BOrnography?

Is anyone else starting to get nervous about the depth of glory restoring that's dominated this off season? It was nice early on. Bo fulfilled all of the immediate needs for most Nebraska fans right away with his simple man approach. The spring game was a giant success if not terribly interesting. The unity council is back and Frank Solich shouldn't have been fired.

While I appreciated the honesty out of Bo in regards to the short ball coach, his comments did elicit an eye roll out of me. Everything is starting to seem a little too easy at this point, too neat and tidy. You can't just come back, do everything the old way and succeed, right?

That's the question I've been wrestling with lately.

Today I may have found an answer: BOrnography. Ladies and gentlemen, "A Return to Tradition":

"A DVD compilation of the historical events marking the move back to Nebraska Football Tradition in 2008. See the full footage of the 1997 Championship reunion banquet featuring Charlie McBride, Jason Peter and Coach Osborne. It was the middle of the '07 season when the banquet took place, and things were looking tough for the '07 Huskers. hear the amazing insights and heart warming reflections offered by the former coaches and players, including some hilarious comments from the always entertaining Jason Peter. See the imploring request from coach Osborne for the '07 players to show their support and encouragement to the embattled 2007 Huskers. Also see the entire Bo Pelini introduction press conference and hear Bo set forth in his own words his vision for bringing tradition back to NU. And finally see highlights from the 2008 Spring Game, complete with the post game comments from coach Pelini and select players. 2007 was a tough year, but the future looks bright! DVD video, Husker Vision footage, 140 minutes."

See a banquet! Hear Tom tell the '97 team that, hell, high water, or embarrassing home beatdown, they're gonna get down there on the sidelines and CHEER, dadgumit! Watch Bo Pelini do that thing where you crane your neck and pull against the collar of your shirt with your index finger because you hate wearing ties!

OK, now there's no question about my level of concern. There is no Bill Callahan era video and that's fine, but Bo getting one before a game has even been played? It's much worse than I thought.

But then again, if the devil exploded and all evil in the world vanished, what sort of video would you want?

Bo v. The Daily Nebraskan - Damn Opinions Dragging Me Down

Two commonly held beliefs:

1) Grown men shouldn't yell at "kids" for not behaving like adults.

2) "Kids" will sometimes have confusing, poorly communicated opinions.

The kids in question here are actually the student staff of The Daily Nebraskan. In an editorial Monday, the staff of the DN called into question Pelini's handling of recent off the field incidents, saying:

"While his actions to keep players out of trouble are commendable, it's how he has handled players once they are in trouble that is problematic to say the least."

The piece actually goes on to cite Pelini's indefinite suspension of Andy Christensen as an exception to his "policy of inaction." Patrick Witt's arrest gets a mention, but the real sticking point in this editorial seems to be the recent arrest of Husker recruit Josh Williams. Pelini has yet to comment publicly on the matter and that sticks in the collective craw of the DN staff. The piece goes on to say:

"Players should not be invited to our university and given the benefit of a full scholarship if they have a history of violence. If players on the team violate the trust of the community through violence, they should be removed from the team immediately."

Fine. That's an opinion. In my opinion there's quite a bit of gray area here. The player's not on campus--I'm not sure how you stop a robbery in Denton, TX from Lincoln--so I guess we're faulting Pelini and his staff for not unearthing this potential character flaw in Williams during their blitzkrieg recruiting session. Okay, it's not my case but there is a case to be made there. That said, it's tough to criticize a decision that hasn't been made yet.

Bo Pelini, of course, had his own opinion. In another editorial today, Pelini was reported to have "berated a board member" with "choice phrases," claimed the "tone and conclusion of the article was unfounded," and banned the publication from practice. The ban has since been lifted, but the temporary damage has probably been done. (Key word: temporary.)

Make no mistake this was a stupid, stupid decision on Bo's part. He'll make many more as a first time head coach, but I fully expect it will be resolved and forgotten within a week. These are students learning to be journalists and part of learning to be a journalist is emulating the work you aspire to produce. That's the way the editorial read to me, aspiring journalists trying to have a take, rousing some rabble just like Tom Shatel might do. You can't jump down anyone's throat for doing that and Bo will have to make amends for his reaction.

