TRADITION IN TRANSITION : Callahan was natural choice to renovate NU
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BY STEVEN M. SIPPLE / Lincoln Journal Star
Originally published Aug. 22, 2004
He has seven minutes for an interview.
Of course, the time constraint is justifiable considering it's the heart of Nebraska's preseason football camp and Bill Callahan is slightly preoccupied.
All he's trying to do is alter the landscape of an institution.
Sports writers streamed into Lincoln this week from Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Kansas City. It seems everybody wants a piece of Coach Callahan, a 5-foot-8 Chicago native who plays the lead role in one of the more intriguing subplots of the 2004 college football season.
Callahan, though, isn't much for small talk. One gets the feeling he's not much for non-football talk at all, particularly this time of year, when the clock ticks toward the Huskers' Sept. 4 opener against Western Illinois.
It's all transpired in such a blur. Fired as head coach of the NFL Oakland Raiders on Dec. 31. Hired Jan. 9 by Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson. The option-heavy Husker offense discarded, replaced by Callahan's pass-heavy West Coast system.
Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson said Friday he had heard in December, while in the midst of his one-man coaching search, that Oakland might not renew Callahan's contract.
"But I didn't give much credence to it," Pederson said.
Then, two days after Nebraska's Alamo Bowl victory over Michigan State, Pederson saw on ESPN that Callahan indeed had been fired. A few days later, with the help of a former Nebraska football staff member who is a friend of Callahan's, Pederson reached the coach, and thus the courtship began.
On Jan. 7, Callahan arrived in Lincoln and dined with Pederson and Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman.
"By the time we finished dinner, I was charged up,"Pederson said. "Then we go and tour the facilities, and everywhere we went, Bill was talking about this and selling this. He was into recruiting mode. I felt like I was the prospect, and he was talking to me about how great this was and how neat this was.
"By the end of that time, I felt really, really good about him."
Pederson's coaching search lasted 41days, and his popularity plummeted during that period. Part of fans' angst stemmed from the fact Pederson fired Frank Solich following a 9-3 regular season.
Dan Cook, a well-known Nebraska football booster from Dallas, applauds Pederson's hiring of Callahan. Cook, though, doesn't necessarily anticipate immediate success in the Callahan regime.
"I think it'll be a three-year process,"Cook said. "If it doesn't work out by then, Steve will be history."
***
It's around noon Friday. Nebraska has just completed a morning practice, but Callahan, as usual, is full of energy and ready to give you seven minutes of his time.
Callahan, 48, describes the Nebraska job as "an opportunity of a lifetime."
"It's a great situation to be at one of the elite schools in the country, and to take this program and try to maintain and improve it, and to be here for the duration of one's career - that's certainly the opportunity of a lifetime," Callahan said. "And, you know, to bring joy and excitement to these fans, that's fulfilling to me."
Callahan is told of a newspaper photograph that shows him shaking the hand of Tom Osborne, the legendary former Nebraska head coach and current congressman. The photograph, snapped Aug. 10 during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex, is poignant - the glorious past in the form of Osborne gripping the hand of the man who represents the program's future.
"I think the guy's tremendous - I mean, he's an icon," Callahan said of Osborne. "First and foremost, he's a tremendous person. And he's a great coach. He did it here in a unique fashion and style that he believes in."
Callahan has spoken to Osborne on three occasions.
"He's provided some insight as far as what Nebraska's about, the traditions of Nebraska, what it stands for, how the program operates, how he foresees the program in terms of the future," Callahan said. "Some of those things I took to heart and digested strongly and implemented."
***
You ask Husker freshman quarterback Beau Davis the question you ask everyone:What strikes you first about Callahan?
"For one thing, he's a perfectionist,"Davis said. "If you're on the field, and you're doing bad, he's going to let you know. He's straightforward with you. He wants things to go right when you're on the field."
Davis then makes a statement you hear a lot when the subject is Callahan.
"He's an offensive genius," Davis said.
Genius?That seems extreme when used to describe most anyone. Davis insists it applies in this case.
"We'll be in a meeting, and he'll come up with a couple of plays, and then he'll make other plays off of that play," Davis said.
But a lot of coaches can do that, right?
"Not every coach knows all the situations and all of the stuff going on on the defensive side of the ball, as well as the offensive side," Davis said. "Those intangibles make him a great, great coach. He just sees stuff that other people won't see on film. He'll break it down and make us better.
"It's awesome. We're learning stuff a lot of guys in college won't be learning. We're learning stuff that guys in the NFL aren't picking up until they get there. We're getting a head start."
***
Of course, not everyone thinks so highly of Callahan. When you've been around as long as Callahan - he's been coaching for 26 years - you make some enemies. Some people will question you along the way.
You've probably read or heard about Callahan's struggles in Oakland, about veteran receiver Tim Brown saying several players came close to hitting Callahan over their displeasure with how he ran the team.
It's intriguing fodder, in part, because Nebraska fans can't be sure exactly what they're getting in their new coach:The guy who led Oakland to Super Bowl XXXVII, or the one who led the Raiders to a 4-12 disaster a year later, leading to his dismissal.
Mike White watches with interest. White, who went 15-17 as Oakland's head coach from 1995-96, said coaching the Raiders is difficult in large part because owner Al Davis controls the hiring of assistants and plays a lead role in forming the final roster.
"Nebraska will be a breath of fresh air for him,"said White, who hired Callahan as an assistant at Illinois in 1980 when White was the Illini's head coach. "Bill will build on his strengths and let the guys around him do their thing, and that's usually a good formula for success."
White, now director of football administration for the Kansas City Chiefs, said head coaches generally do "a hell of a lot better job" in their second and third coaching stops. He said they come to learn what's important and what's not in producing victories.
Callahan, a career assistant before taking over as head coach at Oakland, agreed. For one, he said, his experiences with the Raiders taught him how to lead during trying times.
He thought back to 2002, when Oakland opened 4-0. Then, wham, the Raiders hit the skids, losing four straight. And suddenly they faced a game at Denver, the 500th broadcast of ABC "Monday Night Football." It was make or break time for Oakland.
"The Broncos wanted to stick a fork in our season," Callahan said, voice rising, recalling the Raiders' triumph. "You try to do what is right. Igained a lot of knowledge and insight from that experience. How to cope with a skid. How to cope with tough times. You have to tell yourself, 'They're not going to last forever.'
"If you keep your poise, and you don't flinch, and you stick with your plan, great things will happen. If you start flinching, the players will see it and they'll lose confidence in what you're doing. It can go right down in a hurry. Ilearned that in Oakland. And I don't think I would've learned that had I not been a head coach."
***
Callahan is making a bold move at Nebraska in switching from a ground-based offense to one that favors the forward pass. It becomes particularly challenging when you consider the Huskers will feature a first-year starter at quarterback and a suspect offensive line, particularly at the tackle position.
Speaking of bold moves, Pederson's decision to make a coaching change required ample courage, said Cook, the booster from Dallas.
"The easy decision would've been to do nothing,"Cook said. "The tough, gutsy move was to do what Steve did. For Nebraska to be the best, this is what Steve felt he had to do."
Plenty of people think Callahan's the right man at the right time for Nebraska. Foremost on that list may be Marv Carlson, who coached Callahan when Callahan was the starting quarterback at Illinois Benedictine College in the late 1970s.
"I'm pulling for Bill to pull it off right away,"said Carlson, who still trades phone calls and e-mails with Callahan. "I can tell you what his goal is there right away - to win a national championship."
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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