Are Husker Fans Lowering Their Expectations?

Callahan `hot seat' comment creates quite the stir

June 1, 2007

By Trev Alberts

Special to CSTV.com

	TREV ALBERTS Trev Alberts is a football analyst for CSTV and CSTV.com. E-mail here!

        ---   Column Archive   --- TREV's MAILBAG 2/20: Show Some Patience 1/23: Cutcliffe Can Be Successful At Duke 1/16: To Each His Own 1/10: Watching Different Games 1/2: Brennan's Sugar Performance Won't Hurt Him 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 12/19: Rodriguez Licking His Chops 12/12: Buckeyes Have A Chip 12/05: Missouri Got Hosed 11/28: Some Coaching Changes Ludicrous 11/21: Love Woodson's Poise 11/14: Dixon Can Be Contained, But Not Stopped 11/7: Pac-10 Far From Overrated 10/31: Appalachian State Loss An Afterthought 10/24: No Halves Off In College Football 10/17: Nebraska In Good Hands With The Doctor 10/10: Trojans Still A Player 10/03: Don't Hate On South Florida 09/26: Hangovers Part of The Game 09/19: Nebraska's Performance Disappointing 09/12: DeSean As Explosive As It Gets 09/05: Tebow Impressive In First Start 08/29: ACC QBs Better Than Advertised 08/24: McFadden Not Quite In Bush's Class 08/17: From Overrated To Underrated 08/10: Florida's Overrated 08/03: Spurrier's Got That Twinkle 07/27: Big East Deserves More Credit 07/20: Badgers Playing For Second, At Best 07/13: Gators Repeat? Not So Fast 07/06: Pac-10 Still Owned By USC 06/29: One Big's Better Than The Other 06/22: WAC Ain't All That 06/15: Text Messaging Ban Excessive 06/08: Fifth Year of Eligibility A Good Idea 05/25: Hot Seat Warming Up For Some Coaches 05/18: Big Ten Falling Behind SEC 05/11: 'Canes, Seminoles Have Ways To Go 05/07: Sleeping Dawgs 04/20: Look Out For South Florida 04/13: Boise's Johnson Has No Shot At '07 Heisman 03/30: The Best Atmosphere In College Football Belongs To... 03/23: Tough To Compare QBs With Different Styles 03/16: Top Coaches Need To Be Appreciated 03/9: Woodson Nation's Most Indispensable QB 03/2: Things Just Not The Same At Nebraska 02/23: Rodriguez Does Well With His Chips 02/16: Believe It Or Not, I Don't Have An FSU Agenda 02/09: Yes, I Do Know College Football 02/02: Of Course Huskers Make Adjustments 01/26: Coach Alberts In Lincoln? No Chance 01/19: Can't Begrudge Kids For Leaving Early 01/03: Saban Heads to Alabama 12/29: Some Coaching Changes Come As Surprise 12/22: Too Many Bowl Games Way of Life 12/15: Who Has The Best Talent In The Nation? 12/7: Who's The More Deserving National Title Participant? 12/1: Irish Don't Deserve BCS Bid 11/16: Ohio State the Better Team 11/9: Give the Big East Its Due 11/2: What's Wrong With D at USC? 10/26: Where Will Bowden Be in '07? 10/20: Who Belongs in the Top 20? FOOTBALL 1/8: In Surprise, Ohio State Beats Itself 1/6: Good Start Vital For Buckeyes 12/26: LSU Hater I Am Not 11/23: LSU Loss A Microcosm Of The Season 11/19: Give It Some Time 10/13: Give Kentucky All The Credit 10/7: USC Loss Sends Shockwaves 9/1: Michigan's Loss Nothing Short of Stunning 6/19: Hoeppner Did Things His Way 4/27: Unexpected Reigned In 1994 02/22: Combine Experience Can Be Eye Opening 02/08: Signing Day Observations 02/07: Walk Down Recruiting Memory Lane 11/17: Remebering Schembechler 9/5: One Week Is Just One Week 8/25: The Return Of Trev

You've got college football questions and CSTV football analyst Trev Alberts has answers and opinions. Each week Alberts will be answering questions and queries on the world of college football. So if you've got a question for Trev, just ask him.

Why as a former player and fan of Husker football have you said that Coach Callahan is on the hot seat. I agree with you that he does need to start winning these big games soon...but Trev come on. I hope you understand that you have hurt the program and have really made people who are Nebraska fans, and always been supportive of you, question why you wrote this. It is going to be very difficult for NU to get a good coach in here after Callahan if he does not get a lot of time to turn this thing around. You know from the 1st coaching search that it was tough to find any good candidates to even consider going to NU because of the unreal expectations and pressure on the coaching staff. Please in the future do not add fuel to the fire on this topic as we have a small but focal segment that want Callahan and Pederson gone. And if that does transpire I am afraid Husker football will take decades to get back to a prominent power again. - Dan Schomaker

We of course had outstanding feedback from Nebraska fans this week, but there weren't very many questions posed and I'll start this week's mailbag off with this statement: I might indeed have lost touch with Nebraska football in some respects because somewhere between three or four years ago, apparently expectations have been lowered.

Let me state for the record that I am a huge Nebraska fan and I have a large investment into that place. I want nothing but championship level effort and results. But the day that Nebraskans, their fans, their coaches and their players ever lower their expectations and demands of excellence will be the end of the Nebraska that I knew.