But do I think it signals the start of an alarming trend? Nope. On his radio show today Matt Perrault made a joking reference--I presume--to Communist Russia (audio here), but he was legitimately up in arms, going so far as to say that if this is going to be the nature of Pelini's dealings with criticism that he is sure to be banned at some point.

He won't be. To assume that this is the first step in a vast silencing of the media is ludicrous but I understand the talk radio gig. Have a take, stir the pot, but let's just call it what it was: A bad choice. Lesson learned.

The question of player discipline is probably the trickiest issue in all of sports and it doesn't matter if you're in your first year as a coach or your 37th, there is no right answer for all cases when you're the guy who has to pull the trigger. Osborne dealt with it. Callahan dealt with it. Bobby Bowden could probably right a thinly veiled but best-selling business book about it. (Everything can be turned into a business book, you know. All you need is an ordinal number's worth of "principles.") You do the best you can.

To date, we've seen the best out of Bo Pelini and if this incident is the worst, then I'm still confident we'll be just fine.

That's my opinion.

UPDATE: Jeff from DXP details the incident for the Fanhouse here and in doing so uncovered a gem of a link: Tom Osborne also suspended Daily Nebraskan reporters during the 1995 season. Aha! The plot thickens.

Everyone assumed that Dr. Tom was the calming influence here, but now I like to think that when a seething Bo Pelini flipped a copy of the editorial onto Tom's desk, the good doctor--after a brief, rage-inducing flashback--responded simply with: Let's call those bastards right now!

Pelini's defense poised to succeed?

Over the weekend on Yahoo! Sports, Terry Bowden released the aptly titled "Terry's Top 10 Analysis." I'll let former coach Bowden explain it in his own words:

"Basically, it is a chart of last year’s final top 10 teams and all of the various factors and statistics that I believe (sometimes mistakenly) are important in building a championship team. I want to see what exactly it is that the 10 best teams in college football are doing to be so successful."

Here's the chart(PDF here):

According to Bowden, any statistical category with seven or more teams finishing in the top 25 is deemed "critically important." In order of critical importance, that gives us: rushing defense, scoring defense, total defense, turnovers gained (i.e. takeaways) and turnover margin.

Feeling good about hiring a defensive head coach yet? It gets better.

In his five years as a collegiate coordinator, Bo Pelini has never had a defense finish lower than 20th (Neb. '03) in rushing defense. In terms of scoring defense, his worst performance--17th in the nation-- was actually last year at LSU. In 2003, his Blackshirts squad finished 6th in this category. Total defense? Pelini's never finished lower than 13th in that category and has spent the past three seasons with the 3rd-ranked unit in the nation each year.

Turnovers are a bit dicier. In his lone season as Nebraska's defensive coordinator, Bo set a school record with 47 takeaways, a total that lead the nation. Last year LSU had 36, good enough for third, but in the three seasons in between Pelini's defenses were merely average to below-average with 21, 14 and 22. Accordingly, turnover margin follows the same pattern. Two great seasons in '07 and '03 sandwiching three average years.

Overall, Pelini's track record looks pretty good when up against the metrics that won games last year. Based on his past performance, Pelini seems like he can consistently churn out defenses that will rank high in Bowden's "critically important" categories. That's the good news.

The bad news is that Pelini's never faced as vast a reclamation project as he does with this 2008 squad. In 2003, Bo made a college ball name for himself by taking Nebraska from the 55th ranked defense in '02 to the 13th best squad in '03. When he went to Oklahoma in 2004, his defense actually faired worse than the previous year, going from the best unit in '03 to the 13th in '04. From there it was on to LSU where he inherited the third-best defense and kept them there for the next three seasons.

Last year Nebraska ranked 116th in rushing defense, 114th in scoring defense, 112th in total defense, 118th in takeaways and 117th in turnover margin. It's a miracle we were 5-7.

For a conference comparison, here is Sunday Morning Quarterback's statistical analysis of Big 12 conference games last year. Teams that allowed fewer rushing yards in Big 12 games won 81% of the time, fewer total yards 77%. Turnover margin tops SMQ's list with the highest correlation to winning on a game-by-game basis so let's hope were getting one of Pelini's nasty, ball-hawking defenses rather than just one of his nasty defenses.

