At what point is Nebraska "back?"

Moments after Nebraska destroyed Arizona 33-0 in the 2009 Holiday Bowl, Husker head coach Bo Pelini said over the loudspeaker, “Nebraska is back and is here to stay.”

That win culminated a 10-4 season in which Nebraska won six of seven games to close the season with the lone loss being a 13-12 defeat to Texas in the Big XII Title Game. The Huskers went 9-4 in Pelini’s first season in 2008 and despite the 2009 win-loss record not being what most fans would like, you at least got the feeling the program was trending up. Instead, the Huskers went 10-4 in 2010 and 9-4 in 2011, trending down at the end of both seasons. In 2010, Nebraska went 5-4 after a 5-0 start and in 2011, the Huskers were 6-1 and seemed poised for a trip to the Big Ten Title Game but closed the season with a 2-3 record.

Every time the Huskers have a moment that makes people take notice, whether it’s the aforementioned Holiday Bowl win, the 56-21 road win over Washington in 2010 or a 24-3 home win over Michigan State, you hear statements like, “Nebraska’s back.” The phrase, “We’re back!” is an expression 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 Pederson has since been replaced by Tom Osborne and returned to the University of Pitts-puke!
Pederson’s hire of Bill Callahan made mediocrity look inviting as Nebraska went 27-22 with two losing and bowl-less seasons under Callahan.

Pelini enters his fourth season and while his era has been an improvement over the Callahan debacle, Nebraska is no closer to being “back” than it was at the end of the 2009 season. Can this team get to the point of being “back” with Pelini as its coach? Yes but there is a difference between being “on the way back” and “being back.” 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.”

So as the Huskers open their 2012 season Saturday at home against Southern Mississippi on Saturday, I ask, what constitutes Nebraska being “back?” Well, being “back” means different things to different people.

What if Nebraska goes say, 12-2, wins their first conference since 1999 but falters back to being say a perpetual 7-5 or 8-4 team? That would qualify as being a flash in the pan. Just like Arizona State in 1996.

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 you can say “Nebraska is back.”

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.  

Pelini not perfect but the right guy

With the start of the 2012 college football season upon us within the next four weeks, certain things tend to stand out. As I read various media outlets, message boards, etc., I can’t help but notice the semi-universal tone of some people asking, “Is Bo Pelini the guy for Nebraska?”

I could understand this question when the hiring process was going on in 2007. Let’s face it, Nebraska is not the kind of place where a coordinator (as Pelini had been for five years beforehand) cuts his teeth, and we’ve seen the results as Pelini (39-16 overall record) has taken some time to acclimate to the endless headaches head coaches endure.

There are a segment of Husker fans and former players from the mid-1990s (notably talk show host Jason Peter) who frequently go back to that time frame when Nebraska went 60-3 from 1993-1997 with three National Championships and four undefeated regular seasons. While I respect what Peter contributed as a player and he makes some good points, I am not one of these jock-sniffing Husker fans that says, “You tell ‘em, Jason!” every time he rants on the radio. You simply cannot compare the job Pelini currently has today to the mid-90s. Peter played under one of the greatest and most experienced football minds (Tom Osborne) in history with one of the most committed staffs beneath him.

Osborne’s system had been in place for multiple decades and they’d been in the same conference the entire time. The Huskers had a blend of experience, talent, and conditioning which enabled that run. Pelini, on the other hand, took over a program which had utterly collapsed. Not crumbled. Not slumped. Not leaned slightly to the left. Collapsed. He was given the job of rebuilding a program and taking it to a national championship, not just the second part. If not for a few hidden gems like Ndamukong Suh and Prince Amukamara the climb back up would have been that much steeper.   

Nine win seasons may not be as sexy as they used to be, but ask many powerhouse programs around who didn’t hit that mark in recent years. You want consistency? Well that’s a start. I’ll take that over seeing Nebraska become a coaching carousel, where even after you put in a few years with moderate success, you still have no job security. You think Nebraska football is not what it once was now, wait until you have to hire new talent in that atmosphere. See how far it gets you.

There is a segment of Nebraska fans take entitlement to levels that are absurd. So, it’s justifiable to be upset when the team melts in a bowl game, or gets their ears pinned back by programs like Michigan or Wisconsin. Hell, I was a little guilty of it after the 30-13 Capital One Bowl loss to South Carolina but in all seriousness, the starting quarterback for the 1997 team (Scott Frost) was booed at home. So nothing really surprises me about what certain people would say about this program considering this team could run the table and there would probably be people bitching about how they didn’t do it “correctly,” whatever that means.

My question would be, who better would you get to come here to be our head coach after firing a coach for winning nine or more games four straight years?

