USC and the Huskers - Fear Rather than Respect

As a University of Nebraska alumnus, we follow the "Big Red" Husker games with more than the normal amount of interest. We were Devaney and Osborne fans. But we were opponents of Solich and are opponents of Callahan as NU head coach.

Illustrative of Callahan's failings is the recent game against USC, which shows that fear rather than respect marked the game plan and the play-calling on the NU side.

Studies show that the only statitiscally measurable difference between champion athletes and non-champions of similar ability is fear. Champions have no fear, non-champions are afraid. Champions are not worrying about losing, they are concentrating on winning. Non-champions are afraid of losing, and they are thus - logically - less focused on winning.

The same seems to apply to head football coaches. In the USC game, NU head coach Callahan apparently was resigned from the beginning to losing and apparently geared his general game plan to minimize his losses, going for time-consuming rushing football to try to keep the ball away from USC as long as possible. That is a losing mentality. We do not know who called the NU plays, but it was a disaster. Random selection of plays out of a hat would have fared better.

What else can explain that Nebraska - for whom Callahan allegedly has installed the supposedly go-go West Coast Offense" - ran 36 rushing plays for an average gain of only 1.9 yards and threw only 17 passes (of which 9 were completed) for an average gain per pass thrown of 8.4 yards, with no interceptions.

Do the Huskers have no one on their coaching staff these days anymore who can do the math of simple arithmetic. If you are gaining 8.4 yards per pass play and 1.9 per rush, then you are gaining more than four times more per pass play than you are gaining rushing per rush, so that any idiot, football-wise or otherwise, could correctly note that something is amiss at the NU head coaching level when, as in the USC game, 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust football is being played, when the air should be filled with passed footballs, as one would expect from a spread offense.

When one compares USC statistics with NU statistics, it is apparent that USC head coach Carroll won this game through better play-calling. His Trojans threw TWICE as many passes as NU - and these were the difference in the ball game - even though their average gain per pass thrown was less than that of Nebraska. And yet, the play-calling at NU concentrated on rushing against a USC stonewall defense. That is simply poor coaching.

Worse, NU's first three possessions each began with the same play calls - two rushing plays followed by a passing play. USC was most certainly not perplexed by this crude and ineffectual simplicity and predictability of play-calling. People get payed to call plays like this?

By contrast, USC passed 6 of 9 times on first down in starting its ball possessions. USC was there to win.

On NU's 3rd possesion, the ball was on the USC 36 yard line, 4th and 10. Perhaps Devaney or Osborne would have punted here too, but we doubt it. NU, instead of going AT the opponent, ducks its head, and punts. Of such stuff are champions not made.