Billy C Watch: Not Yet

The wolves came back out in a big way this week, looking for poor Billy C. It pretty much started during the game from our good friend Brent Musburger, you see. He was amazed at how far the mighty Corn have fallen since the glory days of the mid-'90's, and that Billy C and his coaching staff had sunk to a new low because they seemed more concerned about getting steamrolled than finding a way to actually win the game. In fact, there was a time during the game when Musburger told Bob Davie to "go run in another play" for the Corn.

We've been relatively nice to Billy C this week, all things considered. But this week has been another reminder than when things don't go well in Billy C's world, they get napalmed. Everyone has been echoing Musburger's comments (that alone is scary enough), saying Nebraska played too conservative, that there was no really game plan, that all Billy C wanted to do was show up, try not to get punched in the mouth too many times, and then get the hell out of Cali. As if ANY game plan would have helped the Corn against that USC team.

It's still fun to go back and figure out how things went so incredibly bad for Billy C in Oakland. We came across a very glowing article on Coach Callahan as he was ready to lead the Raiders to the Super Bowl. After reading this, he comes across like the second coming of Bill Walsh. The only thing he was doing wrong at the time was speeding -- as in driving so fast to work everyday because he couldn't wait to get there. "I have the greatest job in the world," he said (a line he's repeated more than a few times in the past three years while guiding the Huskers). Life seemed just a little too perfect...

...Because it only takes a year for a team to go from 12-4 and the Super Bowl to 4-12 and "stupid". This article from December, 2003 has shades of what we'd hear later from some now former Huskers like Ross Pilkington and Harrison Beck. Wow did people turn on Callahan. Our favorite quotes:

• "He's not the type of person you want to be around. He's just really brought a really negative vibe to this team over the course of the season." -- Charles Woodson
• "I don't know if he's the guy who can bring this team back together. This year, he made things personal with this team. You can't do that. If he's back, it's going to take two to three years to fix this, because nobody trusts a word he says." -- Tim Brown

And the next thing you know, silver and black fell out of favor to scarlett and cream in a big hurry. We almost forgot that whole bizarre Barrett Robbins episode happened on Billy C's watch too.

God knows we've warned everyone about Billy C from day one. It's a long, long season with ELEVEN possible games remaining. I wouldn't jump off the bridge just yet, but there's another group of Trojans on the schedule for tomorrow, and theis bunch is craving a huge road upset for their resume . If some of the Nebraska players are already questioning things ala Musburger, former Raiders and pundits, well let's just say that next week will be a lot more fun than this one.