Everyone worth their salt knows it’s very hard to recruit to Nebraska. Urban Meyer has mentioned struggling at Ohio State (because he had it so good at Florida). Fan expectations are unreasonably high. Some of them, anyhow. The “but we are Nebraska” crap has got to stop, and a lot of people need to be more realistic. Nebraska will consistently win 9, 10, 11 games. It’s going to take a special season where both the offense and defense are at the top of the game in talent and experience. Look at the 2009 defense combined with a good offense (yet to be seen) and that will get us a National Championship run. In the mean time being consistently good is how it’s going to be. We can’t recruit well enough right now to just be able to reload, really Alabama, LSU and USC can do that right now.

We haven’t had both offense and defense in the same season yet. I think we are going to be really close this year, which will set us up for a run next year, but that will be dependent on how much quarterback Taylor Martinez improves this season.

The Nebraska entitlement thing is spot on in terms of recent success. We think of Osborne as this iconic figure who can do no wrong but how did he fare before 1993? He had Bill Callahan like back to back blowout losses to end 1990 (45-10 to Oklahoma and 45-21 to Georgia Tech). Before Nebraska became Top ten material, the Huskers lost seven straight bowl games from 1986-1993, most were not even competitive.

Pelini has had his work cut out for him, and the atmosphere of college football nowadays is remarkably different from what it was in the Osborne era. Pelini took over a decimated program, full of raw talent recruited by Callahan, who hired a terrible staff and tried to implement an NFL style offense into a team whose players were designed to run the option. Then athletic director Steve Pederson brought the program to a new low with his firing of Frank Solich (after a nine-win season), making Nebraska a less desireable place to coach. Why do you think Ohio State and Florida could land Urban Meyer and not Nebraska? Say what you will about Meyer’s arrogant personality but the man can coach. The “powerhouse” image had been destroyed at the end of the 2001 season in the Rose Bowl against Miami, and Nebraska officially entered its free-fall.

After the damage by Callahan, Kevin Cosgrove, and Pederson was done and they were ushered out of town, it was Osborne’s job as athletic director job to find the best replacement. Pelini was the best possible coach that could have come to Nebraska that year, and fans felt they wanted a familiar face after the program had been hijacked by Pederson and Co. Pelini is a good motivator, and with the talent pool left, he was able to produce an elite, championship caliber defense in year two. The only problem is our offense looked like a high school offense. The consistent defense continued into year three, only to let another conference championship slip through our fingers on account of bad game day coaching and a horrible offensive strategy against Oklahoma.

The 2011 defense was a shell of its former self, and was showed to be unprepared for the season, which is completely unacceptable. The embarrassment against Wisconsin on national TV was a game that could have been a close, competitive contest if the coaching and preparation had been able to keep the team in the game. Instead, Nebraska dug itself a hole it could not escape. Then after beating eventual Legends Divison champ Michigan State 24-3, the Huskers seemed destined for the Rose Bowl. They got a reality check the next week against Northwestern (28-25 loss), along with another shelling at Michigan (45-17 loss). The bowl performance was putrid, with every opportunity to put South Carolina away in that game slipping away in the first half, and the lack of effective halftime adjustments after South Carolina had taken the lead on an inexcusable Hail Mary.

Pelini now enters Year No. 5, which means these are all his players, his system has been in place for five years, and the offense is an experienced (even though inconsistent) unit entering year two of a system. There are no more excuses for the crucial mistakes, lackluster performances in big games, and the coaches not being able to get their team to perform consistently on a week to week basis. Without major improvements on both sides of the ball, we are not going to see a Big Ten championship. If Tim Beck can’t get Martinez to perform well as a passer, our offense will again struggle against top-tier defenses. If we can’t seem to get pressure with our front four, or have worsening linebacker play, and a leaky secondary, we’re going to struggle against explosive offenses and be put out of games. That will lead to another (hopefully) nine win season with a couple of embarrassments along the way.

I'll give him the next two years to win the conference title before I begin thinking Pelini is not the right guy for the job. He took a team that was simply atrocious and turned them into a 9-win-per-year team, which is not an easy task.

Pelini needs to follow his own advice with social media beehive

“There is no place like Nebraska,” or so say the fight song lyrics. On two occasions this past offseason and at various other times in his five-year tenure as Husker head coach, Bo Pelini has spoken of the challenge Nebraska football coaches face in keeping their players on an even keel amid constant fan rabidness.

Seems a good challenge to have.

“LSU is into it, Oklahoma was into it,” Pelini said in a Lincoln Journal Star blog entry. “But the constant seven days a week, 365 days a year, it’s different here than those places. It’s not as constant a barrage of it at some of the other places I’ve been. It’s kind of compartmentalized a little bit where the players aren’t slammed over the head with it every day of the year. That is a challenge here.

“But it just is the way it is. It’s not going away. And believe me, the fans’ passion for it, and the media, that’s a positive. But there are issues with that, too, that relate to our football team and how you keep them focused and heading in a certain direction.”

