np_husker
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http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=3918...;u_sid=10396039
Not that I’m trying to suggest anything about what might happen in the future, but it’s interesting to note the comparisons between the first seven games of Bo Pelini’s debut season at Nebraska and Bob Stoops’ first season at Oklahoma.
Stoops, like Pelini, was 4-3 at this point after winning his first three games with the Sooners in 1999.
Stoops’ first loss that year came against Notre Dame. The score? 34-30.
Pelini lost his first game at Nebraska three weeks ago to Virginia Tech, 35-30.
The similarities between Stoops and Pelini are striking. Both took over after five-win seasons at powerful programs that had fallen hard. Stoops coached his first game at Oklahoma two days after he turned 40. Pelini was hired at Nebraska 11 days before that same milestone birthday.
Both immediately hired their brothers to fill the role of defensive coordinator, and, of course, Stoops and Pelini grew up not five miles from each other in Youngstown, Ohio, starring at the same high school. They both started in coaching as graduate assistants under Hayden Fry at Iowa.
Where will the parallels end? We all know what happened at Oklahoma after those first seven games: Stoops is 99-20 since. OU has won 11 games or more in seven of the past eight years with five Big 12 titles.
By the way, the 1999 season ended for the Sooners with three wins over their final five games for a 7-5 finish.
You’re sure to hear plenty more of the Stoops-Pelini talk next week as Nebraska visits Oklahoma in a game likely to carry more intrigue because of the men on the sidelines than anything else.