Breathe, Count to 10, relax

HANC

HANC

New member
Ok, I know that I will get a lot of people on this board who will shoot this down hard, but I am going to offer it up anyway....

I was at the Cotton Bowl, and left extremely disappointed and mad as hell at BC.... My favorite Husker buddy (KC Husker) was as livid as I have EVER seen him, and I agreed....

Now, after a night of sleep and a little time to think, I offer this up....

I am a football coach myself, and knowing a little bit of how the whole fan/coach relationship works, I have lessened my frustration with BC. First, I MA NOT SATISFIED WITH 9-5, AND, THERE ARE NO MORAL VICTORIES, ESPECIALLY AT NU.

I now look at the Auburn game as ok performance. In depth analysis shows a few positives.

1. Cosgrove's D show guts, and got the job done, time after time.. He finally brought new blitzes..

Maybe he is getting better, and so is his kids

2. Marlon Lucky was able to handle to job of being the feature back... Depth is great

3. Jones was able to play pretty well, and Grix didn't kill us...

Now to BC...... MOst of you guys went bolistic when he was conservative at USC.... and, most applauded him for the "trick" plays (that worked) late in the year.... I will say, that I didn't agree with the fake punt call !!!, but I am not going to crucify the man for the call. If ANY OF YOU watched the playa second time, would see that IF the ball is handled cleanly, Shanle was going to make it by the LDE, who was crashing in, and Shanle had open field for approx. 20-25 yards..... If this happens, MOST OF YOU would be hamming it up, saying BC sure has guts and applauding him for trying to WIN.... I know that many of you say that Todd and Shanle shouldn't have been in to handle the ball, but for a trick play to work, you need your "normal" punt team on the field... "That is football 101" !!!!

Now, the decision to "throw" the ball on 3rd and 1, puzzles me, and the way that he chose to attack the defense on the final series of downs doesn't make sense..... but I am sure that if the shovel pass nets 7-8 yards, many of you would be patting him on the back......

Plain and simple, FANS (including myself in this situation) are very hard to please..... He is too conservative at USC, his trick plays are great vs CU, then, he takes too many risks vs Auburn.......See a pattern at all.... When plays work, the COACH IS A GENIUS, and when the play falls apart, THE COACH IS A DUMBA$$.

IMO, we all need to relax..... see what recruiting brings... and support this program like the best fans in America should......For all of you people who are calling to FIRE BC....... good god, get a clue on how the business works !!!!! Starting all over would be great, huh.....let's become the revolving door that will lead to obscurity..... BC needs to win, but it has only been been 3 seasons... It is easy to say "have patience" , but awfull hard to put your money where your mouth is !!!!

Recruits read this board, and all of the "bad-mouthing" is probably not helping our cause...

I am not saying that you have to be happy, satisfied, or anything else, I am just asking people to truly THINK about the BIG PICTURE before you begin to demand unrealistic results.

 
How about a perspective from an Auburn fan about that fake punt call. If I were an Auburn coach and saw that fake called that early in the game. It tells me one thing. The opposing coach is coming after me and he wants to win this game. It's easy for me to say I liked the call because it didn't work and it went in our favor. But just think, why did he call the play? To win the game. It just happen to be a mishandle handoff and it didn't work.

My question is. How much time do they spend on these trick plays in practice? Did you see Boise St last night? They must have worked on those plays over and over. They perfected them and it payed off. I think if you are bringing trick plays to a game, make sure your guys can do it in their sleep.

I think Bill Callahan will be fine. He's a great coach and is respected and will be feared in the coming years. He just needs to right personnel to run his offense. All he can do is do the best he can with what he has. Nebraska will be a force to wreckon with in the future. The Huskers might not be a number one team right now. But you can control being the number one fans in the nation. :) Remember the team feeds off their fans. They need you especially now. Go gettem Huskers!!!

WARRRRRR EAGLEEEE!!!!

 
First topic worth reading in 2 days. Thanks for summing up the feelings for most fans. Most fans aren't crowning BC as the next Paul Brown, and aren't convinced that he is a super bust. Support should not waver from us. Have Faith!!

 
Yeah, there's the whole "if it works, he's a genius" argument, but he usually makes those trick play calls when we're NOT ON OUR OWN f'ing 20 YARD LINE.

But I guess I feel better about this loss than the USC one, because he let the players go out and (try to) make plays. I just don't think he put them in the best situations to do so.