With some Husker fans, that statement goes over like a turd in a punchbowl. However, two things are equally true. Pelini came to Nebraska in 2008 looking to breathe life back into a program that became dormant under former head coach Bill Callahan, who went 27-22. The Huskers have gone 39-16 in Pelini’s four seasons but have yet to make the jump from good to great and for a program that has not won a conference title since 1999 that makes for an impatient fan base, which has very little in the first place.

In Pelini’s initial press conference he spoke with high expectations and after Nebraska demolished Arizona 33-0 in the 2009 Holiday Bowl, Pelini proclaimed that “Nebraska is back and we’re here to stay.” There is nothing wrong with having confidence but the pitfall is that if the team fails to live up to its advanced billing, criticism will follow.

As a broad generalization, however, while Nebraska fans are very knowledgeable, they do tend to overreact such as getting too high after wins but overly cynical after the team loses.  

Pelini, however, can’t control what media and fans think and how it impacts his team or certain players on the team. Part of his job is to manage the issue and with the advent of internet message boards, blogs and social media, the problem is much tougher to manage than it was 20 years ago.

By his own admission, Pelini is “old school” and longs for the days where leading a college program involved coaching young men and preparing them for the future.

I’m not necessarily saying that Pelini was right to say what he did but let’s face it; the same fans that are mad at him for sharing his opinions are also the same fans that thought Tom Osborne, Frank Solich and Callahan were milquetoast in their interviews. Just remember, you were the same ones that lauded Pelini for his brutal honesty. However, in every walk of life I have discovered that people who want you to “be honest” really don’t want the truth. They want the truth according to them.

The part of Pelini’s comment that truly resonates is where he mentions how LSU and Oklahoma fans are whereas with Nebraska, fans talk Husker football 365 days per year. What makes Nebraska different from most places is that there is no other Div. I-A college football program in the state, which means no competing loyalties to divert attention. Also, there are no professional sports. Husker football to Nebraskans is their NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA rolled into one. In Oklahoma, you not only have OU football but there is also Oklahoma State and on the professional sports side there is the Oklahoma City Thunder. Granted, OU football will always be ticket No. 1 in Oklahoma even with the rise of OSU and the Thunder, it means there are other teams to divert fans attention.

LSU football does not have any competing loyalties within the state when it comes to college football but you also have two professional sports teams (New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Hornets) to divert attention. The Saints have certainly attracted their share by winning the Super Bowl in 2009 and having the recent Bountygate scandal.

It appears to me in this article that Pelini is simply stating; the negativity the fans voice towards the players can be a bit overwhelming. Let’s also remember that while most Husker fans see Osborne as this iconic figure, those same fans wanted to run him out of town on various occasions.

While I enjoyed watch the team win three National Titles in the 1990s, the negative side is that fans expectations have become skewed. Though I agree that 2012 represents a crossroad for Pelini, the same fans that point out that he enters Year #5 are also the same fans that forget that Osborne took seven years to win a conference title and 21 years to win a National Title.

However, maybe Pelini needs to take the same advice he offered his players, and stop reading all of the social media. If you’re just reading Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha World Herald and seeing the same complaints from the same ten people all the time, it doesn't necessarily reflect the views of the entire state. If you’re making $3 million a year, you need to grow some thicker skin and stop paying attention to the criticisms of every single armchair quarterback in America.

How much will Beck evolve as a playcaller?

Perhaps the most scrutinized aspect of offensive football is play-calling.

For years, Nebraska fans clamored for a pass-oriented offense because, “it seems like all we do is run between the tackles.” You heard this argument through much of the Tom Osborne and Frank Solich eras. After Solich was fired, Nebraska did the unthinkable, hired Bill Callahan and adopted the West Coast Offense. Despite what some people think, the West Coast Offense is not exclusively “passing offense.” It is a philosophy and an approach to the game than it is a set of plays or formations. Traditional offensive thinking argues that a team must establish its running game first, which will draw the defense in and open up vertical passing lanes downfield. The West Coast Offense takes the opposite approach – pass to set up run.

Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense differs from traditional offense by emphasizing a short, horizontal passing attack to help stretch out the defense, thus opening up options for longer running plays and longer passes that can achieve greater gains. The West Coast Offense as implemented under Walsh features precisely run pass patterns. With the defense stretched out, the offense is then free to focus the remaining plays on longer throws of more than 14 yards and mid to long yard rushes. Paul Brown, the head coach of the Massillon Tigers, the Cleveland Browns, and founder of the Cincinnati Bengals, was the originator of this playbook; however, he did not name it the West Coast Offense.

Anyhow, the Callahan era saw the Huskers go 27-22 and you heard fans say, “we need to get back to running the ball and being physical.” Current head coach Bo Pelini has constantly stated that he wants the offense to be “multiple.” Pelini kept Shawn Watson as offensive coordinator and as a result Nebraska tried to blend the West Coast Offense with option football and that philosophy led to not having a true offensive identity. With Tim Beck at the helm, Nebraska is still looking to be proficient at both the run and the pass but with more of an emphasis on the former.

