Osborne doesn't like the role of having to fire someone of having to sit in judgment of other people, but it is the nature of the business as an Athletic Director. He said that during his 25 years as a head coach, he had to fire maybe 3-4 people and that it was never a pleasant task. Osborne made the decision quickly because he wanted to maintain as much continuity as possible, when the team was 4-4 he told the coaching staff that if they went 4-0, there would be no changes with the current staff, even 3-1 would have been safe. But a record of 2-2 or worse there would be no way it would work. Another factor was they the team had to be competitive, that were a key issue. Osborne felt the team had enough talent to be competitive, but it was other issues that caused the record. Regarding a successor, "In the next few days, I'll try to talk to four or five people and try to move this thing along," Osborne said.

Osborne met with the coaches early Saturday morning, meeting with Callahan first, he told Callahan that he would not be retained and was being released immediately. All of the assistants are guaranteed a salary through January 2009, unless they find new jobs, then if their new job has a salary less then they are currently making, their contract with Nebraska would make up the salary difference between their Nebraska salary and new job for that year. He also asked the assistances to continue to help with recruiting through this coaching change process and they all agreed that they would.

"We went 43 or 44 years without a losing season and now we've had two. At what point do you have credibility with the public? I didn't want to see Bill in that position and I didn't want to see the University of Nebraska in that position," Osborne said. "I like Bill Callahan," Osborne added. "I think he's professional I think he works unbelievably hard." Osborne went on to say that if he had ever had a loosing record when coaching here at Lincoln that he would have be fired, or would expect to be fired. In 1977, after 4 years and a 77% winning percentage, a booster told him that if he had lost the Bluebonnet bowl he would have been fired. He expects the same performance of the new head coach as was placed on him. He told the coaches during the season that he would not talk to any other coach about the possibility of coaching at Nebraska until after the season. Dr. Tom wants to get a new head coach hired ASAP, but can't guarantee anything, just that he wants it settled quickly for the continuity of the program and for recruiting purposes. Osborne expects the new head coach to interview the existing staff, but of course there would be no guarantees of jobs for any of them.

Osborne felt that the Kansas game was a turning point game, 6-6 was not going to keep Callahan's job. He was happy with the team's effort against Texas; he felt it was their best game during the second half of the season. The Defense collapse was major key in the decision to fire Callahan. As a comparison, during his 25 year head coaching career, Osborne's teams gave up 40 points in only 5 games, and never 50 or more. Osborne wants a new coach that can motivate and get players ready to play. Osborne said "Our five-game losing streak certainly was a factor, but even more important was the number of games where we were not competitive. At Nebraska, we always expect to compete at a very high level, and those expectations have not changed." Osborn felt that the Huskers had lost their identity (Mojo), their "fear-factor". Teams had no problems coming into Lincoln to play recently. That there was no intensity in the players, no emotion.

Osborne could tell that with the team getting blown out game after game had an emotional toll on the players, also the scrutiny of the press bearing down on them day after day week after week also took it's toll on the players. Also said that in regards to recruiting that the state of Nebraska had to be the base, they had to have players from within the state and go from there, he closed the conference by stating that he had probably already said too much.

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