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Updated 4:44 AM on Saturday, October 20, 2007

Looking in the mirror

Aggies, Huskers deal with distractions

By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Staff Writer

Texas A&M will try to regain its winning touch against the once-proud Nebraska Cornhuskers, who lately have been treating opponents better than a Holiday Inn Express.

And A&M could use some TLC after a 35-7 loss at Texas Tech, the second time this season the Aggies have been blown out on the road. But that's mild compared to the free fall by the mighty Huskers, who are college football's winningest program since 1970, but this year are candidates for the Bottom 10.

Nebraska has allowed 40 points in four games for the first time in the school's 118-year history. The Cornhuskers are 104th in total defense, allowing 457 yards per game. Ball State rolled up 610 yards against Nebraska a month ago, but the Cornhuskers escaped with a 41-40 victory when Ball State missed a 55-yard field goal.

The Cornhuskers (4-3, 1-2 Big 12) weren't as fortunate the last two weeks against Missouri and Oklahoma State, getting outscored by a combined 86-20.

That leaves the Huskers, the defending North champs, in fifth place, and it was the impetus for the school to fire athletic director Steve Pederson on Monday. He was replaced by Nebraska coaching legend Tom Osborne, who is technically the interim AD but expected to determine the fate of embattled head football coach Bill Callahan.

Callahan, in his fourth year, is 26-18 overall as Nebraska's head coach and only 14-14 in the Big 12. He is 3-8 against ranked teams and has failed to beat a Top 10 team in six tries.

Osborne said Callahan's fate will be determined at season's end, but with road trips left at No. 15 Kansas and No. 19 Texas, a lot of Husker fans believe Callahan's days are numbered.

"I don't think there are any guarantees in this business, no matter where you are at or where you are coaching, especially when you are struggling," Callahan said.

A&M head coach Dennis Franchione can sympathize with Callahan. Franchione's status at A&M has been tenuous since it was reported he e-mailed a secret newsletter to a select group of boosters. He received a letter of admonishment from the university, which forwarded the results of its internal investigation to the NCAA because of possible violations. Franchione had to shut down his Web site, CoachFran.com, and A&M fired his personal assistant who ran the Web site and wrote the secret newsletter.

A&M athletic director Bill Byrne, who came from Nebraska, will review Franchione's performance at season's end. Byrne's policy is not to comment on personnel issues during the season. Franchione, whose contract runs through 2012, needs as many victories as possible before that review. He's 30-25 at A&M, including 17-18 in league play. He's 5-16 against ranked teams, 1-6 vs. Top 10 competition.

Franchione and Callahan have said they will not resign, but their status will remain a distraction for the players until it is resolved.

"We know that we need to rectify the situation on the field," Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller said. "That's how we're going to approach it. All of the administrative things and the things that are so much bigger than us will handle themselves."

The Aggie players are 2-1 since Franchione's VIP Connection became public. A&M (5-2, 2-1) is tied for the South lead with Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, but the Aggies have been outscored 69-24 in their two losses.

Last year A&M was 5-0 in the regular season away from Kyle Field, which was capped by a 12-7 victory at Texas that earned the Aggies a trip to the Holiday Bowl.

"This is the same team that was here a year ago for the most part," senior defensive end Chris Harrington said. "I don't think our confidence is gone. I think if a few plays here and there in that Tech game [go our way], I think everybody would be talking a lot different. I think we still are confident in ourselves. It's definitely humbling. It's definitely a reality check. It kinda let's us know where we're at."

Where A&M is at is facing one of the nation's toughest closing schedules with four ranked teams following the game at Nebraska, where A&M has lost five straight.

"This is an important game, and we knew that this road schedule would be a challenge, and this is one of those challenges that we have to find a way to meet," Franchione said. "And certainly Nebraska is trying to find a way to meet their challenges right now, too. Hopefully we can get a little bit better and make a few more plays and take advantage of our opportunities."

A&M will be trying to hand Nebraska its third home loss of the season, something that hasn't happened since 1968. The Huskers will sell out Memorial Stadium for the 288th straight time, looking to a crowd of 81,067 for a spark to leave the team's distractions behind.

"The big thing is to focus in and circle the wagons and close ranks and do the best you can," Callahan said. "This is a great opportunity for our football team to go out and prove itself again. I told them on Sunday, anything can happen. It's kind of a crazy, wacky season, and we never know what's going to happen. We've got all the confidence that we can go out there and pull out a win and be right back in the Big 12 North race again."

Franchione doesn't expect to see the Nebraska team that allowed OSU's Dantrell Saves to gut them for 212 yards rushing on 25 carries.

"I'm the kind of guy that's going to expect them to play a good game and expect them to play very hard and expect them to play with a lot of pride," Franchione said. "For me to expect anything different than that would be foolish on my part.

"[And] I'm expecting the same thing out of my bunch."

Both programs had high expectations. Nebraska was ranked 20th in the Associated Press preseason poll, while A&M was 25th. Neither received votes this week.

A&M hasn't been ranked in the final Top 25 since 1999, while Nebraska was unranked at season's end last year and in 2004.

"The people here at Nebraska want to win," Callahan said. "We all want to win. We want to win right now. When you don't, it hurts. It's a struggle. We're going through this as a program. There's nobody that feels more terrible about this than I do."