Bill Callahan

[MtnHusker]

Yay 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.

I've mentioned this before about my brother working for the KU Athletic Department. Got to meet coaches, players, AD's...... at KU through him and he is still to this day dialed in something fierce in Lawrence. Also from my years of being in the Music Industry I was working with Security/Body Guards who were typically former football players. All kinds of eye opening conversations with them about recruiting, coaching and what was going on at their football programs. The KU Athletics and former football players have been a great source for lots of good inside information. With that being said I can tell you that KU Coaches and former KU players were so impressed with what Callahan was doing at Nebraska. They thought he was going to bring us back to our Glory Days of the 90's. Yes Cosgrove was an anchor but they felt he was putting together an offense nobody would be able to stop in college football. Between the recruiting and offense they felt Callahan would easily rule the Big 12 and be a perpetual Top 5 team. Preparing to face his offense was a DC's biggest nightmare. Literally one year KU just decided to play their Defense straight up without adjustments the whole game because they couldn't install all of the reads and adjustments necessary to defend it in a week. Their Defensive Coaches were blown away when they watched the offensive film preparing for Callahan's offense.

As for Solich and Bo, well they were not impressed. Viewed Solich as riding out Osborne's recruits before there was a noticeable drop in talent due to lazy recruiting. As for coaching, Solich was OK at best in their eyes and quite predictable on offense. Big difference in the product on the field compared to TO. Huge step down from Dr Tom in so many areas. Early years Bo they thought did well getting the most out of the Callahans recruited players but once he had to depend on his own players there was a noticeable drop. Always a hard fought game against Bo's teams but they noticed he didn't like to make adjustments during the games. Having dealt with a coach from Youngstown who had serious anger issues they understood why we got rid of Bo. Bo's public image and how he was viewed by the national media, much like Mangino's, was a detriment to the University's image plus the football program as it took away focus from the actual football on the field.

 

[MtnHusker]

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.

Callahan was the first outsider most Husker fans had experienced as the Head Coach. You have to go back to when they brought in Devaney as TO and Solich were internal hires. I know many of my Husker friends and relatives wouldn't give Bill a fair shake because he changed the offense. Wanted him gone from Day 1 because they felt he turned his back on some of our traditions and had to be part of the Nebraska family to understand Husker Football. Over the years I have noticed many of my Husker friends and relatives are more concerned with keeping things Nebraska and traditional than they are with being open minded about putting a well coached winning team on the field. So stubborn and close minded. They are stuck in the 70's, 80's & 90's. Some are still clamoring for us to bring back Solich and thought he was the answer even though all those years he coached at Ohio he never even won a MAC Conference Championship. It feels like we got spoiled by Devaney and Osborne feeling that the only way to succeed was the "Nebraska Way". It really bothers me at times how close minded so many of my Husker friends and family are. So many of us just shake our heads at family gatherings when they start discussing Husker Football

 

[Strongarm517]

I've mentioned this before about my brother working for the KU Athletic Department. Got to meet coaches, players, AD's...... at KU through him and he is still to this day dialed in something fierce in Lawrence. Also from my years of being in the Music Industry I was working with Security/Body Guards who were typically former football players. All kinds of eye opening conversations with them about recruiting, coaching and what was going on at their football programs. The KU Athletics and former football players have been a great source for lots of good inside information. With that being said I can tell you that KU Coaches and former KU players were so impressed with what Callahan was doing at Nebraska. They thought he was going to bring us back to our Glory Days of the 90's. Yes Cosgrove was an anchor but they felt he was putting together an offense nobody would be able to stop in college football. Between the recruiting and offense they felt Callahan would easily rule the Big 12 and be a perpetual Top 5 team. Preparing to face his offense was a DC's biggest nightmare. Literally one year KU just deiced to play their Defense straight up without adjustments the whole game because they couldn't install all of the reads and adjustments necessary to defend it in a week. Their Defensive Coaches were blown away when they watched the offensive film preparing for Callahan's offense.

As for Solich and Bo, well they were not impressed. Viewed Solich as riding out Osborne's recruits before there was a noticeable drop in talent due to lazy recruiting. As for coaching, Solich was OK at best in their eyes and quite predictable on offense. Big difference in the product on the field compared to TO. Huge step down from Dr Tom in so many areas. Early years Bo they thought did well getting the most out of the Callahans recruited players but once he had to depend on his own players there was a noticeable drop. Always a hard fought game against Bo's teams but they noticed he didn't like to make adjustments during the games. Having dealt with a coach from Youngstown who had serious anger issues they understood why we got rid of Bo, and understood. Bo's public image and how he was viewed by the national media, much like Mangino's, was a detriment to the University's image plus the football program as it took away focus from the actual football on the field.

