Why Turner Gill will be named head coach in 18 days

Of course I haven't posted in months and what would pull me out of blog hibernation? Nebraska football of course. I would really feel like I was "piling on" or jumping on the "bash callahan" bandwagon right now except I have been saying all of this since late November of 2003. When the prince of darkness, Steve Pederson, decided to shake up the biggest football powerhouse of the last half century. You know, just cause.

I was furious, Pederson came off like a hot shot east coast CEO who had no problem dumping Solich and his staff in just five minutes. All of whom had bled husker red for decades and decades. And then to watch the horrific and embarrassing month long search where Pederson learned that nobody really wanted the job. Well except one lousy coach who had also recently become unemployed, Bill Callahan. It was like Pederson was making it up as he went, change everything, get NFL style recruits because Callahan was you know...from the NFL, get it, get it!? "This is our guy of the future", Pederson proclaimed sitting next to Callahan who looked like he would rather be eating lunch at the local Denny's "whatever you say Steve, just make sure my check clears, I could really use the cash" Callahan was probably thinking. I'm not sure if Callahan could even point Lincoln out on a map if you had asked him and this was our guy?

I never bought it, Callahan was about the 33rd guy on the list and to have Pederson sit there and tell you he was the #1 choice made you laugh. Except Pederson had already convinced the only two people he needed to, himself and Bill. I never understood the "West Coast" offense, what was so special? Football is just passing, blocking, running and catching, no matter what offense you run. The key is to exploit and execute. I just could never buy that a bunch of braniacs had all these nifty plays that were so clever, they were unstoppable. Bullshit. You could see the first season, how confused our players were. In Callahan's warped mind at night he could see each play he masterfully drew up, each one going for a perfect touchdown. But each Saturday, Huskers ran around before each snap like madmen for a quarterback scramble out of bounds for a loss or a two yard off tackle run. Things only worked in Callahan's head and he never had the ability to adapt or get his players to understand.

The biggest problem is that football stopped being fun in Lincoln. The players already under the stresses of college and football in general now had a hugely complicated playbook to learn, and one that they just never understood. Things weren't fun anymore and things haven't changed from that first year. Hell, the two middle mediocre years have to be attributed to a lousy Big 12 north. Would our record have been so positive if Missouri, Kansas and Colorado had teams in 2005 & 2006 like they do now? Doubt it. Callahan has yet to win a big game, has racked up so many negative "firsts" for the Husker dynasty, that you can't even list them all here. He is done, there is no doubt, the day after the Colorado game, T.O. will announce the news, it's a foregone conclusion.

What happens after that I feel is also a foregone conclusion as well except right now its just rumor speculation and nobody really believes it. Except they should. On Monday morning, November 26th, T.O. will stroll out in front of reporters with his old buddy by his side, Turner Gill, to announce the next football coach at Nebraska. My guess is Gill will skip the suit and tie and adorn his old red & white sideline gear. Just to remind people that he isn't just the next Husker coach, he is a Husker, period. Nobody had to show him where Lincoln was on a map, nobody had to grab a shirt and hat from the gift shop to give him to wear. "I'm good, I had some stuff in my closet" he'll probably tell them before he steps into the spotlight. You can't restore the order without someone who remembers exactly what the order looked and felt like.

I adore Tom Osborne. He IS Nebraska football, he gets it, he gets our state, our philosophy, he gets football, he gets winning, he gets character and leadership. During the 90s when the run and gun passing offense was the new sheriff is town, Osborne made guys like Spurrier and Manning look silly. "Throw the ball all over the field, go ahead, I'm going to just be over here running that old option" he'd smirk from the sideline. Perlman brought in T.O. for only one reason, to hire the next football coach at Nebraska. It's his decision and his decision alone, there will be no committee, he will make his decision and then step aside, for his work here will be done. He knows tradition is what makes Husker nation tick, he knows the players under Callahan just don't get it and that's a big problem. Osborne and the '97 team spoke and gave speeches to the current team before the Oklahoma State game, the halftime score was 38-0, apparently nobody was inspired. On his first day, T.O.'s first line of business was to reach out to former players, to stop by, be role models, help restore the order. He has already decided in his mind that he will reach out to another former player very soon.

