Steven M. Sipple: Trying to make sense of Huskers’ demise
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Nebraska interim athletic director Tom Osborne squinted in the glorious afternoon sun Saturday in Lawrence, Kan. He stood alone in the back of the end zone and no doubt pondered what the heck has happened to this Husker football team.
Football is fascinating for a variety of reasons. For instance, a team’s multiple moving parts, coupled with the wide range of personalities and responsibilities of players and coaches, can make it challenging to identify exactly what is going wrong at a given time.
Or maybe I just overanalyze this stuff.
At any rate, we can readily identify a few key issues that have led to Nebraska’s spiral toward a record of 4-6 overall and 1-5 in the Big 12 Conference.
Often, as time goes on, significant problems and issues continue to reveal themselves. For instance, players typically become increasingly open about discussing problems once the season ends. In other words, this won’t be our last attempt to explain Nebraska’s 2007 meltdown.
This isn’t exactly news-flash material. I offer possible reasons for the Huskers’ free fall, in part for my own sanity. I’m like a lot of others — including Bill Callahan, I presume — trying to make sense of little occurrences such as a 76-39 loss to Kansas.
At any rate, here are four core reasons that may help explain why Callahan probably soon will be again working as an NFL assistant coach:
1. Nebraska’s 49-31 loss to Southern California on Sept. 15 in Lincoln exposed the Huskers’ weaknesses on defense and dealt a blow to the team’s overall confidence.
A month after the defeat, Callahan — in some of his most telling comments of the season — acknowledged that being annihilated by USC’s offense was a “pivotal” occurrence for Nebraska. The Huskers’ front seven broke down badly, especially against the run — the Trojans averaged 11.1 yards per carry through three quarters.
“I think our confidence coming out of that game was waning, and it carried over to Ball State (which rocked Nebraska for 610 yards), and it kind of dovetailed into some other areas,” Callahan said last month.
Nebraska encountered a crisis of confidence that it never fully overcame. The Huskers became tentative on defense. They showed an obvious lack of fire and resiliency. At this point, the NU defense has degenerated into such a forlorn bunch that it’s pointless to levy further criticism.
The defensive coaches have fallen woefully short in restoring the players’ confidence and belief in the system. Hence NU’s current ranking of 112th in total defense.
2. Nebraska misses strongside linebacker Stewart Bradley and defensive linemen Adam Carriker, Jay Moore, Ola Dagunduro and Barry Cryer much more than many of us thought the Huskers would.
Consider some statistics: Carriker and Moore, the Huskers’ starting defensive ends last season, combined for 33 tackles-for-loss and 13 sacks in 2006. This season’s starters — juniors Zach Potter and Barry Turner — have produced less than half as many TFLs (15) as their predecessors and have combined for just 4½ sacks. Potter, by the way, has 11 of those TFLs. He’s been a bright spot at times.
What’s more, Dagunduro and Cryer, the Huskers’ starting interior linemen last season, combined for 19 TFLs in 2006, compared with a combined 11 this season for Ndamukong Suh (six), Kevin Dixon (two), Ty Steinkuhler (two) and Shukree Barfield (one). Amazingly, the Huskers’ top four interior d-linemen have produced a grand total of one sack this season. Ouch.
3. Poor overall team chemistry. It became apparent early in the season. Bradley and the four departed defensive linemen were strong leaders last season, and haven’t been adequately replaced in this area.
In addition, Nebraska glaringly misses the leadership of quarterback Zac Taylor, guard/center Greg Austin and fullback Dane Todd.
In some seasons, a team simply lacks a good mix of personalities. Nebraska maybe isn’t horrible chemistry-wise. But it’s average, at best. And it doesn’t help matters that the Huskers have a head coach who lacks a rally-the-troops personality. For instance, how often do you see Callahan interact with any player on the sideline other than the quarterback?
In fact, Callahan often appears as warm and cuddly as a block of concrete, while kindly defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove too often errs on the side of cuddly.
You also wonder if the dysfunction of the Steve Pederson administration filtered to the football team.
4. The offensive line generally hasn’t reached expectations, helping explain Nebraska’s slide to 72nd nationally in rushing offense (142.4) after finishing 23rd (170.5) a year ago.
So, there you have it: I’ve skimmed the surface of what has caused the Big Red ship to sink. The good news is, it’ll all be over soon and Nebraska will feature a new batch of coaches. Ah, a fresh start. The Huskers next season will return seven starters on both sides of the ball, paced by Joe Ganz, Marlon Lucky and Nate Swift on offense, and, well, let’s not go there on defense. We can do that another day.
For Nebraska fans, this is a season to be digested in small doses.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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