We really did not know or appreciate what we had in BC. That fvcking coz though, why was he so devoted to him? His personality sucked. All those other coaches, even Elmo were cool. Coz stuck out like a sore thumb.

Be nice if we could hear the KU take on preparing for Frost.

 

[Husker_in_OK]

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.

Maybe so. Lol. The people who knew recruiting and knew how great that class was going to be, were willing to give Cally another chance if he fired Cosgrove ..

 

[MtnHusker]

Love these kind of nugs.
Be nice if we could hear their take on preparing for Frost.

I don't think you would like what they have to say. My friends who played at KU against our 90's teams had so much respect for Husker Football. A bunch of my buddies ended up playing in the NFL, and they said the Neb teams they faced were as well coached as some of the NFL teams. Osborne had it going. A majority of those friends played there in the early to mid 90's. After Osborne left I have watched so many Husker games with them over the years and they were shaking their heads at some of the stuff going on with our program and the product on the field. So much about football I don't know but I learn from them while watching games with them. I get text messages from them saying "Sorry", because they see how bad we have gotten and they know how passionate I am about Husker football. Sucks when KU football players are feeling sorry for me when their program is a train wreck also. You don't want to know what the former KU players are saying about the Frost coached teams, it is not good. They are not impressed in the least bit, actually embarrassed for me with the product we are putting on the field. The former linemen hate what they are seeing from our offense and questions so much of it. Will say that a former KU Safety and Linebacker think that our Defense is decent

 

[Black Dean]

Maybe so. Lol. The people who knew recruiting and knew how great that class was going to be, were willing to give Cally another chance if he fired Cosgrove ..

It did not help that Callahan followed Solich, I think the outlook might look different if a Callahan situation happened after Frost compared to after Solich, Callahan did not want to get rid of Cosgrove so he was getting fired regardless.

He’s our third best coach we’ve had since Osborne, that’s sad.

 

[Chi7397]

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.

Frost’s program hasn’t come close to touching even the Nosedive point in Callahan’s career, how can you possibly see evidence for Frost in this comparison? Frost on his best day has been less successful than Callahan on his worst, but that points toward keeping Frost?

Besides, the program wasn’t in a nose dive until it became apparent Callahan wasn’t going to be retained and recruiting fell apart. I would gladly take a 5 win 2007 if it meant retaining that top 3 recruiting class (which had a ton of guys that panned out elsewhere).

 

[Pipe Line]

I don't think you would like what they have to say. My friends who played at KU against our 90's teams had so much respect for Husker Football. A bunch of my buddies ended up playing in the NFL, and they said the Neb teams they faced were as well coached as some of the NFL teams. Osborne had it going. A majority of those friends played there in the early to mid 90's. After Osborne left I have watched so many Husker games with them over the years and they were shaking their heads at some of the stuff going on with our program and the product on the field. So much about football I don't know but I learn from them while watching games with them. I get text messages from them saying "Sorry", because they see how bad we have gotten and they know how passionate I am about Husker football. Sucks when KU football players are feeling sorry for me when their program is a train wreck also. You don't want to know what the former KU players are saying about the Frost coached teams, it is not good. They are not impressed in the least bit, actually embarrassed for me with the product we are putting on the field. The former linemen hate what they are seeing from our offense and questions so much of it. Will say that a former KU Safety and Linebacker think that our Defense is decent

I listen to Zatechka's post game podcast and he hates the offense too

 

[Black Dean]

Frost’s program hasn’t come close to touching even the Nosedive point in Callahan’s career, how can you possibly see evidence for Frost in this comparison? Frost on his best day has been less successful than Callahan on his worst, but that points toward keeping Frost?

Besides, the program wasn’t in a nose dive until it became apparent Callahan wasn’t going to be retained and recruiting fell apart. I would gladly take a 5 win 2007 if it meant retaining that top 3 recruiting class (which had a ton of guys that panned out elsewhere).

We only have the worst recruiting class in the B1G right now (not sure where we are nationally ranked) but no worries I trust this staff to make some major moves in the transfer portal to make up for it. 🙄

 

[huskerj12]

It did not help that Callahan followed Solich, I think the outlook might look different if a Callahan situation happened after Frost compared to after Solich

Yeah timing has a lot to do with it. I never felt like he was much of a head coach, he just seemed like he was in his own world, and his beloved offense sputtered way more often than people seem to remember. But more than anything he was just the wrong person for the Nebraska job. It made no sense to choose him. In 2003-04, the NU job was still a "caretaker job" in my opinion, and we should have replaced Solich with someone who fit the established culture but was hungry and organized. It seems insane to think about now, but Callahan took over 2 seasons after a natty appearance, and 6 seasons after we won 3 in 4 years. Imagine if we had just won 3 national championships in 2012, 2013, and 2015, then made another appearance in 2019. That's how recent it was when we hired Callahan. That's worth remembering.

