[Husker] Important? Unimportant?

[Scott R Lawson]

I am not qualified to respond to all these points (at least coherently)
so I will take a stab at a couple that I think I know a little about.

Positives:

1- True. He is as smart an x's and o's guy as there is, but I will say
that he couldn't motivate a 16 year old kid in a room full of prom
queens.

2- Can't comment

3- Can't comment

4- The reason, in my opinion, why Callahan (as well as other WCO
coaches) is able to get the players he gets is because they look at
Nebraska as a stepping stone to the next level, where many teams seem to
be running some variation of the WCO. I think this has been discussed
before.

5- See #4.

Negatives:

1- True, and this is the biggest pet peave I have with Callahan. In
fact, this type of offense is complicated enough that you really need
2-3 years to learn it properly and college kids are there for 4 years (5
in some cases), so there is not enough time to invest in any one player.
You cannot simply sign a kid for 8 years, although I have to think high
schools are running variations as well. Ganz seems to be a smart kid,
and has been in the system, there is no excuse why he shouldn't have
been in the OK State game.

2- I think this is simply a personality quirk, we all have them, but of
course we are all not in the public eye like BC.

3- Yes it is, but he over complicates it. 

4- Can't comment

5- See # 2 I guess.

I jumped on the Callahan bandwagon in 2003 because I WANTED desperately
for Nebraska to succeed, no matter who the coach was. I was not thrilled
with the way things went down regarding Solich, but I did agree that
some sort of change was needed. Of course, you can enact change without
remving the guy, but it is what it is. Now that Callahan and Pederson
have failed miserably, I am willing to embrace change once again,
despite the fact that it will set the program back a year or two (at
least) yet again. I feel, even though Pederson can't possibly have a
single supporter at this point (at least one who matters) I was willing
to give this experiment a shot. Now it is time to move on.

By the way, Dan Cook, a prominent NU booster, is adamant about having
his name removed from the pavilion in his honor (paraphrased from 1620
AM). Wow.

Scott in NY

-----Original Message-----
From: husker-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:husker-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf
Of Steve Stone
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 3:53 PM
To: husker-tssi.com
Subject: [Husker] Important? Unimportant?

Frequently things happen to college football teams, things that are 
beyond the power of coaches to deal with or even affect. Sometimes 
teams don't "gel" or lack leadership or are missing one or even two 
key components. Not every losing team is the victim of poor coaching.

That said, Callahan has shown me a couple of positive things and a 
couple of negative things, so I thought I'd share with you other 
kiddies to find out you're thinking:

Positives:
1) The man knows football, inside and out.
2) The man works at the game like a demented gnome.
3) Since arriving at NU, the man has shown signs of adapting to some 
of the peculiar circumstances of the state and the program, albeit 
somewhat slowly.
4) The man has been signing more "multiple star" HS recruits lately, 
which is at least good publicity.
5) The man has been signing top-notch JC recruits lately.

Negatives:
1) The man seems possessed by the NFL mentality that the starting 
quarterback must play the entire game no matter what. He didn't give 
Joe Ganz a whirl even in the latter parts of the MU and OSU games 
when clearly some sort of change seemed necessary. (As the man said 
to the forty-four year old virgin....")
2) The man makes it virtually impossible for fans and the public to 
know when he's is being candid or opaque in his public 
pronouncements. I hold that while we shouldn't know everything, we're 
entitled to know  s o m e t h i n g.
3) The man's head remains buried in playsheets (midway through the 
season) when the quarterback trots back to the bench for 
instructions. Is the WC offense THAT complicated?
4) Does the man need to immerse himself in statistical data in order 
to be able to call about five basic running plays and six basic 
passing plays?
5) The man needs to enlarge his public-communication vocabulary 
beyond "No question," "absolutely," and "huge." I'm not asking for 
William Jennings Bryan here, just a smattering of plain-English 
synonyms.

Steve Stone

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