A Q&A with Bill Callahan

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BY JOHN MABRY/ Lincoln Journal Star

It's been exactly one month since Bill Callahan took over as Nebraska's head football coach. And what a month it's been.

Callahan has put together a coaching staff (with one spot remaining) and a recruiting class.

He's announced plans to install the West Coast offense and reduce the number of walk-ons in the program.

He's also had to deal with a couple of off-field incidents, the latest involving sophomore offensive lineman Richie Incognito, who allegedly assaulted three people at a party early Saturday morning.

It all comes with the territory.

Right now, that territory is covered with 20 inches of snow. No, Callahan is no longer in the Bay Area, where he was dismissed by owner Al Davis one year after leading the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl.

In case you were wondering, Callahan does not own a snowblower. That particular power tool was sold when the Callahan family left Madison, Wis., 10 years ago.

Not that it matters these days. Callahan is basically living in his office at Memorial Stadium with occasional visits to Embassy Suites for a nap and a meal. His wife, Valerie, and their children won't be moving to Lincoln until June.

Monday night, he took some time out of his schedule to discuss a wide variety of topics.

This is a condensed version of the interview. For more, visit www.journalstar.com.

How is hotel life treating you?

"Great. The Embassy Suites has been great. It's really good. The people over there have been really friendly. They've broken their back to do anything. It's convenient. I'm two blocks away from the stadium. I can jump downstairs and have breakfast early in the morning and then get over here and work all day, and take a short trip home.

"You know, Imiss my family. I think that's true in anybody's transition. I've got three children back there and one at UCLA. You want to be home. This is going to be a process, you know, a transition because our family's not going to be out here until June."

What's the typical work day?

"It's an early rise. I'm not putting in the type of hours I did in Oakland during the in-season, but I'll probably be moving in that direction as we move forward.

"I'm trying to still decompress from an NFL season and trying to stay focused on this situation. I'm trying to be smart about how we work, try to be as efficient as we can. We're reaching that. We're getting into a rhythm. Now that we're off the road and recruiting's ended I think that transition's going to happen smoother as we proceed along."

Is (son)Brian going to be wearing a Husker uniform?

"Ithink it's safe to say no. He's not going to be doing that."

The hiring process happened so fast. Take us through that.

"There were phone conversations through that period of time until Iarrived here in Lincoln. There was just a common dialogue that occurs in terms of interest and involvement and just general philosophies.

"I had an offer to go to the New York Giants with Tom Coughlin. Ihad an offer to go to Tampa Bay with Jon (Gruden), and there were some other things on the table. Ihad to move rather quickly in terms of what Iwas going to do in terms of my involvement here because in the National Football League, with the positions that came open, it's very much like musical chairs, and you better have a chair when the music stops.

"Ihad some options. I was fortunate to have those things in the fire. Of course, when this came up, it just captured me. This is something Iwanted to do, something I went hard at and investigated in a short period of time."

Was there one person or one thing that sold you on Nebraska?

"Barry Alvarez, because he played here. He had such great ties and loyalties to the program, had always envisioned himself being the head coach here possibly someday. He modeled the Wisconsin program after what he had learned under (Bob) Devaney here. When he went to Wisconsin, the way he treated players, the way he went about his philosophy was very much Nebraska-like. So I learned about that during my tenure at Wisconsin.

"I coached Nebraska kids throughout my career, you know, with (Adam) Treu and (John) Parrella and (Eric) Johnson being on the Raider roster. I would sit down and visit with those guys and see how their college career went and what was going on, what they liked and enjoyed about their experience. So I got pretty good insight into the program.

"I talked to Adam more so about it because Ihad coached him as an offensive line coach and Ilearned about the background and the environment here."

Bo Pelini developed a strong following here in just a month as interim head coach. Was there any way that you could have seen him sticking around as defensive coordinator?

"I don't want to get into that. I know that Bo came from the outside. He came from the Packer organization. He had a pro background. A lot of things he did, Iliked. But there are a lot of things Isee in Kevin (Cosgrove's) favor, that Ihave very strong feelings about. So when that decision came down, I wanted to implement our style of offense, our style of defense, bringing the people that support that style and philosophy.