While most fans remember the Osborne era for the wishbone option, people also forget that before 1980 he actually preferred a mixture of run and pass. He simply adopted the wishbone option because defenses were having trouble defending conference rival Oklahoma’s version. Osborne’s version of the option later was run out of the I-formation with a Power I look as well.

In 2011, with the possible exception of the Huskers 48-17 loss when running back Rex Burkhead had just six carries in the first half, Beck was very conservative in his play calling. The mentality of ramming it down their throat was certainly there and it seemed like this happened regardless of whether the Huskers were leading or trailing.

I watch certain strong offensive teams such as Oklahoma State and Boise State and they are always attacking on the offensive side. I’m certainly in favor of a strong running game but it just irks me when the defense knows what type of play the offense are bringing on a regular basis. I’m the first to admit the Nebraska offensive line might not be as dominant as it was in the 80’s and 90’s and the Huskers do not have the best passer in the world in quarterback Taylor Martinez. Based on that shouldn’t the Huskers at least try to catch teams off guard a little bit?

It seems like the Huskers have this habit of Burkhead/Martinez right followed by Burkhead/Martinez left and then a third and eight pass that the offense gets pressed into unfavorable down and distance scenarios. This seems to be especially true when the game is tight and the offense is in need of some big plays. Instead, there are often too many scenarios that involve three and out with two running plays and a pass. If you have a weak passing offense, why not use it when teams are not expecting it? Honestly, the idea of “run to set up pass” is an outmoded idea. The pass can set up the run equally well if not better because regularly completing passes on first down would eventually make a run up the middle on first down worth a few easy first downs.

Keep in mind though; Beck was in his first season as offensive coordinator in which case that presents a scenario with growing pains similar to a first-year quarterback. Oklahoma State and Boise State also had attacking style offenses because they had four-year starters at quarterback with 28-year old Brandon Weeden and Kellen Moore. Colt McCoy was also a four-year starter at Texas and in his fourth year especially, the Longhorn offense took a similar approach as Oklahoma State and Boise State.

I think you’ll see more aggression this year on offense from the Huskers but I think staying creative in the run game, getting two viable backs in the lineup at one time with the shotgun option game, and attacking through play action is the key for Nebraska.

More Pelini perspective

Whether the Nebraska football head coach has been Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne, Frank Solich, Bill Callahan or Bo Pelini, Husker football coaches will always be subjected to (how can I put this nicely) — public opinion.
Despite the fact that Pelini has guided the Huskers to a 39-16 record (if you include the interim coach Alamo Bowl game in 2003) since taking over for Callahan after the 2007 season, the biggest sticking point with most Nebraska fans is that the program has not taken the next step to becoming BCS Bowl material. Pelini’s initial impact was great as the Huskers went from 5-7 in 2007 under Callahan to 9-4 in 2008 (Pelini’s first season). Though the Huskers were on the doorstep of a Big 12 conference title in 2009 and 2010, they have done no better than 10-4 in his tenure.

There are a segment of Husker fans who want him gone, and those in the media who are also ultra-critical of the Pelini. While some of the criticism has been warranted, sacking the man at this point the answer. I think that he’s earned another year (all you ever do season to season in my opinion). I think a 9-4 performance next year would also secure him another year, however, I wouldn’t feel as good about it. Then again, the 2011 version of 9-4 was not much to crow about either.

The question then becomes, how long would you say that this standard of performance could go along before you’d believe that a change needs to be made?

Though improvement can always be made, I think Pelini is doing a fine enough job at the moment, but that’s on the basis that we all think his teams are going to get better at some point. I’d say that a conference title and a top 10 finish in his first decade as a coach would be acceptable to me.

My overall evaluation of Pelini as our head coach is positive. Of course, there are areas in which I feel he could improve, but I had those feelings about Osborne during his tenure. There is no perfect coach. During his coaching career, Osborne was criticized for not being able to win the big games, for being too one dimensional on offense, for not recruiting well, for his sideline behavior (not being animated enough), for his media presence (being too dull), etc., but he turned out to be a pretty darn good coach.

Pelini is still learning, and has made improvements. He has acknowledged some issues, and worked on them. He took over the program at a tough time, had his hands tied during his first recruiting class, and has gone through a conference change.

Football is cyclical. There are times of prosperity and growth, and there are rebuilding times. You don’t always have a Tommie Frazier in the program, sometimes you have a Mike Grant. That is not a slight against Grant, who was a good quarterback but not the difference-maker that Frazier was.

Pelini has had some special players on his teams (some he recruited and some he coached), and he has done well. I think brighter days are ahead with Pelini, and think if we get rid of Pelini for anything other than NCAA violations, serious transgressions either on the field or off, or horrible losing seasons, we're doomed to repeat our Steve Pederson/Bill Callahan errors.
However, I think that Nebraska needs to eventually be looking to win at least three conference titles per decade. I say this because we should wish to be in the game more often than not and hope to go about .500 in it. I understand that Michigan isn’t going to roll over and neither are Ohio State and Penn State. Still, Nebraska needs to fill in that gap.

