A little late start on this, but I hope to make it up. Arguably, this is a more intriguing match-up of parallel storylines than even the Weis-Wannstedt stuff. The difference is that Nebraska has a year’s head start.

Fellow blogpoller Struggling Joe is a Cornhusker. He and I are going to be exchanging e-mails the rest of the week talking about the game and such. He has a post of some of my answers to his questions. If any of you know why there were so many Homer Simpson themed signs in the background of College GameDay in Pittsburgh, let him know.

Here are his answers to a couple of my initial questions.

With that in mind, what is the state of Husker Nation regarding the team, expectations, feelings towards Callahan (not to mention AD Steve Pedersen)?

Well I believe the state of Husker Nation is still in the honeymoon period with Bill Callahan for sure. I think that last year was written off as a “transition” year and that no one really minded the 5-6 record as much as if Tom Osbourne or Frank Solich were to muster up a 5-6 record.

The reason why such a grace period was given to the new regime is the quality of athlete that they’re bringing in there. When’s the last time the Huskers recruited a top 5 class? I think you’d have to go back to the early to mid-nineties to find one of those. Regardless of who took over, a change had to be made. As much as I love the option, and believe me nothing gets me more excited than to watch a perfectly executed option play, it was on the way out for two reasons. 1) You can’t run the option against the really good teams anymore because they have too much speed and 2) kids were starting to see that being in the option offense wasn’t going to get them to the NFL. So even though the Husker program was putting up a 9-3 record in Frank Solich’s last year, it wasn’t going anywhere. They could beat up on the Baylor’s of the world but when they got matched up with Texas or Oklahoma the running game was bein nullified because of the speed and the lack of a threat of a passing game. So they needed to modernize and that’s why Billy is at the controls. So like Wannstedt, kids see him as knowing what it takes to get to the “big show.” Or being someone that knows how to get them there.

In saying this however, I think they may be some initial disappointment in how the offense has looked in the first two games. Especially in the run game, where Husker fans expect to dominate. This hasn’t happened so far and I can maybe see the boo birds coming out in the next game or two if it doesn’t shape up. The one thing that can delay that negative reaction though is the blackshirt defense as it has seemed to regain the swagger that it had two years ago. And thank God, cause they have carried them through the first two games. And I think the expectations for the rest of the season have been raised a bit. As you know, the match-up with Pitt isn’t looking as daunting as it once was. Mizzou all of a sudden just become a lot more beatable as did Colorado when they struggled with CSU. I still think the Huskers will win at least 7 games this season minimum.

Also, how are feelings to the 2-toned field?

I totally DIG it! When I first heard of the two-toned field going in Memorial Stadium and how it would resemble Oregon’s field, I kinda had mixed feelings on it. But then I saw some pics over at huskers.com on top of seeing it for the first time on TV last weekend in the Wake Forest game. I think it looks really good. This may be because I absolutely cannot stand astroturf, which the Huskers had forever. So yeah, I think the new field looks great.