The Husker Football Data Summary Page

Last update: 12/3/07

Hey Husker fans -- here's the final 2007 dataset:

team          spread    NU   Opp    Win?   vs Spr? 

NEVADA         21.0     52    10     1      21.0
Wake Forest     8.0     20    17     1      -5.0
SOUTHERN CAL   -9.5     31    49     0      -8.5
BALL ST        22.5     41    40     1     -21.5
IOWA ST        21.0     35    17     1      -3.0
Mizzou         -6.5      6    41     0     -28.5
OKIE ST         4.0     14    45     0     -35.0
TEX A&M         2.0     14    36     0     -24.0
Texas         -20.5     25    28     0      17.5
Kansas        -20.0     39    76     0     -17.0
KANS ST        -7.5     73    31     1      49.5
Colo           -3.0     51    65     0     -11.0

****************

As we mercifully close the book on the Callahan era, here are the annual
summaries since the late Osborne years:  

                       1993   1994   1995   1996   1997   1998   1999   2000
Final record:          11-1   13-0   12-0   11-2   13-0    9-4   12-1   10-2
Record vs spread:       7-4  8-4-1   10-2    7-6    6-7    4-9    8-5    5-7

Avg margin vs spread:  0.27   1.54  11.17   0.42   0.04  -5.00   1.88  -0.08  
   std dev vs spread: 10.44  12.70  13.78  20.56  18.00  15.56  15.03  18.85

                          2001   2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007
Final record:             11-2    7-7   10-3    5-6    8-4    9-5    5-7
Record vs spread:          7-6    6-7    8-5    4-6    6-5  7-4-2    3-9

Mean margin vs spread:   -3.31  -7.92  -0.77  -7.85   2.54   3.23  -5.46
Median margin vs spread:   3.5  -10.0    2.5  -7.75    1.0    3.0  -9.75
   std dev vs spread:    15.46  15.40  15.20  20.69  18.75  13.42  24.18

It's easy to see why there was such optimism back in September.  BC
was coming off his best year ever, the 2nd year in a row his team had
outperformed the spread, and he had even gotten the standard deviation
vs the spread (a surrogate for fans' antacid tablet usage) down to
Osborne-like levels.  But this year the bottom fell out, with the
median vs the spread comparable to Frank's worst year (2002), and the
gut-churning variability rising to record levels, higher than his own
(bad) first year or the first Scott Frost year (1996), which was
viewed at the time as "inconsistent".  

***************

So it's so long Bill, hello Bo.  It's hard not to be optimistic at this
point.  At his press conference yesterday, Bo said his plan for
offense "will work itself out" -- clearly he does not have Coach 
Callahan's interest in the subject!   So his choice of offensive
coordinator is obviously going to be crucial.  I think it's a great
thing that he himself will serve as defensive coordinator; that's
perhaps the main reason for hiring him, after all.   


As I was watching OU dismantle #1 (OK, for a while) Mizzou the other
night, and thinking about our own coaching situationl, I reflected on
Bob Stoops' career.  He has 6 Big 12 South titles in 9 years.  Of those 6,
he's won the playoff game 5 times (including the other night).  And he's
done it with 5 different QBs, some of whom had average arms at best
(Thompson and Hybl come to mind; I don't think any of the 5 ever
played in the NFL). His record is simply amazing; he's the next in the 
line of great OU coaches like Wilkinson and Switzer, and his teams are
just really tough to beat.  If you play in the Big 12, and you want to
win a national title, the road still goes through Norman.  If I were a UT
fan I'd be very depressed; except for a few glorious years with Vince
Young, you've had no success versus this guy.  And he's young; he'll
still be at OU when you're attending Mack Brown's retirement party.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is:  the parallels between him and
Bo Pelini.  Stoops was DC at KSU during their rise to greatness.  Then
he left and went to Florida after Tommie Frazier took them apart; they
won the national title the very next year.  Then he took over at OU
while still in his 30s.  Bo's story is similar:  he was DC at
Nebraska, then co-DC at OU, now DC at LSU, where they may well win a
national title this year.  Everywhere he's gone, his teams have
won. He and Stoops even played at the same high school in Youngstown,
Ohio (and you can still hear the eastern Ohio/western PA in his voice
-- "aht" instead of "out", etc.).

So.  If we ever get to the Big 12 Championship game again, maybe this
time we'll have a coach who can beat Bob Stoops.  Because he might
just *be* the next Bob Stoops.   :)

Stay warm during the off-season -- Cheers, Husker Brad