Bill Callahan has been fired!

Lincoln Journal Star is reporting that Bo Pelini has been contacted by Baker, Parker and Associates, an Atlanta-based search firm hired by the University.

The coaching staff was given benchmarks when the team was 4-4. Win out, and they would stay, win 3 and they would probably stay, win less than 2 and it would be awfully tough. There would be mitigating circumstances, such as losing by a field goal, then perhaps things would work out.

All nine of Nebraska’s assistant coaches had their contracts terminated, but some were asked to stay on temporarily to help with recruiting.

“It isn’t wins and loss, it is how you do it,” said Osborne.

[UPDATE] Since the assistants are still getting paid monthly salaries, Osborne asked “all assistant coaches who would like to help in the transition to stay on staff and help with recruiting… Coaches who would like to be considered for employment on the next staff will stay on and recruit.”

Check out this insult, care of The Denver Post:

(Colorado senior running back Hugh) Charles took off his shoulder pads, revealing a T-shirt reading: “The real Blackshirts” — referring to the nickname of the Nebraska defense. Departing from its usual look, Colorado wore black pants to go with its black jerseys.

The Associated Press also has this statement from BC:

“I don’t know what to expect,” he said. “I’m just going to wake up tomorrow and deal with whatever we have to deal with and we’ll go on. Coach Osborne has a lot of things that he would like to talk about, so let’s get on and visit about it.”

This was the sixth time Nebraska allowed 40 or more points this season, and the second time they’ve been lit up for 60-plus this month.

Buffs 65 – Huskers 51.

Ganz and the offense looked great in the first half, but fell apart in the 3rd quarter.

The story of our defensive ineptitude is the same woeful tale that’s been told all season.

5-7 (2-6 in conference) is where things end.

Rivalry or no rivalry, the CU game does highlight vast cultural differences between the residents of Nebraska and Colorado.

Samuel McKewon of NE State Paper touches on them in his pre-game analysis:

Colorado, to many NU fans, represents a style and attitude that’s uniquely anti-Nebraskan. CU is money. Spoiled trust-funders. Ski bums. Fickle bandwagon jumpers. Preeners. Corner cutters. White collar, liberal, loose-living, green-loving, golden pom-pom holding, snowball-and-beer-bottle-throwing louts.

In other words, the Buffaloes, and their fans, are perfect rivals.

From a cultural point of view, I might add.

Picking up on the cultural gulph between these bordering states, CU’s athletic director, Mike Bohn, writing a guest opinion in the Boulder Daily Camera, pleas with Buffs fans to be more like Husker fans.

I urge all Buff fans to play a positive role in providing our guests with a great experience in Boulder, just as I expect our fans to be treated with respect and hospitality when we travel to Lincoln next year.

In other words: “build positive equity in the rivalry.” Be a factor in creating excitement and pageantry into the game on the field by bringing that passion into the stadium not with poor sportsmanship in the stands or outside the stadium. Cheer loudly and collectively for the Buffs. Single out the players and team as they shine and especially when there are miscues or a shift in momentum. Acknowledge the Husker fans’ right to cheer their team on. But leave the unconstructive stuff — profanity, insults, jokes and other provocations — to yourself.

Bohn has the right idea, and it’s good pr for his program, but this stuff can’t be prescribed. It’s cultural. Which is why it’s so important that our team wipe CU off the field—the one place where dominance isn’t discussed, it’s lived.

Joe Ganz was aked if he sees The Buffs as a rival.

Here’s what he told Lincoln Journal Star:

“We dislike everybody that we play,” Ganz said. “If it’s Colorado, Kansas. They’re faceless objects is what we look at the opposing team (as). They (Colorado) do try to make it into a rivalry game and we accept that and make it one back. That’s really all pre-game stuff, all that rivalry talk.

“When it comes down to the field, you don’t really think ‘Oh this is a huge rivalry. We need to play better.’ We need to accomplish what we need to accomplish on the field. If they want to be talking about a rivalry that’s fine.”

In other words, no, Colorado is not now, nor will they ever be Oklahoma.

Having said that, losing to CU is a terrible feeling. Worse than losing to Texas or Mizzou. Which indicates that this game is a rivalry at some level, it’s just not as storied, nor as intense as lining up against the Sooners.

Nebraska football fans are known to be highly knowledgeable about the game and their team. But that’s not how Jim Pillen, a booster and former player sees things. In an article in the Omaha World Herald that addresses wat little is known about BC’s private life, he had this to say:

Pillen said he doesn’t think that it would have made a difference if Nebraskans knew Callahan better.

“The part I’ve struggled with most through this is that there’s been constant criticism of our program,” Pillen said. “It’s been going on for four years. Most Nebraska fans don’t know anything different than what they read, so they just line up like a bunch of ducks.”

I’ve been waiting for this—the other side of the argument made by Samuel McKewon of Nebraska State Paper in defense of Bill Callahan.

Now we have it. Published yesterday, McKeown runs through BC’s list of failures.

• Mediocrity
• Win now, but my way
• Kevin Cosgrove
• A situational, unpredictable offense that can’t come back when trailing at halftime
• Special teams
• Developmental/playing time mysteries
• Intangible inconsistency
• A personality fans don’t like/can’t trust
• Lack of identity
• It was just a job, not a calling

Samuel McKewon of Nebraska State Paper displays his versatility, range and fairness in a piece about Callahan’s strengths. Don’t fret, he still says BC’s a poor fit for the Huskers, but before he does, he generously assesses the man’s contributions to the program.

• A clean program that graduates its players
• Modernization of Offense
• Expansion of Recruiting
• Clinics/camps
• Zac Taylor
• “Restore The Order”/Remember The Alamo
• Screen passes
• The opening drive against Auburn
• Shawn Watson
• His fortitude

On this last point, McKewon writes, “Truth is, Callahan’s suffered slings and arrows this year – both at home and abroad – that would have sent many coaches heading for a plush, cash-laden exit called a buyout or, even worse, into a snide, immature rage.”

He also writes, “Nebraskans are smart. Very smart, independent and loyal. They pay attention, they analyze and they rarely forget.”

Ain’t that the truth.

BC wasn’t going to make his players available to the press this week, but I guess an exception can be made for the California Kid. I mean he is hurt, and Public Television isn’t really “the press.”

image courtesy of Double Extra Point

According to Lincoln Journal Star, Sam Keller spoke quite highly of the coaches as a guest on NET’s “Big Red Wrap-Up” on Tuesday.

“I came here and I do things good, but I had to learn that system. Joey is a master at that system, a complete master,” Keller said. “He showed you what this offense is capable of. He shows you how good of a coach (Bill) Callahan is and how hard him and (offensive coordinator Shawn) Watson work to put together these game plans.

“He cares so much,” Keller said. “The way I see Coach Callahan, I have so much respect for him, and what he does and how hard he works, and the opportunity that he extended to me to come play for him.

“He’s made me a better quarterback, and I think for that matter, a better person. Because I think sometimes they go hand-in-hand, honest to God.”

It’s well known that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Good coaching, on the other hand, is not. That’s not to say BC isn’t a good mentor to his QBs. But, there’s mounting evidence his positive influence falls off sharply when it comes to everyone else.