"(Pelini) is an excellent coach. He's excellent in a lot of ways, but I wanted to make sure Icould bring in a staff that would adhere to what Iwanted to get done philosophically."

You have a strong reputation on offense. What are your thoughts on defense and what Kevin's going to do, and how involved will you be in that?

"I'll be very much involved. Ihave an overview of what we want to get accomplished. He knows my feelings philosophically, what Iwant to get done on the field. I want to be able to stop the run first and foremost. I want to be able to put players in position to make plays. I think that's the key in any system, which they had great success with a year ago.

"Ithink there are a lot of similarities in what they did a year ago, but Ifeel very strong about what we're bringing to the platform as far as our fundamentals, our techniques, our experience. I think both Kevin and Phil Elmassian and John (Blake) and Bill Busch, we bring a different flavor to the defense. It will still be aggressive. It will still be physical. It will still be very fundamental.

"Ijust want to keep that tradition of the Blackshirts alive."

Can you put in nutshell form what fans are going to see with the West Coast offense?

"Ithink they're going to see a variety of things, but Idon't want to ever lose sight of the fact that we will do what will allow us to win. There's tremendous flexibility, running the football, throwing the football, and emphasizing either one.

"We'd like to open it up more. We'd like to predicate it on our personnel, what we're able to install and accomplish and get inserted for the players.

"I want to be very aggressive in that format. It's going to take some time because it's a balancing act right now. In order to get the run aspect accomplished and solidified and executed, you also have to have balance in terms of your protection, your throwing ability and route running. There's a lot of things to balance up in a very short period of time.

"In conclusion, for the spring, we'll see the basic core package of those core elements. We're not going to see the long-range plan yet because we're minimized by the days of practice. So we'll try to get as much as we can in the spring and try to be prepared as we go into the fall."

After you signed three quarterbacks last week, did Joe Dailey come in to ask you where he stood?

"Joe is very much a part of this. He will compete for the starting position. But futuristically, as we move on, we've got to be able to have competition and depth and players who have been in systems like this, in terms of the West Coast, so guys can make the transition, and they can make it easily and readily.

"But Joe's status, as far as I'm concerned, has not changed. He'll vie for the starting position. I've got tremendous confidence in him."

The deal over the weekend with Richie Incognito and Grant Miller (both cited for assault). Any thoughts on it, any decisions made?

"My initial reaction is I'm going to look at the judicial system first and see how they respond to that. I've called and talked to both players and heard their sides of the story and their version. I'm just going to be patient in terms of how this is going to play out and then I'm going to make a decision in terms of our own team discipline. But there will be a measure of discipline."

In general, what are some of the rules these players are going to have to abide by?

"Very simple. Idon't have a lot of rules, but the rules I have will be enforced. There's just three general rules: be on time, do the right thing and work hard.

"Essentially, you can put anything in our philosophy under those guidelines and it will hold up. Ifeel strong about the discipline of this program. I'm disappointed to see what has occurred over the weekend. It's something I personally don't condone, something we're not about. We'll do the best we can with the discipline of this program because we want to be known as a disciplined program. We want to be known as a program that cares about our kids, but we want to do it in the right way."

Do you have the same set of rules here as you had in the NFL?

"It's a little bit different in that the NFLis ruled by the collective bargaining agreement. It's hard to say when a person's late. It's a different set of circumstances. In the National Football League, you have the fine system that's in place. This is a little bit different in that respect."

How will you go about reducing the number of walk-ons in the program?

"I'm evaluating the winter workout program now. That's where Ijust came from today. I'm looking strongly at who has a definite chance of contributing and helping and helping us get better. I'm also looking at long-range opportunity as well.

"But Ithink very strongly about reducing the number so it's more manageable. I think you can appreciate when you have a staff of only nine coaches compared to a staff of 18 (in Oakland). It's much different. Plus, you have time restrictions. You only have 20 hours to work in a given week. You have staff limitations of nine coaches, so in order to maximize your time and get the most out of your players, it's my background to have manageable numbers.

