Steven M. Sipple: Bo gives defense reason to believe
Bo Pelini, in his lifetime, seldom has experienced out-and-out failure in athletics.
His biggest failure?
“Golf,” he said flatly. “I pretty much fail at golf every time I play. That’s a humbling sport.”
Football can be humbling in its own right. It can bring a strong man to his knees. Ask Kevin Cosgrove. Ask anybody even remotely involved with the Nebraska defense last season. For his part, Pelini doesn’t watch much video of the Huskers’ 2007 defense — maybe half of a game here, another half there.
“You know, I really don’t even know much about what they did defensively last year,” the first-year Nebraska football coach said Monday.
There’s a few ex-Husker coaches who can probably relate.
Now, of course, begins the big turnaround. Hope springs eternal for every college football program during spring practice, which for Nebraska begins Wednesday. Yep, Pelini will snap his fingers and, poof, a Top 25 defense will materialize. It’s as easy as hitting drives straight down the middle, right?
The hard truth is, this Big Red defensive reclamation project will be onerous, confusing and strenuous — and that will be on the good days. It will be an absolute quagmire at times. Sometimes I think we need to remind ourselves that Nebraska last season allowed more points (455), yards (5,722) and first downs (299) than any team in school history. Think about that. Alas, Pelini isn’t a magician. Sometimes he even hits golf balls into the trees.
However, Nebraska safety Larry Asante echoes the sentiment of Husker fans everywhere.
“I’ve been going around the locker room saying a little motto: In Bo we trust,” Asante said.
No doubt about it, Nebraska’s defense will improve under Pelini’s watch. We feel safe making that prediction, if only because the defense simply can’t get worse than 112th nationally in yards allowed. It just can’t.
How much better will it get? That’s the question. Top 75? Top 50? Top 25?
“We saw what (Pelini) did in 2003 when he first came here,” Husker defensive end Zach Potter said. “I think we’re expecting similar results.”
For all the belief in Pelini, the fact remains Nebraska’s starting front four — which returns intact — faltered badly much of last season. Now it’s the Huskers’ back seven on defense that appears most vulnerable. Somewhere Mike Leach, Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing are licking their chops.
“I’m not going to make any bold predictions,” Pelini said. “But I know the first time I came here (in 2003), it was all doom and gloom, and we found a way. We’ll find a way.”
Spring is time to build a defense’s foundation. That was Pelini’s message to the masses Monday. Actually, the foundation began to take shape during winter conditioning. Now comes the X’s and O’s and the earliest stages of on-field preparation. Now begins the coaches’ hands-on work. Laying the bricks, as Pelini calls it.
Pelini said he eventually wants Nebraska’s defense to be “the best.” Emphasize “eventually.” Maybe Wednesday will be the start of something special for the Husker defense. But it’s only a start. Only a foundation. This reclamation project will take time and elbow grease and patience. Ah, patience. That was another message Pelini sent Monday.
Hopefully, the message was clear.
“You can make the mistake of trying to be the Patriots tomorrow,” he said. “It’s about teaching and developing and getting the players to know us (coaches), and us to know them, and what their strengths are, and then building the system accordingly, and tweaking the system accordingly. It’s not an overnight thing.”
Pelini sent another message: If any Nebraska players refuse to buy into his changes, well, good luck playing for another school.
“There’s not a lot of room for debate,” Pelini said. “It’s going to be done a certain way. If they want to do it another way, there’s a lot of other Division I programs they can play at. There’s not a lot of things that are up for discussion in terms of how the game’s going to be played and how we’re going to go about things.”
Pelini emits the vibe that failure isn’t an option. He just has that way about him. And, yes, the players feel it and like it.
“It’s just his demeanor and how he comes off in meetings, and just seeing how he made it work down at LSU,” Potter said.
I often talk and write about how Pelini is going to make life fun for players. But he wasn’t talking much about having fun Monday. It’s time to punch the time clock. Time to get dirty. Work hard and work smart, he says.
Perhaps that work eventually will pay off in the form of a respectable defense. Respectable seems like an attainable goal, for now.
Let’s first see how many players step up in the next few weeks.
“If you put in the hard work, and do all of the things that are necessary, the results will take care of themselves,” Pelini said with his trademark confidence. “I believe that.”
