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?

Nebraska's biggest win of the season

The Callahan Era is over.

I know the holiday season just officially began yesterday with rampant consumerism, but it feels a lot like Christmas already in my house. Thank you, Tom.

I'll be back with much more to say later in the day. At the moment, I'm about to welcome a new computer into my home.

And to think, my old computer isn't even cold in the ground yet. (It officially passed this morning.) Such is the nature of the business.

Has Callahan done a better job than Weis?

I would not say that, but there are some who would.

In his weekly Cavalcade of Whimsy (a personal favorite title and column), Pete Fiutak ranks the Top 5 Worst Coaching Jobs of 2007 from crap to utter and complete crap:

5) Phil Bennett, SMU (Firing already announced).

4) Sonny Lubick, CSU

3) Tim Brewster, Minnesota

2) Bill Callahan, Nebraska

1) Charlie Weis, Notre Dame

Notre Dame may be the only security blanket Nebraska fans have right now, the one program worse off than the Cornhuskers. While Notre Dame is somehow still reeling in recruits, Nebraska has the advantage of a new coach next year not just new players. Weis isn't going anywhere yet.

But has he really out-uncoached, to coin a term, Bill Callahan? I'm hesitant to think so. Notre Dame and Nebraska are equally awful on different sides of the ball. With both coaches being offensive guys, ND's pathetic ability to move the ball seems the more glaring failure. Point for Callahan but I can't really overlook the preseason expectations when comparing the two.

Mark May famously predicted the Irish would start 0-8 before the season began (and they would've if not for the plague descending on UCLA's QB corps). Nebraska, however, was a contender in the Big 12 North and while that's not exactly a dominant position to be in they were ranked to start the season. I'd say most rational people felt Nebraska was an Alamo Bowl level squad before the season began.

Now they're not even a bowl worthy squad, but even after five consecutive losses I still have a hard time believing Nebraska is this bad. I honestly was prepared for Nebraska to beat Kansas last week. It would've surprised me but it wouldn't have shocked me. I don't think it's naive to say Nebraska has as much talent as, if not more than, the rest of their division at least.

You have to throw out the tradition factor here. Notre Dame and Nebraska are atrocious right now by any standards, but what's worse: being bad in a rebuilding year or taking three steps back when everyone was looking for the program to take one step forward?

Nebraska is a program in turmoil, just check the rumor pulse on any given day since October 15. Notre Dame is simply bad. For that reason, I'll give the nod to Callahan (although the turmoil is not entirely his fault) over Weis but there's still hope. If you were to ask me which program could rebound quicker I'd again give the nod to Nebraska, which I suppose is the definition of disappointment.

In Related News: In that same column Fiutak lists Buffalo's Turner Gill as having the fifth best coaching job of the year and he lists Callahan in his "shocked if they aren't gone" category. Will one ranking begat the other? The more I think about it the more I realize that there's almost no way Osoborne will pass over Gill at this point but maybe that's just me.

Are you Scared, Bill?

Boo and all that stuff. It's Halloween and I'm struggling to find creative ways to pretend I'm not at home tonight. The Rockies were supposed to save me from this fate by getting to a game six at which point I would've spent tonight at a local watering hole. No such luck.

But in a Halloween related note: I was watching the Bill Callahan show last night and they had their regular "Houndin' the Huskers" (or whatever it's called) feature at the midway point. As you probably already know, this feature follows a Husker player around through workouts or eating burritos at Chipotle that sort of thing. It's rarely riveting television.

This week the cameras followed Cody Glenn and Christina Houghtelling through a haunted house. I didn't even watch the segment, fast forwarding to the post-scare banter between Jim Rose and Coach Callahan. As best I can recall, it went something like this:

Rose: "I don't know Coach, Cody didn't look very scared. I saw a lot of laughing."

(Fake TV guffaw.)

Callahan: "No question, Jim. Cody's a pretty fearless guy."

(Fake TV guffaw.)

Rose: "What about you Coach? Do you ever get scared?"

(Fake TV guffaw.)

Callahan: Stammers...starts to disagree then decides to play along. "Okay, I guess I'm scared of that sort of thing."

Rose: "Maybe you get scared watching the opposing teams game film."

(Big fake TV guffaw.)

Callahan: "No, I wouldn't say that."

(No fake TV guffaw.)

That's not an exact transcript of the conversation but the gist of it is there and Rose definitely made mention of "opposing teams' game film." Classic moment.

If you're a premium HuskerNSide subscriber, you can watch it here.

The Hypothetical Coaching Search

Bill Callahan is still the head coach at Nebraska but some day, maybe on or around November 26 of this year, he won't be.

I don't want to jump the gun here, but I figured we'd spend the second installment of Hypothetical Week looking at some of the names that have been thrown out there as potential head coaching candidates, both pros and cons. At least my pros and cons.

For the record, I really could care less if Nebraska's next head coach is a Nebraska man or if he runs the option. Those are bonuses, items of secondary importance to getting a winner. Why?

Because winners get do what they want.

Hypothetically.

Bo Pelini (All the following statistics are through 2006)

Pros: The guy eats opposing offensive schemes and craps nationally ranked defenses; he's fiery, perhaps the best candidate out there to return that Blackshirt swagger; he's coached here before and reportedly loved it; Nebraskans love him based on his lone season in Lincoln and few candidates could compete with the excitement he'd bring right from the start; he fits the Oklahoma Reclamation mold.