That said, I think the Huskers are still recovering to some degree from the last decade and especially the Callahan years, as such I think that we need to allow our young coach with plenty of time, I still think that he’s got to perform at some point. So I don’t think a conference title in the first decade is unreasonable.

It seems to me that Osborne has five rules for Pelini’s continued employment: 1) Maintain good graduation rates; 2) Maintain team support; 3) Limit Woody Hayes-like behavior; 4) Don’t break any rules/embarrass the university; 5) Consistently field a respectable/competitive team.

I think Pelini will be there as long as he doesn’t violate one of these rules and continues to be happy in Lincoln. The blow-out losses in 2011 could be his Achilles heel.

That said, I don’t find 9-4 as acceptable in the long term, I only find it acceptable right now because five years ago the Huskers had a losing record. They’re trying to build the program, I also think that dropping four games every few years is OK, but 9-4 ought to be one of their “down” years. I think that Pelini will have Nebraska on an upward trajectory, he just needs to iron out some of the team break downs, which I think start with him.

9-3 is in the eye of the beholder

With Nebraska’s regular-season ending 20-7 win over Iowa having come and gone, Lincoln Journal Star columnist Steve Sipple posed the question of “how do you feel about the Huskers’ 9-3 season?”


It’s certainly not the end all, be all that comes from any fan over the age of 30 that truly remembers Nebraska winning national championships (five to be exact). Keep in mind, Nebraska won three in the 1990s and went 60-3 from 1993-1997. However, I have said for a long time that we, as Nebraska fans, had become so jaded because of the long run of success we had during the Bob Devaney/Tom Osborne eras that we had lost sight of the definition of success.

Winning a national championship is every team’s goal, but only one team gets to do it. Does that mean every other team failed? Certainly not. We’ve had more than our share of success and failures this season, but any time you win 75 percent of your games, especially in a meat-grinder of a conference such as the Big Ten, you’ve got to look at that as a success (at least on some level).

You have to remember what Nebraska had for a leader in the athletic director’s chair and where that leader took this program (namely Steve Pederson). We didn’t “gravitate toward mediocrity” under his leadership, we sprinted toward it.

Could the Huskers have done better in 2011? Certainly, short of going undefeated, teams can always do better. They crapped the bed against Northwestern and didn’t play well against Michigan or Wisconsin. In the grand scheme of things, though 9-3 is a pretty good season. Great season? No but it certainly beats the 7-5 saddle Iowa has to ride on.

Osborne made a living on nine win seasons in a conference where you had six blowout wins a year and one legit game against Oklahoma. Well, when the Sooners started to backslide that the legit games later became Kansas State and Colorado. In the Big Ten, there is quality at the top and lack of quality at the bottom but the quality in the middle is much better.

The nine win benchmark was what everybody pointed to when Frank Solich broke that streak with a 7-7 season in 2002. Now, we have Bo Pelini winning nine games for the fourth year in a row and people are mad. Those same people who point to the 1990s don’t remember the 1970s and 1980s. They only remember the 1970 and 1971 seasons ending with national crowns. They don’t remember that from 1972 to 1979, the seasons ranged between 9-3 and 10-2. Those same people also only remember the 1980s for the consecutive 12-1 seasons in 1982 and 1983. They don’t remember that the rest of that decade ranged between 9-3 and 10-2. They also don’t remember that it took nine years for Osborne to win a conference title; something Pelini has had Nebraska on the doorstep of doing twice in his four year span.

I recently went to an Oklahoma message board after they lost to Texas Tech and they were calling for Stoops head. One post read like this “If you want to win a conference championship every other year Stoops is your guy, but if you want to win a national title we need a new coach.” Really? It’s about the perspective of fans. We would be thrilled with a conference championship but I dare say if we won a couple of those our fans would then elevate their expectations to winning national titles and if we didn’t do that they would still want Pelini fired.

Look, there’s no way in hell I want to have Iowa’s standards. They’re happy with seven wins but do you hear Iowa fans calling for Kirk Ferentz’s head right now? Hell no because their standards are nowhere near ours (which is why they've never won a national title).

What people don’t seem to realize is that the days of Nebraska beating the living crap out of teams week in and week out are long since passed. College football has changed dramatically in the last 10 years. The playing field is a lot more level than it once was when an elite list of teams like Nebraska, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State and others were dominant year in and year out. Northwestern isn’t the weak sister they once were because they’re now capable of playing at a more competitive level than they used to. Conversely, look at Colorado, they had risen up to an elite level not that long ago, and now they’re the Pac 12 doormat. Osborne averaged ten wins a year in 25 years as head coach, and there were a ton of 9-3, 9-2-1 seasons in that legendary era.

