Andrew Oct 09 07

Billy C has moved up to number 25.

http://coacheshotseat.com/CoachesHotSeatRanking.htm

Andrew Oct 09 07

Sorry meant into the top 25.

zE Oct 09 07

That's cuh-l!

Hey, where are the boxes where you pull your hair out, seek therapy, get drunk, etc.?

Grant Oct 09 07

Saturday I made a conscious decision to get drunk BEFORE the game, as to avoid pulling out my hair. It certainly helped that night, but made my Sunday morning thought process that much more difficult.

ze Oct 09 07

I've already come to grips with the dark cloud hovering over Husker Nation, but then again I'm 40+--I'm a MAN!
At least out here I can root for the BoSox and Pats. Maybe my Bears will win a few games too...

Mase Oct 09 07

Jason,
Love the flow chart, but you forgot to add decision points after the "Did the Huskers win?" for:
"Does the team have, by in large, inferior athletes to opponent" If No,
"Did the team appear to be prepared?" If No,
"Did the players show intensity?" If No,
"Did the players appear lost and confused throughout the game?" If Yes,
"Did the coaches make key adjustments?" If No,
"Did the coaches make stupid comments, such as, 'Sacks are overrated' before the game?" If Yes...

I think it is a little more complicated, I mean, the Huskers have lost a lot in the past too, but not this badly and/or habitually. I would like to see a few things change in terms of those things that seem to be missing (whether that involves coaches themselves, or at least their philosophy/tactics). It doesn't seem like we had as much of a problem with all this stuff at once in loses before. Ask Costa and Wuerffel if they think sacks are "overrated"...or Chase Daniel for that matter. I don't think he felt a breeze from a defender all night...wonder why he had a career passing day?

I guess Nebraska needs a big win, a big upset or something, so I can shut up already! I still think things can get turned around, just A LOT of things are going to have to improve. It would be nice to see some evidence of that eventually...

Andrew Oct 09 07

Here is what Todd McShay from ESPN said about NE, when asked the question what he thought was wrong.

Todd McShay: (12:16 PM ET ) I'm really surprised at how poorly Nebraska has looked. The defense has been the big problem. Maybe we all underestimated the losses of the front-7 guys like Stewart Bradley, Adam Carriker and Jay Moore. I thought the Huskers had better depth behind those guys but obviously not. It's a bad situation right now because they don't even look competitive on that side of the ball.

We have people all over the country saying the same thing over and over, no wonder Billy C says he is looking for answers.

Husker Mike Oct 09 07

It's a simplified satirical approach. If he was REALLY trying to model fans thinking, we'd have decision points like:

* Can we blame Frank Solich?
* Can we come up with any way to blame this on Solich?
* Did we just get another recruiting commitment?
* Did some other team have a worse week than Nebraska?

Andrew Oct 09 07

Your point was not lost on me, however it hard not to think bad when it is posted all over the internet. It was a very funny piece though!

doombob Oct 09 07

I don't think it was simplified enough!

1. Did Huskers Win?

No --> Fire Someone and Wait until next year, Go to 1.
Yes --> Is it the National Championship Game?

No --> Wait one week, Go to 1.
Yes --> Order Restored. Wait until next year, Go to 1.

ze Oct 09 07

Oh, the humor was not lost on me. :) I'm just looking for the 'get drunk' box still.....

Nick Oct 09 07

Jason,

Just read this post and I thought that thing was really funny. It's nice to see after these last few days...

jon johnston Oct 09 07

Humor? What the hell is that?

I had started working on a graph of my own (seriously, not kidding at all) that resembled something like this, but it did include a lot of alcohol.

Nice post, man!

ze Oct 09 07

O.k. fans,

Well, I watched the Calli Show footage and again things are not as bad or as good as they seem.
I think our offense actually moved the ball very well a number of times, but just couldn't punch it in in the red zone, which was certainly uncharacteristic from the first 5 games. I like this offense, I like watching it and they made alot of good plays. I think Lucky is becoming a very, very good back. Our first 3-4 drives we really had chances to make it a totally different game, but just didn't convert tds. Keller played very well, I thought, and only missed a few potential scoring passes early on. It happens.
Mo brought more pressure from the ends in the 2nd have which disrupted things more, but the first have they really didn't stop us that much, we stopped ourselves.

MO P. is such and impressive receiver and Sean Hill continued to shine.

Pig's hit on MO maybe wasn't as intentional as it seemed, he was just trying to make a hard hit and MO was sort of leaning and Pig was leading with his head and happened to head MO in the head. It didn't appear like an intentional head to head.

Apart from Mo's first 2 scores, our D played better and was in good postition many times to make plays, but they just didn't too many times which was frustrating. Ther were a number of decent plays though, they didn't give up,
MO also just made alot of great plays, they were on their game, no doubt, and did a good job mixing things up. Still, I like the athletes on our team and thought they did play hard and I still feel confident they will start putting it together a t some point, hopefully this week. They just have too many new guys on the field gaining experience, and MO IS an excellent offensive team. I don't think the schemes were bad, so much, we just didn't make the plays we should have. Still need a better and more consistent pass rush though and maybe used the 3-4 too much.

So, there is still hope. Okie St. is going to be similarly challenging, but if our D can just turn the corner and the O gets back in the end zone, I think we have a good chance in this game.

Nathan Oct 10 07

1. I agree with you that there is a small glimmer of hope against OK. State. but how far down have we gotten that we need to have a glimmer of hope to beat OK state. It is really embarrassing.

2. We can have more yards than the other team, but if we do not get touchdowns, there is a problem. If 3 teams (5 games into the season) have scored 40 or more points on your defense there is a problem. If you look at our recruiting classes over the past few years we should be killing most of the competition (especially Ball State), but we are not which means we need to look somewhere else and that is the coaches.

