Kittens on fire...

…A baby in a blender. Both sound as sweet as another year under Billy C. I went 6-4 on the week with my picks, including two Big 10 gut-punches that looked to be easy wins in the first half (Iowa and Michigan State). But despite the winning record, the football weekend felt like one great big loss as Nebraska was handled with ease by the Kansas Jayhawks, ending a 36-year run of dominance by the Bugeaters.

While much of the Nebraska media and fans are up in arms that we’ve come so far as to not only lose, but get embarrassed by the lowly Jayhawks, I’m willing to discount the opponent’s identity. We were going to lose to Kansas sooner or later. KU has been close a couple of times, a meek 6-point victory last year, a 7-point victory for the 1999 Big XII Champions, and a 1-point victory during the 1993 season. They have a great defense, a good coach and, as any number of pundits will point out, parity isn’t just for the NFL these days. Just like the crown on Tom Osborne Field, long-term dominance is gone in college football and we’re all running, make that stumbling in our case, down a much more level playing field.

Nevertheless, parity doesn’t explain where the Husker football program is 20-games into Callahan’s tenure. Bill is 10-10 thus far, a number that is good for, say, Rice, but in Nebraska, when it comes to football, .500 is not average. But if you dig deeper into his record it only gets worse: Callahan is 2-6 on the road and last year’s 5-6 record came against a schedule that featured ONE ranked team (Oklahoma).

I, like many other Husker fans I suppose, was cautiously optimistic following this years Oklahoma game, but all hope seems to have vanished in Lawrence last week. There is none of the heart we saw against Texas Tech. Starting with that game against the Red Raiders, the Rattlesnake Boys have basically spotted teams the first quarter and most of the second, generally rallying for a touchdown right before the half that makes me think we have a chance, essentially making the losses sting a little more. It’s the Big Brother-Little Brother syndrome. After enough bullying, the little brother will eventually get angry enough to fight back for a bit, but then big brother exerts some effort again to put them back in their place.

Immediately following the KU game, the Husker chat rooms were full of fear and loathing, shared equally between Pedersen and Callahan. Fans remember Pedersen’s vow to “not allow this program to sink to mediocrity” and now that the Huskers are apparently a few notches below that, people are lining up to take their shots…and they should. (However, they shouldn’t go so far as to claim they would take care of Callahan and Cosgrove with their Remington if given the chance, an actual post I read.)

But if Nebraska doesn’t make a bowl will that be enough to get Callahan fired? At the start of the season I figured Billy C. had three years before his seat started getting really hot, and while his pants certainly heated up this past weekend, I still believe that to be true. The problem is Pedersen’s reputation is tied to Callahan. Does Pedersen have the moxy to admit he made a mistake with the hiring of Callahan and cut our losses right now? It doesn’t look that way, which means we may be three more years away from any resurgence. (What a difference a week makes, last week I said we could start next season in the Top 25!)

In my mind, the root of the problem lies in Callahan’s demeanor. Despite the teeth-gnashing and vitriol echoing out of the Cornhusker State this week, I honestly believe that Husker fans would be willing to deal with some “growing pains,” if effort and improvement were apparent. But not only are they absent on the field, they’re absent in the head coach as well.

There is no sense of urgency with Callahan, it doesn’t feel like losing tastes horrible to the guy, but it does to the rest of the state resulting in an almost unbearable tension. Bill faces everything with that big-city grin, and non sequiturs that essentially say, “we’ll have to get better at that” but leave no indication that there is a plan in place to achieve it.

Look at the other programs that were in our boat a few years ago. Alabama, Oklahoma, Notre Dame. They all brought in coaches who happily acknowledged the tradition present when they arrived, but also knew that changes had to be made. Callahan only came in with the latter in mind, and that’s what hurts the most. Much of the Husker Nation feels as if something valuable is being taken from them by an outsider, a marauding pirate sent to plunder the Sea of Red. (A RAIDER, I suppose.) While every loss, every severed streak cuts to the bone of every Cornhusker, Billy C. sails along, unfazed.

That’s the challenge facing the University of Nebraska right now. Not only when will the Callahan experiment end, but how? Say the “mediocrity” continues into next season, who do the Huskers go after? They need someone who will have the appropriate limited reverence for all that Nebraska is, but also someone who will make a splash on the national scene, someone recruits will want to play for, meaning a pro-style offense that puts them in a good position to make the leap to the NFL (see: USC and Notre Dame).

With the Tennessee Titans languishing at 2-7 this season, is it too early to start making calls to Norm Chow?