I had the privilege of narrating a three parts series that many Huskers fans have on the history of Nebraska football. In doing that narration is when I really learned, to a great extent, how Nebraska had no tolerance for substandard performance, period. There were no exceptions because the state and its people defined itself by the success of the football program. I'm not saying that's necessarily right, but that was reality. It was stunning to me how it didn't matter who the coach was in that he was given an opportunity, a fair opportunity, and if he didn't get it done they found somebody who did.

This isn't a Frank Solich vs. Bill Callahan argument. I've read many of the posts, the threads, the blogs, and I'm not sure people remember me sitting at a desk in a studio at a competing network saying it was the right move to go in a different direction. I've had some reservations how Solich's firing was handled, but please don't try and turn this into an "I'm disappointed Solich isn't still the head coach." If Solich didn't get the job done, it was time for somebody to get it done. On a totally different matter, you could argue the point of whether or not Solich got the job done.

But when I came up with the names of those on the "hot seat" last week, it never was supposed to be a list of coaches who ought to be fired. The point is this: Callahan finds himself in the same position that other coaches that preceded him found themselves in. This is year No. 4 and it's time to produce. Nobody said he's not going to get it done. Let's not forget Steve Pederson essentially saying Nebraska wasn't going to play second fiddle to Kansas State and Texas. That statement comes under the premise of why Solich was fired.

Now, Nebraska has changed the program and if someone said that Callahan was on the hot seat after his first year that would be ludicrous. After year two, it would probably be ludicrous as well. After year three, I think it is fair for the coach to feel some pressure after we've been told to remain patient while the regime's own recruits mature and play a more prominent role. They've now brought in highly ranked recruiting classes, an All-American quarterback candidate in Sam Keller, who himself has said he looks forward to the day when he's introduced on Monday Night Football and can say, "Sam Keller, University of Nebraska." They've had years to get their specific players in, they play in a very weak North Division of the Big 12, which is probably the fourth weakest conference in the game.

All I've merely said all along is that there are no more excuses. This is the year, according to Nebraska football history, that will define and basically characterize what this regime is going to be about. I think that's fair.

I didn't say I didn't like Bill Callahan, or how difficult it is to change from an option based attack to a West Coast offense. But it is year No. 4. And I never said they weren't making progress. There's been progress, but it should be fairly easy to make progress with a stable staff, all the recruits, new facilities and having everything in place they supposedly need. Steve Pederson has done everything for Bill Callahan, bending over backwards for him. All I've said is that a seven win season, according to what I used to think the expectations were, is unacceptable. I guess I've lost touch because when Solich won only seven games that state was in a complete uproar.

When Nebraska won nine games last season, people said the Huskers were back. But that was only the fourth best record in 40 years of Nebraska. Back in the day, if you didn't win nine games, then they were considered terrible. I might have lost touch, which is my fault by not being there on a more regular basis. I didn't know that the expectations were different now than they used to be. If they are, I sincerely apologize. 

This isn't a statement that I want Steve Pederson fired or Bill Callahan fired or Frank Solich back coaching or Tom Osborne. This is not a Bill Callahan issue or a Steve Pederson issue. I fully understand how difficult their jobs are. But when I read blogs that say when Nebraska wins seven games that they're getting better, I'm flabbergasted that they're lowering expectations and how effective they've been at doing such. There was a time when Nebraska lost and the state went into mourning for a week. I hope Nebraska fans haven't become callous to losing. There used to be a demand for excellence.

There will come a time, and I don't care who it is, when a coach will come under fire. There will come a time when Charlie Weis, if he keeps losing too many more games to Michigan or getting blown out in bowl games, will be on the hot seat at Notre Dame, and eventually he'll be shown the door.

And getting back to the original email, just because the coaching search last time wasn't handled correctly, and was ineffective, doesn't mean there aren't people dying to come coach at Nebraska.  

With all this talk about a playoff, what format do you think makes the most sense? The plus-one, a four-team, eight-team, 16-team? - Kevin Long, Texas

I'm trying to transition from my passion and enthusiasm of Nebraska to the playoff issue right now...

I have always believed an eight team playoff would be appropriate. I do think a playoff can get too long and I understand that football is different and bodies need time to heal. But I think an eight team playoff is pretty realistic. It's only one extra game for four teams and two extra games for two teams. So the point is I don't buy the fact that the season would be too long.

You can't just do a plus-one. If you have an eight team playoff, with six spots saved for conference winners and two at-large teams, that still allows you to get teams like Boise State in. Teams like that should be given the opportunity.

You can use the bowl games as part of the season and do the best you can to keep the traditions that make college football what it is. You could even use the BCS rankings to get your final eight teams. Would No. 9 have an argument for a playoff? Maybe. But certainly not as big an argument as No. 3 has in our current system.

Sixteen is too many. Plus-one to me is a glorified nothing; that's what you try to do to appease people by not making any effective changes. That being said, if I had to predict, we'll see a plus-one first.

Michigan State just unveiled new uniforms last week. Who's got the best uniforms in the country? - Anonymous

The best uniforms continue to be uniforms like Penn State's. Nebraska's are pretty special with the simplistic N on the helmets. I also like Alabama's.

We live in an era of marketing and nonsense, and that's why we end up with the Oregon uniforms. Usually at the end of the day you can trace all the uniform changes to money because when you get a new jersey, fans have to run out and buy it. But I like traditions and I love USC's uniforms. I like Michigan's and anything that's been worn for a long time.

The thing I like with Penn State's uniforms, with all the white, is when you look at them at the end of the day it looks like they played in a football game.