Saturday night October 6, 2007 the Tigers of the Show-me State of Missouri took the Nebraska Cornhuskers to their woodshed and proceeded to administer a large can of wup-ass on the Big Red by the tone of 41 to 6. It wasn't losing so bad that I did not like, it was the lack of emotion on both sides of the ball and on the sidelines. I have been fairly outspoken about Bill Callahan, and whether he was the person to take the program back to where we as long-time fans expect it to be, but certain things have to be explained from Saturday.

Missouri has not once this season been accused of being a defensive team, but yet the Huskers failed to put the ball in the end zone even one time. The lack of a running game was painfully obvious to all who watched. Marlon Lucky gained all of 67 yards against a defense that came in ranked 93^rd in the county and we made them look like the college version of the Baltimore Ravens. The main game-plan was supposed to be ball control and yet we failed to have a drive longer than 54 yard, and that took 14 plays to accomplish. Missouri had 6 possessions that gained more than 60 yards. We were unable to maintain possession of the ball and keep Daniel and company off the field. So Chase Daniels passes for more than 400 yard and even rushes for more than 70 with the Swiss-cheese Husker defense I doubt very seriously that I will refer to the 2007 Husker defense as the Blackshirts again, as this defense allowed Daniels look like Vince Young.

You know your defense is in trouble when your senior cornerback Zackary Bowman led the Nebraska defense with a career-high eight tackles to go along three pass breakups on the night. Senior linebacker Bo Ruud added 10 stops on the night to surpass the 200-tackle mark for his career. He also moved past his father, Tom, on the Huskers career tackle chart. Senior linebacker Lance Brandenburgh also added a career-high 10 tackles. When the other team is able to run off 85 plays everyone on the defensive side of the ball is going to be able to pad their stats.

This Saturday the 13^th will be homecoming for the Big Red with the Oklahoma State Cowboys coming to Lincoln. The Huskers have to get themselves straighten out quickly or this season could become a repeat of the 2004 season when the Huskers went 5-6 and saw all of their streaks come to an end. The 2005 Huskers faced the same sort of adversity as they were 5-4 after being spanked by the University of Kansas 40-15 ending a 40 plus winning streak against the Jayhawks, but then turned around and won their final 3 games including a 32 to 28 victory over Michigan in the Alamo Bowl. Only time will tell if they can do it again. This Husker has not given totally up however as I see the "crying-cowboys" of Gundy losing to the Home-coming proud Huskers 31-24. GBR folks.

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Lloyds Apple said:

Not to throw flames into the fire, but at a certain point you have to say the Callahan spread experiement is a failure, the talent level is still not at an "elite" status and you should go back to the option running attack that produced some of the best teams ever....only a little over 10 years ago. Whatever Athletic Director is responsible for changing coaches/philosophies should be shot. Not literally of course...

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October 09, 2007
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Bugeatersteve said:

	That would be Steve Pederson at the "helm" of the ship. Pederson gave Callahan an extension, paying him 1.75 million in September through 2011, so it remains to be seen what happens. At 4-2 they can turn things around, but it has to start this Saturday.
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October 10, 2007
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Lloyds Apple said:

Yeah, I've always fancied myself as someone who thinks a coach should be given every chance but I never liked Nebraska revamping their entire offense that defined who they were and created a unique place for them in colllege football. For me, Callahan should have stayed somewhere on the West coast and it would have been a better fit. Of course giving up 42 points on defense is bad too. I did not see the game but I'm willing to bet the offense put the D in some tough situations. Solich only had 3 losses his final year. His Career record was 58-19. After 43 games, Callahan is 26-17, while Solich was 36-7. Here are some fun links unless you are a Husker fan: http://www.coacheshotseat.com/...arison.htm http://firebillcallahan.blogspot.com/

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October 10, 2007
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ItOffishul said:

	blowout losses like these are a sign of a bad coach, especially when the talent gap isn't even that bad. i feel bad for nebraska fans now...being stuck with a lame coach is the worst situation in sports. that's just my opinion. callahan will need to recruit like crazy to have a chance of leading NU back to the cfb elite now
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October 10, 2007
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JEH45 said:

	Common Bugeater-you got me rooting for the "Big Red" and look what happens. By the way Lloyds, I disagree with you. I have no problems with changes in style if you can pull it off.
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October 10, 2007
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Lloyds Apple said:

Nebraska won 3 titles in the 90's, right? Gimme 8 cornfed 300 pounders, a fast qb with an ok arm, bruising runningbacks and wide receivers who are glorified tight ends. Then you have Cornhusker football. A proven formula. Nebraska NEVER had the top recruiting classes but they were almost always competing at a high level. We are not talking about Big Ten schools opening things up a little bit, we are talking about Nebraska football. This is yet another example of an AD being completely ignorant to what worked in the past.

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October 10, 2007
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Bugeatersteve said:

Lloyd, you forgot one "KEY" ingredient in your mixture. The Head Coach. First you had the "Bobfather" Bob Devaney who was very astute on how to win ballgames and had a fantastic offensive coordinator (Tom Osborne). Then he handed the reigns to Dr. Tom, who was as gifted a recruiter as he was head coach and master motivator. Frank Solich while a great coach and motivator was not a good recruiter and only stayed within the state . Because of that, the talent level suffered because of it. Then Pederson was hired as AD and he brought in his "own" people (Callahan) who was like the 3rd choice. Callahan is recruiting the talent, but so far he has not shown the ability to develop/coach it.

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