This feels good.  I think I may have hit on something the media has missed out on reporting.  Who’s the Village #### now!

The big news coming out of Lincoln, Nebraska was that Tom Osborne named himself Interim Head Coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  It was stated that this move was made to maintain the continuity of the recruiting process for Nebraska.  Ok, I buy that, but what makes that newsworthy?  Are the media outlets trying to imply that Osborne is contemplating getting back into coaching?  At first glance, I did not see the importance of this story.

It took my feeble mind a little time to realize that the important part of this story was not printed in black and white.  The important part is that the search for a head coach is over. 

Why would Tom Osborne come home to Lincoln to recruit if he had not found a head coach?  If the deal has not been finalized, then how could he be focused on anything else?  What good is recruiting kids to a school that doesn’t have a head coach?  It does not make any sense for Osborne to be on the recruiting trail if someone had not accepted an offer to be the next head coach of the Husker Nation.

So, the question is who will be introduced as head coach and why is it not being announced immediately?

     To the best of my knowledge, the only positively confirmed interviews have been with Bo Pelini, Turner Gill, and Jim Grobe.  Let us assume that these are the only interviews that have transpired.  That will narrow down the “who” part of the question.

As far as the “why” part, we can only assume that the person who has accepted the position has some pressing obligations to wrap up before the announcement can be made.  Of the three candidates, who has pressing obligations?  Turner Gill’s team, Buffalo, is not bowl eligible and has no more games this season, so we can count him out.  Jim Grobe possibly has a bowl to prepare for, but Wake Forest’s season is over until then.  Without a game to prepare for immediately, it would seem unlikely that an announcement would not be made and an interim head coach be named for Wake Forest.  That leaves us with Bo Pelini.  He has LSU’s biggest game of the season to prepare for.  With all the trouble LSU has had in games lately, it would seem prudent to downplay and suppress any distractions this week.  Somebody should have told Les Miles that.

Your Village #### has come to the conclusion that Bo Pelini will, again, be the next head coach at Nebraska based upon logical deduction of the facts over the last week.

What happens to other colleges in the state when the premier school looks out of state for talent?  Just look at Nebraska for the answer. 

Over the last few years, the state of Nebraska has blossomed in the sport of football.  The Division 1 team, the Cornhuskers, may not have fared very well, but the rest of the state is doing just fine. 

Here is a list of the records of some of the other schools in the state.

Chadron State - Chadron, NE

2007 – 11-0 

2006 – 12-1

2005 – 4-6

2004 – 7-3

  University of Nebraska - Omaha, NE

2007 -- 10-0

2006 -- 8-3

2005 -- 8-3

2004 -- 8-3

 Nebraska Wesleyan – Lincoln, NE 

 2007 – 7-3

2006 – 7-3

2005 – 6-4

2004 – 5-5

Contrary to popular belief, there are football players in Nebraska.  California, Texas, and Florida have enough to justify the talent export of their states, but there are players in Nebraska if you look.  

http://www.cornnation.com/story/2006/12/13/22
3034/52

My case in point is a young kid by the name of Danny Woodhead.  This fantastic young man wanted nothing more than to play football at the college level.  Coming from North Platte, NE, of course he wanted to play for the Cornhuskers.  He ends up at Chadron State.  He also ends up with more than 7,555 yards rushing for his career.  Yes, that is a record.  That is the record for all divisions in the NCAA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Woodheada> 

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_
sid=10184578 

Over the bye-week that Nebraska is currently in, the Coaching staff is going to focus efforts in-state.  I wonder if this is Bill “as good as canned” Callahan’s idea or Tom Osborne’s?

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.