Tuesday, July 28, 2009

At what point is Nebraska "back?"

“Back!” You hear the term in so many different contexts. Anatomically, it is the posterior part of our body – North of our ass and South of our neck.

In a sports context, you hear the phrase, “We’re back!” That expression is often times uttered when a perennially outstanding team hits a valley (be it for a year or a few years) and struggles before rebounding. Nebraska football is like that fallen champion trying to rebound. From 1962-2001, the Huskers epitomized consistency even beyond their five National Championships. It was not a matter of “Are we going to a bowl game?” It was a matter of “Which one?”

From 2002-2007, there was a lot of mediocrity in going 44-28 but even that record was inflated by a 10-3 campaign in 2003. After that season, then athletic director Steve Pederson (that phony, disingenuous and deceitful piece of crap) got on his podium after firing Frank Solich and justified a 58-19 tenure by saying, “I refuse to let this program gravitate toward mediocrity.” Pederson has since been replaced by Tom Osborne and returned to the University of Pitts-puke!

Only Pederson’s hire of Bill Callahan made mediocrity look inviting as Nebraska went 27-22 with two losing and bowl-less seasons under Callahan. The Huskers rebounded in 2008 with a 9-4 record but most importantly won six of their last seven games.

Current Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini enters his second season. While the Huskers took a step in the right direction, neither Pelini nor his players are convinced that the program is “back.” On the way back? Yes, there’s every reason to think so. But being “on the way back” and “being back” are two different things. After all, if you are driving Eastbound on I-80 and you’ve reached Des Moines, Iowa, you don’t say, “We’re in Chicago now,” you say, “We’re on our way to Chicago.”

“Our players don't feel Nebraska's back,” Pelini said at Big 12 Media Day in Dallas on Monday. “Our expectations in the program are very, very high. I think (the team) is starting to feel the momentum from last season.”

So what constitutes Nebraska being “back?” Well, being “back” means different things to different people.

Jason Page, who is a very good friend of mine, and I had this very conversation by phone on Tuesday. Page and I both used to live in Cather Hall as students back in the mid-1990s. Page lives in Lee’s Summitt, Mo. (Kansas City suburb) while yours truly lives in Napa, CA. We talk by phone about once a week on average. Page is employed by Sprint and by HyVee Grocery. Just don’t expect him to be Kurt Warner Part II. To my knowledge an Arena Football League team has not signed him unless he is keeping something from us.

Anyhow, Jason asked me a question that I found compelling. The speaker was as unlikely as the words. You see, Jason is an eternal optimist. Sometimes I wonder of he sips too much Kool-Aid. Sorry, Jason. Like me and most any other Husker fan, Jason is totally on board with the era of Pelini as head coach and Osborne as AD.

Anyhow, Mr. Page broached a question pertaining to the Pelini era saying to the effect of, “I hate to even imagine this but what if it doesn’t work out. Are we the Minnesota Golden Gophers?”

Well, for starters, I feel confident that will not happen. However, to answer that question fairly, it depends on what you mean by “not work out” or “Nebraska being back.”

If the team implodes like say 2004 or 2007 in going 5-6 and 5-7 respectively under Callahan, then – yes. All of the sudden those comparisons to Minnesota are warranted. Never in a million years should Nebraska have seasons like that.

If the team wins a BCS bowl game this year but falters back to being say a perpetual 7-5 or 8-4 team, then you can say Nebraska is a flash in the pan. Just like Arizona State in 1996. That won’t fly but again I feel confident that won’t happen.

If the team is a consistent 9-4 to 11-2 team but occasionally (say every 6-8 years) goes say 13-1 or better and vies for a National Title, then I think the Pelini era is working out just fine.

If the teams goes on a run like 1993-1997 where it goes 60-3 – now that’s a program that is “back.” However, runs like that come along once a generation. We might never see a run like that again from any team let alone ours.

The main thing is to be consistent. And if a coach manages a roster with the emphasis on building a “program” rather than “a team,” then the recipe for consistent success is there.

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