Huskers hope Pelini can restore Nebraska prestige

Aug 19, 2008 - 9:10 PM 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.