Buzz: Jets to Hire Bill Callahan as Line Coach and Running Coordinator?
Cimini notes on his blog that former Huskers coach, Bill Callahan might be someone the Jets look to hire.
Jets coach Eric Mangini interviewed former Nebraska coach Bill Callahan on Wednesday for an unspecified position on his coaching staff … Callahan’s area of expertise is the offensive line … Mangini also may be looking to create a new position, a running-game coordinator, to bolster the team’s 19th-rated rushing offense.
Cimini also writes that Callahan might be heading to the Bucs as well for a reunion with old coach Jon Gruden. R in CT had told me about this the other day, and I am intrigued by the trend of a running coordinator. The running game is something that the Jets have struggled with in the past three years, which also is worth noting were the three years since which Curtis Martin played an entire season for this team. I think that between Jones and Washington, the Jets have the talent to run the ball effectively. The line needs better coaching, so should Callahan come aboard, this would be a good thing.
8 Responses to Buzz: Jets to Hire Bill Callahan as Line Coach and Running Coordinator?
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J Roc says:
I have no confidence in Bill Callahan at all. He was horrible in Oakland, he was horrible at Nebraska. The only thing Callahan knows how to do is look surprised and either tuck his lips in or put the tips of his glasses in his mouth after the o-line gets blown up for an ensuing 10 yard loss. He’s mediocre at best. In his last two seasons as head coach in Oakland (’02-’03), the Raiders ranked 18th and 16th in rush offense respectively.
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Harlan Lachman says:
Well if Callahan is terrible he will fit right in with Tony Wise. I was going to post that no running backs coach can do much if the inept Wise is kept. There was almost no improvement shown by Mangold or Brick this year. That alone is damning for two second year players. There was little strength shown by Clement or Moore in either the run or passing game, two other guys Wise has had for two years. And the disaster at LG, at least some part of that must be attributed to the OL Coach because he had to assess the players and then deal with them.
Wise needs to go yesterday. We need a guy who can get the most out of an OL. With luck, we will have three new starters on the OL. Someone needs to coach them into a unit. It is not Wise.
Harlan
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Bent says: Wise is going to join Wannstedt at Pitt. That’s the point. Callahan (or the other rumour (sic) was Hudson Houck) would be his replacement, but fulfilling both OL coach and RB coach roles as “Running Game Coordinator”. Thus enabling Schott to concentrate more on the passing offense.
Callahan was a lousy head coach, but that’s the Peter Principle. He rose to a level at which he was incompetent…shift him back down to the level at which he performed well enough to move that far up the ladder and he should perform well.
He was a lousy fit at Nebraska because he was a running game coach and they were a school with running game heritage but west coast offense personnel. He actually didn’t do a bad job of tinkering with the offense, although it wasn’t the style he wanted to play and this season they had some incredible outputs offensively, but an awful defense.
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eric from morrisania says:
“He was a lousy fit at Nebraska because he was a running game coach and they were a school with running game heritage but west coast offense personnel.”
That couldn’t possibly be further from the truth. Callahan is a West Coast coach. He coached under Mike White and Jon Gruden, and all three men are firmly on the Bill Walsh coaching tree. At Nebraska, he tried to shoehorn a West Coast philosophy onto a triple-option run heavy personnel, not the opposite. And, those Husker teams weren’t just bad defensively, they equally sucked in both throwing and passing. Sorry, but being able to rack up a ton of yards against Nevada, Nicholls State, and Troy does not mean you’re a running guru. My parents are Nebraska fans, and they’d tell me on a constant basis that when Callahan’s Husker teams were outmanned physically, the game was over because they had no tactical or strategic way to try and even the scales.
Furthermore, I’m unimpressed by his Raiders running pedigree, as well. A huge reason why they ranked towards the top of the NFL from 1999-2001 was that Rich Gannon was a ProBowl-caliber QB who rushed for 1058 yards over those three years. Once his injuries mounted and he became a pocket passer, the Raiders rushing attack fell from the #1 unit (in 2000) to #18 and #16 in Callahan’s two years as HC. He is what he is: an offensive line coach. His lines perfomed well at Wisconsin, and with the Raiders. But he’s not a “Running Game Coordinator”, unless is QB happens to be Michael Vick. He’s a decent line coach, and nothing more. The offensive success in Oakland is as attributable to Gruden as it is to him.
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droseatwork says:
No Thanks.
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Bent says:
My bad. Thanks for the info Eric. I guess he was a lousy fit, but I had it backwards!
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Roy says:
Callahan actually did a much better job at Nebraska than people think. The talent level was extremely low at Nebraska because Frank Solich had recruited so poorly in the previous 4 seasons, putting together recruiting classes ranked at the bottom of the conference. Callahan had a near impossible task at Nebraska. He was turning a prehistoric offense into a modern WCO while playing with talent that was both (a) suited to that option offense, and (b) not that talented to begin with. At the same time, the program had fallen off so far that initially recruiting was very difficult for him. He was forced to recruit a lot of JC guys just to fill out a roster, and he needed to establish himself before he could start turning out some good recruiting classes. Nebraska made it to the Big 12 championship in just his 3rd season on the job, playing with junior and senior classes recruited by Solich that had pretty much zero talent. They had a rough start this season, because they played an extremely difficult schedule and were still dealing with a lack of talent, as this is Solich’s senior class. After the loss to USC, it was clear Osborne was coming back, and that he would fire Pederson and obviously Callahan, getting revenge for Solich’s firing. It’s hard to hold this season against Callahan, as it was an extremely difficult situation. The defense didn’t have the talent to hold up against the run against most teams, and everyone knew he was a lame duck coach at least by the end of the Missouri game. I’m a Nebraska fan who thinks Nebraska made a huge mistake, but it won’t be recognized as such because the new coach will now reap the rewards of Callahan’s labor, along with an extremely easy nonconference schedule.
I’am not one to be overly critical of Mangini, but i must confess i don’t have a lot of confidence in Callahan their is a certain arrogance about him that i do not think will mesh well here, i might be wrong but he has not been overly successful in the past. I do agree something has to change in the running game but i think it should start w/the line, maybe a old school line coach not that i know of any that are available.