 
Stoops was called brilliant and gutsy for going for it on 4th down at about his own 25 in the 4th quarter. The difference is that for OU it worked. Ours failed, so people call the coach an idiot.

 
Captain Obvious.....

I understand your whole concept of when to call a "fake punt"..... and I am not trying to start a verbal battle with you, but you need to understand the X-O's behind th e play...

By watching film, the coaches saw that whenever an opponent of Auburn punted from their own 35 yd line or worse, Auburn would defend the punt with an inside rush, thus, this type of "fake punt" would have been a brilliant call vs the type of rush that Auburn had brought all year...

Once Auburn's opponent's pass their own 35, they would change their punt defense, and this type of fake punt would not work..

Thus, in order to take advantage of Auburn's defensive rush, NU had to use this fake punt inside their own 35...... One, insidethe 35 is not "typical" fake punt area, meaning that Auburn was totally caught off guard, and two, if you are going to risk a play like this, the 1st qtr. is the best time, because if it back-fires, you still have 3 qtrs .eft to win the game.....

If the play works, BC is brillaint....the philosophy behind the whole play great coaching and scouting...the PLAYERS failed to execute the play, so now BC is a dumba$$..... I don't get it...

Remember..... I said in my 1st post that I didn't agree with the call, but once you look at it in depth, one can see why the play was called....

 
Why do people insist on defending Callahan for a play that "almost" worked?

The risk of running such a play always outweighs the reward. It was a busted play, it didn't work, and the mere fact that Callahan made the decision to run such a play in that situation exposes the guy as a poor decision-maker.

I don't care how much open field was in front of Shanle. That's not the point, and it doesn't make the call a good one.

And let's not even pretend that this is the first time that BC's playcalling has been suspect.

I'm not calling for the guy's ouster, but I sure as hell don't have much confidence in him. Hopefully he learns from his idiocy...

 
Absolutely correct about BC play calling has been in the question.....but any form of trick play is risky.... that is why they are "trick plays".... Decide..do you want a coach who doesn't take "risks" (USC game) or a guy who isn't afraid to be agressive ??

I don't understand what you mean by "not caring how much room Shanle had to run"...... my point is that the play call was a great call vs Auburn's defensive alignment.... Which in turn would be "good coaching".

If Shanle gets the ball clean.... I guarantee that most of you would be excited about teh "guts" of BC.... If Stoops called the same play, and it worked, people would once agian saying how lucky OU is to have a great coach like Stoops....

Personally, I don't make the call, but in the realm of football strategy, BC was not all wrong...

By the way, I don't feel the need to defend BC....I complain as much as anyone, but in this case, anyone who has an open mind, and truly understands everything about why and when plays are called... should be able to see that "the call" wasn't as bad as the result.

 
My point is that, at that point in the game, with that field postition, the risk outweighed the reward. It was a poor decision regardless of whether Shanle had got the first down.

 
I can't argue with that...... I agree with you Washusker...... Like I said, I wouldn't have called it.....but I underatnd "why" he did call it....

 
HANC, I appreciate your comments and hopefully they find their way with some of the passionate fans hear.

However, I am a coach also O-Line and O Coordinator and not saying my way is the best but in games like that you play field position and ball control till you and your players can (hopefully) get in a groove.

 
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MCAT....... Once again, I totally agree with you !!! In all most of my post on this topic, I have stated that I would NOT have called this play... As a coach, like you, I would have played it safe and tried to gain field position and regain the momentum...

I just wanted to point out that I understnd WHY BC made the call.... I don't agree with it, but the call wasn't a complete bone-head call.... as some posters seem to think.

 
MCAT800 said:
HANC, I appreciate your comments and hopefully they find their way with some of the passionate fans hear.

However, I am a coach also O-Line and O Coordinator and not saying my way is the best but in games like that you play field position and ball control till you and your players can (hopefully) get in a groove.
Click to expand...

HANC, isn't it true that you actually are Bill Callahan? How can you defend that punt call? We're not playing Pop Warner here. We were on our 30 yard line. Name me one NFL coach that is going to try a fake punt in the second quarter when their D is dominating the game. That's why you're not coaching in the NFL anymore Billy.

 
Oh I understood what you were saying and meant, and didn't mean to say that you thought it was a great call.

Just giving my 2 cents, but hey BC is the Div 1 coach not me.

 
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