[Husker] So what happens when we actually get talent?

[Pat Gaule]

For the past two seasons, NU has shown that they have trouble winning 
against teams with a comparable (sometimes less) amount of talent.  For 
2005, you can see it with the near-loss to Pittsburgh, the blow-out at 
Missouri, and today's blow-out at Kansas.  I refuse to believe that 
Nebraska has less talent than these teams, all of which are hovering 
around .500.  At best, I'd accept that Nebraska has talent comparable to 
these teams.

For 2004, you could see it with the loss to Southern Miss (finished 7-5 
and ranked #73 in the Sagarin Rankings), the massacre at Kansas State 
(finished 4-7 and #61 in the Sagarin), and at Iowa State (7-5 and #52 in 
the Sagarin).

The only positive thing I ever hear about Callahan is his superior 
recruiting abilities.  With talent, I'm sure that Nebraska will 
eventually be able to beat up on Southern Miss and Kansas again.  
However, what about the bigger teams?  If Nebraska squared off with USC 
or Texas with a comparable amount of talent, would anyone pick Bill 
Callahan to outcoach Pete Caroll or Mack Brown based on what Bill has 
shown thus far?  Even with talent, there's still a good possibility that 
we'll lose 2-3 big games a year simply because we get outcoached.  
Alone, talent is not enough to beat highly-ranked teams.

The high-water mark for this coaching staff may very well be getting 
back to 10-3, with losses to top teams.  And quite frankly, I don't see 
us getting back to where we were in 2003 for quite some time.