Coach Callahan came to spring practice ready to talk numbers with the the press (reg. req.), his team and and the fans.
“If you look at where this offense has come from - 67th to 17th in scoring, from 96th in offense to 14th, from 107th to 23rd (rushing offense), passing offense from 81st to 54th to 23rd. The thing I’m most proud of is the (pass) efficiency of where this offense is at, 104th to 82nd to 13th. That’s huge progress.”
Those numbers, Callahan said, should help NU players believe they’re doing the right things heading into his fourth season. The high numbers for snaps and time of possession, he said, mean the system is providing the ball control it’s meant to provide.
“You can sell that to your football team,” he said. “You can sell consistency, you can sell the incremental improvement over the three years. It’s been a fast three years for me. Now we’re going into year four and I’m jacked up, because we’ve done a lot of good things.
“I’m just telling you that if you study it,” he said, “the numbers validate where you’re at.”
Naturally, there’s one more stat we’d all like to see. 11-2, 12-1, 13-0 and so on…
March 23rd, 2007 at 1:52 pm
All Bill Callahan is giving us is where the huskers came from since he took over. It might be closer to reality if he gave us the last 4 years stats, instead of , from where he took us the first year, when he had the first losing season in forty some years. I really try to not be negative, it is just that you can spot a salesman a mile away sometimes. Bill and Steve did the same thing when they took us to 5-6. ‘Well it’s only one season and we’re going to get better’ I think Bill said. Maybe he did so poorly the first year , just so he would have no place to go but up???
March 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Well we have to admit that it is great progress and we look to only get better.
March 26th, 2007 at 6:02 am
This is just more spin from the professional self-promoter and non-Husker Spin Doctor that we are now forced to bow down to and give homage to as all-powerful and egocentric Coach. Hey Bill, what about the 15 losses in 3 years being the worst 3-year record by a Husker Coach/team since before many of us were born? Aren’t those even more telling numbers that are worth analyzing too? Right on, BigRedFred, any sleazy salesman with his jars of pre-manufactured (and old Oakland!) snake oil can put a positive spin on a piece of junk! If Bill’s numbers are indeed so “validating”, than why have we lost so many games in 3 years, way more than any Coach? Maybe poor coaching has totally negated our “numbers advantage”, like in the Cotton Bowl? ‘Ya think, Bill? Perhaps giving the opponent the ball on your 20-yard line because of a stupid fake punt try can outweigh a total yards of offense advantage? Maybe the numbers only “validate” that the program has good players, but is handicapped with a lousy coach and AD! Isn’t Callahan’s statement of “validation” the same sort of spin that created the Big 12 North trophy for himself?
I agree with Art. Callahan and Pederson are not only under-achievers and under-performers as football leaders, but even moreso under-achievers as human beings. Bill may think that we’re a bunch of f***ing hillbillies who’ll blindly swallow his snake oil, but the real numbers that count (5 losses/year) can’t be washed away by any oil except “Oil of O-Lay Bill Callahan off”! Bring us a Husker back as Coach, and bring back Husker values, not self-promoting spin.
March 26th, 2007 at 8:34 am
BC’s constant self-validation is probably one of many reasons why Dr. Tom doesn’t associate with either Callahan or Pederson. Osborne is, and will always be a pillar of the community. His record and traditional Husker values need no artificially-inflated website, no made-up trophy and no numbers spin. Callahan and Pederson are like magicians who blow smoke and try to wow us with misdirection tricks and illusions, like the constant verbal spin they keep troweling out to validate themselves and their own non-Husker agenda. That includes silence on real “Husker” issues such as Doak O’s firing. There’d be no need for such self-validation and illusions if Loserhan’s record could speak positively for itself, but it obviously can’t. So BC keeps running his misdirection plays/quotes, hoping to fool us for a little longer. Dr. Tom isn’t fooled, and neither are we.
April 7th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
I’m tired of reading this crap all the time. You guys need to get your head out the sand. The Huskers are getting better, a lot better. Tom Osborne was/is a great coach, he’s retired. I’m a fan of Frank Solich and wish he wasn’t fired he was turning things around. Remember people wanted him fired because of his 7-7 season. It intensified after the blow out losses to Colorado then Miami. I’m not a huge fan of Peterson but he’s the AD. You so called Husker fans blame Callahan for how Solich was let go. He wasn’t even in the picture. Look at the talent Callahan inherited his first year it was terrible. All you have to do is look at how many players were drafted in the past couple of years and in what rounds. This same crap happened to Osborne. All the so-called fans wanted him fired because he couldn’t beat Oklahoma. When he finally started to beat Oklahoma on a regular basis the naysayers said we needed a new coach because Osborne couldn’t win in bowl games. Not until 1994 did Coach Osborne have the full support of the fans. You guys can bash Callahan all you want but he will win his first National Title in a year or two. We were once known as college football’s greatest fans. After the fiasco that the fans like you have created in the media, Husker Nation probably won’t make it in the top 10. When all things are good everyone says they are diehard husker fans. When there’s a bump in the road a few so-called diehard fans show their true colors. Get with the times. Fans like you are staining the image of Husker Nation.
