It was the morning after, and Nebraska assistant coach Mike Ekeler wanted to gauge the players' mindset. He asked Cody Glenn what the linebacker had been thinking during the previous day's loss to Virginia Tech, how he'd felt when it was over, what lessons he could drawn for the future.
The player told the assistant coach about an epiphany. A year earlier, Glenn said, the Huskers would have known going in they were headed for a thrashing. But this time, he said, "we thought we had a shot." It got better. Sometime in the first quarter, Glenn recognized, "Hey, we can play with these guys." By midway through the second half, he knew: "We can beat these guys."
Ekeler listened to Glenn depict the Huskers evolving like the Little Engine That Could (ultimately, they couldn't; a late rally fell short and the Hokies won 35-30), and had an epiphany of his own. He homed in on Glenn's newly discovered confidence and optimism and realized: "Oh, boy. We've got a lot of work to do."
That was a year ago. If preseason rankings and predictions mean anything, a lot of work has been done. Media are ranking the Huskers near the bottom of various top 25s and projecting them to win the Big 12 North. Second-year coach Bo Pelini and his staff seem to have Nebraska on the right track. But listening to Pelini, it's clear there's still plenty left to do -- and examining a linebacker's exuberance after a tough loss might be as good a way as any to start explaining why.
Full Article