[Husker] 2007 Game plan

[Steve Reichenbach]

I think the contentions that Osborne was a top recruiter and a top game
day coach are overblown.  He was good at those things, but not the
best.  I think where TO excelled was in evaluating, planning, and
developing, which are really intellectual tasks.  So, he did well at
evaluating what NU needed to do, making plans based on his evaluations,
and developing a system and the players for that system.

He and his staff were good at recruiting, but were often out recruited.
Sure, Osborne and his staff had a great eye for what talent could be
developed and what they needed for their system, but they weren't tops
in getting the top players.  He and his staff were good at game day
coaching (both X-and-O's as well as psychological preparation), but
were often out coached.  I can't believe anyone who was a fan in the
70s, when it wasn't just OU's talent that allowed Switzer to win most
years, and the 80s, when Osborne's teams lost so many bowl games,
thinks TO was a game-day coaching genius.  In one of those years,
Switzer was said to have told his team before the NU game: "Please
don't let the best team win." [For an account of this, see:
http://espn.go.com/classic/s/2001/1024/1268485.html]

I think another of TO's strengths was the ability to be critical of
shortcomings, to learn from them, and make improvements to address
them.  I think Osborne learned over years of coaching and I hope
Callahan has that same ability, because like Osborne's early years
Callahan seems to have struggled in the tougher games in his first
few years.