Sorely Needed: Multi-Tasking Motivator of Men
Tad Stryker of the North Platte Bulletin asks the pertinent question as we head into the thick of things with no real momentum.
Nebraska has a lot of good players who are not really playing together well as a team right now. Ultimately, that is Callahan’s responsibility. Can Callahan coach as well as he recruits? That continues to be the question that dogs the former NFL coach throughout his tenure in Lincoln.
The answer is no, he doesn’t coach as well as he recruits. Let’s look at more evidence care of Husker Brad’s comments here at HZ:
I looked down at the sidelines and there were groups of players here and there. The people who will redshirt were just sitting amongst themselves, not even paying attention to the game…I just thought it funny, small groups of guys doing their own thing and not even caring about the game.
I’m disturbed by this first hand account. We’ve already witnessed BC make several bad decisions, call several stupid plays, fail to make mid-game adjustments, keep key players on the bench, and so on. Now this.
BC strikes me as a daffy professor of football, a man lost in his Xs and Os. A coach leads men into battle. We don’t have that at Nebraska right now and it spells trouble for the games ahead.
September 30th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Here we are at week 5 sitting ranked 25th in the Nation. Strangely, I feel a reflexive need to take a big breath as we prepare to ‘go under’. Pederson and Callahan supporters should take note that more than likely, the huskers are enjoying their last breath of fresh air before ‘going under’ and falling off the charts of the ranked.
If you look at our schedule, there is a better than even chance we will finish the rest of the year UNRANKED. What happens next year is anyone’s guess. After this week, it may be a long time before the Huskers are again among the ranked teams in the nation. Is this really , really the Huskers? Are we all dreaming?
One other thing to point out: Sam Kellar was the second best QB on the field during the Wake Forest, USC, Ball State, and now the Iowa State game. All 4 of these teams had a Quarterback leading their offense to more total yards than the Huskers.
Isn’t a win a win? Well, yes. But, I don’t think that will carry much weight during any of the rest of the games on our schedule. There is a good chance we will not be picked to win ANY of the remaining games this year. Remember that the next time you hear someone say a ‘win is a win’, and, how great will those wins look if we do lose the rest of our games.
My main point to make here is this, when has anyone ever seen Bill Callahan get excited during a game? When has he ever lit up a player for not performing to their abilities? When has he ever shown any fire in the belly either before or after a game in one of his press conferences? Is anyone else sick and tired of the terms ‘coach speak’ and ‘college parity’ !?!?!?! If you lose or play badly isn’t it the job of the head coach to at the very least recognize that? If Bill Callahan can not recognize poor performance on the field, what are our chances for doing anything any better? If there isn’t any fire in the Head coach, do you really expect to see it in the defense or anywhere else on the field?
We have a host of problems here in Nebraska, all of which will not go away until the source of the trouble is gone. In my opinion, that source is Steve Pederson.
September 30th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Right on Fred, and let’s not forget Chokerhan’s player revolt against him in year 2 of his debacle of coaching the Raiders. We need new defensive coaches, and after listening to Christian Peter and Mike Minter, I totally nominate them….Good cop Bad cop. That old librarian look Coz gives his players from the sidelines is getting harder and harder to look at. The only thing good that came out of the game on Saturday, was a certain DB that is constantly getting beat did not even play one down. I just have a sickness in my stomach that is not going away. I hate to even admit this, but I almost wish they get pounded on D so a change will be made. Damn I hate to say that! But is that means change, then so be it.
September 30th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
And let’s not forget, we had to use 2 gadget plays against Iowa St. K-State just lined up and pounded Texas….Colorado, Pounded Oklahoma.
October 1st, 2007 at 8:33 am
With our final 7 games, what do you guys see? I’m going back on my pre-season predictions because I can easily see 5 losses coming our way If this team plays the way they have thus far in 2007
I sincerely hope I am wrong, but based on the way Kansas State and Colorado stepped up, we could get smoked by them.
