Troy Walters
- Thread starter GBRforLife1
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I mean our WR were pretty horrible last year. But no, Frost is ultimately to blame for everything. He’s arguably the worst HC in the Big Ten.
I don’t think Troy ever had much interest in coming to Nebraska to begin with. He reached a point where he wasn’t growing because Frost wouldn’t let him call the plays and staying here with our sucky record would have hurt his resume.
he was canned. He didn't want to recruit and was looking for a way out from the day he got to Nebraska.
It's our fault for running off Callahan. IF Tom would have told him to fire Cosgrove and let him put together a better defensive staff (which he happily would have done) we would have won a lot more games over the past 13 years.
Nope. He asked Tom if he wanted him to fire Cosgrove. Tom said that. I've heard Tom say two different versions of his answer to Callahan. One was, he simply said no. The other was "I told him I would never tell him to fire one of his assistants". IF Tom had said, "I think it's in your best interest to fire him", he would have done it 5 minutes later. Callahan knew it needed to be done at that point.
Did Tom consider hiring anyone other than Pelini? Or was Pelini his golden goose?
He had 3 others on the short list.
Turner Gill
Paul Johnson who coached Georgia Tech
And someone else who was coaching Wake Forrest can’t remember his name..
Grobe insisted on bringing his whole staff and Tom actually liked Callahan's offensive staff for the most part. That's one of the things that was so short sided by Tom. He should have kept Callahan, saved NU millions in a buyout and won a lot more games without the Pelini drama. Tom could have smoothed things over with the football alums and made it work much better than he ever did with Pelini. I guarantee you that Bo called Tom a lot worse things than a "crusty old f###".
From a November 24, 2007 ESPN article:
"Osborne said he never asked Callahan to fire Cosgrove or any other assistants in order to save his own job. 'The head coach is responsible for the defense and kicking game and the whole deal,' Osborne said. 'That's why you're the head coach. You're responsible for hiring those people, so I was not going to tell Bill Callahan who he had to keep and who he had to let go. Bill Callahan is where the buck stops.'"
https://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=3125379
There were others, but it was always Pelinis job if he wanted it. Tom really liked Shawn Watson, understandably so, and when Bo said he would be open to suggestions on assistants that basically sealed the deal.
Pederson more than Bill but had angered a lot of Tom's former players by cutting access to practice. Too many former players were trying to coach from the sidelines and were interfering especially with the defense. I don't blame the old players for questioning the coaching on that side because in fact it was not good but it went too far. In MOST cases, a head coach like Callahan who had come close to winning the conference the year before would have had a chance to adjust his staff.
Tom did it with his staff at times. Tom's main mission when he got hired was to can Callahan and put people with ties to the program back in charge. He picked the wrong guy. He liked Watson.
Yep you’re right. I know some guys that played between the Solich and Callahan years so I lost my intel after 2005. What you said about cutting off access is also what I was told. That 2007 season will always be the biggest mystery in my mind. How did we get so bad and how did teams like Missouri and Kansas do so well. Mind blowing.
Mizzou and KU both had QBs as I recall. Both of those guys played in the NFL I think. I had a family member very close to the program back then. He claimed that there were a couple of defensive players who had older brothers who had played for Tom and Frank on defense. Supposedly those older brothers were undermining how or what Cosgrove was coaching. It was a revolt largely led by a couple of younger brothers of former players from what he said. Don't get me wrong. I think Cosgrove was a mediocre coordinator at best, but some of it was outside influence damaging morale.
On top of that, Cosgrove didn't pick his defensive assistants. Pederson insisted on some of those guys like Elmo because of their recruiting reputation. The defensive staff was largely a mishmash of misfits.
Thousand times yes. Callahan was bringing in studs and wasn't allowed to adjust his coaching to college ball. Tom was butthurt and would never allow it to happen.
Callahan's last year was about the same as Riley's last year. By the end of the year, there wasn't even a glimmer of hope that things would improve. Both had to go.
Many of those issues were because of a certian someone meddling whose name won't be mentioned. Notice how every coach is failing miserably.....
The hope with Callahan was the roster. He had a ton of future NFL players on that roster and he would have brought in more. The problem as Tom noted was not the offense, It was the defense and the fact that Steve Pederson hired Callahan. Callahan is a very good coach, extremely organized and was a tremendous recruiter. He didn't deal well with football alums though or some of the media.
TO was an outstanding coach, but below average AD. When you look at an overall job, Barry Alvarez didn’t hit the heights of TO as a coach, but has done one hell of a job taking the old Nebraska identity to Wisconsin football and excelling from coaching through AD. Don’t care for the guy at all, but you cannot argue with his success.
2007 class was slated to be the best class in our history. Guys like Blain Gabbert, Travis Lewis, Gray kid that went to ND, a few OL as well that went elsewhere.
Ironically the guy who brags about getting Gabbert to de-commit is Joe Ganz. He got in a fight with him on Gabbert's last visit.
I don't remember what Ganz said it was about but I think the real reason was that Ganz knew he wouldn't play if Gabbert made it to Lincoln. It was really weird when I heard him tell that story in an interview. It got buried pretty quickly. I had been a big Joe Ganz booster and fan until I heard him relive that moment in his life. Kid was a gamer.
I think Travis Lewis was the year before when he played Nebraska and went to Oklahoma.
But you're right. Other than Gabbert & Grey we had Bryce Givens, Doug Rippy, Trevor Robinson, Dan Hoch & Shaun Mohler. I think we had a great shot at Riley Reiff too? I could be wrong on that.
I may be wrong, but I really think that was about Josh Freeman and not Gabbert.