The cracks started to show under Solich obviously, but the expectation was that things should quickly get back to normal under a new coach. Instead of being a caretaker whose job was to bring back what was still SO fresh in everyones' minds, Cally initiated a full scale teardown/rebuild process that a majority of fans didn't want or think we needed. And the result was going from 3 national championships in 4 years, to 2 losing seasons in 4 years, all within one decade. OF COURSE people were freaked out, it was a fall from grace unlike anything we had ever seen.

Now looking back all these years later the view is a lot different. Every coach we've tried since then has had their own fatal flaws, and unbelievably Callahan turned out to have some of the "best" results of anybody who has tried in the past 20 years. But to me that doesn't mean he was a martyr or misunderstood guru who could've been our savior, it just means the rest of the coaches since then have been just as bad or worse in their own unique ways. He was never the right person for the job in 2004 and wouldn't have been if he got another year in 2008 either.

Now, in a hypothetical alternate universe where he was never our coach before and he came in as our new coach in 2022, maybe he would be a great fit all of a sudden. Our expectations are shattered, our history gets smaller in our rearview every day, and we have been trying to rebuild for ages at this point. We have no culture to re-establish or carry forward. Maybe he would be good at starting something from scratch, although I think we would've seen him have that kind of success at some point if he was capable of it. But anyway, I can't just pretend he was onto something great back then. We shouldn't have been in the market for what he was attempting in the first place, and it backfired spectacularly. His recruiting was sweet though! I do wish that would've rubbed off on our subsequent coaches.

 

[Black Dean]

Yeah timing has a lot to do with it. I never felt like he was much of a head coach, he just seemed like he was in his own world, and his beloved offense sputtered way more often than people seem to remember. But more than anything he was just the wrong person for the Nebraska job. It made no sense to choose him. In 2003-04, the NU job was still a "caretaker job" in my opinion, and we should have replaced Solich with someone who fit the established culture but was hungry and organized. It seems insane to think about now, but Callahan took over 2 seasons after a natty appearance, and 6 seasons after we won 3 in 4 years. Imagine if we had just won 3 national championships in 2012, 2013, and 2015, then made another appearance in 2019. That's how recent it was when we hired Callahan. That's worth remembering.

The cracks started to show under Solich obviously, but the expectation was that things should quickly get back to normal under a new coach. Instead of being a caretaker whose job was to bring back what was still SO fresh in everyones' minds, Cally initiated a full scale teardown/rebuild process that a majority of fans didn't want or think we needed. And the result was going from 3 national championships in 4 years, to 2 losing seasons in 4 years, all within one decade. OF COURSE people were freaked out, it was a fall from grace unlike anything we had ever seen.

Now looking back all these years later the view is a lot different. Every coach we've tried since then has had their own fatal flaws, and unbelievably Callahan turned out to have some of the "best" results of anybody who has tried in the past 20 years. But to me that doesn't mean he was a martyr or misunderstood guru who could've been our savior, it just means the rest of the coaches since then have been just as bad or worse in their own unique ways. He was never the right person for the job in 2004 and wouldn't have been if he got another year in 2008 either.

Now, in a hypothetical alternate universe where he was never our coach before and he came in as our new coach in 2022, maybe he would be a great fit all of a sudden. Our expectations are shattered, our history gets smaller in our rearview every day, and we have been trying to rebuild for ages at this point. We have no culture to re-establish or carry forward. Maybe he would be good at starting something from scratch, although I think we would've seen him have that kind of success at some point if he was capable of it. But anyway, I can't just pretend he was onto something great back then. We shouldn't have been in the market for what he was attempting in the first place, and it backfired spectacularly. His recruiting was sweet though! I do wish that would've rubbed off on our subsequent coaches.

👏🏽 👏🏽 👏🏽

 

[turek420845]

No thank you. A lot of our fumble issues started with Callahan. I heard that his practices were pretty soft and they weren't allowed to tackle to avoid injuries.

 

[Cash68847]

Yeah timing has a lot to do with it. I never felt like he was much of a head coach, he just seemed like he was in his own world, and his beloved offense sputtered way more often than people seem to remember. But more than anything he was just the wrong person for the Nebraska job. It made no sense to choose him. In 2003-04, the NU job was still a "caretaker job" in my opinion, and we should have replaced Solich with someone who fit the established culture but was hungry and organized. It seems insane to think about now, but Callahan took over 2 seasons after a natty appearance, and 6 seasons after we won 3 in 4 years. Imagine if we had just won 3 national championships in 2012, 2013, and 2015, then made another appearance in 2019. That's how recent it was when we hired Callahan. That's worth remembering.

