It is official.  The "End Times" are upon us.  Two of the Four Horsemen are wearing the school colors of Kansas and Missouri.  Quick!!  Hide the women and children!   Slaughter and store the pets for food.  There is something horribly bad going on and I don't think the Space-Time Continuum of our universe can contain the magnitude of the absurdity of it all!!! 

I don’t know how many of you remember, but I wrote a blog about how I thought the Big 12 North was the best division in college football.  My post was supposed to be a homeristic view of how ridiculous some of the conference cheerleaders sound after just a few games in the book.  A mild satire, if you will, with a bit of seriousness.  It was not supposed to be taken 100% serious.  Someone should have informed Kansas and Mizzou that I did not really mean for anyone to take my post to heart. 

The Big 12 North is the best division in college football.  At this late stage in the season, all teams have been road tested and tested at home.  There have been times where the outlook o####ame was in question and a team had to dig deep to find a way to win.  Missouri has only lost one game, much like LSU, Oregon, West Virginia, and Arizona State.  Missouri’s loss was to a team that has been in the top-10 all year.  All Kansas has done is put up gaudy numbers and won every single game.  I don’t care how bad Texas A&M is, College Station is a tough place to pull out a victory for a visiting team.   

FACT:  As of right now and for at least until the weeks end, the supposedly weak Big 12 Conference has three (3) top 10 teams in the BCS.  (Kansas – #4, Oklahoma – #5, Missouri – #6) Hmm.  That is interesting.  Two (2) of these teams are in the Big 12 North.  I remember seeing polls comparing conferences to one another and the Big 12 was 4th behind the SEC, PAC-10, and Big 10.  How did this anomaly come about?  How could the powers at be allow this kind of travesty? 

No one, and I mean no one, saw Kansas starting the season 9-0.  I will admit that even after they were 6-0 I had my doubts about their legitimacy.  The schedule the Jayhawks played left much to be desired for true competition.  Although, the manner in which they dominated these lesser teams made people start saying “maybe.”  Maybe they are good this year.  How good is this year’s batch of Jayhawks?  Good enough to be a legitimate top 10.  Good enough to make Oklahoma work for this year’s Big 12 title.  Good enough to put up 76 on a division 1-A team.  (Ok that maybe stretching it a bit; Nebraska’s defense is playing more like a preseason NBA team’s defense.) 

Where are the chinks in the mighty KU armor?  There are not any.  Some may look at this Nebraska game as a poor defensive showing.  Don’t believe that for a second.  Nebraska had it’s best showing on offense in years.  On the offensive side of the ball, Nebraska rallied around the new starting quarterback Joe Ganz.   I won’t even get started.  That would be an entirely different blog.  KU has 2 very good running backs, a quarterback that doesn’t make mistakes, a receiver corp. that would improve all but just a handful of offenses, and a rock solid defense. 

Missouri has been on the verge of having a breakout season for more than just a few years.  They have always been held back by the same thing, themselves.  Coach Pinkel has seemed to finally clear out all of the sel####oubt and insecurities of his team and he has them playing lights out at the right time.  This Missouri team should scare anyone who is on the field with them.  Chase Daniel is the real deal.  We have all known that for a number of weeks.  That is old news.  Hot off the press!!!!  Extra!! Extra!!  Missouri’s defense is ready to play football now. 

Mizzou’s defense was the subject to many a criticism.  “Was” is the important word here.  When the Tigers traveled down to Lubbock to face the high flying offense of the Texas Tech Red Raiders I was expecting an over/under of at least a 100.  Missouri held that juggernaut of offense to 10 points.  10 points!!  I was sold on the effectiveness of the Tiger defense ever since. 

Now, what does the future hold for the mighty Big 12 North?  Kansas and Mizzou play at Arrowhead on November 24th.  Before either one of these teams can begin to think about that match-up of Big 12 North titans, they each have 2 more games. 

Kansas has to play an improving Oklahoma State team that lost a heartbreaker against Texas last week.  This Cowboy team will certainly test the Kansas defense with a high powered, balanced offensive attack.  This talented OSU team seems to have the same problem Mizzou has had over the last few years.  They seem to beat themselves.  Unlike past Mizzou teams, OSU seems to start off weak and get stronger as the year goes on. Kansas will have another chance to show the country that they belong in the top-5.  This game is in Stillwater.  The next week, Kansas hosts the flailing Iowa State Cyclones.  This game would have “trap game” written all over it except Iowa State is the only team worse than Nebraska in the North.  (That hurt to say)

Mizzou has a little tougher road to follow.  The Tigers host aTm and travel to Manhattan to play Kansas State.  Mizzou will be the heavy favorite in each game.  In order to have a realistic shot at taking the Big 12 North crown, they have to win both of these games. 