Kansas has played us tough the last 4 years, and I don’t expect that to change this year.
Texas A&M is on a slide, and Franchione could likely lose his job in the off season once the NCAA starts sniffing around his “exlusive newsletter.”
Oklahoma State cannot stop the pass, so we know what to exploit (but given the Callahan game-plan abilities, he’ll try to run on them).
Texas could go either way. They’ve flirted with disaster all season so the loss to K-State didn’t surprise me. How badly they got beat did surprise me.
Thankfully we don’t play Texas Tech this year otherwise we may have given up 1,000 yards of offense.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:01 am
Great recent postings by Brad and Fred over the weekend (excellent insights and info, I couldn’t agree more), as well as Administrator and Bugeater. Thanks for telling it like it is, and making this site such a great resource and emotional outlet for Husker fans. The last 4 years have really made me appreciate Dr. Tom and all he stood for and did for the Huskers, on and off the field. Thanks to all.
October 1st, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I could literally see us going 5-6 and losing the rest of the way out. This coaching staff has shown me nothing that makes me believe otherwise. There is no emotion. What happened to the guy with the throught slash and restore the order theme? Why not play the young guys? If Mo Purify is our playmaker like Callahan calls him, why not put him in for every play? He could’ve been an all american somewhere else. All I can hope for is some defensive mix up during the off season and finally some influx of some young talent. Some of our receivers can’t seem to catch balls….I know Niles Paul caught one and then got drilled. He held on. It just disgusts me as a fan. Our safeties are looking up checking out the clouds over Memorial Stadium and not doing what they are supposed to. The only success on defense we had was when Grixby was used as a safety. The result? 2 INTS! We need that, shuffle some guys around. I thought that was a brillian way to use Grixby. It doesn’t really matter how tall you are then. I would just like to see young guys in the game. If something goes wrong we can at least blame it on that.
October 1st, 2007 at 1:46 pm
@Husker Brad -
Some coworkers and I were talking about the same thing at work this morning. Get the young players in there. Every other program finds ways to use the skills of their younger players.
Billy’s comments of “we will play them when they know the plays well” only says one thing to me: The playbook is too damn complicated for an 11-game college season. You can’t breed success in a system that takes 2-3 years for a player to become knowledgable enough to start.
We may have had ‘great’ recruiting classes the last few years, but as we continue down the road of ’seniority plays,’ it won’t be long before recruits pass over Nebraska for the chance to get playing time earlier at other programs.
It would not surprise me to see 3-5 recent recruits leave the program in the off-season.
October 1st, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Terrell Spain, Titus Brothers, the Roark Brothers, Corey Young, Leon Jackson, Jeff Souder, Rodney Picou, Danny Muy,(I am laughing to myself on this one!) Santino Panico not the mention the hyped where are you….Chris Brooks, Will Henry, and so on and so on….Here is my starting offense.
RB….Helu, or Castille ( It would be Glenn if he was healthy.
QB..Keller of course
The line would stay the same.
WR…the Stud Purify ( so long as he doesn’t slap anyone around!)
WR Will Henery
WR Chris Brooks/Niles Paul
TE Sean Hill
Defense!
Potter…he has been awesome lately
Dixon or Johnson
Suh
Turner or Pierre Allen
Linebackers.
Ruud, Dillard, Octavien
DB’s Prince Amakumura, Bowman, Anthony Blue, Grixby.
I think these four in rotation will be athletic enough to hold down the fort.
Safeties….Got to go with my Favorite Husker!!!!
Ricky Thenarse…man when you go to the game, just watch him when he is in there! I don’t care if he doesn’t know the defense…he has more instinct then the whole rest of the defense! And finally….Major Culber at the other safety…don’t bury this guy…play him!!!!
I think that Assante is more of a linebacker since he played that in high school and JC….it also seems our safeties don’t have that center fielder approach to the football when it is in the air. I think these 2 guys will give us the speed and quality at that position. What are you guys’ Starters?