The cracks started to show under Solich obviously, but the expectation was that things should quickly get back to normal under a new coach. Instead of being a caretaker whose job was to bring back what was still SO fresh in everyones' minds, Cally initiated a full scale teardown/rebuild process that a majority of fans didn't want or think we needed. And the result was going from 3 national championships in 4 years, to 2 losing seasons in 4 years, all within one decade. OF COURSE people were freaked out, it was a fall from grace unlike anything we had ever seen.

Now looking back all these years later the view is a lot different. Every coach we've tried since then has had their own fatal flaws, and unbelievably Callahan turned out to have some of the "best" results of anybody who has tried in the past 20 years. But to me that doesn't mean he was a martyr or misunderstood guru who could've been our savior, it just means the rest of the coaches since then have been just as bad or worse in their own unique ways. He was never the right person for the job in 2004 and wouldn't have been if he got another year in 2008 either.

Now, in a hypothetical alternate universe where he was never our coach before and he came in as our new coach in 2022, maybe he would be a great fit all of a sudden. Our expectations are shattered, our history gets smaller in our rearview every day, and we have been trying to rebuild for ages at this point. We have no culture to re-establish or carry forward. Maybe he would be good at starting something from scratch, although I think we would've seen him have that kind of success at some point if he was capable of it. But anyway, I can't just pretend he was onto something great back then. We shouldn't have been in the market for what he was attempting in the first place, and it backfired spectacularly. His recruiting was sweet though! I do wish that would've rubbed off on our subsequent coaches.

You have to love revisionist history.

 

[huskerj12]

You have to love revisionist history.

Yeah I mean I get it, after the nonstop faceplants we've gone through lately I sometimes find myself thinking back to some of the Bo years like:

 

[KidsSeeGhosts]

Callahan took necessary steps to modernize Nebraska football. He was ahead of the curve on recruiting and it's a shame we couldn't maintain that. Defense was better than people give it credit for (except 07). We weren't at all ready for the mass switch to the spread in the Big 12 though and that really fucked us. I think it would've been uglier if we kept Solich though.

 

[Pipe Line]

Callahan took necessary steps to modernize Nebraska football. He was ahead of the curve on recruiting and it's a shame we couldn't maintain that. Defense was better than people give it credit for (except 07). We weren't at all ready for the mass switch to the spread in the Big 12 though and that really fucked us. I think it would've been uglier if we kept Solich though.

Isn't it ironic how the roles have essentially switched over time? We ran power during the Solich days in a changing Big 12 to spread, and now we run spread in a power based Big 10?

 

[KidsSeeGhosts]

Isn't it ironic how the roles have essentially switched over time? We ran power during the Solich days in a changing Big 12 to spread, and now we run spread in a power based Big 10?

I get your point but

1. Michigan-spread (though strong manball tendencies)
2. MSU-spread
3. OSU-spread
4. Purdue-spread
5. NW-spread
6. Indiana-spread
7. Rutgers-spread
8. Maryland-spread
9. Minnesota-spread
10. PSU spread

It's pretty much just Illinois, Cockeye, and Wisconsin left doing something different

 

[Black Dean]

now we run spread in a power based Big 10?

Meh idk about “power based” majority.

I’d say B1G is pretty split. Those more knowledgeable will know the difference as I think NW, Michigan and MSU also run spread as well 50/50 depending on personal. Even Cockeye sometimes tries.

I’m terrible at diagnosing this though so @slattimer can break it down much better.

Power Based:
Cockeye
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinois

Split:
Northwestern
Rutgers
Michigan
Michigan State

Spread:
Nebraska
Purdue
Indiana
Maryland
Penn State
Ohio State

 

[Pipe Line]

I get your point but

1. Michigan-spread (though strong manball tendencies)
2. MSU-spread
3. OSU-spread
4. Purdue-spread
5. NW-spread
6. Indiana-spread
7. Rutgers-spread
8. Maryland-spread
9. Minnesota-spread
10. PSU spread

It's pretty much just Illinois, Cockeyes, and Wisconsin left doing something different

In all fairness, tOSU owns the East and Cockeye and Wisconsin are really the only ones that ever do anything in the West. Weird NW years are the exception.

 

[Pipe Line]

Meh idk about “power based” majority.

I’d say B1G is pretty split. Those more knowledgeable will know the difference as I think NW, Michigan and MSU also run spread as well 50/50 depending on personal. Even Cockeyes sometimes tries.

I’m terrible at diagnosing this though so @slattimer can break it down much better.

Power Based:
Cockeyes
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinois

Split:
Northwestern
Rutgers
Michigan
Michigan State

Spread:
Nebraska
Purdue
Indiana
Maryland
Penn State
Ohio State

Wisconsin and Cockeye own the West though