3. If you say that we cannot fire Bill because it will take time for the new coach to put in his system. That could be the case, but it may not be either. It did not take Oklahoma much time to restore the order once stoops took the reigns, or USC once Carol came in, I also think Hawkins is going to right the ship for CU by next year (unfortunately). There are some potential big names out there next year (Coker being one of them). If we are going to make a move we need to do it now, before we settle for mediocrity.

nathan Oct 10 07

On point two I should note that I miscounted and NE has played 6 games.

Andrew Oct 10 07

Nathan,

I have you seen Hawkins lack of recruting? You just can't win year in and year out without it...... I don't care what you guys say about recruting, the good teams do it, and do it well. So Kansas St this year, and Colorado this year, are just one year wonders. Both having lost 2 games wich us hear in NE freak out about.

ze Oct 10 07

Good morning Mr. Nathan,

Well, to your points #1 & #2, I guess I would have to play the parity card there. Yes, our recruiting classes have been rated high and we do have the players to compete with anybody, one would think. But as far as I can see, there are many many great players out there that are going under the radar of recuiting services, so you just have to put that in perspective. I.E. there are many 4-5 star guys out there that just aren't recognized and 3 star guys aren't that bad especially when they're experienced and playing well together within a system.

Okie St, like about all teams these days, has alot of great players, especially at skill positions. They got WR Des Bryant as a frosh this year who NE went after as that guy is as good as it gets for a frosh. So many teams have excellent running backs, for e.g., that aren't getting press, the two at MI St. come to mind. I take either of those guys over Mike Hart--in a NY second.

People who argue against parity state that if it were true, all teams should be having 6-6, 7-5, records, etc. But I tell you what, it's moving in that direction, such that I think the NC will be played by two 8-4 teams not to far down the road.

As for NE not blowing out Ball, yeah, we should've clocked those guys, but what can I say, USC lost to Stanford, MI lost to Appy, Lou. to SYR. etc. Domination is becoming an antiquated thing, I'm afraid. I think we have to realize that.

Point #3: I still don't think it's the coaches. Yeah, you could bring in someone new--say Brian Kelly(I say NO to Coker)--and MAYBE it would be better. But I don't see it being better than what Callahan is doing. In fact, I think Calli is better than just about anybody you could bring in. The offense he runs is as good or better than anything out there, unless you want to go exclusively to 'Leach Ball', which is what Brian Kelly runs.

Offensively, NE has a problem with breaking in a new QB now and for the next few years, and that IS a problem. Even so, I think Keller is doing a helluva job out there and I wish he could go 2-3 more years in the system. Once we get Gabbert or Witt going for 3-4 years it will be great, but, like the flow chart above indicates, we are extremely spoiled and impatient here at NE--self included.
But again, I like Calli's WCO and even this year we're moving the ball around pretty darned effectively.

As far as defense and COZ, yeah I don't like what I'm seeing just as much as the next guy; I just chalk it up to inexperience this year. I don't buy all the 'Coz's scheme' bashing stuff, but it is certainly easy to want to make him the scapegoat. I don't see other teams scheming much differently, though maybe some coaches are better at calling things on the fly. Tenuda at GT, for e.g., is suppsoed to be so great but guess what, GT is giving up alot of points and yardage and losing games. What Ds are dominant anymore? Well you could say OSU, OU, LSU, and maybe USF, but it's not like the olden days when, say, you saw more shutouts.

People gotta realize that this whole spread offense thing is very hard to defend unless you have a D that is just lights out. You definitely have to have an O that can shoot it out vs those teams.

ze Oct 10 07

p.s., sorry fans, that I wrote so much there. I write because I LOVE! :)

Jonathan Burkholder Oct 10 07

Ze: Scapegoating is when you weekly select someone different to blame for a poor performance. Scapegoating is each week over the past 4 seasons, since Cos arrived, selecting a different portion of the defense to blame. But the common denominator is Cos.

Blaming Cos is accountability. And don't say anything about talent. Pelini produced the #11 defense with a bunch of 'under talented' players the year before the recruiting maching of Callahan arrived.

ze Oct 10 07

You may be right, on other hand, who here on this blogsite has insider knowledge and enough fb brains in general to really assess COZ?

Just a rhetorical question....

I'm sure if NE loses a bunch more games that he'll be the first held 'accountable' and get the boot.

Hugh Askew Oct 12 07

Let's all face the fact that Mr. Cheesy Grin hired a mediocre coach, who in turn hired a mostly mediocre staff - tho obviously, Coz is sub par - even on the mediocre chart.
We are stuck with mediocrity until it gets bad enough that even Mr. Cheesey Grin can no longer spin away his poor hire. Judging from Callahan's mediocre performance up till now (just over .500), and the fact that he is still coaching here, i don't see any change, any time soon.

ah, well, life goes on...........

RBB Oct 12 07

So is it true that Nebraska is moving to Division 2 football next year? That way they won't have to surrender the Big XII to Texas and Kansas State.....and Oklahoma....and Missouri and Colorado and Oklahoma State and Kansas, and Texas A&M and Texas Tech, and Iowa State.....but I'm pretty sure we whip Baylor any day of the week.

RBB Oct 12 07

So is it true that Nebraska is moving to Division 2 football next year? That way they won't have to surrender the Big XII to Texas and Kansas State.....and Oklahoma....and Missouri and Colorado and Oklahoma State and Kansas, and Texas A&M and Texas Tech, and Iowa State.....but I'm pretty sure we whip Baylor any day of the week.

RBB Oct 12 07

Was that parity or parody? After watching a Husker game I get confused.