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Title: The Death Rattle of the Callahan Era
Source: NE State Paper
URL Source: http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnew ... v/ART/2009/04/26/49f4f48734128
Published: Apr 26, 2009
Author: Samuel McKewon
Post Date: 2009-04-27 01:38:55 by Rotara
Keywords: None
Views: 163
Comments: 7

The Death Rattle of the Callahan Era

Poor draft returns prove former coach's promises were empty

by Samuel McKewon

April 26, 2009


Story image 1

Huskers.com Bill Callahan never produced the NFL Draftees his system suggested he would.


If you had any doubt – the slightest bit, doubt the size of a single fish egg – about the utter failure of the Bill Callahan era at Nebraska, this weekend should have washed it away like the tide drags abandoned crab shells out to sea.

In 2009 NFL Draft, only three members Callahan’s vaunted recruiting classes were selected. Three. San Jose State had that many. New Mexico and Abliene Christian had two. And no Huskers higher than midway through the fifth round. You might have to go back to the 1969 NFL Draft to find such a meager NU class, although the 2008 bunch is right in there.

 And the first of the 2009 picks – linebacker Cody Glenn – was stuck at fourth-string running back for much of the 2007 season, his career resurrected only by Callahan’s firing and the hiring of head coach Bo Pelini and linebackers coach Mike Ekeler, who gave Glenn a good enough crash course to eeld his skills to one of the more difficult positions on the defense.

Meanwhile, Callahan’s preferred back, Marlon Lucky, didn’t even get to be Mr. Irrelevant.

Maybe If Callahan hadn’t wasted Lucky’s first year on campus. Or burned Zach Potter’s redshirt. Or buried Joe Ganz underneath the depth chart rubble, only to be forced into giving him a shot when he was the only one left standing.

If only.

Does that mean Potter, Lucky, Ganz or others won’t play in the NFL? Of course not. There are some advantages, in fact, to becoming a priority free agent instead of a draft pick, and NFL teams sometimes use late-round draft picks on projects who flame out two weeks into training camp. NU has a number of players good enough for the NFL. They need the right fit and the right attitude, but they’ll get their chance.

What the 2009 class means is that Callahan’s pitch - which revolved around his NFL experience, around his ability to recognize talent, recruit it with fierce diligence and organization and turn it into a professional product – was akin to oceanfront property in Grand Island. His “talent” was more upside than finished product, and he and his staff didn’t take enough pains to finish it. Often, they rushed the talent into service before they were ready and snatched a crucial redshirt year away from guys like Glenn, Niles Paul and Prince Amukamara. 

Now - had Callahan landed that gilded, magic quarterback he always pined for, like Kansas State’s Josh Freeman, I don’t doubt he would have produced, consequences be damned, the kind of player Freeman became: A big, sturdy stiff with enough intelligence and arm strength to con some poor NFL franchise, like the reeling Tampa Bay Buccaneers, into drafting him.

Ron Prince ran Kansas State into the ground that way, protecting “his” QB to the point where, when KSU’s offensive line seemingly refused to block for Freeman, or Freeman temporarily lost his faculties, Prince pulled Freeman from the Nebraska game. Freeman sat on the bench, staring into dead space, while Ganz pounded the Wildcats’ defense with the zone read. Freeman walks away from Manhattan with a fat contract. Prince got his old job back at Virginia. KSU fans, meanwhile, must curse their twin presence for the next decade; that’s how quickly they ruined what Bill Snyder had built.

Callahan, forced to work with the chopped ham of Zac Taylor and Ganz, who often performed like the delectable pieces of Spanish jamon, didn’t get the Princely opportunity to sacrifice a whole team for one man.

But he did make sure Lucky got rushed through the system, Potter received dubious coaching from a recruiting mercenary, Andre Jones disappeared into the ether and Matt Slauson, who was selected this year, wasted 2007 at his “Chipotle” weight, far above where he belonged.

You may counter: Isn’t Ndamukong Suh headed for a first-day pick in 2010? Sure. Did Callahan recruit him? Yep. Callahan also left behind guys like Keith Williams, Mike McNeill, Eric Hagg, Roy Helu and Jacob Hickman. I forsee all of them being drafted in the next two years.

But Callahan hardly developed those guys. Indeed, Suh was backsliding in his last year under Kevin Cosgrove. Their draft positions will be small credit to Callahan recruiting them, and large credit to Pelini, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson (who, to be fair, is a Callahan disciple) and position coaches developing them.

Finally, coaches told Nebraska players why they were doing something. Coaches corrected mistakes on the field, instead of in a film session. Finally, players were treated like the kids they still remain, instead of cogs in a wheel. Finally, they developed the down-in, down-out technique that makes good NFL players.

You know, it’s interesting. ESPN’s Tim Griffin reviewed the NFL Draft picks of each Big 12 team since the inception of the league and NU, unbelievably, remains on top in terms of number of players drafted (59 in all), and the relative quality of those players. Although Oklahoma and Texas have dominated the Big 12 over the last seven years, Nebraska is close to both programs when it comes to players selected in the first three rounds of the draft.

It’s now been two years since any Husker was picked in the first four rounds.

Since Callahan took over in 2004, just one of his scholarship recruits, Brandon Jackson, was drafted in the top three rounds.  And Jackson left NU after his junior season in 2006, with the legitimate concern that, if he returned, he would have been buried on the depth chart like he had been the beginning of that year, when he was fourth. Behind a guy named Cody Glenn. Who, one year later, was fourth on the depth chart.

