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
allright im starting to turn to you guys. next year is the deciding year for bill. unless we go to the big 12 championship with only 2 losses will i want him to stay. anything worse and hes gone!!
February 7th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
pete,
Pederson extended his contract to 2009 for $1.5 million and incentives.
NE was not broke when he got here and definitely was not in a medocrity tailspin. Evolving the Power-I into West Coast offense wasted 3+ years of recruits on re-building and re-shaping. Stoops and Leach have been landing the great QB’s recently.
The 2007 recruits list was dominated by running backs, OL & DL. I thought UNL needed depth at DB the way they could not cover a ranked team’s WR tandems man-to-man.
I expected more and saw less - I am forever loyal - just deeply concerned.
February 8th, 2007 at 8:25 am
well we did get four very talented DB’s this recruiting season and its ot like they didnt try to get more of them