"I don't want to take away from anybody's opportunity. I have very strong feelings about the walk-on program. I'm not abolishing it by any means. I don't want anybody to take that out of context or misconstrue what I'm saying. I'm very clear that Iwant to have the best players on the field. And in fairness to that particular player, I want to give him a good opportunity to make the team. If he doesn't have that opportunity, Idon't want to waste his time or waste ours. It's not fair to the team. It's not fair to the player.

"My own son is a walk-on, and he's gone through a lot of experiences in a very short time at UCLA, so I have tremendous respect and empathy for those guys and the effort they put into the program."

Coach Solich closed practices last season. Have you thought about access for the media and the public?

"Ihave not. My policy has normally been to keep it open during training camp. Inormally close it down (in season) just because I like the privacy of working with my team. Ijust feel more comfortable in that setting."

Ihear you keep notes from pretty much every meeting you've ever attended. Where do you keep all of those notes?

"On a computer. Ido everything on a computer."

But at some point, you had to scribble them down. What happened to all those notes?

"They're coming. They're coming."

How many notebooks are we talking about?

"I'm not bringing them all out here. I don't even want to get into that, but it's a truckload."

Do you think there's going to be a resolution to bringing Raiders assistant Jay Norvell in as offensive coordinator?

"I hope so, very soon."

Most Husker fans would probably be happy if the team was in the national title picture in three years or so. Do you work in those kinds of timetables?

"Absolutely. I put more pressure on myself than anything. We came here to win a national championship, and the sooner the better. That's the pressure. It's self-imposed in a lot of ways. It is a goal of this program. I'm going to try to do everything Ican to make that happen.

"I think we're ahead of schedule from where we started at Wisconsin. In four years, we went to the Big Ten championship (in 1993). We were 1-10 our first year."

There are some who think the Husker fan base is divided over everything that's happened in the last couple of months. What do you think your role is in trying to make sure everyone is united.

"Ithink we're taking measures toward that, going to Omaha on Thursday night and talking to the fans in Omaha and presenting our vision for the future and our vision for the program and what we're looking forward to and our goals. I think that was very positive. It was a very positive outing."

What do you see as your role in fund-raising for the NU facilities project?

"I'll do anything Ican to assist Steve (Pederson)in bringing about any contributors or any sponsors to the project.

"I think Iplay a vital role in a lot of respects because we're going to be the recipients of an outstanding facility, so I will do anything to help anybody who's interested in contributing or sponsoring a large donation to the facility because Ithink it's in the best interests of Nebraska right now."

Just looking at the plans, does it compare favorable to NFLfacilities?

"Oh better. Much better. I'm excited about the plan. You know, it's such an important aspect of recruiting. Kids these days, they want to see the best. They want to be around the best. The vision of having a facility that reflects that, it's powerful as a recruiting tool."

Do you have any heroes in coaching?

"Coach (John) Wooden stands out in my mind. When I first was named head coach of the Raiders, Ihad an opportunity that spring to go down and visit with Coach Wooden. Ithink it was May or June of 2002. I spent the day with John Wooden, and had an opportunity to sit down and visit and philosophize and discuss various things about being a head coach.

"His wisdom is phenomenal, just phenomenal. I really learned a great deal in that interview."

Can you single out the ultimate gamer you've coached?

"Jerry Rice, unequivocally."

Now I'm just going to read some names for you, and you can give me two or three words on each of them.

Jon Gruden

"Passionate. Committed. The commitment is unparalleled."

Tim Brown

"Productive."

Al Davis

"Next."

Tom Osborne

"I respect everything he's done. I remember going to clinics at the national convention and sitting down in the coaches' audience and listening to Coach Osborne speak. I would sit there, and I was so impressed because of the success he had. His demeanor of how he went about creating this program and the success he had and the approach he took with his players still lives with me."

Steve Pederson

"Creative. Creative and a visionary."

Bill Callahan

"Hard worker."

Reach John Mabry at 473-7320 or jmabry@;journalstar.com.