Osborne has already said numerous times that Gill was one of the players he was the closest to during his decades on the sidelines. Gill was a great on field general who felt all the success yet heartache of the close calls in the early 80s. He was right there by T.O.'s side during the glorious 90s as quarterback coach of Frazier, Frost, and Crouch. He sucked it up and stayed on for one year for the good of the team in 2004 as receivers coach. Callahan wanted one tie to the past and Gill sacrificed and took one for the team. He's gone on to take the VERY worst coaching job in Division I, at Buffalo and is one win away this season from wracking up half the number of wins Buffalo accumulated in the seven years before him, TOTAL.

He gets it. And Osborne knows it. Gill was being groomed to take the reigns after Solich, the order was already set up in Osborne's mind. Things obviously didn't work out how he thought, but restoring the order means more than what people think it does. All you have to do is think about it, why wouldn't Osborne turn to his protege of the last 25 years. A guy who has learned everything he knows from T.O. and is proving himself to be a really great coach at a program that was THE worst in college football. The writing is on the wall, just turn the black light on and you'll see, it's there, we just have to wait 18 days. See you then.

What better way to spend a Sunday

Redneck driving range of course. Yes that's right, I may be a well adjusted city folk now, but I used to be country boy back in the day. After a surprise b-day party for my gramps earlier in the day I decided to swing by the ole farm, back up some beers, hop in the golf cart and 4-wheeler with Dub and Benno and drink beer, hit the shit out of golf balls and enjoy the view at sunset. It was simple and it was fun.

I suppose

I will start blogging again, before I get lost in the rock 'n roll and drift away. I feel like a corner has been turned and now would be as good as time as ever. I had been looking forward to SXSW for a long, long time, never really looking beyond that trip. So now that it's over, it's weird being on the other side. My SXSW recap will be coming soon as well as more frequent posts....hopefully. And now for a vomit of random thoughts:

I'm looking forward to the spring and summer in the worse way, being out at the cabin, being able to bike ride, and watching and listening to the Husker baseball season. Baseball is the one sport I actually like listening on the radio to rather than watching. Baseball is slow enough and is all about the sound to enjoy over the airwaves. My favorite moments in the coming months will be sitting out on the dock at night, sipping on jack and listening to the Husker game on the boombox, it doesn't get much better than that.

In other news, my Pacers after doing very well after their big trade, have been in an absolute chaotic free-fall, losing their last 12 of 13 games. They probably will still make the the playoffs as like the 8th seed, just because the East isn't that great, but it's just not their season and I have no idea what this off season will hold. We really need to get rid of Tinsley in a trade or trade him and future draft picks for one of the top 5 picks this summer and take a chance on a rookie.

And finally, I am ready to finally get back to the thing I truly love more than anything, filmmaking. I am ordering a new HD camera next week which will vastly improve the look of our films and am very excited about seeing what it is capable of. We haven't filmed something of our own since August of 2005 and that is way to long. We have a horror film planned this summer which I'm excited about, I want to shoot some shorts, some music videos, a documentary or two as well as another feature next year that I've been working on for a while which I feel is my absolute best stuff as a writer/creator.

So all in all, everything is great and I feel refreshed and energized, life is good and I'm looking forward to a exciting and successful year. I'll probably post about politics more as well, to try and save Wendy from my venting, (I really need to watch less news).

Drunken Journey tribute

My first concert in a long while

I have never been a concert person, I can count them on my fingers, two free Creighton concerts, two Edgefests and the occasional SOJH show. However, Monday night I will be attending my first concert in a long while at Sokol to see my favorite college band, Zebrahead. I have all their cds, with "Waste of Mind" being my sentimental favorite, I listened to that CD on my diskman (see no Ipod, this is why it's sentimental) everyday while walking to class during my freshmen year of college. "Someday" being probably one of the greatest songs ever. Twice I have missed previous concerts in the area for various stupid reasons I will not get into. Then about a year ago or so, I found out that Justin had left the band and the search to replace him, produced none other than Matty Lewis. Holy shit I thought, I know Matty! I was shocked for a while at the odds of all this taking place, but it's true.

For those who don't know what the hell I'm rambling about, I will explain. Matty was my Legion baseball coach for two summers back in high school. My favorite baseball story to tell is when he gave me the suicide squeeze sign when I was up to bat in the bottom of the last inning and the pitch was outrageously high and I had to jump and throw my bat at the ball to bunt it and it worked and we won the game and Matty ran over afterwards screaming about how that was "the coolest thing he'd ever seen". I agreed.