So what do we know? Defense wins football games and Bo knows defense but our defense has a long damn way to go.

Was there ever really any option?

Let the deification of Bo Pelini commence (or continue depending on your POV). THEYRANTHEOPTION! Yesterday! In practice!

"We got a lot of things going in the offense. That's part of it," Pelini said. "That will be part of the offense. How much? We're not sure yet. But we know it's going to be an element to our offense."

It's just that easy, isn't it? Bo Pelini hasn't coached a game yet for Nebraska but in terms of public favor I'd say he's undefeated so far. Get back to basics, do things the right way, recruit in-state and/or ask the homegrown talent to enlist, rebuild the Blackshirts by eliminating tag from practice and now run the option.

Is there any way Nebraska doesn't win nine games next year? Those are all the things we used to do and we always won at least nine games back then.

If you can't tell, I'm ready for some games to start. Only five months to go.

Naming rights...We don't really know what Watson's offense will look like next year. Everyone assumes it will be a little West Coast offense with a nostalgic nod to the option offense of yore with a modern spreadtastic twist.

In other words, The Sandhills Offense. At least that's what 40+ readers of this blog decided to call it in the poll from last week. I like the choice.

There's a handy acronym--The SHO--and not only can you pronounce it, it also evokes fireworks, massive scoring outbursts and getting called up to the majors. All good things.

Geographically, it's pretty fitting as well. The Sandhills are in Nebraska (there's your option) but closer to the Pacific Ocean than Lincoln (there's your West Coast).

Well done, voters.

The Morning Line favorite...In addition to the option quote from Monday's practice, I think we also may have found Pelini's catchphrase. Bill Callahan had "they're a good football team." Tom Osborne had silence. Bo Pelini? He has this (from the same LJS article from above where Bo explained why he was absent during the LSU Tigers visit to the White House):

"I was invited but obviously I had a little different agenda today. That's about it. That's all I got to say about that."

The emphasis is obviously mine. Bo Pelini has never spoken in italics in his entire life, but here's Bo saying much the same thing after confronting Bill Snyder in 2003, a choice that probably cost him the Nebraska job the first time around.

On second thought, let's not make that Bo Pelini's catchphrase. I like that the guy knows how to end an interview and deal with the media, but now I can't help but think that it was at least partially responsible for the past four years of utter torment.

What else you got?

Kicker Kicked Off Cornhuskers

The Lincoln Journal-Star is reporting that transfer kicker Daniel Lee has been dismissed from the team.

Who? This guy.

Lee transferred to Nebraska from Vanderbilt in January of last year but sat out all of the '07 season as a Football Bowl Subdivision transfer (formerly, and more conveniently, Division I-A).

That same LJS report also notes the suspension of "several players." Given that we have yet to hear of any additional incidents of Husker lawlessness or even the names of said suspended players, something strange certainly seems to be afoot. (Pun, sadly, intended.)

Expect more information, spurious and not, to leak in the days to follow.

The Joy of Being Head Ball Coach

It hasn't been a week for good news in Nebraska football circles, but I'm not so sure that's a bad thing for the Cornhuskers first-year head coach.

Back in the (brief) halcyon days of Bill Callahan's tenure at Nebraska, the rallying call of the day was "Restore the Order." Maybe it still is but the shirts Callahan had printed up referred to the Big 12 pecking order. (Or, perhaps, the natural state of the universe which, of course, features Nebraska as one of the best teams in the country.)

Bo Pelini now has a chance to restore a different kind of order. While Pelini has curried much favor with Huskerbloods by getting back to the "Nebraska Way" on a couple of different fronts--walk-ons, promises of competitive practices, actions speaking louder than and/or in place of words--given Nebraska's recent bum rush of the Fulmer Cup standings, the new coach is faced with his first official decision as the BMOC.

As Darren noted on the Big Red Network last summer when we were awaiting disciplinary action on Mo Purify, talking about what Pelini "should" do is pointless and pretty dangerous. What's important here is not how Bo handles the situations but rather the fact that now, barely 100 days into the job, he has to handle the situation.

