Many people want to point to this season's mediocre NFL draft results as some sort of indictment of Bill Callahan's recruiting. That may be...but the jury is going to be out on that for some time. This class of NFL draft picks is tough to assign to any coach, since it contained some fifth-year Frank Solich recruits. Much like the argument as to whether Callahan was able to fully develop players either... we'll see this fall just what kind of improvement these players have made, but for now, it's all speculation.
One thing is clear... there are a lot of four and five star recruits whose eligibility expired that never came close to meeting the buzz that was showered on them when they arrived in Lincoln. Were those expectations overrated, or did Callahan and company fail to develop players? Right now, I'd have to go with "all of the above."
Speaking of Billy C, Matt Hayes of the Sporting News reveals yet another juicy tidbit about the Bill Callahan Clusterfool that provides yet more insight what really happened:
Compared with where the process was last fall in Lincoln, the Huskers have made bigger strides than any team this spring. How bad was the dysfunction? Consider this anecdote:Hayes also listed Nebraska as one of his top five teams making progress this spring. Yeah, it's spring practice and it's hard to get a good read on it. But maybe it's not insane to hope for a huge improvement this fall, especially if the Clusterfool was as bad as it seems.Former coach Bill Callahan was obsessive about his offense; he made the game plan and called the plays. Sources say before the Texas game -- and at the height of Nebraska's failures -- Callahan let his assistants build the game plan and said he wouldn't call one play.
After the first series, Callahan not only called every offensive play, he called the defensive sets, too. The Huskers gave up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter and lost, 28-25.