When Did A Blackshirt Become A White Flag?

Hey Nebraska football fans! Remember the Blackshirts? Remember when the Huskers offense would sputter or was one-dimensional and the defense, better known as the Blackshirts, kept us in games? Remember when opposing teams that had Nebraska outmatched still spoke about how much respect they had for the Nebraska D?

Well, those days are officially gone. They've probably been gone for years now, but last Saturday's skin-of-their-teeth win over Ball State put the final nail in the coffin. The fear and respect are gone, because Nebraska no longer deserves it. I witnessed this first hand this last Saturday as Max and I sat in Memorial Stadium and watched Ball State score 40 points and rack up 610 yards of total offense against Nebraska. Those 610 yards are the fourth-most ever against Nebraska and the most by a Husker opponent since Washington had 618 yards in 1991. Ball state had less offense against Navy (539 yards) and that game went into overtime!

This marked the second game in a row the defense allowed their opponents to score at least 40 points. This by itself is an appalling statistic, but it gets worse: this is the first time ever, since it was built in 1923, that this has happened in Memorial Stadium. Granted, the previous game was a loss to USC, who is a legitimate National Title contender, but Ball State? USC was ranked number 1 when they came to Lincoln, Ball State was 78. If ever a win felt like a loss, then this was it. When new Athletic Director Steve Pederson came in and fired Frank Solich, he said: "I refuse to let the program gravitate into mediocrity." Right now Husker fans would be happy with mediocrity as far as the defense goes, because right now, it's worse than mediocre. Right now, it stinks out loud.

So what happened to the Blackshirts? Is it the coaching or is it talent? Well, according to Rivals.com Steve Octavien, Zach Potter, Ndamukong Suh, Bo Ruud, Cortney Grixby, Phillip Dillard, Armando Murillo, Larry Asante, and Rickey Thenarse were all 4-star recruits. Zach Bowman and Andre Jones were 5-star recruits. So that means either everyone who evaluates talent for college football are idiots, or Nebraska's coaching stinks. I'm leaning towards believing that Nebraska's coaching stinks. And I lay the blame solely on the shoulders of Defensive Coordinator Kevin Cosgrove.

Want more evidence of Cosgrove's ineptitude? Well, first let's step back to 2002. In Craig Bohl's third and final year as defensive coordinator the Huskers went 7-7 and allowed an average of 23.9 points per game. The following year, Head Coach Frank Solich replaced Bohl with Bo Pelini and the Huskers went 10-3, allowing an average of just 14.3 points per game. Not only that, but they posted 4 games where they allowed no touchdowns, 2 of which were shutouts. When Steve Pederson cleaned house the next year for the 2004 season and Head Coach Bill Callahan replaced Pelini with Kevin Cosgrove, the Huskers went 5-6 and allowed an average of 27 points per game. Now, that's probably not exactly fair, as Callahan's offense did Cosgrove few favors, but still... 27 points!

Still, you could look at Cosgrove's first year as an aberration, growing pains if you will, as a football program transforms itself into something different. And I've tried to be patient, to cut these guys some slack. But just as Callahan's offense is finally starting to come together, the defense is moving in reverse. Husker fans came to hate Craig Bohl, since it was during his 3 seasons as defensive coordinator the Blackshirts began their descent into mediocrity. From 2000-2002 the Huskers were 28-11, giving up an average of 20.2 points per game. Everybody in Nebraska was happy to see him go, and for one year it looked like things were back to normal under Bo Pelini. Unfortunately, it turned out that Pelini's single season as defensive coordinator was the aberration. After he was replaced by Cosgrove, the Huskers went just 25-16 over his first 3 seasons and gave up an average of 22.1 points per game. Now, again, I might be able to overlook those statistics as the offense wasn't always giving the defense much of a chance to catch their breath, but that's no longer the case. When the offense is able to put up 552 yards of offense on an opponent, as the Huskers did against Ball State, that should be enough to result in a blow-out. Instead, it meant a 1 point victory that needed a missed field goal to seal the win. I never thought that I'd miss Craig Bohl, but Lord help me, I'm starting to.

Still not convinced that Cosgrove is the problem? Try taking a look at his record at his previous job as defensive coordinator for Wisconsin. In Cosgrove's 9 years at Wisconsin the defense gave up an average of 21 points a game. From 1995 through the 2003 season, they went 70-41, a winning percentage of 63%. The three years after Cosgrove left Wisconsin's D gave up an average of just 17 points a game and had a record of 31-7, an 82% winning percentage. To be fair, some of the credit for Wisconsin's recent success belongs to their offense, but don't forget that while Cosgrove coached for Wisconsin during the 1998 and 1999 seasons the offense had Ron Dayne, one of the best running backs in college football history and the NCAA's all-time leading rusher. Incidentally, Bret Bielema, the man who replaced Cosgrove as defensive coordinator for Wisconsin, is now their head coach. Wisconsin is currently undefeated and ranked #9 in the country.

So, what's the solution? Ever since Pederson brought in Callahan and his staff, there have been calls for both of them to be fired. But I don't think that's the answer, and actually I have to say that I think that Nebraska's offense continues to improve under Callahan. Besides, even if I did want Callahan gone, he just signed a three-year contract extension that will keep him as head coach through the 2011 season. So, it looks like we're stuck with him for a while. But Kevin Cosgrove is a different story. All of Callahan's assistants, including Cosgrove, are on rolling one-year deals. Nothing is guaranteed for them. So, if Steve Pederson comes to Bill Callahan and says changes need to be made on defense, Callahan would have little choice but to implement them.

Now, I'm not saying Cosgrove should be let go today. Letting a coach go during a season is just insane. I wasn't for it when they fired Frank Solich before the Alamo Bowl, and I'm not for it now. But at the very least, Cosgrove should give the job of coaching the linebackers to someone else. Don't get me wrong, Cosgrove deserves a chance to right the ship, because two games don't make an entire season, just ask Michigan. After becoming the first ever ranked Division I-A school to lose to a Division I-AA with its loss to Appalachian State, then losing the following week to Oregon, Michigan bounced back and shut out Notre Dame last week and beat #10 Penn State this week. So, anything's possible, but if the Nebraska defense doesn't improve over the rest of the season, then it's time to give Cosgrove a pink slip.

Let me be clear, it's nothing personal and I don't hate Kevin Cosgrove, I just want my Blackshirts back. If Cosgrove manages to transform his defense into one that can at least win the Big XII North, I'll leave the guy alone. And if Cosgrove can somehow resurrect the Blackshirts and return them to the level they played at just 4 years ago, I'll be a fan for life. But, considering the mountain of evidence pointing towards his inability to coach, I'm not holding out much hope.

Right now, the best I can hope for is that the Cornhuskers can keep scoring a lot of points, because if not, it's going to be a loooong season.