Yes, I'm That Disgusted

Yeah, I know it’s been weeks since my last update, and I told myself that I would not bail on this team no matter how hard it got to watch them. Everyone lies to themselves during a crisis on some level.

I was listening to one of my favorite shows on NPR yesterday on my iPod. It was a story on This American Life about how a young brother and sister’s mother was murdered in a burglary gone horribly wrong. After awhile, their father met and married another woman as people will do in life. Not long after, the stepmother started to remove pictures, recipe books and any trace of their real mother so that they would forget about that painful moment in their lives.

While I’m sure the stepmother’s intentions were good, it’s never beneficial to make an effort to completely erase your past. This story struck a chord with me yesterday afternoon in relation to the Huskers. The analogy is somewhat there for this story and for the former athletic director (Steve Pederson) at Nebraska and soon-to-be-fired coach Bill Callahan. It has only been reaffirmed by as story on ESPN.com today by Ivan Maisel. The pictures of players from the past are removed, security around the stadium on gameday and any other time of the week have been tightened. Nebraska athletics is now run more like a stuffy downtown Omaha business, rather than a congenial mom and pop-type drug store, not unlike the ones that still sparsely populate the rural Nebraska prairie.

The change of culture pill was hard to swallow back in 2004 when the rumors of offensive change began spilling over the walls of Memorial Stadium. However, rather than rebel against the new system we all marveled over the offensive numbers that were to pile up under the new regime. Hope and optimism replaced skepticism and doubt, at least for the time being.

We all lived through the 2004 season, the embarrassment of losing to Texas Tech 70-10, the shocking loss at home to a non-conference opponent by the hands of Southern Miss and no postseason for the first time in 36 seasons. In 2005 and 2006 we were witness to what some might call a “resurgence” and an Alamo Bowl win over Michigan and a Big 12 championship appearance and North Division title.

Now it’s 2004 all over again, but worse. How is it possible that Callahan has regressed even below the low standards of his first year? Quite frankly Callahan has lost this team, much like he lost the Oakland Raiders one year removed from winning the AFC and taking them to the Super Bowl in 2003. Under Jon Gruden the Raiders were at the top of the AFC. Go see where the Raiders are now. I'm not saying it's all his fault, I'm just saying he was apart of it. My biggest issue with the coach? Callahan has piled up a decent record at Nebraska, however after this year his resume against big opponents (who Callahan is yet to capture a real victory over let alone any kind of track record) will come to an end, anemic at best.

Callahan seems like a good guy, he seems nice (I guess) and his colleagues and peers seem to respect him. This does not win football games and does not presuppose that you are a good fit as a head coach. And it's hard to watch someone do so little with so much. Watching him coach this team is like watching someone drive a Ferrari at 20 miles per hour down the autobahn. Callahan is a great offensive mind and works well with quarterbacks but that’s about it. The next place Callahan lands expect him to be an offensive coordinator on the collegiate level or an assistant in the NFL.

I think the past four years have been an experiment in what not to do. Don’t hire names, hire people that are the right fit for the position. And that doesn’t just mean some coach who wins games. The coach that interim Athletic Director Tom Osborne and company hire will have to not only win, but retain support among fans and boosters. College coaching is an up and dawn and to bed at 1am type of job that spans from practice to politicking and Nebraska requires someone that can do both.

This season will go down as one of the worst in modern college football history, this much is obvious. Winning streaks and bowl streaks have been stopped and have come to a screeching halt under Callahan. The next coach will need to keep on of the most important record of all in tact. The number of the day for every one is 288. Most of you will be familiar with that number. If the next coach losses that streak, Nebraska football may plummet to a place where none of us want to see it reach.