Bill Callahan

[vailhusker]

Deserved another year or no?

Despite a 27–22 record, Callahan's tenure is considered to be a failure. He led the Cornhuskers to two losing seasons in four years. He also finished ranked in a major poll only once in four years after the Huskers had only finished unranked once since 1962. Streaks such as 35 straight years in a bowl game and decades of consecutive wins against Kansas were lost in his 4 year tenure. He was 1–10 against teams ranked in the Top 25, 27–2 in games in which he led at halftime, 0–17 in games in which he trailed at halftime, 25–21 against Division I opponents, 15–18 against the Big 12, and coached the program its only two losing seasons (out of 4 seasons at Nebraska) in 46 years. Sports Illustrated named Callahan as the worst coaching hire of the decade in college football. Exacerbating Cornhusker fans' consternation with Bill Callahan's tenure at the university was his insistence that he had "done an excellent job in every area."





2007

Bill Callahan (American football) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Tyneb23]

At the time no, but looking back yes. Man he could recruit and at the time he was canned we had the #3 recruiting class in the country. Change his defense coordinator and keep recruiting. Also thing Bill would of been an excellent fit as Nebraska coach in the big 10.

 

[Jim14510]

Don't care.

 

[ThomOsborneMD]

Should give him another chance IMO

 

[huskerj12]

No

 

[MtnHusker]

Deserved another year or no?

Despite a 27–22 record, Callahan's tenure is considered to be a failure. He led the Cornhuskers to two losing seasons in four years. He also finished ranked in a major poll only once in four years after the Huskers had only finished unranked once since 1962. Streaks such as 35 straight years in a bowl game and decades of consecutive wins against Kansas were lost in his 4 year tenure. He was 1–10 against teams ranked in the Top 25, 27–2 in games in which he led at halftime, 0–17 in games in which he trailed at halftime, 25–21 against Division I opponents, 15–18 against the Big 12, and coached the program its only two losing seasons (out of 4 seasons at Nebraska) in 46 years. Sports Illustrated named Callahan as the worst coaching hire of the decade in college football. Exacerbating Cornhusker fans' consternation with Bill Callahan's tenure at the university was his insistence that he had "done an excellent job in every area."



View attachment 5196

2007
View attachment 5197

Bill Callahan (American football) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Sad part is no matter how bad Bill was that no matter how you twist the numbers Frost has been exponentially worse. I can tell you first hand from speaking with some coaches in the Big 12 that they were scared Callahan was building an absolute monster. His offense scared them as they told me there was no way a collegiate team could prepare for his offense in 1 week. Offense was so multiple that they didn't have enough time to break it all down or teach the players all of the necessary reads. Defense was definitely his downfall as Cosgrove proved inept. His staff's recruiting was a thing of beauty.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

No. I think the wheels had come off

 

[ThomOsborneMD]

No. I think the wheels had come off

But you love licking balls so...

 

[Chi7397]

I wanted him gone at the time but with the wisdom of hindsight it really shouldn’t have gone down that way. The guy was one season past playing for a conference title and had improved up until that point each year - he needed a new defensive coordinator, but overall did a lot of things right compared to everyone who has come since.

 

[Baron Winnebago]

But you love licking balls so...

But I am a noted follower of Christ so you've gotta take the good with the bad

 

[Cash68847]

Deserved another year or no?

Despite a 27–22 record, Callahan's tenure is considered to be a failure. He led the Cornhuskers to two losing seasons in four years. He also finished ranked in a major poll only once in four years after the Huskers had only finished unranked once since 1962. Streaks such as 35 straight years in a bowl game and decades of consecutive wins against Kansas were lost in his 4 year tenure. He was 1–10 against teams ranked in the Top 25, 27–2 in games in which he led at halftime, 0–17 in games in which he trailed at halftime, 25–21 against Division I opponents, 15–18 against the Big 12, and coached the program its only two losing seasons (out of 4 seasons at Nebraska) in 46 years. Sports Illustrated named Callahan as the worst coaching hire of the decade in college football. Exacerbating Cornhusker fans' consternation with Bill Callahan's tenure at the university was his insistence that he had "done an excellent job in every area."



View attachment 5196

2007
View attachment 5197

Bill Callahan (American football) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I always thought the fit was bad like Rich Rod was a bad fit at Michigan. I always thought those hires should have been flipped around.

 

[doublewing]

Callahan was a great recruiter, OL expert, and puts together a great offense.

HOWEVER, anyone that thinks he deserved more time neglects the fact that he was a terrible game manager, horrible as a leader/CEO of the program, and never warmed up to Lincoln.

