Benchmarks

Perhaps, the most shocking thing to come out of yesterday morning's press conference was not that Bill Callahan was fired or that Tom Osborne quoted Bill McCartney (blech!) but rather how plain and simple the decision was made out to be.

After weeks of speculation, airport sightings, creative signing and general solipsistic abandon, Osborne revealed that the solution for Bill Callahan and his staff was pretty simple: just win baby.

During his opening statement yesterday, Osborne mentioned the bench marks he had provided the coaching staff at Nebraska in shocking detail. Win out and you're safe, win three and we'll talk, anything less than that and you're forcing my hand. Was it really that simple all along?

Seemed like a shocking admission to me but Tom backed that up--playing the role of the firm but fair father of football to a T--with personal anecdotes that did nothing to dispel the notion that expectations at Nebraska are almost impossibly high.

There's something refreshing about that. If that was the standard in 1976 perhaps the root of the problem is that it wasn't the standard over the past four years.

That will not be the case for the next head coach at Nebraska. Thanks to the honesty displayed yesterday, whoever gets the job will know right from the start what he's up against and, in the end, I think that's a good thing.

Will it scare some candidates off? Probably, but those are the guys who you don't want anyway. Nebraska is a challenge on a number of fronts and I can only think that the man who ultimately gets the job will be the one who best understands and embraces those challenges.

Who that person will eventually be is a discussion for another time, now is the time for excitement about Nebraska football again.

Remember what that felt like?