They have fired the AD:

Link

well, at least they didn't shoot him

Callahan needs to go next

He hasn't made it out of town yet....

That was a good move but IMO, Cosgrove needed to go a long time ago and the Chancellor that just renewed Pederson's contract resulting in a payoff of 2.2 MILLION dollars needs to be booted for wasting so much freakin' $$!!

Naive is hardly adequate to describe me, but I don't understand how firing the AD is going to bring about a miraculous change. Any help in understanding would be appreciated. Thanks, John

It's sort of a shifting of the blame thing. Allows the new AD to come in, fire Callahan, and hire "his guy". Takes responsibility for both out of the hands of those actually making the decisions...you know? The real culprits never get their hands dirty, so sometime others have to "take one for the team." Such tactics are commonplace in big time college football...especially at places where outside private big money really calls the shots, such as at Auburn. Bobby Lowder runs Auburn...he's president of Colonial Bank based in Montgomery. But he calls the shots...period. Everyone at the school from the pres on down is merely serving at his pleasure. When Tubs foiled their little coup attempt in 2003, Lowder was a little too close to it, and got his hands dirty, and thus egg on his face...It's rumored he and Tubs haven't spoken since. Long as Tubs keeps on winning...Lowder will tolerate him. Some think if Tubs is offered another job and tries to get Auburn to meet an offer that Lowder will tell him "nice workin' with ya." Personally, I think Lowder's ego will still not allow him to take responsibility for "Jet-gate" as its called. He wasn't on the plane...it was Colonial Bank's Corp jet, but he wasn't actually on it. A great Auburn man, David Housel, the AD at the time was, and he took the fall for it. Fell on his sword so to speak, to deflect the blame from the real culprits...Lowder and the meddeling trustees. Im in the minority on my thinking though. At most place, ADs dont run the place at most college programs...at least the SEC is that way...Frank Broyels at Ark is/was the exception to that rule. When head football coaches got away from being ADs, ADs became figureheads and businessmen. Mere administrators with little power. Like I said though, there are exceptions such as Broyels.

I think Nebraska and A&M should put their teams together and then we might have a pretty good team to put on the field....grin...

God luck as we're fixing to go through the same mess again...

Jim Lindsey tells Broyles what to do and he does it!!
We'll see what the new AD does.

As I mentioned yesterday on another post, I have been a Nebraska fan for a long time... subway alum as it were.

It really pained me to see Nebraska shed the run first philosophy and I think it robbed the team of its identity. And the mano a mano temperament of the team has suffered. Callahan had a vision of a faster more modern offense. I wish he hadn't.

But by and large they could have still gotten around that were it not for one thing: defensive line play.

I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here, but Nebraska's defensive line is the worst I have watched outside of that of Louisville's this season. You can take all those complicated defensive schemes and 5 star recruits and jam them. If your defensive line is consistently getting whipped and is out of position most of the time you are going to lose.

If you have other weaknesses on the defense you will lose badly.

In a nutshell this is Nebraska's problem. I know it well because it is also Wisconsin's problem. Worse, this is a problem that cannot be fixed easily most of the time. Game experience, better coaching, or a personnel change is usually required.

For UW's part I am not sure how long the pain will last. We lost one DE to defection, another got in a fight with a coach and was dismissed, another had a career ending injury. We now have greenhorns and folks filling in at different positions, some out of their natural position, to cover. We stink.

I don't know what happened at the defensive line at Nebraska, but until it changes nothing is going to help. I only hope the new coach brings back the option. I love watching the option.

Will

I'm not fully plugged in to the Ark day to day situation...Broyles still had much more power and say than most ADs around the SEC.

Will,

Defense, IMO, is a much more easily solved problem than offense. I don't know who the DC is at Neb. I don't know the players...but a good coach can take average players and make a good defense out of them and the opposite is also true as you said...good players can be very bad if not properly coached and in a good scheme. Defense, IMO, is more about desire and playing hard than anything else, assuming you have a shred of talent. And Neb plays in a league where Defense isn't currently a big priority like it was in the old days of the "Black Shirts". That lack of priority might be reflected in the coaching and line play. It took to this year, but Will Muschamp at Auburn took the same players too Ark and and stuffed the same offense with the same players that got gashed for 300 yards rushing last season. Partly scheme? Sure...more about buying in to the philosophy and playing hard...and Ark had something to do with it too I think. Still...it has been a good rushing attack until Auburn stuffed them. Don't know what to tell you about Nebraska...seems Callahan may be on his way out. Who's next? I hear Houston Nutt will be looking for a job soon too!

