[Husker] Callahan's timeout before the game-winning FG

[Pat Gaule]

Rod Wellman wrote:

> I was at the game.  NU was having difficulty getting personnel on the  
> field.  One player was still running on as the play clock was winding  
> down.  Better to call a time out than to get a penalty for not having  
> all the linemen set before the snap.

I really don't know how I can make my point clearer, but I'll try 
anyway.  The problem was not that he called a timeout, but *when* he 
called it.  The gameclock was running at the time.  With 15 seconds left 
on the playclock and 1:10 on the gameclock, Callahan called for the 
timeout.  The best thing to do would have been to call the timeout with 
exactly 1 second left on the playclock so that the gameclock would stop 
at :56.

If anybody saw the end of the Georgia/Auburn game, this is exactly what 
Tommy Tubberville did before sending his kicker in to make the 
game-winning kick.  14-15 seconds may not seem like much, but it's very 
significant when the other team only has around a minute to get into 
field goal range.  In the case of Georgia/Auburn, it limited Georgia to 
one Hail-Mary attempt from their own 20 yard line.

The timeout was a smart call.  Calling it prematurely when you could 
have milked 15 more seconds off the gameclock was not.