Huskers hope Pelini can restore Nebraska prestige
editor1 |Aug 19,2008
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By Doug Orth
PA SportsTicker Staff Writer
Back in the early 1990s, Nike started a popular ad campaign that
stated, "Bo knows...".
For one of college football's most noted fan bases that turns
its respective eye every autumn Saturday to the University of
Nebraska's football team, there is hope that the slogan can be
completed with the words "Big 12 Championships" and "National
Championships" in the very near future.
But first things first.
Nebraska - once the nation's model football program that posted
42 consecutive winning seasons - has fallen on hard times,
compiling losing seasons twice over the last four years while
seeing its streak of consecutive bowl appearances snapped at 35
in 2004.
Furthermore, Nebraska is on its third different coach this
decade after seeing only two college football immortals - Bob
Devaney and Tom Osborne - roam the sidelines from 1962-1997.
It is that kind of unthinkable falloff that led to the
Cornuskers back to a man they passed over the first time they
had a chance to hire him - Bo Pelini.
Yes, the same Bo Pelini that did the once-unthinkable and served
as arch-rival Oklahoma's co-defensive coordinator and defensive
backs coach in 2004.
However, to understand how Pelini is still revered in Nebraska
despite just one year with the program, it may be necessary to
backtrack just a bit.
After spending seven years as an assistant coach in the NFL,
then-Husker coach Frank Solich hired Pelini in 2003 to resurrect
a defense that had fallen to 55th nationally.
In his first and only year with the "Blackshirts," Pelini
transformed his defense into the 11th-rated unit overall in the
nation and, following the dismissal of Solich after a 9-3
season, was named the interim head coach for Nebraska's 17-3
Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State.
It was during his first and only head coaching win that Pelini
left his indelible mark in the minds of Husker fans when he was
called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the fourth
quarter for arguing too strenuously that Michigan State had
fumbled the ball in Nebraska territory.
With the Huskers dominating the game at that point, most
observers considered the tirade humorous but also symbolic of
the way the former college safety relates to and inspires his
players.
Critics pointed to the outburst as a gesture from a coach not
ready to assume the controls at a big-time college football
program. Regardless, his impressive one-game head coaching
"audition" had many Husker fans thinking that Pelini would
simply have the interim title removed.
But new athletic director Steve Pederson did not agree after
interviewing a handful of candidates following the 2003 season,
eventually handing the job to ex-Oakland Raiders coach Bill
Callahan after a 41-day search.
Jilted by Pederson's decision, Pelini quickly was hired by the
Sooners, who he helped direct to a 30-3 thrashing over
Callahan's Huskers during the 2004 campaign, not to mention a
Big 12 title and an appearance in the national championship game
against Southern California.
The following season, Louisiana State, which had just hired Les
Miles to be its new head coach, promptly handed its defense over
to Pelini.
In the Southeastern Conference - generally considered the most
competitive conference in college football - Pelini guided the
Tigers to three consecutive No. 3 finishes in total defense,
capped off by his 2007 squad, which forced 36 turnovers.
That track record was enough to convince Osborne, hired as
Nebraska's interim athletic director after Pederson was fired,
to bring Pelini back to the program on December 2, 2007, when he
accepted an offer to become the 27th head coach in the program's
storied history.
With Osborne's blessing, Pelini finished out the season with
LSU, as the Tigers collected their second national title over
the last four seasons with their 38-24 win over Ohio State.
Following the championship victory, Pelini returned his full
focus to Nebraska, where he needed to complete three orders of
business that fell into decline under Callahan:
1) Re-establish the importance of the storied Nebraska walk-on
program.
Despite his delayed arrival, Pelini was able to get pledges from
30 players who hope to follow in the footsteps of former
non-scholarship standouts such as fullback Joel Makovicka, who
walked on at Nebraska during the 1990s before devoloping into a
NFL player.
2) Re-connect with the proud Nebraska fan base, a common
complaint of the Callahan regime.
3) Turn around a program in disarray and return the
"Blackshirts" to their usual level of national prominence. In
2007 alone, the Huskers surrendered 38 points per game,
including 41 points to Missouri, 76 to Kansas and 65 to
Colorado.
Pelini wasted no time with the first two tasks and figures to be
ready for the final challenge right away. His defenses have
finished no lower than 13th in the nation in total defense.
Additionally, in his five college football seasons, his charges
have finished in the top five in pass efficiency and scoring
defense four more times. His defenses have posted eight
shutouts and held the opposition to seven points or less in 26
of 66 games.
Overall, Pelini's five teams have compiled an impressive 56-10
record, winning at least 10 games every season.
Clearly though, success in the college game has not gone to his
head.
"When I was at LSU the last few years, we had a lot of success,"
Pelini said. "But did we ever reach (perfection)? You just
gotta keep raising your standard. You can never be satisfied no
matter how good you get, you keep getting better."
It should be no suprise then, as a coach schooled on the
defensive side of the ball, that Pelini believes in the
importance of the running game, offensively and defensively - a
similar mantra that Devaney and Osborne once used - even in
today's college football, dominated by a plethora of pass-happy
spread formations.
"My belief is there's two things you have to be able to win
football games right off the bat," Pelini said. "You have to be
able to stop the run (and) you've got to be able to run the
football on offense.
"If we're able to do that, if you're able to control the clock,
you're able to control the pace of the football game. It's
going to make you better not only on offense, but on defense as
well. I think that's something that you have to be able to do
and something we're going to be committed to doing at Nebraska."
While it should be noted that Pelini changed conferences, he
didn't exactly escape teams that can run the spread offense with
incredible efficiency.
Four of the nation's top eight scoring offenses from last season
reside in the Big 12, all of which rely on different variations
of the spread (Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri).
"I was really taken back when I first got back to Nebraska
seeing the numbers, the offensive numbers that were happening in
the Big 12," Pelini said. "For a defensive guy, that kind of
woke me up a little bit. I think it's become an offensive
league to a certain extent.
"But I think at the same time, you've got to be able to play
good defense to win football games."
If anything, the nomadic Pelini should be well-versed in
installing his defense to a new set of young ears. But while he
is beloved for his enthusiasm, it is clear that Pelini
understands patience is a virtue as well.
"We're nowhere near where we want to be yet, but we'll get
there," Pelini said. "There's plenty of time. ... But,
fortunately, I've been in this situation a number of times over
the last couple of years, where we installed a defense and we're
trying to get a group ready to play football and get game-ready.
And I think that we'll be ready to go come August 30 (vs.
Western Michigan)."
While re-establishing the Cornhuskers as one of the nation's
elite programs likely represents his greatest challenge to date,
Pelini has a track record that speaks for itself.
However, no college football program - especially Nebraska -
ever wants to believe that it is in the midst of a rebuilding
job. So the question then becomes, how long it will take before
Nebraska finds itself pursuing its sixth national title?
Only Bo knows.
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