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Sunday, November 13, 2005

Burn

On Saturday afternoon at about 4PM, I started to cry in the stands at Memorial stadium. Why? Because they burned fucking Beck's redshirt after Taylor tried to go Mike Alstott on some linebacker that weighed twice what he did. Ok, if they weren't saving Beck for a redshirt, then why didn't they play him against Wake Forest when they had the game firmly in hand? Why didn't they play him when Taylor couldn't do shit against Oklahoma or Kansas in the second half? Why did they wait until the second to last game of the season to give him an opportunity to even see the field? When he threw that interception, I turned to my dad and said, "Great, now they've ruined both his confidence and his career." Why were they throwing the ball in the first place? K-State hadn't been able to move the ball at all against the NU defense. In fact, the NU offense was the impetus for every K-State point in the second half (two fucking safeties? What the fuck are we doing?). All they had to do was run the ball, have Koch kick a sixty yard, with-the-wind punt if they stalled out, and show trust in the defense. Instead they put pressure on an 18 yr. old kid to make plays that he shouldn't have been called on to make. Granted, he performed remarkably on that last drive and NU won the game. But now Beck has lost an entire season of eligiblity that he didn't have to lose. I know NU has the wonder giant coming in to play quarterback next year, but Beck may still be the star of this team in years to come and I would prefer that he has a chance to start 4 yrs, not just 3.

Comments:
Big Boi...I understand the frustration...BUT here's 2 questions to consider.
1.) A lot of practice reports indicate that Beck has basically caught Taylor and that it will be a dogfight in the spring to win the starting job next year...if Beck wins the starting job will you feel differently??? I know i will, i don't want Taylor to be starting at USC with only one game of D-1 experience under his belt.
2.) Would you have really wante Ganz to have played??? Have you seen him play??? I can say with a good amount of confidence that our chance to beat KSU were a lot higher with Beck than with Ganz. which leads to a further question, wasn't Beck losing one year worth this young team making a bowl game and getting and extra 4 or 5 weeks worth of practice?

My knee jerk reaction was much like yours Big Boi...ask Gage i sent a pissed off text message to him right away. But with time i have come to grips with it. I think that my overall reaction will depend on how we use these last 2 games...if they play Beck a little bit over the next 2 games i think it will be a good thing, if not I will really question it.

But the bottom line of this whole thing is this...If Callahan plays Ganz and we lose the KSU game, would you be one calling for BC's head at the end of the season? I don't think that's fair, you can't be on both sides to criticize Callahan. Frankily if you are him and your job is on the line, you play for the win, nobody should fault him for making this tough decision in my opinion. Nebraska fans are becoming rediculous, let the guy do his job.

Oh and finally...get off BC's back for the swing pass to Ross call. He's not that stupid, if you can't recognize that is Taylor's blame than you don't know squat about the game of football.
 
I would honestly be suprised if Beck wasn't the starter for the rest of the season.

I think BC was praying for this to happen--this gives him a legitimate excuse to play Beck from here on out. "Well, we burned his redshirt, and he had caught up to Taylor in practice, so we decided to play the future...."
 
You guys are retarded. Big Boi is absolutely right here.

Who cares if we beat K-State? Does this really make you feel better that the two worst teams in the Big 12 basically played to a stalemate and we prevailed? Unless we beat Colorado, we had to beat Maine to go to the micronpc.com bowl or whatever the fuck it's called.

Wasting all of these redshirts is fucking idiotic. Especially this one. We've had ample chances to play Beck before, especially in some blowout losses to MU and KU. We didn't score a point in the second half of either of those games, why couldn't he play then and then throughout the year.

Have you seen our schedule next year? Callahan is going to get fired anyway after that, let's not kid ourselves.

He's by all accounts an arrogant jerkoff, and by my account a horrible gameday head coach (nice screen pass on your own 1 inch line).

You two are living in a fucking fantasy world if you think the Callahan era ends anything but badly.
 
I'm with TJ.

Going into the K-State game all I heard was that it was a must win. We wanted to get back to the bowl, and the extra practice isn't going to hurt.

At the point of the injury, you are faced with a decision, and you have to win the game. At that point in time you go with your best option to win the game. I can't imagine what the newspapers would've said if he played Ganz and they lost. In the scheme of things, I'm taking a crappy bowl game over a redshirt.

And the swing pass in the end-zone has to be on the quarterback. Not only was it a horrible play, it was covered. That was just a qb who has been knocked down 1 million times on the season going through his progressions to quickly.
 
Pete,
I'm not sure how much you following recruiting but here is something else to ponder...Did you know that our prized QB recruit for next year (Josh Freeman) took and official visit to OU last weekend? Rumor is much of it has to do with the fact that the OU coaches are telling him he'll have two years to play after Bomar is gone where (before Beck's burn) he might only have one to start here. If true does that change your opinion. Let's be honest no school (look at how many freaking freshman USC plays every year) can consistently stay at the top of recruiting if you are known as a school that redshirts it's stud freshman. No 18 year old kid with NFL aspirations even considers a school who he thinks he might have to wait until year 2 to see the field.

Pete I'm not one who gives a crap that we beat KSU, but i think a bowl game was mightly important for this year for many other reasons than our precious traditions.

Do you really think we should fire BC after next year??? that is the most ludacris f'ing thing i have heard yet. Do people not understand how tough turnover is on a program??? If we had hired outside the program and not went with Frankie we wouldn't be having this damn conversation. BC should not even be judged until the end of year 4 period.

Pete you watch as much football as i do...but for god's sake i know even you realize that in today's state of college football every program that is worth a shit plays freshman. The more i hear about this kind of crap the more pissed i get at Husker fans.
Did this thing make even me scratch my head at first...yes, but good god it's not tough to rationalize it. And finally after listening to Beck's comments (also his dad was promoting him playing rivals as late as friday) i don't even know why we are discussing this.
 