April 8th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
wow this is the first time that i can totally and 100% agree with someone on this site. i cant critique a word you just said. you took the words right out of my mouth! thank you brian. i wanted solich but i accept callahan and pederson. i dont know if youve been reading this site for a while, but im pretty much the sites noncomformaist. they hate callahan, i dont. they find all the bad things in callahan, i find the good. i see the progress and i agree with your comment. thanks
April 9th, 2007 at 6:39 am
To Brian,
Thanks for your views, it’s nice to have another blogger aboard, but if you read our entries going back awhile, you’ll find that it’s not all about bashing Callahan at all. It’s about how much we care about our team and how far the program has fallen, both on the field where NU is averaging 5 losses per year under BC’s tenure, and off the field where true Huskers like Frank and Doak have been seemingly let go after performances that appear on the record as better than Callahan’s. Plus the fact that BC’s not a true Husker who isn’t held to the same standards as Frank S. was by Pederson, especially on the field where he is the losingest 3-year NU coach in some 50 years. Plus off the field, he has said/done classless non-Husker things like the throat slash and calling fans F-ing hillbillies, and that is why many here (including the Administrator) have continued to scratch our heads in frustration. It’s the frustration with SP and BC that we periodically blog about, because of the direction of NU Football and our beloved team that we all share…we certainly don’t mean to stain Big Red in any way with our comments, we are merely concerned enough to recommend improvements and a return to Husker values and tradition. Pete and yourself bring up some good points, and that’s why this site is such a great resource. But again, read more of the recent/older entries and you’d have more info on where we’re coming from. All the best.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
HI Brian,
First of all , we respect others opinions and we seldom get that in return (ie: your somewhat of an attack on us). Speaking for myself, I respect your views, I just can’t see the logic behind them.
You stress the point that there has been improvement since Callahan, I think you said “things are getting better, A LOT BETTER.” What I see, is a Big 12 that was always one of the top 2 conferences back in the days of Solich. Yet, this year the big 12 seemed to bounce from 6th to 5th among the major conferences from what I could see. Not near the competition Solich had. In spite of that, only 1 year in 6 did Frank’s teams finish out of the top 25, compared with 2 out of 3, OUT of the top 25, for Bill.
Let me ask you this, how many years do you feel Bill needs to get his ‘program’ in place? He has had 3 plus so far.
May I point out that Frank was only given 1 year for his reorganization of the program. In his first year after the re-org, his new staff and team went for a 10 win season! Bill has yet after 3 full years been able to get to 10 wins. What bothers me the most is that Frank, who is in the Husker Hall of Fame by the way, and, twice selected as Big 12 Head Coach of the Year, spent most of his adult life working with and for the Husker program. Frank was given a salary less than half of what Steve has given Bill Callahan , which is somewhere around 2 million a year. Bill will be up to 8 million dollars this year from the Husker program and we aren’t even to the point where Frank left us.
You mention Bill inherited a bad team in 2004 and you blame Frank. Let me remind you that essentially the same team that went 10-3 for Frank, suddenly dropped to 5-6 for Bill. The only major change was the Head coach so you do the math. Were you paying attention this year ?? A lot of the best players were the ones carried over and recruited by Frank. Carriker, Moore, Herian….. many more if you care to look into it instead of just blanket criticism of Frank’s recruiting.
It actually sounds like you just like to repeat the common EXCUSE that Steve used to fire Frank , when in reality, it was anything but the truth.
Because we choose to stand for something, whether it is about Husker football or- about something with life in general, does NOT make us bad fans or bad people. It isn’t always easy to stand up for what you believe in. Most of us here care deeply about the Husker program, as it used to represent a very deeply rooted program grounded in hard work, honesty, faith, and was a national display of the culture and values of the Midwest and especially Nebraskans.
That is all gone now. I am afraid what we have now is :
No vested coaches from Nebraska
A hired gun with no real roots here
A fortune 500 atmosphere
MONEY versus tradition
WINNING is more important than ethics
Trick plays instead of the feared running game
No national respect
5 losses per season
1st losing season in 40 plus years
1st loss to Kansas since when?