What's the old line about losing that never consoled anyone? Losing doesn't build character, it reveals it? Yeah, this is one of those sort of moments.

Up to this point, Pelini's tenure could best be described as wiping the slate clean. Now, or in the near future, Bo's going to have to pick up the chalk and write. Ultimately, the words that end up on the blackboard probably won't matter much but I suspect that the process certainly will.

It's officially your team now, Bo.

Nebraska takes New York

Or, rather, New York came to Nebraska. The New York Times that is.

Joe Drape has a nice piece in today's Times detailing the back to basics approach of Bo Pelini. It's similar to stories you've read before, but where you really get your money's worth is with the audio slide show. It features some spectacular images and Drape likening the recruiting event he attended in Grand Island to a "tent revival."

Sounds like a pretty apt comparison to me.

BOss of the Plains

William Jennings Bryan's title is safe. Bo Pelini, while certainly young for his position, will likely never inspire any title as grandiose as the "Boy Orator of the Platte" but I think that's sort of the point.

We had a guy not too long ago who had perfected the art of saying something without saying anything at all. A smooth, slick and ultimately meaningless answer was always at the ready. Few men can talk football better than Bill Callahan, which made Pelini's press conference, where he was visibly nervous and even bought himself some time on a few questions with a "how do you mean" or two, that much more refreshing.

This isn't a coach who likes talking about football, this is a coach who loves coaching football. It's possible that this worried a few Nebraskan's as they tuned in Sunday and it's possible that it will worry a few more down the road but if I had to characterize Pelini's persona today there's a word that comes immediately to mind: Nebraskan.

Chuck Klosterman wrote perhaps my favorite passage regarding the Midwestern ethos while describing his upbringing in North Dakota in Fargo Rock City:

"...what this culture lacked (and still lacks) is an emphasis on ideas--especially ideas that don't serve a practical, tangible purpose. In North Dakota, life is about work. Everything is based on working hard, regardless of what it earns you. If you're spending a lot of time mulling over the state of the universe (or even the state of your own life), you're obviously not working. You probably need to get back to work."

Swap Nebraska for North Dakota in that passage and you have the perfect description of where I grew up and I couldn't help but think of it while watching Pelini undergo his first Q&A session as Nebraska's head coach. For some people, most of the people I knew back in Nebraska, talking about working is a lot more difficult than actually working. Pelini seems to be one of those people and those people are typically the ones you want working beside you.

In my mind, Bo left that press conference, immediately removed his tie like a young boy after Christmas Eve mass, put on a grey sweatshirt and started calling recruits. More likely, he probably had a nice dinner with his family, watched to see where LSU would land and then went to bed but the important thing here is perception and in the end it came down to this: Pelini may not be polished behind a mike but he already feels like one of us.

My favorite part of the press conference came after it was officially over. Dr. Tom had already stepped in and delivered the "one more question" decree and then there was Pelini, sort of looking around wondering if it was actually over. Somebody suggested a family photo and then a employee of the athletic department walked in front of the podium and asked Bo if he'd like a hat.

"Yeah, the white one," the 28th head football coach at Nebraska said before exiting stage left.

Good choice. The good guys always wear white hats.

ESPN Knows it's Bo?

The Worldwide Leader is reporting that Bo Pelini will be the next head coach at Nebraska.

According to their source "close to the situation," Pelini could be in Lincoln on Monday for an announcement.

Interesting timing considering it's the eve of the SEC title game but this does seem to jibe with both the timeline of the past week and everything we've been hearing thus far.

Personally, I've vacillated on Pelini. During this past season he represented the antithesis of Callahan, I would've loved to have had him then but once the coaching search was officially on, I wondered if he was "the best available".

Now I think Pelini's biggest knock--no head coaching experience--might be his biggest asset. Bo will have a lot to prove and a lot of support. Nothing bad about that. Somebody was going to take a shot with the guy and now that somebody is reportedly going to be Nebraska. Whenever I daydreamed about Callahan's successor the one thing I kept coming back to was the desire for a passionate individual who was looking to make a splash.

That description fits Pelini and let's face it, nobody knows how any coach will pan out two or three years down the road. There's only faith.

I can have faith in Pelini.

More to come as there's more the be said...