TJ, I agree with everything you said there...except about Beck. There is no way that you burn a redshirt with 5 quarters to go in the season.

That REALLY sucks that Freeman took an official to OU last weekend--that scares the shit out of me. Everything I have read about this guy is that he was the most overlooked recruit in a long, long time, and that he is twice as good as Beck was last year. Those are probably exaggerations, but I have heard from many (including you, I think) that he could start next year.
 
Why is it that Beck and his dad both thought it was the wrong decision? Do we have a better perspective as fans on the situation than they do?

And i seriously would like to see all of you guys answer the 2 questions i posed in my first reply to judge where you really stand on this. Do we really want Beck's second game of D-1 experience to be @ USC????
 
TJ,
I did not say I believed that we should not have played Beck this season. I believe he should have played earlier, or not at all. My vote, personally, would have been for earlier. I firmly believe with QB's that you really have to know what you have, so you don't wait a year or two to "develop" a QB and then find out you have Joey Harrington. As for Freeman, I don't see any logic to bringing Beck out of his redshirt because Freeman may not come here. If Beck is really that terrible, then they would be telling Freeman just that and he wouldn't be worrying about playing time.

Secondly, barring some sort of miracle next year, we WILL not be better than 6-5. I'd put my house on it. And I may be biased because I feel like this season has shown Callahan to be an awful collegiate coach (exception: recruiting) and just an all around asshole, but he's not coming back.

It may be too early to talk about next year, but I don't feel that it is with 2 games left in the year. We're in trouble, and him and Pederson are probably going to be the scapegoats.
 
previous post should say "Why is it that Beck and his dad both thought it was the right decision?" I'm pissed and typing to fast right now
 
Pete,
I would have liked to of seen him play earlier in the year as well. But i can see why he didn't other than the Wake Forest game. And from what i hear he was nowhere near ready to play at that time and they thought he would be a redshirt but has really come on since than.
I've also heard the argument that he should have played against Kansas...My guess is that Callahan remembers what happens when you throw a freshman qb who hasn't played all season into the fire when you are getting routed...Texas Tech last year, that could ruin a kid.

Let's also be honest, throwing anybody in to play this o-line is a pretty big risk...that's actually the biggest argument i have had for him not to play all year.
 
oh and pete...we agree on one thing. We could realistically be a dramatically better football team next year and still not end up with a better record, nobody is going to be dogging our schedule next year.
 
By the way, as an exception to my comment above--if Beck is the starter for Colorado, and practices with the "ones" all through December, then it is worth it.
 
TJ,

Do you really enjoy Callahan as a coach? You seem to really support this guy and I'm curious as to why.

Here are my criticisms:
1. He's a dick with no respect for the media or fans
2. He doesn't seem to care about winning, more about imposing his will on the program. (He won't make changes to schemes based on personnel, just generally inflexible)
3. He has executed a solid game plan once (Iowa State this year.)
4. If you script plays, they should work so you aren't on your fourth drive still using them, this kills us in 1st quarters.
5. The offense is too complicated and seems to not play to our strengths

The honeymoon is over. I want some fucking results. You could argue our team is not any better than we were in August of 04. That is not the sign of good coaching.
 
Pete,
In general I am still holding judgement on Callahan but I like his system and most importantly I think he is a massive upgrade from what we had before him and I (obviously more than anyone else here) understand that he is working with a completely bare cupboard. No coach in America could compete at a high level with the kids we have playing...especially at the heart on the offensive line.

-I actually don't see why NU fans think Callahan is such a dick. Frankily him being a dick to the media doesn't bother me in the least, does it help PR no...but I don't think coaches should be required to be media darlings...I just don't see how he treats the media to be any sort of influential reasoning on whether or not you like the guy. As to him being a dick to the fans...what the hell has he done to you or me??? Hasn't invited me over for dinner??? Pete you're not the first person I have heard say this, but i would love to hear a little more explanation because that honestly baffles me.
-Pete are you honestly telling me you think any coach in the world doesn't care about winning...I'm sorry but that is rediculous. I don't care if you are coaching little league, coaches care more than any fan, parent, or observer ever has or will. Now if you are just trying to say that he is willing to adapt outside of his system just to produce wins I might agree with you, but again I'll defend him on this...plain and simple, you can only coach what you know and what you believe in. But i will say this, my biggest critism of BC so far is that I don't think he has done much to adapt to the lack of talent he's dealing with to produce better results.
-Isn't it ironic that you say this and the ISU game is the only even "average" game the offensive line has played all year???? How do you expect any player caller in America to put together a "gameplan" that accounts for 3 offensive lineman on laying on their back 3 yds behind the line of scrimmage every play????? It's mindboggling to me that more people don't see this.
-Scripting plays...Pete I'm with you on this one...I personally hate it...but I'll reiterate...YOU CAN"T PLAN FOR ANYTHING WITH THIS O-LINE!
-Like i previously mentioned, I think my biggest beef with BC is his adapting to what he has to work with...this was actually more of a beef last year than this. My biggest beef with him this year is that he is even trying to ever run the ball...we should be throwing it 70% of the time, that's the only way this current offense will ever have success.

Pete I want results too...but I am willing to be much more patient. I like the strides made between year 1 and year 2. The passing game is vastly improved and the running game will be fine when we get some people not name Austin, Koch, CFT, and Seppo in the trenches. I also liked what i have seen at times from the D, we need more playmakers no doubt but i think a few strides have been made and having Octavian and Stew right now would make a huge difference. Just enjoy the ride, trust me the bandwagon is pretty empty right now, come hop aboard and the climb back to the top will be a lot sweeter.
 
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