LINCOLN, Neb.—When it comes to the debacle that was Nebraska’s 2007 football season, Bo Pelini pleads ignorance.
The first-year Cornhuskers’ coach, at least publicly, claims he doesn’t know—and doesn’t care to know—the reasons why the program fell to the bottom of the Big 12 North after tying for first in 2006.
Leave last season and that ugly 5-7 record in the past, Pelini tells his players.
“I’m not a psychologist. I’m not a guy who can just get them into a room and wipe out any bad feelings or bad memories they’ve had,” Pelini said. “As they’re taught, they get comfortable in our system and they develop confidence, and then those things go away.”
For fans, forgetting isn’t so easy. Six losses in the last seven games marked the Huskers’ worst stretch since 1961. This is, after all, a program that has had two losing seasons in four years after having none from 1962 through 2003.
Nose tackle Ndamukong Suh said the Cornhuskers aren’t mentally scarred despite the startling beatdowns of 41-6 at Missouri, 45-14 at home to Oklahoma State and 76-39 at Kansas, among others.
“A lot of people on this team have tough skin,” Suh said.
Pelini says effort and attitude are the keys to turning around a defense that ranked 114th nationally in points allowed, 116th against the run and 117th in turnover margin. Big 12 opponents averaged 42.4 points and 512 yards.
“I see the stats,” safety Larry Asante said. “That motivates me to work hard at practice every day.”
Nebraska fans hailed the arrival of Pelini, whose star has been rising since Frank Solich hired him as defensive coordinator at Nebraska in 2003. After Solich’s controversial firing at the end of a nine-win regular season in ’03, Pelini was interim coach for an Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State.
“We want Bo,” the fans chanted as he left the field in San Antonio.
Steve Pederson, then the athletic director, didn’t want Bo, though, and hired Bill Callahan. Pelini moved on to Oklahoma and then to LSU, where he was in charge of the Tigers’ national championship defense last season.
Pelini’s reputation for repairing defenses is why athletic director Tom Osborne hired him. The high-energy 40-year-old’s charge is to inspire a unit that too often looked out of position and, worse yet, looked unmotivated.
Osborne, who coached the Huskers to 255 wins and three national titles from 1973-97, picked Pelini over former Nebraska star Turner Gill, the head coach at the University of Buffalo.
“Bo was a person who brought the most defensive credentials to the table and had pretty much demonstrated a one-year turnaround defensively when he was here at Nebraska,” Osborne said. “I didn’t know Bo as well as Turner, but I felt that kind of presence was what we needed the most, the defensive expertise.”
Pelini named his older brother, Carl, the Huskers’ defensive coordinator, but there’s no question that Nebraska’s defense is Bo’s baby.
His defensive mantra is simple, he said.
“We’re not doing rocket science around here,” he said. “The most important thing our kids can do is to play hard every down.”
All four starters return on the defensive line and two are back in the secondary, but the Huskers are a mystery at linebacker.
Joe Ganz, who started the last three games in place of an injured Sam Keller, is the solid No. 1 quarterback. Ganz is one of the more mobile quarterbacks Nebraska has had since the Huskers went away from the triple-option offense in 2004, and his running ability was featured in last year’s 65-51 loss at Colorado.
Ganz passed for 1,399 yards and 15 touchdowns in three starts, including a school-record seven TDs against Kansas State.
Marlon Lucky, the only returning 1,000-yard rusher in the Big 12, will run behind a solid offensive line.
Meanwhile, Pelini will see to it the defense does its part.
“Maybe we won’t have to score as many points,” Ganz said. “It’s tough when you’re throwing up 51 points and you lose, but I have a feeling it’s not going to happen like that anymore.”