You figure it out.

See also: Glenn says suspension was for ticket scalping

Email Samuel McKewon at sam@ne.statepaper.com (1 image)

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#1. To: All (#0)

NFL DRAFT: Glenn First of Three Huskers Taken

197 views

By HuskerLocker

Blog post image

He played all of nine games at linebacker, and he spent the last month of his career at Nebraska serving a suspension.

And yet, NU's Cody Glenn flashed enough potential in that short time span to become the first Cornhusker selected in the 2009 NFL Draft. Glenn went in the fifth round, with the 158th pick to Washington. There - he'll join, aside from highly paid and highly productive London Fletcher - one of the most undistinguished linebacker corps in the league.

Overall, Nebraska had three players drafted by NFL teams. Offensive guard Matt Slauson was picked up by the New York Jets in the sixth round with the 193rd overall pick. Moribund Detroit selected tackle Lydon Murtha with the 228th pick in the seventh round.

Glenn is a 6-foot, 244 pounder who spent three years at running back, where he briefly ascended to the top the depth chart midway through the 2006 season before getting hurt on a two-yard touchdown run at Texas A&M. Glenn played sparingly in 2007, relegated by head coach Bill Callahan to fourth string behind Marlon Lucky, Roy Helu and Quentin Castille.

Glenn approached head coach Bo Pelini about switching positions before spring practice in 2008. He moved to weakside linebacker and picked up the position well enough to play nine games and make 51 tackles.

Two days after a 45-35 win over Kansas, Pelini suspended Glenn indefinitely for a violation of team rules. It turned out to be for the rest of the season. Local reports never determined the reason for Glenn suspension - Glenn told the Washington Post "I got caught up selling some tickets that I wasn't supposed to be doing." - but he remained on the team roster and appeared, with other graduated seniors, at a charity basketball game and on the sidelines Red/White Spring Game.

Glenn was tabbed by many analysts as a priority free agent.

The 6-4, 315-pound Slauson, meanwhile, will reunite with former NU head coach Bill Callahan, the Jets’ offensive line and associate head coach. It was Callahan who offered Slauson the chance at a scholarship out of an Air Force preparatory school when Colorado wouldn’t take the plunge.

At 6-7, 306, Murtha wowed scouts with impressive physical test scores at NFL Combine, which helped calm fears about an up-and-down career at Nebraska that included two nagging injuries. His new team, the Lions, are sorely in need of a solid offensive line to protect No. 1 overall pick, Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford, who is destined to start the first game for Detroit next fall.

Potential draftees Zach Potter, Marlon Lucky, Joe Ganz, Nate Swift and others were not selected.


Ganz signed a free agent contract with Tampa Bay, which drafted Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman with its first-round selection. Ganz twice outdueled Freeman in NU wins in 2007 and 2008. Potter signed a free agent contract with the Jets, while Lucky signed with the Cincinnati Bengals. Swift signed with Denver and Todd Peterson signed with Jacksonville.


"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

Rotara  posted on  2009-04-27   1:42:33 ET  (1 image) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Jethro Tull, All (#0)

bill callahan

Piss be upon him


"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

Rotara  posted on  2009-04-27   1:49:06 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: All (#0)

Or buried Joe Ganz underneath the depth chart rubble, only to be forced into giving him a shot when he was the only one left standing.

I predict that the Mighty Joey Ganz will be an NFL QB longer than callasham is an NFL coach !

Feh !!

Pitooey !


"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

Rotara  posted on  2009-04-27   2:02:45 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Rotara (#0)

...akin to oceanfront property in Grand Island.

Only in Nebraska would a landlocked yuppie prairie town be named Grand Island.

Well, this article is enough jock-sniffing to last me for the next few years anyway.

TooConservative  posted on  2009-04-27   2:13:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Rotara (#1)

Glenn went in the fifth round, with the 158th pick to Washington.

The Deadskins?.. The poor guy..

Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies

"Don't Tread on Me", originally a war cry of Benjamin Franklin during America's fight for independence, has come to symbolize the American spirit. It first appeared on the Gadsen flag (named for and by General Christopher Gadsen) which featured the slogan below a coiled rattlesnake that was ready to attack. The snake (along with the slogan) came to symbolize America as an animal that would never strike first, but when provoked, would never give in. Today, it also symbolizes and celebrates personal independence and perseverance.

Refinersfire  posted on  2009-04-27   2:15:17 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: TooConservative (#4)

Well, this article is enough jock-sniffing to last me for the next few years anyway.

Not me.. I am still watching the Ravens Board, to see who else we sign..

Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies

"Don't Tread on Me", originally a war cry of Benjamin Franklin during America's fight for independence, has come to symbolize the American spirit. It first appeared on the Gadsen flag (named for and by General Christopher Gadsen) which featured the slogan below a coiled rattlesnake that was ready to attack. The snake (along with the slogan) came to symbolize America as an animal that would never strike first, but when provoked, would never give in. Today, it also symbolizes and celebrates personal independence and perseverance.

Refinersfire  posted on  2009-04-27   2:16:36 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Refinersfire (#6)

Not me.. I am still watching the Ravens Board, to see who else we sign..

Is that another Cornhuskery thing? I find all that stuff very confusing.

TooConservative  posted on  2009-04-27   2:27:09 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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