Nebraska’s Callahan is mum about future

The Cornhuskers are 4-6 and on a five-game losing streak.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LINCOLN, Neb. — Coach Bill Callahan sidestepped questions about his future at Nebraska, saying he’s focused on preparing to play Kansas State Saturday.

Callahan, whose team has lost five straight, declined to say Monday whether he has been asked to resign with the promise of a settlement. If he’s fired at the end of the season, Callahan’s contract calls for Nebraska to pay him more than $3 million.

Asked whether there was any reason to believe he’ll be back next season, Callahan said: “I’ll let the powers that be make those decisions.”

Interim athletic director Tom Osborne has said he won’t make a decision on Callahan until after the season.

The Huskers (4-6, 1-5 Big 12) are coming off a 76-39 loss at Kansas, a game in which they surrendered the most points in the school’s 118-year football history. Callahan already has the most lop

sided loss in school history on his tab — a 70-10 beat-down at Texas Tech in 2004.

Nebraska, a 71⁄2-point underdog at home against Kansas State, is on its longest losing streak since 1958. Another defeat would mark the longest streak since the 1957 team lost its final seven games during a 1-9 campaign under Bill Jennings.

“This situation is very disappointing for us, and we’re working through it the best we can,” Callahan said. “It’s just one of those years where we haven’t performed to the standard we wanted to. I’ll let the higher-ups and whoever the decision makers are make those decisions” about next season.

Callahan said he came into the season optimistic after the Huskers won the Big 12 North and finished 9-5.

But this year’s squad has posted some of the worst statistics in the program’s history.

The Huskers are 106th nationally in scoring defense (35.9 points), 112th in total defense (477.6 yards) and 118th in rushing defense (240.1 yards).

Callahan said he wouldn’t look back at what went wrong.

“You try to learn from some of the mistakes, if you had made any, or maybe the performances or maybe some decisions made,” he said. “This isn’t the time to look back on anything. We have to focus on Kansas State.”

Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M will wait until the end of the football season before deciding the future of coach Dennis Franchione, who was rebuked this year for allowing boosters to buy information about his players.

The Aggies have underachieved in Franchione’s five seasons, losing ground to the elite teams in the Big 12 and slipping out of the national spotlight. His standing clearly was undermined by the discovery of subscription e-mails to boosters that gave information about players. Franchione’s contract pays him more than $2 million a year and runs through 2012.