Cons: He is fond of wearing a white ballcap, but maybe that's an LSU thing; he has no head coaching experience; the guy eats stoicism and craps attitude, potentially alienating some; to hire him five years after turning him down basically wipes the last four years off the map...that's painful for a fan; he fits the Oklahoma Reclamation mold.

Verdict: This is the splash hire, but also a gamble. Last time Nebraska went for the splash without gambling. I'm willing to roll the dice.

Paul Johnson

Pros: Adaptable, Johnson has helmed Top 20 offenses at both Navy and Hawaii; has a National Title (1-AA Georgia Southern) under his belt; took a service academy team that was 1-20 in the two years prior to his arrival and has won at least 8 games in his past four seasons; career winning percentage of .739 as a head coach.

Cons: Has yet to coach at the highest level of college football; remains to be seen if he can recruit to a big time program, but it's gotta be easier than it was at Navy.

Verdict: As you can see, I'm stretching for negatives here but this would be a surprising hire which makes me think more and more that it could be the right one.

Barry Alvarez

Pros: former Cornhusker; name recognition.

Cons: The twilight of his career is already here; career winning percentage of .615 (Callahan is at .595) and we all know that's not good enough; nobody is actually taking this notion seriously.

Verdict: If we're going to hire someone to simply plant the wheat before the custom harvesters come in I'd take Osborne at 70 over Alvarez at 60.

Joe Glenn

Pros: Knows the lay of the land, Glenn is from Lincoln, played at South Dakota and has coached in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming...that's plains pride; won national titles at both the Division 1-AA and 2 levels; symmetry, Bob Devaney came to Nebraska via Wyoming

Cons: While Wyoming has undoubtedly improved, the Pokes have only posted a .445 WIN% under Glenn; has yet to win a conference title at this level.

Verdict: While there's a lot to like, I'd have to talk myself into being truly excited about this hire at this point. After four years of convincing myself that up was actually down and bad was really good I just want some real emotion.

Turner Gill

Pros: Led the Scoring Explosion; last of the old regime of coaches to leave; has taken Buffalo from horrifically bad to somewhat decent.

Cons: Only one season of head coaching experience; still has yet to show enough to warrant a big time hire such as this.

Verdict: Based on resume alone, Gill wouldn't even be considered for the job if he weren't a former Cornhusker. That is absolutely, without a doubt, the wrong reason to make a hire. That said, I'd be surprised if we didn't see it somewhere down the line.

Jim Grobe

Pros: Big on personality; if you can win at Wake Forest you should be able to win anywhere.

Cons: Nebraska isn't big on personality; has yet to lose fewer than three games in any season; miraculously, he didn't beat this year's Nebraska team at home (albeit with his back up QB).

Verdict: Another hire that would require some selling. To borrow a phrase from the Daily Racing Form: Like others better.

The above is just a preliminary list of some of the most popular and logical names out there. Maybe later we'll look at some of the longer shots like Rodriguez, Schiano and Leavitt or, as the season progresses, perhaps there will more reasons to consider some up and comers like Mendenhall or Kelly. Or maybe none at all?

No, you're not fooling me Tom.

Monday Means Rumors!

Question: How do you know when your football season has spun totally out of control?

Answer: When the news during the week is a better source of excitement than the actual games.

Now we don't have news yet but, being Monday in this anarchic state of Cornhusker football, we do have some more rumors. I'm typically spurious of such matters but last time they were at least indicative that something was about to happen.

This week's prospective reason for a press conference involves the retirement of Bill Callahan, effective at the end of the season. Sure last week Coach Callahan said he wouldn't do that, but another demolition at home (even without the full throttle vitriol out of the stands) combined with Sean Watson's increased role on Saturday--the ultimate white flag in my mind for a man who prides himself on his offensive prowess--and I wouldn't rule it out at this point.

Without looking at the monetary ramifications such a move would have--resigning versus being fired--what would this hypothetical resignation mean for this program? Tough to say, just like it was tough to gauge how Nebraska would respond to last week's hullabaloo, but there seem to be two immediate outcomes if this were to happen:

1) The recruits start dropping like flies. We're all assuming this would happen anyway, but if Callahan's status is up in the air the kids are probably willing to wait and see. If Callahan is officially out the door after Colorado, then there's no reason for any of those guys who were coming to play for coach to hang around and even if they were willing to stick it out and "be convinced" who will do the convincing?

2) The coaching search officially begins. There's probably not a whole lot you can do during the season other than create your shortlist, but this would enable Nebraska to pounce starting sometime in December on the candidates they've targeted. Additionally, and this is purely a personal preference, but if the search is officially on while the NFL season is on-going, that rules out anyone from the pro ranks. No one in Nebraska wants another month-long search.

Again, it's all rumor at this point. I view Callahan resigning right now, or ever, the same way I viewed Callahan's chances at winning a national title: nothing in his history leads me to believe it's very likely, but who knows?

The real questions surrounding this football team are getting pretty stale and the answers are still elusive so why not toy around with a few that can't, or haven't, been asked yet?

I'm going to officially make this hypothetical week here on HiPlainsDrifter.com. Should be fun.