You're right about not showing up to win. But that's kind of a late season thing. Nebraska Coach Callahan has gotten blown out everytime he tries to call a game in the West Coast Offense like he really wants. This year's quarterback, Joe Daily, just isn't accurate enough to run that offense. Whenever they try, he throws 4-5 interceptions a game, and complete well under 50 percent of their passes. When he pulls it back and favors the running game, they've managed to at least not kill themselves, if not always win.
In my opinion, Coach Callahan is already playing for next season. Frank Solich was a good guy, and a good coach, but he couldn't keep up Osborne's talent level through his recruiting. His fate was sealed the minute the new AD was hired. Callahan was hired for one thing - recruiting. If he doesn't work out after 3 or 4 seasons, they'll can him for a better coach, but the talent level the new coach finds is expected to be competitive with OU and Texas - which Solich had lost.
It would have been nice if Callahan could have gelled with the old players, but he didn't. He'll have to build his own team through recruiting - Solich's guys aren't responding to him. And the defensive coordinator he hired - Kevin Cosgrove - is a joke. Nebraska will get better. But there are probably a few more changes coming before the OU-Nebraska game returns to what its supposed to be.
Good luck in the national title hunt. Oklahoma over USC!
I wondered what had happened -- it was the oddest called game I had ever seen and I thought we saw it all under John Blake and it was bad.
You guys will be back -- look what the Sooners went through in the 90's. Then we can have our real rivalry back!