Is Callahan getting a raw deal?  He has stated that he is not going to step down.  The new AD has said that he will not fire Callahan before the end of the season.  Ok.  So my feeble, little mind can at least put 1 and 1 together.  Callahan is, and will be, the head coach for Nebraska until the end of this season.

Is there a snowball’s chance in hell he can save his job? 

What if the impossible happens?  Nebraska runs the table.  Will that save Callahan’s job?  Is Osborne waiting until the end of the season so that Callahan can show improvement?  Is Osborne going to conduct interviews and read resumes until the day after Thanksgiving?

After a short 4 years at the helm, Callahan has managed to divide the Husker Nation like no one else before him.  Yes, even Lawrence Phillips did not fracture the fans and boosters as badly as Coach Callahan.  The once mighty Cornhuskers are a paper Mache shell of themselves.

It hasn’t been all bad.  The Huskers did win the Big 12 North during a down year for the division.  There is a wealth of “talent” coming into Lincoln.  According to Rivals.com, Nebraska has had much better recruiting classes since the Callahan regime.

Frank Solich had a very bad year by Husker standards (7-7).  He was seemingly given another shot to improve.  Solich cleaned his house so to speak.  Craig Bohl was the defensive coordinator and the biggest causality of the Solich regime.  Bohl was replaced by everyone’s favorite pasta dish, the Bo Pelini Alfredo.  That same 7-7 team went 9-3 the next year.  Solich was canned.  It would have seemed to come to light that the decision to fire Solich was made before the first snap of the ball of that 9-3 season.

Does Callahan deserve a chance to save his job?  Has it been predetermined that Osborne will hand Callahan a pink slip?

Tom Osborne is back at the University of Nebraska as the interim AD.  Who would have thought it?  At the beginning of the year, things were looking so very promising for the boys in scarlet and cream.  Somewhere between the first and second game the wheels started to go flat on our happy bus to San Antonio.  The wheels fell off after the USC game.  The bus exploded when we faced Mizzou.  I am convinced that last week was not real, it had to have been a really, really bad dream.  Speaking of dreams, did you hear that Dr Tom is coming back to UNL?

What does this mean for Nebraska football?  I think it means that a reasonably good decision will be made for a replacement for Dollar Bill Callahan.  You have to remember that the Frank Solich years were a result of T.O. selecting a head coach.  We all know how that ended up.

What is it about Dr. Tom gets everyone in Nebraska feeling excited?  What if he brings back his boy, Solich?  What if he makes a terrible choice?

Nebraskans have been at odds with one another all season up until the Mizzou game.  You had the “Callahan needs more time” guys and “The sky if falling, the sky is falling” guys.  Since Mizzou, the “sky” guys are in the fast majority.  You could almost say that the Husker Nation is united.  Bringing in Tom Osborne will, at the very least, further unite the Husker Nation.

I think it is important to point out that Tom Osborne will be on a big white horse, in front of a mountain of money, at the press conference this afternoon. 

The bloodletting has begun at Nebraska.  The first casualty of the dark days of Nebraska football ironically was the last person to fire a head coach at the university, Athletic Director Steve Pederson.  Not many tears will be shed in the Cornhusker state.  What does this mean for Nebraska football?  Maybe someone could help me understand how this will help us.  

Why fire the AD and not "Dollar" Bill Callahan?  Nebaska won a national championship in women's volleyball last year.  We have been competitive in baseball.  Why fire the AD for a bad coaching performance in football?

I have no idea what this really does, if anything, for the program right now.  I would speculate that there will be a few more houses on the market in the next couple days in Lincoln.  Callahan is Pederson’s man with the plan.  Now that Pederson is gone, the path is clear to send Callahan packing.  What coaches do you try to keep?  There have not been any bright spots to Nebraska football this year.  I would think that there will many pink slips handed out in Huskerland.  

It has not been confirmed, but I have heard that Tom Osborne will be asked to be the interim AD until a permanent can be found.  Well, well, well how the wheel keeps turning.  That just gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over.

Personally, I would like to see people in high positions that actually have long standing ties to the program.  Keep it in the family.  I don’t think you can put a price tag on loyalty.