[Husker] Players defend Callahan (fwd)

[Mike Nolan]

> Callahan says it's mental errors, not the system, that is the problem.  The players tell the media and fans to get off his back.

Didn't Callahan have the same explanation for his last season with the
Raiders?

Also, what would you expect the players to say publicly?  Any player who
goes on record saying that Callahan is the problem is likely to be
riding the bench for the rest of the season and looking for a school to
transfer to.  

I think the problems in 2005 are basically the same as in 2004:  BC is 
trying to run a round-hole offense with square-peg players.  What really
bothers me is that I have no idea how soon those problems will go away and
I think the mismatches might be worse this year than last.  

I said when BC was hired that I thought the 2005 season would be the 
low-water mark.  At this point, I hope I'm right, the lack of consistency 
on defense has me worried that it may be the bigger problem in the long 
run.  It would not surprise me to see at least one change among the 
defensive coaches before next spring, possibly as early as the week
after the last game, whenever that turns out to be.

I also think he thought that as a former Super Bowl coach he could be 
successful in any league and that he didn't need to adapt his system to 
the talent available or the competition.  (Danny Nee said and did pretty 
much the same thing when he was hired, he got humbled quickly, or
at least as much as any head coach ever gets humbled.)

If he survives another 2 years (about 50-50 right now), I think he'll do 
as well here as any other team does with the WCO, some years they'll be 
one of the best teams in the nation, other years they'll be just average, 
which I equate to being a 6 or 7 win year.  

I'm not sure Husker fans know how to deal with average, and they really 
don't know how to deal with below-average, because for most Husker fans 
it hasn't happened in their lifetime, or at least not in their adult 
lives.  (I was in junior high in Illinois when Devaney was hired, not very
football-aware, and all I knew about Nebraska at the time was that Omaha 
was where my sister had been injured in a car accident a few years earlier.)
--
Mike Nolan