These days are gone.....

- Just about done with this regime for Nebraska.

- After showing progress, albeit minimal in some years but nonetheless progress, this whole program, from top to bottom, has regressed to the point where I have lost all hope for this current administration. The program is in mass chaos right now.

- Getting blown out to every ranked team you play is not progress. Lacking a signature victory against a ranked opponent is not progress.

- They have yet to win a game in which they were decided underdogs. An upset victory if you will.

- They have now become the same as Iowa, Oregon State, Kansas, Texas Tech, Clemson, etc. Average teams that top out at 10-3 and a medium-level bowl, but more than likely will get you a 7-5, 8-4 season.

- They refuse to change up the defense and to accept the fact that what they're doing isn't working. Check this post-game quote from Chase Daniel and the Offensive Coordinator for Mizzou:

"I was a little bit surprised that they went just about the entire game getting pressure on us with a three-man rush," Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen said. "Obviously, it didn’t work very well. I don’t foresee Oklahoma doing that or at least making a living doing that."

Daniel was less subtle in his reaction to Nebraska’s game plan.

"They’re very stubborn," Daniel said. "Cosgrove’s a very stubborn guy. It’s always been that way. … That’s just how he is, that’s how they are. They’re a bunch of confident guys in what they do, and they felt they had the best chance doing that, so they stuck with it."

"You can’t just play one defense the whole entire game," Daniel added. "That’s like high school stuff that I faced in high school, so it’s nothing new for me."

- They continue to have faith in a defensive coordinator that has historically been average, with Wisconsin and now with Nebraska.

- They have taken every physical, imposing aspect out of their game (offensively and defensively) and now rely on trick plays, short quick passes, read and react defenses, and no running game to win games. Any kind of semblance to the physicality last seen in the early 2000's is completely gone.

- They have an AD who by all accounts is a controlling, dictator-like prick who will refuse to change things up this offseason out of sheer stubborness and refusal to admit he was wrong in hiring this current staff. In fact, they have an AD who rewarded a 24-16 coach with an extension this year. 24-16 is fine at Duke, 24-16 is not fine at Nebraska.

- Remember all of the 30 game winning streaks against teams like Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, etc? Those streaks now seem unreal. I mean really, how do you beat a conference team 30 times in a row? It really did happen.

- And now those teams beat Nebraska every other year, and in some years, embarassingly. Mighty Nebraska, the same team that had a 27 year streak of 9 win seasons, countless conference team winning streaks, 30 straight bowl games, etc, is now giving up games to has-beens. Mediocrity has set in and they are in a bad way.

- And people can bring up that other programs like Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Penn State, Michigan have similar eras of mediocrity. I don't want to hear that. That's what made Nebraska so special and dominant and amazing. They avoided eras of being average. They were always players, always had good teams, and never gave up embarassing losses. I don't want to hear that shat, Nebraska has always been the exception to every parity-driven rule/statistic.

- The days of going 60-3 over 5 years, walking into a game already up 14 points b/c of the N on your helmet, knowing you had a physical advantage in every game you played, knowing that no matter how much speed those Florida schools had, you had more, and you also had more bad asses that would hit you in the mouth and pound your asses into the ground, are gone.

- Even when Nebraska had an "off" year, it meant 9-3, 10-2 and a conference champhionship. Gone.

- It makes me wish I would have appreciated the Tom Osborne days more. I can honestly say I took them for granted. I took 10 win season for granted. I took dominance for granted. I took Osborne for granted. And now it's gone, and I dare say we'll never see an era of dominance in college football like that ever again. Not in this age of scholarship limits and parity.

- All in all, this is the most embarassed I've been as a Nebraska fan. 4 years we have been fed horse S, been told that parity, lack of athletes left by the old coaching staff, being patient while players try to grasp the complex systems, etc has been the culprit for the lack of success. It's been 4 years now, results should be shown by now.

- These are college kids, most of whom if not for football wouldn't have the brains to be in college. They are not NFL athletes, who are more mature and being paid to learn complex systems. These kids need simple, yet effective systems, they need coaching on fundamentals such as tackling and blocking, and they need to be given freedom to let their athletic ability take over. They cannot be run like an NFL team, where fundamentals take a back seat. These kids need to continue their growth in the basics, they are not near the finished products that NFL players are. This is the downside of having an ex-NFL coach.

- They don't need to be overthinking on defense, they don't need playbooks like this (yes this is an actual playbook)

They need to get back to the Bo Pelini attacking, simple defenses and the pounding, Big 10 like running of the football, and they need college coaches in there.

- I know I'm pulling a 180 on this. I supported Callahan, thought what he was doing was on the right track, thought he was still wanting to be physical on offense, and thought the defense would correct itself by firing Cosgrove and getting an attacking coordinator in here.

- But I can only take this so long. It is clear that his recruiting hasn't taken over, his system is way too complex, his defensive coordinator sucks, and they are worse off now than they were when he took over. It needs to happen. I like Callahan as a guy, I wish he could win, I don't dislike him, but it's obvious a change needs to be made.

- My prediction will be if no significant progress is made after the 2008 season, he's gone. And I'm talking a BCS bowl and a Big 12 Championship, no less. Anything less and we'll just be fooling ourselves into thinking this thing isn't mediocre. That's the bar. 5 years is enough time to turn a program around, lesser coaches (supposedly) have needed far less time. That is plenty of time to get a good gauge on this thing.

- Until then, I'll continue to watch, continue to buy their games on PPV, continue to try to make 1 road trip a year to watch them. Because I have too much pride in Nebraska I guess, I can't turn my back on them even during these crap times. I'm about the most blindly loyal sports fan there is. I take too much pride in the few teams I love. I don't ditch the wagon during tough times and start looking for the newest flavor of the month just because that's the easy thing to do.

- I stayed with Mavs during the 90's, the Rangers during this shat-filled run they're on, the Cowboys when they were terrible, and now Nebraska. I don't turn my back, too much pride in the hometown and the Motherland.


- That's about all I can muster for today.

- I've got thoughts from the weekend in LA, pics, thoughts about the Cowboys win Monday night, and some Mav's stuff, but this Nebraska thing has just about ruined my football year.

- There's no more getting around it, they're average. And considering the 40 year run of success Nebraska had and the dominance we witnessed, you can understand how hard this is for a fan to admit. What we've been avoiding admitting for 5 years, has finally been conceded. The white flag is up. They're back down with the rest of college football, and it sucks balls. It really does.