Outside influence

LINCOLN, Neb. -- They came -- like they always do on a Saturday afternoon in April -- to see the state of the nation. Only this time, it was different.

New coach. A really new coach. Someone who had not been weaned in Husker nation. Not Bob Devaney or Tom Osborne, two Hall of Fame coaches who forged the University of Nebraska into a program that had not seen a losing season since John F. Kennedy was president. And not Frank Solich, part of the Husker family tree, who would seem to have won enough games in six seasons (58) but who also left many wondering whether the Huskers were going in the right direction.

No, it was someone from outside the family. Someone who had not even been on Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson's list at the start of the search process because he was still coaching the Oakland Raiders.

And -- hold your breath -- it was someone who was coming to the heart of the Midwest with something called a West Coast offense, which meant in the simplest terms that passing the football was very much an option.

How much of an option was the main reason a crowd of 61,417 came to Memorial Stadium for the spring game to see just what Bill Callahan was all about.

Oh, Callahan showed them, all right. Showed them on the first play, when the Huskers came out of the huddle with receivers spread all over the field. Showed them when starting quarterback Joe Dailey, working off a play-action fake, threw downfield to tight end Matt Herian.

It didn't matter that the pass hit the turf. The crowd stood and roared. Three hours later, they were still roaring after Dailey finished with 29 completions in 48 attempts, including four touchdowns.

For perspective, consider this: The Nebraska school record for passes in a game is 42, set by David Humm in 1972.

Callahan came to Lincoln on an almost spur-of-the-moment decision. He had been fired by the Raiders a season after taking them to the Super Bowl, and he was setting up some interviews in search of a job in the NFL as an offensive coordinator.

Then Pederson, who had focused on two NFL coaches early -- Cleveland's Butch Davis and Miami's Dave Wannstedt -- had to regroup when neither was interested. Time was a factor, as the recruiting season was half over when Pederson hired Callahan in January.

Since Solich was coming off a 10-3 season and had taken the Huskers to the Bowl Championship Series title game two seasons earlier, Pederson took some heat from the Nebraska loyalists.

"Oh, yes," said Pederson, eight months later, shaking his head with a smile. "I heard from a lot of them. Still do. But it's getting better."

Pederson knows he took a gamble with the coaching change. But in an era when Oklahoma and Texas have revived their programs and Kansas State, and perhaps Missouri, are on the rise in the Big 12, there was a feeling in some circles that Nebraska needed to do something.

"We have to get past the point where it's more than wins and losses," said Pederson, who knows his future may be tied to the success of Callahan. "The record doesn't always mirror what's really happening. The coach really has to do three things: He has to coach, he has to recruit, and he has to run his program. All three things have to be strong and going in the right direction to have great success. What I didn't want to do was let us get to the point where the decision made itself."

Pederson says he sees a difference already, although the Huskers have not played a regular-season game. "I know we're recruiting well enough," he said. "I know we're coaching well. I know Bill has the program on the right track."

Without playing a game -- the Huskers open at home Saturday against Western Illinois -- Callahan says the ride thus far has been smooth.

"Being a pro coach for nine years, it's really different, dealing with the volume of rules and regulations," said Callahan, who last worked on a college staff in 1994 as an assistant to Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin. "It's been great."

Callahan said he learned from Alvarez, who played for Devaney, about Nebraska football. "The insight [Alvarez] provided me about the program enlightened me about the traditions," said Callahan. "When I was coaching [at Illinois] in the '80s, I was just in awe of what [the Huskers] looked like, how they functioned. They were a machine."

Since Osborne retired following a national championship season in 1997, the Huskers haven't been the same. Still, Nebraska won 10 games last season under Solich, and Callahan made it clear he and his staff didn't arrive thinking of themselves as know-it-alls.

"I felt coming in as an outsider, we'd have to earn their respect," said Callahan. "We didn't want to come in here pompously waving an NFL flag. I want to let them know we care about them as people first, we're concerned about them as students and as players."

Callahan asked the players -- particularly the seniors -- to give the new system a chance. "It's been interesting to watch the dynamics of the transition," he said.

The players have embraced the change. And as for any diehards who don't like the prospect of throwing the ball more times in an afternoon than the Huskers used to in a month, the feeling now is to simply deal with it.

"People have to move on," said Dailey, a New Jersey kid who came to Nebraska as an option quarterback. "The idea is still the same. It's to win games."

Senior linebacker Barrett Ruud says he sees no reason to worry. "I'm not concerned about changing the offense," he said. "I just want to see us keep winning."

Callahan, who believes the West Coast offense can provide as much punch running the football as passing it, feels the same way. It's about wins and losses, and he has made it clear that despite the change in coaches, this is not a rebuilding year in Lincoln.

"I sat down with the seniors and promised them we would do everything in our power to win a championship," said Callahan, who is aware that no Nebraska class in 40 seasons has gone through its eligibility without winning a conference championship, something this senior class has yet to achieve.

"This is not a situation where the team has been 2-10," said Callahan. "It's a situation where the team was 10-3 and it's a group you have to respect because of their performance. They have been winners."

Callahan also sees the big picture. "The state of Nebraska is unique," he said. "The fans are unparalleled in their passion. They are almost overboard, in a good way. We had a women's clinic in Football 101 here in the spring that drew 1,050 people. It had to be the largest women's clinic in the entire country. We raised about $35,000 for breast cancer. It just illustrates the passion." Callahan said the change in offense is "a change in philosophy, not a change in culture. We still believe in tradition. We'll do what we have to do to win. I consider this one of the elite programs in the country."