Nebraska Sacks Athletic Director

I'm a die-hard Nebraska Cornhusker fan. However, over the past few weeks, that's not something most Nebraskans are admitting too. It seems that there is something terribly wrong in the Cornhusker camp. In 1994 and 1995, Nebraska won back-to-back national championships, led by head coach, Tom Osborne. We were thrilled to know that we had something to be truly proud of, other than just our cows.

In 2003, the University of Nebraska hired a new athletic director named Steve Pederson. The following year, he fired then coach Frank Solich who had a 9-3 record that season. He brought in coach Bill Callahan, a former NFL coach. In 2005, the Cornhuskers ended the season with an 8-4 record, and had a 9-3 record in 2006. They won the Big 12 North, but lost both the Big 12 Conference game, and the Cotton Bowl.

At the beginning of this season, we Nebraskans were excited about a new quarterback coming into the program. Our first game was against Nevada and we won 52-10. The whole state went nuts, because we thought we were on our way back to the top. The next game was against Wake Forest and once again we won, but only by 3 points.

The third came was against the #1 team in the nation, USC. Needless to say, they beat the Cornhuskers 49-31. They came out from the gate and took over the game. Fortunately, Nebraska did manage to do a little catch up in the 4^th quarter, but it was already too late.

In the fourth game, they played against a little school, Ball State. Nebraska was favored to win, and the fans all knew that they were going to take this game without any problems. Boy, were we wrong. Though they did win, the score was 41-40. That was the second time this season that the team allowed their opponents to gain 40 points or more in a game.

In the next game, they played against #17, Missouri. There was a lot of talk about whether or not they could beat this team with all the problems they'd had in the past. It was almost painful to watch. Missouri beat the Cornhuskers like a kitchen rug. The final score was 41-6, the third time that the other team earned more than 40 points.

On October 13^th, they played against Oklahoma State. This team wasn't even ranked and weren't having a much better season than the Cornhuskers were to that point. This was a home game for the Cornhuskers, and the former head coach, Tom Osborne and the whole undefeated 1997 team were there to watch. They got stomped on their own home turf, with a final score of 45-14. It was the worst beating that the Cornhuskers had taken in their own backyard since 1958. It was also the first time in the team's 118 year history, that they allowed that many opposing teams to score 40 or more points in a season.

Then, on October 15^th, athletic director, Steve Pederson, was fired. According to reports, he wasn't asked to step down, he wasn't given the opportunity to resign, he was fired. Apparently, many of the schools biggest financial backers are beginning to step away from the table. Also, at last Saturday's game, many of the Nebraska fans began leaving in the first half of the game. Ticket sales are down, and so is school spirit and moral.

As a Nebraska fan, I'm very interested in seeing where the team is going from here. For now, Bill Callahan's job is intact. It will be up to the new athletic director as to what will happen with the football staff. Ironically, Bill Callahan has just recently signed a 5-year contract with UNL