Butch Davis to North Carolina. Whew! Thank goodness that's over. Now we can all stop the hand-wringing over Davis. Maybe the early bird gets the worm, and it'll lead to guys getting fired three games into the season from now on because athletic directors have money to burn on big name coaches and there are only five of them available on any given month. Cynical? No. College football has some real problems ahead which we'll discuss in the coming weeks.
Nebraska doesn't make the Top 25 College Mascots, but Ralphie, Bevo, Sooner Schooner, Masked Rider, and Reveille make it from the Big 12. I'm not sure how you put UGA at #2 among many of the other great mascots (like the LSU Tiger?), and the Stanford Tree at #12? Maybe it's the drunken treehe had in mind?
Nebraska and A&M desperately need wins. Desperately. Hmmm.....
Coach Bill Callahan was counted on to jump-start the Cornhuskers into the millennium. He's had his moments, but also is only 11-11 in the Big 12 and 2-6 against South Division foes.(later)
Franchione has his own demons against top teams. He's 2-9 in November with the Aggies and is a combined 1-11 against Big 12 powers Texas, Nebraska, Texas Tech and Oklahoma since arriving.
Clearly something has to give here. I wouldn't call it desperate, but Nebraska needs to start winning more games against the South (we're 0-2 this season) before we can be really happy with our conference play.
Anyone who counted on Bill Callahan to "jump start" the Huskers must certainly be disappointed (or living in another dimension). It irritates me when his record is used for comparisons when it was clear that we'd spend some time re-tooling the program. Can you use it? Yeah, sure, for arguments sake, but there's not much other value in it.
History hasn't been all that kind to A&M when they've got a real big guy near the end zone.
There is talk about Husker offensive coordinator Jay Norvell becoming the next head coach at Iowa State. Norvell was on McCarney's staff between 1995 and 1997.
Bo Pelini is under consideration as well. At least he's on the poll at the Des Moines Register.
On a personal note, I worked at Texas A&M's Kyle Field around 1979-80 when they did a stadium expansion. Spend a good part of two summers there putting in the sound system and fire alarm system. Nearly got killed there a couple times.
Question for you Aggies. Are "Dudley's Draw" and the "Dixie Chicken" still there? Thanks....