I remember in the early 1990s about how Husker fans had to make a choice whether we could be happy with nine wins a season with Osborne or hire somebody who can get us to “the promised land.” Well, a few years later, he got the Huskers to the promised land three times in four years, and it wasn’t until we got an underhanded sleeze of an AD like Pederson that the program fell from the elite.

Nebraska is back where it once was with nine wins a year, and I think it can get back to the promised land with the current setup. I appreciate those years under Osborne today more than I did at the time they happened, and I think the frustration of losses like those the Huskers experienced this year are far outweighed by the overall success and direction the program is now headed but beating Iowa was helpful.

What is the State of the Program?

“State of the program.” You hear the term so many times when evaluating anything. Ask any Nebraska football fan “what is the state of the program?” and most will give a forthright answer to such an open-ended question.



After posting a 44-32 record from 2002-2007 (which spanned the last two years of the Frank Solich tenure and the entire Bill Callahan regime), the Huskers have gone 29-12 in Bo Pelini’s three years at the helm. Nebraska has definitely made progress under Pelini, just not BCS Bowl game material progress. The reasonble thinking fans knew it would take time for Pelini to get Nebraska to the prominence it enjoyed from 1961-2001. However, “patience” and “Nebraska football fans” go together like oil and water.


This is also a much different era of college football. Everyone has their theories such as scholarship limitations creating more parity. That angle can be overstated but it has some truth.


That said, the Nebraska football program appears poised for big things. In this day and age of college football, there are plenty of good teams with plenty of talent who can trip you up over the course of the season. Over the past three years the Huskers definitely shown a propensity to let those teams stick around and, in some cases (Iowa State’s 9-7 win in 2009) SU at home) those teams have beaten Nebraska.


That set of circumstances has to change but I think it’s fair to predict that as Pelini grows as a coach and the staff develops together, that there will be improvements on that front. What I do see as a huge positive is that even though Pelini’s win-loss success is similar to Solich’s 58-19 mark from 1998-2003. The reason that Frank got fired )rightly or wrongly) was that in his last three years, the team looked completely outclassed at least twice a year.


In the past two years, Pelini’s teams have shown that they can compete with anyone on a given day. The only losses in the last two years that couldn’t have been a win if one play had gone differently was the Texas Tech game (31-10 loss) in 2009 and the 19-7 Holiday Bowl loss to Washington last December. During that stretch, Nebraska took the No. 2 team (Texa) in the country to the last second before losing 13-12. The Huskers also led Oklahoma 17-0 in last year’s Big XII title game before losing 23-20. The Huskers also lost 18-15 in 2009 a eventual ACC champ Virginia Tech.


In this day and age in college football, the first thing a top program needs to do is be in every game. Clearly Nebraska needs to win those games and its track record in those situations has not been good but we only have a sample of two years to examine considering how bad the 2007 team Pelini succeeded happened to be.


The reason the Huskers haven’t been far more successful the last two years has been the offense, which has been absolutely putrid at very important points of the season. The posters who have pointed out the fact that the biggest contributors to that failure are still around have a great point. The offensive line has not been able to pass block for two years and has been supremely undisciplined, false starting way more than is acceptable. For an offense which is so weak that it needs down and distances to be favorable, this is not promising. Additionally, for the naysayers, it’s not like we revamped our offensive staff and brought in a proven coordinator with a track record of success. So, overall, I understand arguments against our improvement on offense.


However, I have more hope than the antagonists. I think that the Huskers performance over the last few years has been as bad as it can possibly get. Sometimes a situation can evolve where otherwise capable individuals fall into a trap of stagnation. More than anything I thought that former offensive coordinator Shawn Watson got too caught up in his own head and became a terrible playcaller. I hope that a fresh face will improve things and that the addition of John Garrison will result in more eyes on the offensive linemen watching their bad habits and identifying the things that confuse them so that those things can be rectified. If Nebraska’s offense progresses to middle of the pack Big 10, which there is no reason not to expect, its fortunes will change significantly.


As for our defense, I think that Pelini has assembled a staff of great defensive minds capable of game planning for any opponent. As long as the loss of defensive backs coach Marvin Sanders does not prove disastrous (and it could considering how amazing our secondary has been), the Huskers should be able to count on that unit to keep us in every game.


So overall, I think Nebraska’s prospects are bright. I think that the Huskers will be competitive against everyone and should be able to win their division more often than not. I think that their biggest competition will be Michigan and they will have a slight advantage there because Michigan’s cross-division rival, Ohio State, is slightly stronger than Nebraska. The years to be concerned will be when Iowa is (Nebraska’s main rival), plays Purdue while Nebraska plays Penn State. At least the Huskers will have the opportunity to play Iowa in the last game of the year, though, so they’d have to build a two game lead to eliminate Iowa’s chances of a division title before the end of the season. Once you win your division the conference becomes a one game crapshoot.


