Just slightly less Mo and other Husker news

You hunt and search all summer for anything that will pass as college football news then you go away for three short days, leaving the blog behind, and actual news happens.

Everyone else has already chimed in on this, but I'm going to give my two cents anyway...

Much to Husker Nation's delight... Bill Callahan has suspended Maurice Purify for the season opener and that's it. No, really, just Nevada (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more).

I still don't believe it. I would've thought that two games would be the minimum but even that was an iffy proposition because it meant that Purify would conveniently be back in time for USC. What would the neighbors think?

The entire non-conference schedule seemed a bit excessive but it would've been an unmistakable message. One game? It doesn't seem like anyone saw that coming.

Maurice got off light and from a fan's point of view I'm ecstatic about it. Nebraska only lost it's biggest offensive weapon for one game and it doesn't appear as though the rest of the country has noticed. Win, win.

But it does make me wonder about the future of Bill Callahan at Nebraska. Is he listening to Trev Alberts and feeling a little heat in his seat? Is he eying the NFL again? I can't say that with any certainty, but would a coach who knew he'd have to live with the decision for the next six or seven years have delivered the same slap on the wrist?

Just asking.

Nebraskans don't take kindly to Stewart Mandel...The SI columnist is officially persona non grata after defending his selection of Bill Callahan as one of the worst coaches in the country. Jeff at Double Extra Point refuted Mandel's major arguments one by one, and this week's Midwest Coast Bias podcast has plenty of vitriol for Stew as well, but that's the guy's gig.

Every week he's public enemy number one somewhere in the country. Usually, it seems, it's Tennessee or Alabama. Rarely, it's USC or Notre Dame. This week it's Nebraska.

Problem is, I agree with Mandel more than I disagree with him. Callahan is obviously not one of the worst coaches in the game, but, like Stewart, I'm still not convinced he's the perfect fit and I'm even less convinced he wants to be.

While Bill does gamble a little more in the college game than he would in the League, he still calls a pretty straight forward NFL game in my opinion and there just isn't enough evidence to suggest that that style wins national titles which, of course, is the ultimate measuring stick in the Good Life.

If you want to compete for big-time recruits you need a pro-style offense and Bill has succeeded on both counts there. But, if you look at the coaches who have won national titles recently, you also need a bit of a riverboat gambler, someone with the confidence to put it all down on the roll of the dice.

Callahan does that every now and then--Texas, Auburn--but for the most part I think he's a keno player who occasionally ends up at the craps table and that is almost always ugly in the end.

Mizzou is your Big 12 North pick...according to the media members who cover the conference. Really, this is great news. More pressure and increased expectations are precisely what Gary Pinkel needs and it places a nice big chip on those Cornhusking shoulders in Lincoln.

Somehow Nebraska outranks Missouri in every preseason Top 25 I've seen and they're even bandied about as a dark horse national title pick yet the Tigers have been anointed as the North champs by the same people who won't rank them ahead of the Huskers on a national level.

Make sense? Not to me but I like it nonetheless. Everyone seems to know Nebraska is better than Missouri but nobody expects the Huskers to beat them.

Could it set up any better?