I could think of dozens of these but then that truly would be negative, and, you would call me a disloyal fan again, even though it is all true.
I still respect your opinions though. As a husker fan I respectfully ask you to do the same in return. It doesn’t matter that you disagree with me. It only matters to me that you took a minute to see where I am coming from, instead of saying I don’t know anything or, I have my head in the sand.
Thanks for your post.
April 9th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
he needs five years. thats all im gonna say
April 9th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Bigredfred & Art S.
First of all let me apologize. I had taken my frustrations of the entire Husker situation out on you. I chimed in when I should have calmed down and thought through what I wanted to say in a more positive way.
Like I said before I’m not a fan of Pederson. I agree with you that he is treating the athletic department like a corporation. His decisions since he has been the AD have been less than desirable. But, his decision to hire Callahan was a great one. Let me be clear I didn’t want Solich fired. I am a huge fan of his. He wasn’t treated with the respect he deserved. With that being said Callahan shouldn’t be thrown in with Pederson on the firing of Solich. I can’t/won’t defend what happened before Callahan got here because I didn’t agree with it.
When Solich took over he had the same assistants that Osborne had and he was running the same offense with players recruited to run it and might I add a team who won the national title the year before. So to compare Solich’s first couple of years with Callahan’s is like comparing apples and oranges. If you were to take the Solich situation away from your opinion of Callahan what would be left. You say his record. Callahan took over a team that was beaten by Missouri 24-41, Texas 7-31, and Kansas St 9-38 the year before. The area that hurt Callahan the most was the quarterback position. When he got here Dailey was it. Dailey didn’t have the tools of running the west coast offense. Anyone with any kind of football knowledge could see that. Dailey was benched in the middle of this year because he was throwing two interceptions a game on average at UNC. Your next observation was the throat-slashing incident. He did that in the middle of the game and he was angry. You can’t tell me that you haven’t said or did something that you regret when you were upset. Hell, I just did in my first post and wish I could change it. The other things you are trying to pin on him are things that Pederson is in charge of not Callahan.
You asked “how many years do you feel Bill needs to get his ‘program’ in place”? I agree with Pete five years. He will have all of his players in place. He needs to have the team in a position to have a solid chance at winning the Big 12. All I ask is look at the players he’s brought in. It’s not my stupid opinion. Rivals have all of his recruiting classes in the top 10 or just outside of it. I can’t remember what article I was reading but they ranked Callahan as the third best coach in the Big 12 behind Bob Stoops and Mac Brown. I honestly believe he is a guy is a class act and someday every Husker fan will be proud that he’s coaching the Huskers. In closing I want you to that my outburst earlier wasn’t meant to be personal although it came out that way and I’m sorry.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
again brian i couldnt have said it better
April 9th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Hi Brian,
Good post first of all. I appreciate the fact that you have reasons for thinking the way you do and can articulate them. No two people think exactly the same, and, I suppose that holds true for everyone here as well.
The more I hear of fans discussing these same issues here and elsewhere on the internet, the more I have come to think that to some extent, Husker fans are also victims from the last few years.
By that I mean, we as fans have had no control over what has transpired the last 4 years. Yet, as a result of someones else’s poor decisions, Husker nation is split down the middle. What the answer is, I am not sure just yet, but I am sure things will eventually work out as they always do.
By the way, it wasn’t really necessary to apologize. It was more important in my mind that, you took the time to explain why you feel the way you do in a rational manner and tone without attacking anyone in the process. That is the best way to make your point.
I do have a couple comments on your post though. Bill has a close friend at Rivals.com and, at best, the whole process is just a popularity contest. Who do you think rates a player 4 stars or 5 and why?? Does it bother you that a parent with a deep pocket can call up rivals and negotiate the rating of his son for the NFL draft purposes??
Very few people noticed or cared about ranking the recruiting process, until Steve became desperate to defend his firing of a successful coach and started attacking the Husker recruiting as handled under Solich.
Do you and others not realize that Frank was an integral part of the recruitment process that Tom got credit for? Frank was solely repsonsible and credited with recruiting Mike Rozier, then as running back coach, helped make him the Heisman winner he then came to be.
As assistant Head Coach under TO, Frank was just as big a factor in recruiting as Tom was, but you never hear anyone give him credit for it.
As for Bill and the 2007 season, there are 3 possibilities.
1) A very poor showing, losing the Big 12 north and another 5 or 6 loss season ending somewhere outside the top 25, and Bill and Steve will no longer be around.