He is doing what he's one of the best in the business as an OL coach in the NFL. There is good reason why no college or NFL team has hired him to be HC since.

 

[bbenson67]

Callahan was a great recruiter, OL expert, and puts together a great offense.

HOWEVER, anyone that thinks he deserved more time neglects the fact that he was a terrible game manager, horrible as a leader/CEO of the program, and never warmed up to Lincoln.

He is doing what he's one of the best in the business as an OL coach in the NFL. There is good reason why no college or NFL team has hired him to be HC since.

I think you nailed it with the bolded part. There was just something off about his tenure. It was almost like we were so fortunate that he would deign to grace us with his Super Bowl winning presence.

His tenure was also the first time as a fan of Husker football since 1962 that losing became commonplace and didn't sting as much after awhile. I hated that.

 

[Huskersballz]

Deserved another year or no?

Despite a 27–22 record, Callahan's tenure is considered to be a failure. He led the Cornhuskers to two losing seasons in four years. He also finished ranked in a major poll only once in four years after the Huskers had only finished unranked once since 1962. Streaks such as 35 straight years in a bowl game and decades of consecutive wins against Kansas were lost in his 4 year tenure. He was 1–10 against teams ranked in the Top 25, 27–2 in games in which he led at halftime, 0–17 in games in which he trailed at halftime, 25–21 against Division I opponents, 15–18 against the Big 12, and coached the program its only two losing seasons (out of 4 seasons at Nebraska) in 46 years. Sports Illustrated named Callahan as the worst coaching hire of the decade in college football. Exacerbating Cornhusker fans' consternation with Bill Callahan's tenure at the university was his insistence that he had "done an excellent job in every area."



View attachment 5196

2007
View attachment 5197

Bill Callahan (American football) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Forgot how comical those scores were from 2007

 

[Strongarm517]

Ya know, I kinda got to know him as I had two sons who were invited to walk on when he was here and their best friend was a commit in the gabbert class.
He was so nice to us. I loved the guy. He was a workaholic and demanded a lot of his staff. Nobody could say he wasn’t a leader. When he walked in the room full of recruits with those sparkling blue eyes he lit it up!!

We were at camp in Boulder with a recruit, Sam McGuffey (weird kid) who he really wanted. We were recruiting the kid hard and so we called Ted Gilmore and told him and he went and got BC who said “I love that (My) family”
Treated us and everyone I ever saw like gold.

Cosgrove however was a complete dick and was wearing Wisconsin sweats in our football office. Big 10 arrogant prick. If he’d of just fired that asshole I’d love to see what coulda been.

 

[Husker_in_OK]

Callahan seemed like a smart football guy overall, how the fuck he continued to tie himself to Cosgrove like he did after all that embarrassment is just beyond belief

I think everybody would've been on board with Callahan staying if he got a new DC after 2007.

Here's an interesting question for everybody, had Callahan stayed with let's say an average DC, Does he win a B12 championship in 2009 and 2010, something that Bo was so close to doing?

 

[kenyanfeline]

You have to look at overall program trajectory in situations like this and at the time, it was in a steep nosedive.

That’s why, like it or not, Frost will almost certainly be back next year. The trajectory of the program is not nosediving. It’s gone up (barely), albeit slowly, over 4 years. Up enough? No. But up. And that will be enough to keep his job.

 

[ChocaEgg]

You have to look at overall program trajectory in situations like this and at the time, it was in a steep nosedive.

That’s why, like it or not, Frost will almost certainly be back next year. The trajectory of the program is not nosediving. It’s gone up (barely), albeit slowly, over 4 years. Up enough? No. But up. And that will be enough to keep his job.

I just don't understand how you see the trajectory of the program going up. It has been a flat line of failure since day 1.

 

[Red Finger]

The trajectory of the program is not nosediving. It’s gone up (barely), albeit slowly, over 4 years. Up enough? But up. And that will be enough to keep his job.

In year 4 SF is 1-4 in conference play, 3-5 overall, has never had a winning record, has never beaten a ranked team, hasn't won back to back B1G games one time, one of the worst win percentages in school history, 15-25 overall and you're saying the trajectory is up? My goodness man. Like....what are you looking at?

 

[huskerj12]

I think everybody would've been on board with Callahan staying if he got a new DC after 2007.

Those are some outrageous rose colored glasses hahaha. For better or worse, the majority of fans were completely disillusioned with the guy by then, or more likely never warmed up to him at all.