Published Sunday | September 16, 2007
Lee Barfknecht: In Year 4, Callahan era is still up in air
BY LEE BARFKNECHT
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
• NU Football: Trojans overwhelm Huskers
• USC 49, NU 31 - Sept. 15, 2007
RELATED GALLERY
• NU Football: Trojans overwhelm Huskers
LINCOLN - Let's make one thing clear right away.
No one with a blood-alcohol level below the legal limit and wearing non-tinted glasses bet his own money on No. 14 Nebraska to upset No. 1 USC.
So the fact that it didn't happen Saturday night - USC 49, NU 31 - hardly rocks the world.
But now that we're three games into Husker coach Bill Callahan's fourth season, there's a new problem:
This former Super Bowl coach, who was in charge for the worst loss ever at Nebraska (70-10 at Texas Tech in 2004) and for ending the school's record 35-year bowl streak, now has one of the more gruesome home losses in history on his tab, too.
Never mind that Callahan, after 40 games, has nothing close to a signature win over any opponent ranked higher than 20th.
Bloody beatings like Saturday night make all this talk about progress - which the dictionary defines as "an advance toward perfection or to a higher or better state" - harder to swallow.
Three things from the USC blowout make me wonder if Nebraska football is directionally challenged:
• Recruiting hype: I've got stars in my eyes from reading all this baloney about these super-duper, "multiple-star" recruits on a five-star scale that get major headlines for signing with Nebraska.
OK, if all these hotshots are on campus, where are they? Why hasn't the system been tailored to get them on the field sooner? Where is the speed? Where are the offensive game-breakers? Where are the defensive playmakers?
A "talent gap" was a big reason that "culture change" was implemented following the 2003 season. After Saturday night, you measure for me the size of the current gap that must be bridged before Nebraska gets voted back into the Top 10.
By the way, note the three-game passing totals for five-star Nebraska quarterback commitment Blaine Gabbert of St. Louis, ranked by rivals.com as the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the country and the No. 14 player overall - 29 of 67 (43.3 percent), 390 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.
I don't cite Gabbert's numbers to in any way poke at him. My impression after covering one of his games and interviewing him is that he is 1) a great kid, 2) a good talent and 3) utterly sick of the attention from recruiting hypemeisters.
• Tackling: USC posted runs of 50, 40, 14, 11, 16, 32, 20, 25, 15, 10 and 20 yards. Defenses, even in the downtrodden Big 12 North, can't get gouged like that and come close to contending for a conference title.
• Week-to-week continuity. Callahan says his systems are designed to be balanced and difficult to prepare for. That's nice. But in big games, the Huskers seem to confuse themselves as often as their opponents.
At a school with the tradition and advantages Nebraska has, you carve out a strength, recruit to it, play to it and beat people over the head with it week after week after week. That hasn't happened yet.
You can't totally question Callahan's coaching acumen.
On last Monday's Big 12 coaches teleconference, he sounded like a man who knew he had a rump-kicking coming. He has never been more right.
So in Year Four of the Callahan Experiment (it's not the Callahan Era yet, despite his two-year contract extension), where should the bar be set?
The answer lies in the words of NU Athletic Director Steve Pederson.
When he and the others who provide adult supervision of Husker athletics decided that this storied football program was pooped out, this is the goal sheet that Pederson gave us in December 2003, a month before Callahan was hired:
"No one should apply for this job who doesn't plan to win national championships."
"Nebraskans want, and expect to be, the very best."
"I believe we should be playing for or gaining on the (national) championship on a consistent basis. I don't feel currently we are playing for or gaining on championships."
Wonder what the feeling was in the skyboxes late Saturday night as a half-empty stadium glumly watched the clock run out?
As I sit here typing and saying goodbye to the national news media contingent that won't be back for a long time, I can't help but think back to a scene from the Nebraska spring game in April.
After a couple of early touchdowns, Husker players put on end-zone celebrations. One player pretended he was snapping pictures of teammates. Another led a rendition of the macarena, complete with his own dance troupe.
Callahan heartily endorsed the actions afterward, saying he wanted his players to get ready for when they moved up to "the League," meaning the NFL.
Maybe that practice time can be better used in the future to make sure Callahan and his team aren't out of their league.