.280Rem - excellent explanation of how those with the gold make the rules in college football - much appreciated. I positively love football but am dismayed at the way that money (the act of having it or the desire to acquire it) controls the game. I am enough of a dreamer to wish that it could be otherwise, but enough of a realist to realize that it can't be. Best, John

Just watched the movie Marshall over the weekend. Exactly the case there.

Good movie, BTW.

If you haven't lived in Nebraska, you can't imagine how much the success of the UN-Lincoln Football Team means to a majority of Nebraskans.

It appears that a key reason that Steve Pederson was fired was because several of the AD's senior staff had resigned within the past few months. UN-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman fired Pederson so that he could hire a new AD and the new AD will address the football program, which is Nebraska's golden goose and most important intercollegiate sports. Pederson also set the performance bar very high when he fired Frank Solich in 2003. He said that he fired Solich because he "wouldn't allow NU Football to gravitate toward mediocrity" and he "wouldn't surrender the Big-12 to Texas and Oklahoma". Well, under leadership of Bill Callahan the NU Football program has taken the express elevator to the basement of the Big-12, bypassing mediocrity altogether. Now, NU is playing the same level of football as Baylor and Iowa State. That is not acceptable and now it will get changed.

FWIW, it appears that Pederson knew that he was going to fire Solich in 2003, regardless of his 9-3 record, and he failed to have an outstanding coach lined up to take over. It was rumored that he was trying to get Dave Wannstedt, before Wannstedt left the Miami Dolphins to become the Head Coach at Pittsburgh. The Houston Nutt thing hurt his credibility, since it appears that he lied about having offered, or not offered, Nutt the job to replace Solich. He could have hired Bo Pelini, the current D-Coordinator at LSU, who was the D-Coordinator at Nebraska under Solich in 2003 and was the interim Head Coach for the Bowl Game that year. Pelini is a high-energy coach, unless Callahan's corporate, low-key, style. Also, Callahan was at a disadvantage because he didn't have a staff of proven people that he could bring with him to NU. He has also made some questionable assistant coach hiring decisions, particularly with his hiring of Kevin Cosgrove as his D-Coordinator. Cosgrove hadn't had great success at Wisconsin and he hasn't done any better at Nebraska.

Jeff

Depends on the defense I suppose. But I have seen never seen a bad defense improve a whole lot over the course of a season. Most times if they are really bad you just have to hang on until the next season and hope they have it straightened out then.

Look at WVU. They had one of the worst pass defenses on the planet last season. Everyone and their brother knew what the problems were but it took a season to recruit, train, coach, and try different personnel to get it straightened out. They still have a few holes, but at least they are a big improvement.

Wisconsin will struggle this season but will probably not get much better... matter of fact as opposing coaches see the problems and exploit them they have gotten worse each week. Their problem is squarely on the defensive end. One is mediocre and the other is appallingly bad. Being an old linebacker who has seen his share of undermanned defensive ends/tackles, I know how this stresses the whole defense. I feel sorry for their linebackers.

I think Nebraska faces the same long road for the rest of the season.

Biggest problem I see with Nebraska is the probability that this regime change will signal the end to whatever hope the program had of being a stable program with leaders who produce for a long time. They may end up being the kind of program that switches coaches every 3 years never really giving any one coach time to get his own recruits and system fully in place. That is a bad place to be.

Will

An interesting take of this from cfn's Matt Zemek:

http://cfn.scout.com/2/691117.html

Money quotes:

"For all his faults, Pederson is closer to the rule than the exception in college sports. The instantaneous demand for results, the pronounced impatience, the unrealistic expectations--these and other Pederson traits are the traits shared by other big-time athletic programs. Gentle patience, long-term perspective, and an awareness of the place of college sports in a much bigger context are all largely absent from (or at least inconspicuous within) the college sports scene of the 21st century."

"With Rich Brooks winning at Kentucky, Greg Schiano finally making Rutgers respectable, and the besieged Lloyd Carr righting the ship at Michigan (as though there was a lot wrong with the Wolverine program in the first place; there wasn't), there are ample examples to be found in which patience is the ultimate virtue for athletic directors--not just in terms of producing results, but in terms of treating decent men with honor and respect."

END QUOTE

Very interesting opinion.

But it is tough for a fanbase to lose a beloved and wildly successful coach. The next guy never seems to measure up. I almost cried when Barry Alvarez retired at Wisconsin. I cannot imagine what it will eventually be like to try and fill Rich Rodriquez's shoes at WVU. And neither of them had anywhere near the success of Tom Osborne.

Tough job.