2) A very mediocre season, with 3 losses, taking the big 12 north and not the CCG, ending somewhere at the bottom of the top 25, people will be screaming, but Bill and Steve might hold on another year.
3) A very successful season with 1 or 2 losses, a BCS game and a top 10 finish, and things will quiet down. Even in this last case, since by Steve’s own words, “it is not about wins and losses” , there will be fans like me who will be very happy for the players, but still sad for the price we had to pay, and , for what we have lost.
Thanks for listening.. Brian.
April 9th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
but hey bigredfred, once we get to # 3 you wont even remember what has happened in these past few years. do you think the USC fans are still sad about what they had to go through from about 1999-2002 before they had pete carroll? hell no! theyre livin it up and we will too. we will return to greatness and when we do im not gonna remeber the past, im gonna look towards the future! i cant wait til the good times. because like you said, “things will eventually work out as they always do.” (im just being optomistic if no one can tell)
April 9th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
oh one more thing…my facts on USC might be a little bit skewed but they did have about a three year period before the three national titles where they struggled some, just like weve had.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Thanks BigRedFred, Brian & Pete for your recent comments…great stuff. As usual BigRedFred, you are right on the money and articulate in your rationale and explanations why so many of us true Husker fans are frustrated with nthe current situation and AD/coaching regime. Your 10-point bulletin/summation of “I’m afraid all we have now” is a great capsule of how far the NU program has fallen over the past few years. Well done and much appreciated, as always.
To Brian & Pete, your recent clarifications and optimistic views for the upcoming year (or two) are noted. I’m not sure that I can agree with both of your calls that BC deserves 5 years of patience after what happened to such a class act like Frank S, and after BC’s amassed 15 losses over 3 years, but I hear where you are coming from. Pete, do I understand you correctly…are you picking the Huskers to get to the #3 ranking at the end of ‘07? That would be great, but I think that’s more in our hearts than in our heads with the current state of Husker Nation. And here’s one more spin on your Pete Carroll point that has actually been pointed out before by one of our fellow bloggers: Pete is obviously a good/successful coach who has led USC back to national prominence, but he was the wrong man to lead the New England Patriots. If the Pats had given Pete Carroll 5 years of patience, they never would have had the chance to bring the right man in (Bill Belechik) or their 3 Super Bowls. Sometimes the key is admitting a mistake and cutting your losses when you’ve made the wrong choice, so that the future can start to improve sooner rather than later. Again, thanks to all.
April 10th, 2007 at 5:50 am
I also think that BigRedFred is right on target, and he has very accurately summarized where the Huskers football program is and how it has fallen, both on the field and off, under Callahan and Pederson. I also understand the patience reasonong of Brian and Pete, but I can’t quite agree (yet, at this early cross-roads point in his Husker career) that Callahan is a class act, given the throat-slash incident, hillbillies comment, handling of Doak Ostergrard’s firing, made-up North trophy, etc. He’ll have to prove himself over the next couple of years, I believe, to earn that loyalty, which I guess is nrmal in that respect and loyalty take time, especially with an outsider that doesn’t have Husker roots.
If I may switch gears to x’s and o’s to expand upon Fred’s 3 possible scenario’s (and Art, I don’t beieve that Pete was saying NU will be #3 in the Nation in ‘07, only #3 of BigRedFred’s scenario’s for a good season), I really think that the first few games of ‘07 will give us a good indication of how the ‘07 season will go. Unlike most years, our first 2 games are not home lay-ups vs. significantly lesser opponents. We should beat Nevada in Lincoln no doubt, but Nevada is a decent team that represents a much bigger challenge than a Maine, Nicholls State, etc. Plus our second game is on the road vs a Wake Forest team that has really come a long way with their Football program over the last few years. Then Game #3 is USC in Lincoln, which will be both a great test and a great opportunity to pull off a home upset of a national power. If NU can start 3-0 (or even 2-1 with a close loss to USC), I think we may see a ten-win plus season. That said, I still don’t think BC and SP are the right fits for our team, our community, our values & our tradition, but let’s see if they can turn things around in ‘07, despite all we have lost like Fred pointed out.
April 10th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Just like Mike said…Actually Art, bugredfred listed three possible scenarios and #3 said that we would have a great year with one or two losses. I think thats what we will end up at. scenario #3 not actually ranked #3 althought we could be. You never know! And I honestly think that we will cross the hump this season. I hope and believe that the Huskers will finish in the top 10 and that we will win the big 12. These first three games will be the big test and will give us a great look into the ‘07 season as mike said. All we can do is be optomistic and hope!