Pelini gives you a reason to believe, and that’s a nice start.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
His biggest failure?
“Golf,” he said flatly. “I pretty much fail at golf every time I play. That’s a humbling sport.”
Football can be humbling in its own right. It can bring a strong man to his knees. Ask Kevin Cosgrove. Ask anybody even remotely involved with the Nebraska defense last season. For his part, Pelini doesn’t watch much video of the Huskers’ 2007 defense — maybe half of a game here, another half there.
“You know, I really don’t even know much about what they did defensively last year,” the first-year Nebraska football coach said Monday.
There’s a few ex-Husker coaches who can probably relate.
Now, of course, begins the big turnaround. Hope springs eternal for every college football program during spring practice, which for Nebraska begins Wednesday. Yep, Pelini will snap his fingers and, poof, a Top 25 defense will materialize. It’s as easy as hitting drives straight down the middle, right?
The hard truth is, this Big Red defensive reclamation project will be onerous, confusing and strenuous — and that will be on the good days. It will be an absolute quagmire at times. Sometimes I think we need to remind ourselves that Nebraska last season allowed more points (455), yards (5,722) and first downs (299) than any team in school history. Think about that. Alas, Pelini isn’t a magician. Sometimes he even hits golf balls into the trees.
However, Nebraska safety Larry Asante echoes the sentiment of Husker fans everywhere.
“I’ve been going around the locker room saying a little motto: In Bo we trust,” Asante said.
No doubt about it, Nebraska’s defense will improve under Pelini’s watch. We feel safe making that prediction, if only because the defense simply can’t get worse than 112th nationally in yards allowed. It just can’t.
How much better will it get? That’s the question. Top 75? Top 50? Top 25?
“We saw what (Pelini) did in 2003 when he first came here,” Husker defensive end Zach Potter said. “I think we’re expecting similar results.”
For all the belief in Pelini, the fact remains Nebraska’s starting front four — which returns intact — faltered badly much of last season. Now it’s the Huskers’ back seven on defense that appears most vulnerable. Somewhere Mike Leach, Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing are licking their chops.
“I’m not going to make any bold predictions,” Pelini said. “But I know the first time I came here (in 2003), it was all doom and gloom, and we found a way. We’ll find a way.”
Spring is time to build a defense’s foundation. That was Pelini’s message to the masses Monday. Actually, the foundation began to take shape during winter conditioning. Now comes the X’s and O’s and the earliest stages of on-field preparation. Now begins the coaches’ hands-on work. Laying the bricks, as Pelini calls it.
Pelini said he eventually wants Nebraska’s defense to be “the best.” Emphasize “eventually.” Maybe Wednesday will be the start of something special for the Husker defense. But it’s only a start. Only a foundation. This reclamation project will take time and elbow grease and patience. Ah, patience. That was another message Pelini sent Monday.
Hopefully, the message was clear.
“You can make the mistake of trying to be the Patriots tomorrow,” he said. “It’s about teaching and developing and getting the players to know us (coaches), and us to know them, and what their strengths are, and then building the system accordingly, and tweaking the system accordingly. It’s not an overnight thing.”
Pelini sent another message: If any Nebraska players refuse to buy into his changes, well, good luck playing for another school.
“There’s not a lot of room for debate,” Pelini said. “It’s going to be done a certain way. If they want to do it another way, there’s a lot of other Division I programs they can play at. There’s not a lot of things that are up for discussion in terms of how the game’s going to be played and how we’re going to go about things.”
Pelini emits the vibe that failure isn’t an option. He just has that way about him. And, yes, the players feel it and like it.
“It’s just his demeanor and how he comes off in meetings, and just seeing how he made it work down at LSU,” Potter said.
I often talk and write about how Pelini is going to make life fun for players. But he wasn’t talking much about having fun Monday. It’s time to punch the time clock. Time to get dirty. Work hard and work smart, he says.
Perhaps that work eventually will pay off in the form of a respectable defense. Respectable seems like an attainable goal, for now.
Let’s first see how many players step up in the next few weeks.
“If you put in the hard work, and do all of the things that are necessary, the results will take care of themselves,” Pelini said with his trademark confidence. “I believe that.”
Pelini gives you a reason to believe, and that’s a nice start.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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