It was quite the deal — a one-month gig to push the buttons for the Nebraska football program.

And, oh, the buttons some people would have liked to have pushed back in December of 2003.

Tempers in the Husker camp were flaring enough two weeks into Bo Pelini’s reign as interim head coach that players held a private meeting to discuss what could be done to sway athletic director Steve Pederson into giving Pelini a permanent promotion.

There was even a suggestion to boycott the Alamo Bowl game against Michigan State.

Leave it to Pelini, reputed by many to be the feistiest of the bunch, to break into that heated session and deliver a calm, passionate plea for reason.

He reminded the players that regardless of what might happen in his immediate future — left clouded by Pederson’s firing of Frank Solich — he’d be fine. And, so, now all they needed to do was finish strong, with their heads up.

“We were out to win a football game, but we’re going to do it the right way,” Pelini said recently about his first, brief stint leading Nebraska. “That was a bit of a challenge, because there were a lot of guys, at that point, that their emotions were flying high — both within the staff and on the team.

“Part of my job was to draw them in, make sure they stayed together, that they believed in each other and believed in what we were going to do, and not get distracted,” Pelini said. “I believe that’s one of my strengths, what I’ve always been able to do.

“Things are going to happen. People are going to drift and there are going to be distractions out there, but you need to find a way to get a common theme and get a guy to believe that we’re going to keep this headed in the right direction no matter what.”

Pelini not only stamped out brushfires and got a team that was bitter and confused over Solich’s firing following a 9-3 regular season to refocus. He commanded the kind of attention that led to the Huskers’  17-3 victory.

Nebraska limited Michigan State to 174 total yards (209 lower than its season average). Spartans senior quarterback Jeff Smoker, who averaged 269.9 yards passing, managed just 156, with three interceptions, and was sacked five times.

Offensively, the Huskers produced 389 yards (48 more than their season average), as Cory Ross rushed for 138 and Jammal Lord threw for a career-high 160.

And, yes, in the aftermath, there were even more calls for Pederson to name Pelini as Solich’s successor.

“Believe me, it wasn’t just me. It was the whole staff,” Pelini said of pulling Nebraska through a trying time. “It was the leadership on that football team. The seniors. There were a lot of people that had a big hand in what happened there, and it was a special group.”

A few days later, Pelini interviewed with Pederson about the Nebraska opening, though he came away wondering about the sincerity of it. Eventually, he took the job as co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma, then left after a year to become defensive coordinator at LSU.

It would be natural for people to think that the end of Pelini’s one season with the Huskers intensified his desire to be a head coach. But the 40-year-old Youngstown, Ohio, native — though gratified to finally get a real shot as NU head coach following 14 years as an assistant — sees things differently.

“I try and stay focused, the same way I preach to my players, on the task at hand, the job that I’m in at that point,” Pelini said. “I figure if I do that job right and I approach things the right way, that people are going to recognize that (and) maybe opportunities come down the road and things work out. If not, I was perfectly happy.

“I like coaching. I like interacting with the players. My relationships with the players and with the staff and the guys I work with — it’s something that I cherish and that’ll never change. At the end of the day, I care about my players and my players know it. They know I have their back, and I believe they’ve got mine. It’s about a family, creating a family atmosphere. That’s how you have success.”

Pelini will tell you the lessons he learned in his month steering the Huskers were no different than others he’s learned. Sure, he was in charge of a larger group, but the same principles that helped him connect with his defensive players applied across the board.

He built attitude and expectation, then motivated.

Jay Moore, a redshirt freshman defensive end in 2003, remembers how Pelini paid attention to little things that added up to success in the bowl game. Even something as minute as cutting practice times back because he wasn’t worried about the players’ conditioning had an impact.

“You felt like he was taking care of you,” said Moore, who’s now with the San Francisco 49ers.

Fabian Washington was a sophomore defensive back at Nebraska in 2003 and said players appreciated Pelini speaking his mind — good or bad.

“We had a guy that everybody would run through a brick wall for,” said Washington, now with the Oakland Raiders.

Washington promises his cousin Latravis will soon feel that way, too.

The younger Washington, who redshirted this season with the Huskers, was a bit unnerved by the Nov. 24 firing of Bill Callahan. But eight days later, after athletic director Tom Osborne had introduced Pelini as the Huskers’ next coach, the cousins chatted again.

“I told Latravis, ‘Just calm down, chill out,’” Fabian Washington said. “‘Bo will get everything back rolling.’”

That belief comes from the way Pelini pushed the buttons in December of 2003.

Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.