I probably wouldn't have ever seen him again after he stopped coaching, but after high school my first "real" film I made called "The Dean's Boys" brought me into the local Omaha music scene trying to find songs for the soundtrack. Matty was in a band called Jank 1000, we used one of their songs and they actually made a cameo in the movie too playing in the background of one of the club scenes. If you don't believe me, I still have about 100 vhs copies of that movie in a box somewhere, I'll give you one.

So in closing, this is me both bragging and also telling a really crazy and surreal true story. If you are not impressed than eff off, you are a jerkface. I think it's cool and am really looking forward to the show.

Out.

I didn't realize how badly I needed a vacation until I was on one

My trip down memomry lane has come and gone and the very fun and relaxing weekend in Lincoln I had been looking forward to has now come and gone (Tear). Baseball, boos and a shit load of matching titty and general trivia games at the bars. And of course Iggy Juice at Iguansa, Fishbowls at Duffys and Wings at the Watering Hole, mmmmm good stuff.

And now pictures, if the campus looks familiar, well you might have seen it in the NBC hit show, Tommy Lee Goes To College. Well okay, maybe it wasn't a hit, but it was cool to watch for UNL alums because it became the "Where's Tommy game?", "dude he's in Burnett Hall".


Kick ass seats for Friday nights game.

Andrews Hall, where I spent most of my film class time.


Lots of sun at Sunday's game. Huskers lost twice and won once this weekend. Suck.

My annual return to my old stomping grounds

It's time for that annual tradition that I so love since I graduated, returning to the city that I spent five adventureous years of my life in. Yes, that's right downtown Lincoln treated me well during my college years and it will forever have a fond place in my heart.

This month is quickly becoming very sentimental and meaningful. WW went off the air this past Sunday and the finale was just as hard as I expected it to be, of course my mom was drunk and crying next to me the last ten minutes so that made it worst. My cousin Benno graduated high school the same day, which I attended not just because it was my last shoot for the District video I was hired to do, but because he's my dawg. And now it's a trip down memory lane, one I have been looking forward to all spring, especially since it will also be my first vacation since Vegas (SXSW in Austin was sadly skipped this year). It will be a fun and relaxing weekend, attending Husker baseball games, eating great food, walking around campus and tearing it up on "O" street like I used to when I was a fresh 21 year old. I've said it before, but that although I thoroughly love my life right now, I really do miss the college days. In the spirit of "The Girl Next Door" which is one of my favorites, my list of UNL's "I will always remember..." days and moments.

I will always remember...

-Thirsty Thursdays. At first it was B and Adam's place, then when I turned of age, Dave and I hit the bars like clockwork. Then there was that Thursday when Scotty and I ran away from Dave after the bars closed for the night because he was puking in the street in front of the cops. "Happy Birthday dude", "It's not his birthday, it's just a thursday."

-Carrying a couch across O Street traffic to throw in the alley dumpster so that these two dumbasses who I didn't know wouldn't get arrested by the cops who told me that was the only way they wouldn't be going to jail.

-Sprinting across campus that night with Maslonka for a test we were way late for because we wrote down the wrong time. Maslonka has asthma and almost collapsed halfway there, I had to almost drag him to the hall where when we finally got there the doors were locked and I pounded on them and yelled thinking my college life was over. Oh how naive.

-Late night edit sessions in the closet turned film class editing suite on last minute film project deadlines. (The film program has a brand new building now with about a dozen editing computers in a nice big suite. Suck.)

-Film class and watching old movie classics with the man, Prof. WD. I had lots of classes with the legend of film critique and even one with Scotty and we chat about him frequently still today.

-The surreal week that was 9/11. The day itself, the Friday night at the bars that were eerily quiet, still packed, but very quiet, you'll never see them like that again. The postponed Rice game at Memorial Stadium. All of it was very strange. The world has really changed since that day, and most of it for the worst.

-My spot.

-Husker football student section, watching Dave go under when I pushed him in the fountain that is much deeper than I had anticipated, grabbing BK lunch at the union, living in the doorms, the shithole house on R St, meadow wood, the duplex, picking up boos at Osco Drug on 14th where the cashier ladies knew me by name, writing hundreds of pages of term papers, skipping 50 minute classes to get an extra game of NCAA Football in on PS2, getting stuck on the other side of the damn train when you're very late for class, fishbowls at Duffy's, and wings at the Watering Hole. Good Times.


In closing, "the juice was worth the squeeze".