What if... Bill Callahan Had Kept Bo Pelini On As Defensive Coordinator?

by Aaron Musfeldt on Mar 17, 2011 9:00 AM CDT in Cobby - Humor

In 2003, Steve Pederson came to town and fired Frank Solich because he didn't want to see Nebraska "surrender the conference to Oklahoma and Texas". We all know what happened next. He hired Bill Callahan to be our head coach. This was supposed to usher in a new era of football at Nebraska. The offense was going to be updated to the 21st century and National Championships were going to pour in. Well, that didn't happen, and, after the miserable 2007 campaign that saw Nebraska finish 2-6 in conference play, Bill and Steve were out and Bo Pelini was in.

This write up isn't about whether Steve made the correct decision to fire Frank or hire Bill, but instead it's about Bo Pelini. What if Callahan had hired him instead of Kevin Cosgrove? Would things have been different?

If the blackshrits were able to be about as good as they have been the past two years during the Callahan era, would we have seen championships?

Would we all love Steve Pederson? Would Bill Callahan still be our head coach with statues erected of him?

Or maybe Pelini's blackshirts would have struggled. After he was let go at Nebraska in 2003, Bo went to Oklahoma and LSU before making it back here as our head coach. Did that experience help Bo to become a better coach or was he ready in 2003?

One last thing. If Bo had helped us to a few championships (conference or national) as Bill Callahan's DC, would we have made the move this past summer to the Big Ten?

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Looking into the Crystal Ball

Bo’s defense would continue to do well, but frictions were quick to be pointed out for all to see. After a particularly heated argument during the Western Illinois game, PPV viewers witness a couple of Bo’s blood vessels pop. After that, war is declared by the Husker Defense, as it scedes from the Husker Union until Callahan is gone.

Bill is sure that he can score enough with his awesome West Coast skills, so he sends his backup offensive players as the “defense” against Southern Miss. The results were not kind (and you thought 2007 was bad). Bo leads his players to the football offices the following day. RB/Lookout Cory Ross spots them first, and runs though the campus yelling “The Blackshirts are coming! The Blackshirts are coming!”

The early warning is pointless. Bo and the grizzled defense make quick work of the offensive line (as any decent defense would do), and throw both Steve Pederson and Bill Callahan out. Bo takes over, and we celebrate our third straight BCS Championship by 2010.

by Wolvie on Mar 17, 2011 9:33 AM CDT reply actions 5 recs

By far the best reply I've ever read.

by Mactruck on Mar 17, 2011 9:57 AM CDT up reply actions

Seriously...

Bravo!!

by CCE718 on Mar 17, 2011 11:27 AM CDT up reply actions

I like this one

man… you pretty much ruined it for the rest of us. :)

Go Big Red Nebraska!
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by Jon Johnston on Mar 17, 2011 12:08 PM CDT up reply actions

Reading Marchifornication is rubbing off on me

Maybe those Iowa guys aren’t quite so bad.

Don’t get me wrong, their team sucks ass. ;-) But their fans at BHGP are awesome.

by Wolvie on Mar 17, 2011 1:55 PM CDT up reply actions

"The Blackshirts are coming! The Blackshirts are coming!"

I think I need a shirt with this on it over a picture of a terrified player from (insert least favorite B1G team) galloping off the field on a crazed donkey.

Or maybe it just needs to be Colt McCoy on the donkey.

by UltimaRatioRegum on Mar 17, 2011 1:13 PM CDT up reply actions

that

is a good idea.

we need to come up with some “joining the Big Ten” shirts, don’t we?

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Twitter!
cornnation@gmail.com

by Jon Johnston on Mar 17, 2011 3:27 PM CDT up reply actions

I don't think

we could have ever come to love Steve Pederson. His problems went way beyond the football team. Even if they would have had a national title…. I still don’t think he would have been successful. He’s still himself – too much of a megalomaniac, too insecure to be straightforward and honest with people – sooner or later it would have bitten him in the ass.

which is why I’m going to continue to bring you different views of Bill N Steve every Friday for the rest of the frickin’ offseason.

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Twitter!
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by Jon Johnston on Mar 17, 2011 12:12 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

I had a boss once that reminded me Steve Pederson.