There are, obviously, points of concern. The Husker offense may not progress as hoped. The defense may not be as rock solid every year. Northwestern is scrappier than they have any right to be. Minnesota has no business being as bad as they are considering their large population base and excellent facilities. Overall I think that the Huskers are poised to be very successful in the new conference. Again, success in my mind is measured by winning the Division at least five out of every ten years (if not more) and winning the whole thing at least two or three times every ten years. That can be done. The State of the Program is probably better than we could reasonably expect it to be.


The dismal collapse at the end of last season along with the attendant negative publicity generated when Pelini went ballistic on the sideline in the 9-6 loss to Texas A&M, followed by the mail-in at the bowl game led to an extremely negative offseason both locally and nationally. Imagine trying to look forward to another season in which the offensiive coordinator attempts to prove his cleverness at the expense of winning games, while everyone else tries to figure out what happened to the electrifying Taylor Martinez that disappeared after Missouri.


Instead, Nebraska is in a new conference better suited to to it in a myriad of ways who actually seemed to embrace what the Huskers bring. Nebraska has new blood to help offensve line coach Barney Cotton, a new offensive coordinator (Tim Beck), fresh energy in the form of new coaches, vastly improved national exposure and respect and a badgered conference badly in need of positive press into which the Huskers fortuitously slipped.


Oh, and by the way, Nebraska has a defense and speed. I’d say the State of the Program is looking good.

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.

Nebraska football talent deficit greatly exaggerated

Throughout this decade, it has generally been argued that Nebraska football lacks the talent to be a true player in joining the national elite.

That argument was in full force after the dismissal of Frank Solich. The Bill Callahan era brought a lot of recruiting hype but when those recruits did not materialize (translation, the coaching staff did not develop them properly), the argument became “well, maybe they are not as good as we thought” with the hiring of Bo Pelini.

Samuel McKewon of Nebraska Statepaper recently wrote that “the the presumption comes in: Nebraska overachieved in 2008, emerging triumphantly from raw clay to grind out magical victories. It is a good story, and it fits with Bo Pelini’s all-heart, all-sweat profile.” Except it is not entirely true. McKewon added that defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, tight end Mike McNeill and running back Roy Helu are at or very near the top of the best at their position in the Big 12.

I mostly concur with McKewon, whom I must give take a moment to give a shout out before I go further. I know the young man because we worked together for a year at the Daily Nebraskan. I say he’s “young” because his first year there was my last. He was 18 and I was 24. Anyhow, I must say that McKewon has become an outstanding reporter. Yes, his points are governed by emotion but he is also objective. After all, who else could have thought of “Ten Successes of the Bill Callahan Era.”

On the offensive side, the Huskers had more than ample talent because the previous staff was very offensive minded in its recruiting. However, where I marginally differ with McKewon is on the defensive side. The Huskers ended up converting two running backs to defenders (Cody Glenn to linebacker and Major Culbert to safety). I doubt Pelini would have made those moves if we were oozing with talent on defense.

Anyhow, the cupboard wasn't empty, and it isn't depleting going to deplete any time soon. The Huskers just needed some good coaching to get it up to speed, along with some attitude to go with it.

The previous staff knew how to acquire talent but they did a horrific job of developing and coaching it. The biggest hurdle Pelini was going to face his first year was cultivating a winning attitude and desire amongst his players, but given his fire and ability to relate with players on a personal level and the fact that he is dealing with impressionable young men, the quick change in attitude is something that should not have come as a total shock to people.

True, Nebraska very seldom had recruiting rankings that knocked people in the Bob Devaney/Tom Osborne/Frank Solich years but the Huskers have never had much of a talent deficiency. What we did have between 2004 and 2007 was a major coaching/leadership deficiency. We have talent, but talent must be developed. Most of us have been saying pretty much exactly what McKewon pointed out for quite some time. Nebraska has athletes; the coaches have just needed some time to turn them into football players; now I look for them to turn them into a great team.This team, in my opinion, is good enough to win nine games or more in the regular season on a regular basis. If they win more, great. If they win less, well that happens sometimes. We can definitely count on great effort, progressing each week, and doing things to make themselves better for future seasons.

Wistrom does not take his program for granted

Former Nebraska football great Grant Wistrom was known for going hard after quarterbacks whether it was as a Cornhusker, a St. Louis Ram or Seattle Seahawk.

He tackles his duties with the Grant Wistrom Foundation with equal vigor. While in Lincoln this past weekend, he shared plenty of thoughts about the current regime of head coach Bo Pelini and athletic director Tom Osborne, who was Wistrom’s coach as a Husker. Wistrom also shared plenty of thoughts on the former regime of head coach Bill Callahan and athletic director Steve Pederson. Wistrom chatted with Lincoln Journal Star reporter Brian Christopherson:

About Bo Pelini: "I'm a fan, man. I'm excited. You know what; I don't care if we win the Big 12 championship every year or a national championship. I'm just glad to see the guys playing hard again. I think that's all we can ask for, just guys out there that take pride in wearing the N on their helmets, Blackshirts out there playing every down. It's all a credit to him and this coaching staff. He was playing with the same guys last year that were there the year before pretty much, and the product was just completely different on the field. That's just all a change in attitude and mentality in the program, and that's due to him."

