Game 6: Missouri 41, Nebraska 6

Four years ago, Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson egotistically fired a coach who had just finished the regular season with a 9-3 record, having completely overhauled his own coaching staff, and oh by the way, the VERY PREVIOUS DAY, had a huge win on the road at Colorado. The thinking was that:

1. Stevie P did this because he wanted to put his own stamp on Husker Nation (highly likely).
2. Stevie thought (and knew) that Solich wasn't recruiting anymore; or at least not TRYING to at least recruit kids outside the state of Nebraska, and not recruiting meant no more championships.
3. My personal opinion: Stevie P thought there'd be a line out the door of really, really great candidates (including Dave Wandstedt, who would have worked out about as well as Billy C), or an up and comer who could be the next Devaney or Osborne (when in reality, he did have somebody in that mold already on staff in Bo Pellini).

As it turns out, during Stevie P's month long search for an answer, there were but two people legitimately interested in the job: Pellini and Turner Gill. Neither were ever taken seriously.

It looked like the search would go on through the end of the Super Bowl, when all of a sudden, Bill Callahan, coming off an embarrassing season with the Oakland Raiders where he lost complete control of the team, was ceremoniously fired and needed work.

About a day later, he was in Lincoln, practically begging for a job.

The next day, he was introduced as the new Nebraska Football Coach, promising a return to glory and oh by the way, the....West Coast Offense? Everyone from Solich's staff, save Gill was let go (with Pellini being the most upset obviously). As the off-season progressed, we were led to believe that the 2004 season would be one of upheaval, a down year. You know, where you lose to Texas Tech 70-10? But after finishing 5-6 and failing to go to a bowl game for the first time in any of our lifetimes, Billy C promised, "We're building towards our championship team."

Year two wasn't it, even though they at least got to (and won) a bowl game.

Year three wasn't it, even though they won the Big 12 North and frankly should have won their bowl game.

And now we're on to year 4, which is turning out to look an awful lot like year 1, especially on defense. Missouri beat Nebraska last night in their easiest victory of the young season. Killed the Corn. Destroyed them. It was a joke. And all the Husker pundits this morning want to talk about is what a stud this Chase Daniel kid is? Are you fucking kidding me?

Maybe these people can't see the forest from the trees. But it's over. It's just not working with this regime, and it's not going to work. There have been no significant signs of improvement anywhere (unless you count 7 different players catching passes from Sam Keller -- hey, there's a positive!).

Steve Pederson could have waited until the end of the year to offer that extension to Callahan. It's not like anyone was beating down Billy C's door with offers. Then, maybe there wouldn't have been a contract extension, and somebody else could make the right call on bringing in the right head coach next time.