Will

How to turn it all around ???? Steve Spurrier...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ! ! ! ! ! !

Dude, are you serious? I live in Alabama.


Pederson had to go. It's the nature of the beast. He got his shot at Soloch, and got to fire him. The mistake he made you noted well, he didn't have a replacement lined up. Callahan was his guy, its a failure, he gets the axe, the new guy axes Callahan and gets to hire his guy. The new guy will get that hire, and one more if that one fails, and the cycle will continue or someone will fit and win and stay a while. Simple.

Nebraska is the type school that if you aint winning, the problem is the coach. They are the state school, and really the only big time program in the state. Any good coach should be able to throw up a fence around Nebraska and keep a great majority of the kids at home, and keep TX and OU out. They have a great history and tradition that is not nearly as far removed as say, Alabama's. The only things I don't know about Nebraska is if they have facilities to rival others, or did they do like Alabama and lag behind because they didn't need new facilities because they're Nebraska and Nebraska sells itself without gimmicks? Well, it doesn't...the kids want the facilities...the "bling".

No program can sustain on their name or history alone these days, nor can they sustain on recruiting kids they are promising immediate playing time to in order to get them...you can't win big time football with young players...and the kids you're promising early playing time to are not team players. A team can win a championship with no 5 star players. There are numerous examples of highly talented teams with mediocre records. Phil Fulmer at Tenn and ND are famous for talented underachieving teams. Places like Nebraska, TX, Auburn, Bama, Florida, OSU, USC...they are "programs" not a flash in the pan winning team. Today, the Boise State, So. Floridas, and Rutgers of the world can manage to get some players every once in a blue moon to make a 2-3 season run...but they don't sustain it year in and year out. The keys to having a great program are much more complex than merely having a good season or 2 every decade precisely because the Rugers, Boise's, So Florida of the world are having their day in the sun, and diluting the pool of players. A place like Nebraska is like Bama...or should be...every coach they've fired in the last 15 years had one 10 win season...anybody can do that, or should do that at a school like that.

I'm not defending Callahan, but one thing Nebraska had to do was evolve out of the Osborne/Solich option offense mode...they'd recruted to that system so long that Callahan had nothing to work with in his West Coast system...they needed to give him 5 years to see IF he's capable of building his program or not. Also, as they do in the SEC...most coaches come in and build a team starting on the D side of the ball as it's easier to find those type athletes and coach D than build an offensive team. And you can a game or 2 on defense alone. I don't know what year he's in now...3 or 4? If it is year 5 then they gave him a fair shot. Still, it appears things are sooooo bad that they think 1 more year wont make any difference...I can't disagree.

Apparently they have hired Tom Osborne as the new AD. I wish him well. Too bad he won't come back as a coach.

I say go back to the option. It is beautiful to watch, terrifying to defend, and could be a fearsome offense if blended into the new spread option game.

Will

Osborne left on top...left a hero...he's too smart to screw that up by coming back to coach again. Or maybe they're too smart to go back down that road again. Either way, good AD choice, smart move to make that the job they offered him

Hey Jeff,

I saw Steve Pederson on the way to work this morning.

Mike

TFF!

Sad But True.

When our "BlackSKIRTS" let Ball F'N State wrack up over 600YDS !!!

It has been hard for me to keep food down for weeks....

Did you hear that they put the Black shirts (jersey's) away? The defensive squad said that they will not bring them back out until they start playing up to the Black Shirt standard. You've got to give them credit for admitting they're playing like a bunch of puzzies.

Mike

Got that picture of SP and the sign from my brother just after 8:00 am this morning. 'Bout spewed coffee all over my cornfuser . . .

I think Dr Tom will give Callahan the rest of the year but don't be fooled, he has already started the evaluation. He's just checking Bill to see if he is receptive to dumping his west coast confusion and installing the old Oz-bone . . . And he's probably made some well placed phone calls - you know, just to check on how some of his buddies are doing, how's the wife and kids? oh, by the way would you be interested in coaching at Nebraska were there to be a vacancy?

To the left, it may say I live in AR, but I lived in NE for 50 years, got my degree from UN-L and I bleed HUSKER RED . . .

Now THAT is funny!!



+1

Without a solid Nebraska football program, we might as well move to a six day week - after all, it only takes one day to mow the yard...

Unless Nebraska can commit to win, they won't ever be a "program" again because no kids will want to play there when they can go to Florida, Ohio State, etc. Same thing happened to CU. They decided having a winning football program didn't matter, and killed the whole program. No highschool standout wants to play for CU anymore. Callahan sucked in the pros too, and needs to go.