Playing defense is all about attitude, Wistrom said. "You've got to have a good scheme and you got to have good coaches implementing the scheme. But you can have the best defense called, but if you have guys out there that aren't playing hard, it's going to break down. If you got guys out there playing hard, you can have the wrong defense called and you can overcome that."

Wistrom said 2007 was really painful to watch for someone who played on some of the best Husker defenses around. During games that season, his wife would ask him why he was so angry.

His answer: "I and about 140 other guys spent four years of our lives building up the best business in America. At the time we were the best college football program. ... And then some other people come in and take it over and run it into the ground. What would you do? How would you feel? ... That's how I felt.

"We dedicated four years of our lives to building up the best football program in the country. And in just a matter of years, it went downhill. There's not just one reason for it. I'm sure it was one of any number of things, and everything's cyclical in college football. But just the rate of the slide was kind of astounding to me. But I also think the turnaround has been just as impressive."
I tell fellow Nebraska alums and others that Wistrom is in a select company of my favorite all-time Huskers. I absolutely adore the passion with which he played.

Yes, it is easy for us as fans to say we stunk but to hear a former player, especially one of Wistrom’s caliber say it carries a lot of weight. Husker fans have gone round-in-round about how much Frank Solick, Craig Bohl, Bill Callahan and Kevin Cosgrove brought the program down.

Well, they all played a role. Solich had his share of success but was not a whole lot better than Callahan on relating to players. Keep in mind; we had plenty of uninspired efforts in 2002 with Solich as head coach and Bohl as defensive coordinator. However, Solich had the fortitude to get rid of Bohl whereas had Callahan remained, there was no way he would have gotten rid of Cosgrove.

Callahan and Cosgrove recognized the importance of recruiting but had nary a clue on developing the talent they acquired.

Here's hoping Bo stays a long time and the Huskers return to the top soon.

2009 Nebraska football outlook: coaching

One story in a Wine Country Husker series, looking at position breakdowns for the Nebraska Cornhuskers for the 2009 season. Today, we look coaching:

Looking back: After the Huskers ended the 2007 season that was horrible of historical proportions, resulting in the dismissal of head coach Bill Callahan, the fan base and program entered the 2008 campaign optimistic that Bo Pelini (the people’s choice) would begin to lead the Huskers back to respectability.

Expectations ranged from 7-5 on the low end to 10-2 on the high end. The latter, of course, were primarily the Kool-Aid sippers who could not understand that Pelini’s task would not be a quick fix.

The Huskers went 9-4 including a season-closing 26-21 win in the Gator Bowl over Clemson. Nebraska twice battled back from 11-point deficits against an underachieving but talented Tiger club.

The blowout losses to Oklahoma (62-28) and Missouri (52-17) were disappointing but Nebraska finished the season by winning six of its last seven games.

Pelini and his staff did an excellent job laying the foundation as far as beginning to develop players. The Huskers might not have always played smart and had their limitations as far as talent but the days of being ill-prepared and playing lifeless football appear to be a thing of the past.

The staff was excellent during the week as far as bringing out that extra something in the players. For the first time since Tom Osborne was the head coach, players really seemed to learn from the coaches and enjoyed a bond with them that was lacking under Callahan and to a lesser degree Frank Solich.

As far as gameday is concerned, the staff showed great ability to make adjustments to the scheme that fit the talent of the roster. What a concept but I digress.

Looking ahead: Going from 5-7 in 2007 to 9-4 in 2008 was the easy part. The hard part will be going from 9-4 to say 11-2. Then again, losses to Virginia Tech (35-30) and Texas Tech (37-31 in overtime) could have easily produced an 11-2 mark last season but the truth of the matter is that the higher a team attempts to shoot up the ladder, the smaller the margin for error becomes.

The culture is definitely in place and so is the foundation. The focus of spring practice this season will be about refining the principles that were established last season.

Pelini brings an infectious passion, which can be two-fold. The team takes on his personality in that they never once quit. Pelini just needs to continue to improve on harnessing those emotions (i.e. picking battles with referees more carefully). Being passionate is one thing, excessive sideline histrionics are another.

Perhaps, quarterback Patrick Witt’s decision to leave the program in part because Pelini reportedly refused to kowtow to Witt’s father’s desire to have his son named the starting quarterback by the end of spring drills is an example of the coaching staff taking back the reigns of the program.

Too often, Callahan and Solich kowtowed to the players.

Perhaps the best decision Pelini made was to redshirt virtually the entire 2008 recruiting class. Why not? After all, very few high school athletes are ready to make the jump to Div. I-A immediately so why not develop them the right way?

The Huskers might not have the breakout season we are ultimately expecting but the foundation is in place.