Well not this article, not for this week, not this game. I will give you a prediction, and I was pretty damn close last week on the Husker/A & M game, hitting the spread exactly as I predicted (22 points) just one point off on each teams final score. So my prediction for Saturday afternoon, which will be my first time to see my Huskers since their "mental collapse" 3 weeks ago, is the "short-horns" 37, and the Huskers earning 21 points.

No this article is going to be another one of those "what to do about the Nebraska situation". As all my fans on DeathRattleSports are aware, I successfully requested and then received the firing of Steve Pederson as the Athletic Director, now is the time to talk about "Mr. Bill" Callahan and how, just like in Oakland 5 years ago, he could take a program that was on the upswing and in a few short years, turn it into the mess that we have now. The very scary part (which is perfect since Halloween is just a week away) of this entire situation is that Callahan is completely oblivious to his situation/standings that he doesn't understand that the "walls of Jericho" are falling down around him, just like in Oakland.

This statement is underscored by the fact that just this past week, Callahan has come out and announced at his weekly press conference "I've done an excellent job in every area. It's hard for the media to know, but what we've done off the field, and what we've done on the field. I think it's well-documented," Callahan said. He went on to say "We did some positive things. We have. We haven't sustained it this year. But you're in a (Big 12) championship game, in a three-year period of time you come in and implement a whole new offensive system, and in two years time you're in a championship ballgame." Now those are what I would call some profound statements and are worthy of a closer look, don't you think? Now can someone please tell me what part of "I've done an excellent job in every area" and a team with a 4-4 record goes together? Now let's look for some of that "excellence" that Mr. Bill speaks of shall we.

Here is what I have found, numbers wise, anyway to support or contradict "Mr. Bill's" (Oh Nooooooo) statements. So far through his 4^th year (current) Nebraska's overall record stands at 26-19, a .578 (57.8%) winning percentage. His Big 12 record over this same period of time is 14-14 (0-1 in Big 12 championship). He is also has a 19-18 record against BCS eligible teams and is a most impressive 0-16 in games where the Huskers have trailed at halftime. Now we must be honest and give a Nebraska comparison to his predecessors in Lincoln. First we will start with the AD, Dr. Tom Osborne, who followed Bob Devaney, whose final team finished the season 9-2-1 and ranked 4^th. Osborne's first 4 seasons with their final ranking in parenthesis were 9-2-1 (7^th), 9-3 (9^th), 10-2 (9^th) and 9-3-1 (7^th) an overall first four years of 37-10-2 .755 winning percentage and 19-8-1 .678 in the Big 8. Now for Frank Solich, who followed up Osborne's final year of 13-0 and winning a share of the National championship. Solich went 9-4 (19^th), 12-1 (3^rd), 10-2 (8^th), and 11-2 (7^th), so that is 3 finishes in the top 10 and a record of 42-9 overall for a .823 winning percentage, as well as going 25-7 (.781) in the Big 12. Yea I guess Callahan has a point in regards to his so-called "excellent job" when you compare them all. See Solich led the way with a 82% winning percentage and he got fired 2 years later, Osborne has at 75% and kept his job for another 21 years, Callahan is at 58% and going which direction? Hmm.

Now Callahan might want to bring up his recruiting classes, which by all accounts, have been in the top nationally over his 4 years, but I must ask, what exactly does that provide him, or more specifically the school or football team? Even more so, lets examine that recruiting situation shall we. Let's look at the 2005 class, which was his second recruiting class and would compose juniors and 3^rd year sophomores this season. Rivals.com ranked this class of Callahan's 5^th nationally. Of the 30 recruits only nine became starters. Nine transferred, five are backups, four are part-time starters, two were academic casualties and one stuck with track and field. Chris Brooks, a top-15 national receiver out of St. Louis, has caught one pass. Defensive end David Harvey of La Plata, Md., hasn't played a down yet. This means one of two things: Callahan missed on many recruits or has done a lousy job developing them. But by "Mr. Bill's" account, this is what he calls an "excellent job".

In my opinion you have to do more than recruit the "numbers" according to the services, you have to look at the person as a whole, can he make the transition from high school to college, both physically and mentally. Where will he be in 2-3 years in regards to growing both physically and emotionally? Does he fit into the your philosophy, is he a "team player" or one of those coddled stars that can't/doesn't want to be coached. Those are the things; in my opinion that matter more than if he is a 4-star or 5-star player. I can tell you without a doubt that neither Devaney nor Osborne recruited players that had those high numbers, if that person did not fit the philosophy, and then he probably won't work out for you in the long run. Now you also have to recruit some talent, you have to have speed, both on offense and defense. That was the one thing that became the downfall of Solich in his final 3 seasons at Lincoln. He dead fast did not, could not, or would not recruit outside the state of Nebraska and get that "speed" factor. Osborne used to loose year after year to the likes of Miami, Florida, Florida State in his bowl games and it was mainly due to not having the athletics at the skilled positions (running back and receiver) on offense and linebacker and defensive back on defense. His players were willing to die out there, but they just could not keep up. It wasn't until he went into New Jersey, Texas, Florida, and California that he got the "horses" that allowed him to build the legacy that he is remembered for.

Callahan's problem is that he doesn't recognize that he hasn't been able to develop the talent or that the talent had already reached it maximum potential when he recruited them. That is what I believe the actual problem is and is the actual reason why he should be released when the season is over. There has been many a head coach hired only to be discovered 3-4 years later that while they can recruit anyone in the county, they don't have the talent to be a head coach.

As to what Osborne should do in regards to a replacement, well this fans choice would be the person who first applied for the job 5 years ago, when it came open, but Pederson didn't really consider, Bo Pelini who is the current Defensive coordinator at LSU. Pelini was brought to Lincoln by Solich prior to his last season there as the Husker's defensive coordinator, and in that one season he turned a defense around that the season before his arrival gave up 335 yard and 24 points a game to one that gave up 297 yard and only 14 points per game. He gave that defense its "swagger" back the Blackshirt attitude that is long gone under Cosgrove.

If Pelini is given the job, all he has done since moving to LSU is to establish the Tigers as one of the top defensive teams in the country, currently they are ranked 2^nd in the county. I also think that keeping the current offensive coordinator and quarterback coach Shawn Watson would be a very wise move as it would continue to provide the continuity that the program needs as well as possibility allowing them to keep some of the highly recruits they already have committed. I do know that Pelini is a very good recruiter as evident by LSU's results. Other than Pelini, I know that Turner Gill, who was also an assistant under Callahan until he too, was run out of town, would be a possibility, although I am not sure he has enough experience to handle coaching in Lincoln. Another possibility would be from the NFL ranks, but I am uncertain if Dr. Tom would be interested in Bobby Petrino from the Atlanta Falcons, should he decide that the move to the NFL was not in his best interest.

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