He was fired too. :)

One of the founding members of The Super Duper Matt Cassel Fanclub.
We all have the right to our own opinions, its just that mine are right.
My quest for soberiety is an ongoing struggle.

by nateforchiefs on Mar 17, 2011 9:46 PM CDT up reply actions

Pitt

I heard the Pitt fanbase has been calling for Pederson’s head, if they have not gotten it already. He is just a bad AD. I lost the link to the article, but Pederson should be looking over his shoulder, they are pissed in western PA.

by CCE718 on Mar 17, 2011 12:37 PM CDT reply actions

Yeah, hiring a guy that gets thrown in the can for spousal abuse within days/weeks of taking the job will do that.

by Wolvie on Mar 17, 2011 1:58 PM CDT up reply actions

Not to be a buzzkill

But the general consensus that I remember was that if Bo didn’t get the HC job, he was going to OU to be DC no matter what Callahan did. I don’t think Bo would’ve ever been a defensive coordinator under Billy C. (That doesn’t excuse Callahan for hiring Cosgrove though).

"My hardest job is to convince the people of Nebraska that 10-1 is not a losing season." - Tom Osborne

by jdhusker on Mar 17, 2011 1:02 PM CDT reply actions

it's a make believe world, man!

What If Thursdays should have no bearing on reality.

In fact, I bet if he stayed on as DC, we’d be erecting a statue to Callahan and Pelini, Callahan on his flying horse overhead, with Pelini below, his unicorn’s horn spearing a terrified Texas player, spewing blood and everything……

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Twitter!
cornnation@gmail.com

by Jon Johnston on Mar 17, 2011 3:29 PM CDT up reply actions

It's also 2 days until spring break and I'm grumpy

Nice imagery though. :P

"My hardest job is to convince the people of Nebraska that 10-1 is not a losing season." - Tom Osborne

by jdhusker on Mar 17, 2011 5:59 PM CDT up reply actions

Bill Callahan's offense

Some people act like Billy C’s west coast offense was actually pretty good and that the defense was the problem. I disagree wholeheartedly. Statistically speaking, offenses under Bill Callahan actually put up pretty decent numbers. But those numbers were only a mirage because we were always playing so far behind that the other team had in the 15th string defense. Best example was the USC game in 2007. I think we were down like 49-10 at one point but some late points when the game was already over made it look a little better on paper, but we all know that Nebraska was never even close to winning that game.

Would a better defense have helped? I don’t think so. When you look at games that were actually pretty close, then the stupidity of the coaching staff is undeniable. Southern Miss in 2004? I remember how that game ended…everyone walking out of memorial stadium completely silent and angry. Or how about throwing it into the wind on 3rd down against Texas in 2006? Name for me one game during the Callahan era that was close and was won by Nebraska because of good coaching. The closest example I can think of is that game against Ball State…

by Billgrip on Mar 17, 2011 3:06 PM CDT reply actions

So to answer the question

The answer is that if Bill Callahan had kept Pelini as defensive coordinator, we might have won a few more games, but I don’t think in that would have been enough to save Callahan’s job. He’d be fired by now. The 5-7 season was a desecration, but even with a better defense…the rest of Callahan’s coaching staff would have found a way to keep the Huskers average…and fans around here wouldn’t put up with 8-5 seasons for very long. Plus I’m about 95% sure that Pelini would have utterly despised working for Callahan.

by Billgrip on Mar 17, 2011 3:14 PM CDT up reply actions

To an extent I agree with you

Callahan’s offense wasn’t national title good at any point, but I think most years (2004 being a complete exception) they were pretty decent. 2005 was mediocre. 2006 they were good. 2007 they were back to mediocre until Sam Keller got hurt then they were highly effective against questionable defenses under Ganz.

Then in 2008 (which I think still counts as being a Callahan-y offense) our offense saved us repeatedly. You mentioned our defense’s ineptitude indirectly propping up our offenses numbers in 2007. What a lot of people forget is that the 2008 Nebraska offense was such a good ball control offense that not only did we win 4-5 more games than we would have with the 2007 or 2009 offenses, our defense was on the field so little they actually looked average statistically (until you look at the ypp average…yikes).

