[Husker] The Big Red is Awfully Little

Thu Sep 27 17:12:07 CDT 2007

My opinion is that Pederson fired Solich because Solich wouldn't do
things as Pederson believed Solich should be doing them.  By many
accounts, Pederson was pretty specific about how much time should be
spent on different activities and Solich used his own judgement.  That
wasn't satisfactory with Pederson, despite the successful turnaround
that Solich seemed to have made with the changes in the staff.  Some
have argued that you have to do what your boss tells you, but many fans
have the opinion that NU football isn't Pederson's private company
which he can run to suit his own ego.  All of that is water under the
bridge, but I think it is largely false to repeat that Pederson fired
Solich to prevent NU's slide to mediocrity, when Pederson fired Solich
because Solich wouldn't be micromanaged.

At the time, I and many others stated that Pederson had made a foolish
and risky decision that jeopardized the program.  At that time, many
fans pointed to the patience that NU's administrators showed with
Devaney in the late 60s and with  Osborne in the mid 70s and again in
the early 1990s despite the unhappiness of fans.  Nationally, many
wiser heads than Pederson's were scratched over the firing of a coach
with a 75% career winning percentage, less than two years from a BCS
championship berth, a 9-3 season (which would be capped with a bowl
win), and a staff with both experienced assistants (such as Gill) and
up-and-coming young assistants (such as Sanders and Pelini).  Again,
this is water under the bridge, but it is important to remember that
wisdom argued that patiently improving is a good path to success.

So, I think it would be premature to fire Callahan and it is too early
in the season to lock into changes in assistants such as Cosgrove.
Cosgrove has never looked to be an outstanding coach and this year is
pretty worrisome, but the defense did play pretty well against OU in KC
last year (despite blunders and weak play in other areas) and the team
does have a completely new defensive line.  The previous poster thinks
that the defense this year is "fixable".  If it is fixed, e.g., NU goes
to Texas with only one loss, then the coaches would deserve some credit
(although that doesn't get NU to its national championship goals).

On the other hand, if things don't get fixed, e.g., NU goes to Texas
with 3 or even 4 losses, then I think one has to look harder at all of
the places where, as others have documented, coaches made bigger and
quicker "turnarounds" than Callahan hopes to make (because, as yet,
there is no "turnaround").  At that point, someone will have to judge
whether the problem can be solved with different assistants (I hated to
see Blake go) or only with a different head coach.

Byrne put the pressue on Solich to make changes.  I suspect that a five
loss season would persuade Pederson that Callahan would have to make
some changes, whether or not Pederson and Callahan want to do so.
Otherwise, the pressure on other NU administrators would be to fire
Pederson to send a strong signal that the justification for patience
was being replaced by a recognition of deeper problems than can be
fixed with patient improvement.  I suspect that Callahan too would be
persuaded that there were no good options other than making changes
in his staff.

I am not yet convinced that Callahan will be a success, but it is not
yet clear that he doesn't have what it takes.  On those questions,
this year will be a good indicator, but the signals so far are mixed.
NU _is_ 3-1, which would be okay at this point even if NU had a great
team; but there are clearly problems that may cost the team if they
aren't corrected.  I think NU will beat ISU, but the game at Missouri
and the two subsequent home games against OSU and A&M will be very
telling about the quality of our coaching staff and the level of
success they are likely to achieve.

> 
> creating successful change in any organization requires many many factors to come together. the first element requires great leadership. the other thing that is required is "getting the right people on the bus" who will help you make that change. and then it takes time to implement little changes that will eventually lead to the permanent and hopefully successfull change.
>  
> I believe what we are seeing at nebraska is this process in action. Changes in "culture" don't happen overnight, and this cultural change has certainly been significant gut wrenching and difficult to swallow. Is there going to be light at the end of the tunnel?
>  
> i know many fans have become incredibly impatient with this process, but I honestly think we are not going to be great for another few years. We are in the middle of the process and we won't really know. If we prematurely end it now (eg firing callahan/cos/crew) that will just extend that timeframe. do we really want to continue waiting?
>  
> I think nebraska's issues, particularly on defense, are fixable. the coaching staff needs to do whatever it takes to make changes to fix the problems. i don't necessarily see a problem on offense, except for the lack of a consistent run game. we did have some melt downs last year defensively, but was the defense this bad? so we know the defense has the potential to play great, but it comes in fits and starts (last year) or not at all it seems like (this year)
>  
> let's face it: a whole new and inexperienced D-line has hurt this team. they are gonna have to grow up fast if they want to get better. its time for the D to man up and accept the responsibility of being a Blackshirt and what that means from a cultural and tradition perspective. if you can't make a tackle on game day, give your Blackshirt to the guy behind you...maybe he wants it more...sit back down on the bench and think about what just happened...if it bothers you, fight to get your Blackshirt back by proving you should be on the field in the first place....the bottom line is, every individual on the D has got to make plays...
>  
> Omar> From: RBEVERAGE at aol.com> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:52:20 -0400> To: husker at tssi.com> Subject: [Husker] The Big Red is Awfully Little> > This article appears in the current issue of the Sporting News, which I > subscribe to.. It might be on their website,which I haven't looked at. The > author is Matt Hayes, who is a regular college football columnist in the > magazine, and as one might suspect, the article is very critical of the current > Husker football program. Here's a brief synopsis:> > Four years of changing the culture and coach Bill Callahan reshaping the > culture and a home win over Ball State is a cause for celebration?> > When that happens, it's time to look at the program. It is not working out. > There's no way that Ball State comes close to winning the game before the > culture change.> > The win is not a step forward. It's been the same for the past three > seasons. The Huskers are no different from the other B-12 North teams.> > Pederson fired Solich 
 t!
o avoid mediocrity. Hayes to the Husker > Nation-Mediocrity is here.> > He thinks Callahan has been given a free pass because "he is changing the > culture".> > Quoting Pederson, when Callahan was given his extension "He has certainly > met or exceeded my expectations..."> > And quoting Hayes. "And that's the problem. Instead of striving for > perfection, Nebraska has settled for mediocrity."> > Pretty strong words. It's the lead article in the college football section, > which indicates how big a story this is.> > Does anybody agree with this? I do. Unfortunately, I also think there is > no solution in the immediate future.> > Dick Beverage-Californians for Nebraska and living on a street with a number > of USC people. It hasn't been easy.> > > > > ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com> _______________________________________________> husker site list> husker at tssi.com> http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/husker
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