[Husker] A Word In Edgewise, If You Please...

[Tommy Thompson]

I'm glad Pat brought up all of those coaches that inherited teams and then 
turned them around.  How many of those coaches (Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll, 
Nick Saban, Jim Tressel, Mack Brown) completely overhauled the offensive 
scheme from option oriented to West Coast?  None, that I can remember.  That 
said, we should expect Callahan's turnaround to take a little longer than 
the others.

I think the Huskers will surprise us over the rest of the year.  Before this 
season began, I thought Nebraska would lose at least 4 games (Wake, USC, TX, 
Missouri) and maybe a 5th (aTm).  After seeing this team develop over the 
past two weeks, however, I think it is realistic to think the Huskers will 
lose only one more game (TX).  The offense is in place.  The defense needs 
to stop the run, and I think they will.

USC was the best team the Huskers will face this year.  That said, the 
Huskers had more 1st downs, more yards passing, and only 37 fewer total 
yards.

I believe the Huskers are a lot better than some of you think.

Tommy Thompson
"GO BIG RED"
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pat Gaule" <pgaule at cox.net>
To: <husker at tssi.com>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 1:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Husker] A Word In Edgewise, If You Please...


> Steve Stone wrote:
>
>> Some HuskerListers seem dismayed or outraged that these coaches can''t do 
>> in four years what Tom Osborne took more than 20 years to do.
>>
>> If that's tortured reasoning, then I plead guilty.
>
> While it did take Osborne 20 years to win a national title, it did not 
> take him 20 years to maintain Nebraska's image as a national powerhouse. 
> Osborne finished in the top ten of at least one poll in every one of his 
> first 17 seasons.  Under Callahan, Nebraska has finished in the top 25 
> exactly *once*, and that was a 24th-place finish in 2005. Osborne 
> certainly inherited a program in better shape than Callahan, but at some 
> point, a great coach is going to overcome the weaknesses of the team he 
> inherited, just as a weak coach is going to be exposed when the previous 
> staff's players graduate.  Like it or not, we are getting to the point 
> where Callahan needs to be judged by results, not by what the future may 
> hold.
>
> Putting aside the fact that Osborne's first 20 years were far from 
> mediocre or disappointing, I do not agree with the notion that it takes 20 
> years of mediocre 3 or 4 loss seasons to become a dominant powerhouse.  If 
> you compare Callahan to succesful coaches that were hired to lead troubled 
> powerhouses back to glory, then he does not compare favorably.
>
> Bob Stoops inherited an OU program in 1999 that was in far worse shape 
> than Nebraska.  This was a program that was simply awful for almost an 
> entire decade.  He won a national title in his 2nd season and OU has been 
> among the elite ever since.
>
> Pete Carroll inherited a USC team that was coming off a string of seasons 
> where they finished around .500.  Within 2 years, he had an 11-2 record 
> and a Pac-10 title.  Within 3 years, he had a national title.
>
> Nick Saban inherited an LSU team that went 7-15 in the two seasons prior 
> to his arrival.  Within 2 years, he won an SEC championship.  Within 4 
> years, he won a national title.
>
> Jim Tressel at Ohio State came into a situation that is somewhat 
> comparable to the situation Callahan came into.  The previous coach (John 
> Cooper) had a respectable .715 winning percentage, a few conference 
> co-championships, and a handful of bowl wins.  The problem was that he 
> couldn't get OSU over the hump (namely he couldn't beat Michigan). His 
> team went 6-6 in 1999 and 8-4 in 2000, which is not all that far off from 
> Solich's staff going 7-7 in 2002 and 10-3 in 2003.  After a rough first 
> year for Jim Tressel, he won a national championship in his 2nd season, 
> and finished in the top 5 for 3 of the next 4 seasons.
>
> At Texas, Mack Brown inherited a 4-7 squad from John Mavkovic.  It did 
> take him 4 years to put a top ten team on the field, but they've been a 
> pretty elite program since 2001 (never finishing lower than 13th).
>
> At this point in time, Callahan does not have so much as a marquee win, 
> let alone a conference championship or a BCS bowl berth.  My honest 
> opinion is that if this experiment was going to be a success, there would 
> have been some indication thereof by his 4th season.  I do not believe 
> that Callahan will ever be as successful as the aforementioned coaches, 
> and any comparisons to Tom Osborne are going to look absolutely foolish 20 
> years from now.
> Do I think we should fire him?  Not at this point in time, but the 
> honeymoon is long since over.  If he was hired to lead Nebraska back to an 
> elite level, then he needs to show that he can get there.  He has not done 
> that to this point.
>
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