So yeah, I’m not willing to write off the WCO as impractical for college, or incompetently run at Nebraska. There are certainly a lot of valid reasons why it failed here, poorly matching personnel being a pretty big chunk of it. HOWEVER, with the exception of 2008, it was never really a game changing asset for the team, and considering that Callahan’s specialty is in this area, that was a big problem down the stretch.

"My hardest job is to convince the people of Nebraska that 10-1 is not a losing season." - Tom Osborne

by jdhusker on Mar 17, 2011 6:09 PM CDT up reply actions

My argument exactly...

…in November 2007, I heard some people arguing that maybe we should give Callahan a second chance because the offense had started to click. Of course, that’s a month after the Huskers went over 6 quarters without a touchdown against Missouri and Oklahoma State, then went another 4 quarters without a score against A&M and Texas.

Callahan’s offense was sporadically average, and mostly mediocre.

by Husker Mike on Mar 17, 2011 9:14 PM CDT up reply actions

Yep

And there’s that whole thing about never winning a game after trailing at halftime(or something along those lines). He lost the team, and I agree that Bo wouldn’t have mixed well with Billy C.

I'm your huckleberry.

by Brizzle T on Mar 17, 2011 9:46 PM CDT up reply actions

Texas A&M

when Mo Purify caught a ball from Zac Taylor – that was a sweet comeback win.

But the 2004 home loss to Southern Miss was unexplainable. And the handling of the position switch for captain Joe Dailey was inappropriate. And the blind allegiance to idiot Kevin Cosgrove was not to anyone’s benefit.

Overall, if Pelini had been retained, he would have been gone by now. Several schools would have come calling with larger paychecks for a D coordinator or possibly a head coaching job. Steve Pederson would not have matched other schools dollar for dollar. Also, Pederson probably wanted everyone except Gill gone.

by Dotbo on Mar 20, 2011 2:40 PM CDT up reply actions

I think the scariest possibility

is that Bo would have been the DC here until about, oh, last year, and then would have taken a head coaching job somwhere else…possibly even at texas, B1G, or the SEC. We couldn’t have kept him. We just would have been the ‘OU’ in the OU-LSU springboard that made him a HC candidate. He needed those years (and that national title) away to build his skills, and he is a much better HC for it. It was probably one of the best things to happen in the Callahan era – when Bo left.

by Joel Schmidt on Mar 18, 2011 12:25 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs

I think

Eventually Bo’s personality and Bill’s room-filling ego would have had a major blowout, and we all know the head coach wins those every time and Bo would have walked. If not, Bo’s defensive genius would have made him a hot commodity on someone’s coaching search radar and he’d have been gone to the right opportunity (Pelini to Michigan instead of RichRod?)

Bo would have kept the defense relevant, which would have covered Bill’s butt somewhat. It wouldn’t have saved his first season because the offensive changeover and lack of personnel still would have resulted in losses, but I don’t think we slip to a losing record in that case and it probably saves at least one win a season.

But there’s only so much Pelini could have done…Callahan would still have trampled on many of the Husker traditions and alienated fans and alumni…he still wouldn’t have been able to get an offensive play called in time…it wouldn’t have stopped BIll from gambling away wins (Auburn bowl game, anyone?)… and we still would have seen the general level of recruits slide due to Callahan’s inability to get people through the door.

Most likely scenario as I see it, his abilities as a coach would have caused him to get an offer from someone and he would have been gone to parts elsewhere.

As for the move to the Big Ten, I think it still happens. The conference championships would not have come, even with Pelini in charge of the D. The issues that caused the schism still would have been there. Texas would still be acting like Texas.

by ManAgainstWorld on Mar 18, 2011 8:35 AM CDT reply actions

NU would still be in the Big 10 due to Texas' disloyalty to the conference.

“One last thing. If Bo had helped us to a few championships (conference or national) as Bill Callahan’s DC, would we have made the move this past summer to the Big Ten?”

Probably. NU would probably have sought greener pastures when Texas began lobbying for their own channel and refused to give television rights to the conference.

However, if NU had been coming of multiple National Championships in, say, 2006 and 2007, perhaps not. Perhaps NU would have had enough momentum to try for their own TV channel. I strongly doubt it as NU is so much a football school, and not much else. The men’s BBall team is subpar, and after football, BBall is #2 in terms of revenue for the NCAA.

by Dotbo on Mar 20, 2011 2:44 PM CDT reply actions