Evidence for Pelini

[NPhusker]

I am starting this thread because i want to know everyone's reasons why they want Bo Pelini as our next head coach. However i also want to know why some people dont want Pelini. So post your support for Pelini, or your reasons you dont like him.

 

I'll start.........

 

I really like Pelini and was intrigued with the people who said they dislike him, so i did some reasearch to see how good of a job Pelini actually did for NU in 2003.

 

And here is what i found.

 

In 2002 (Craig Bohl's last year as DC) NU went 7-7, however they played a very difficult scheduel. Out of the seven losses, 4 of those losses were against teams that finished the year in the top 20 (Penn. St.- 16, Texas-6, Kan. St.- 7, Colorado- 20), so they didnt lose to a bunch of bad teams.

 

That 2002 teams Defense finished the year ranked(in the nation):

total defense- 55th at 362 yds/game

scoring defense- 45th at 24 pts/game

turnover margin-73rd at -.21

 

This defense finished with 32 sacks, 12 Ints and 21 total turnovers, 126 TFL. The top five tacklers on the team were Demario William-91, Barret Ruud-91, Phillip Bland- 84, Scott Shanle-71, Ryon Bingham-67.

Out of those top 5 Williams, Ruud, and Bingham returned the next year. Out of the top 20 tacklers on the team, 13 players returned the next year.

 

When Pelini got here he had a somewhat experienced team with 7 returning starters on Defense (LB-Ruud and Williams DL- Bingham, Trevor Johnson, Patrick Kabongo CB- Fabian Washington S-Josh Bullocks) Pelini then took this team and made them a dominating, ball hawking defense.

 

In 2003 (Pelini as DC) NU went 10-3, While they didnt play the most difficult scheduel, out of their three losses two came against teams that ended the year in the top 15 (Kan. St.-14 and Texas-12)

 

The 2003 Defense finished the year ranked(in the nation):

total defense-11th at 297 yds/game

scoring defense- 2nd at 14.5 pts/game

turnover margin- 1st at 1.77

 

This defense finished with 27 sacks, 32 Ints and 47 total turnovers, 95 TFL. The top five tacklers on the team were Barret Ruud-149, Demario Williams-128, T.J. Hollowell-80, Daniel Bullocks-69, Trevor Johnson-68. Out of those top 5 Ruud and Bullocks both returned the next year. Out of the top 20 tacklers on the team 12 returned the next year.

 

When Cosgrove got to NU he had about the same amount of experience as Pelini got when he came to NU. There were 6 returning starters for the 2004 season (LB- Ruud, DL- Benard Thomas, Le Kevin Smith CB- Fabian Washington, S- Josh Bullocks and Daniel Bullocks). After Pelini left this defense was never the same.

 

In 2004 (the year after Pelini left) NU finished 5-6 while only playing two teams that finished in the top 20 (Texas Tech-18 and Oklahoma-3)

 

The 2004 Defense finished the year ranked(in the nation):

Total Defense- 56th at 371.5 yds/game

Scoring Defense-71 at 27 pts/game

turnover margin-110 -1.09

 

The defense finished with 25 sacks, 14 Ints and 21 total turnovers, and 112 TFL. The top five tacklers were Barrett Ruud- 143, Stewart Bradley-67, Josh Bullocks- 63, Daniel Bullocks- 58, Chad Sievers- 54.

 

So after looking at all these numbers i think it is very impressive what Bo Pelini did at Nebraska. Pelini took a D that was barely in the top half of college defenses and almost made them a top 10 defense, then he leaves and they go right back to being barely in the top half of defenses.

 

 

Now i am sure people are going to say that Pelini did a terrible job against any good team he played because of those three losses in 2003. However you need to take a closer look at those 3 losses.

 

-In the loss to Missouri 24-41 in Columbia, Brad Smith did burn NU's D with 123 rushing yards, however Nebraska's offense committed 6 turnovers. You cant expect a team not to score when you give them the ball that many times

 

-In the loss to Texas 7-31 in Austin, Nebraska gave up a lot of yards on the ground with 353, but that was to 2 very good players in Vince Young and Cedric Benson. Once again the offense did very little to help the defense, eventhough they only turned the ball over once, the huskers managed only 175 total yards. They punted 9 times.

 

-In the loss to Kansas St. 9-38 in Lincoln, Again the Huskers got burned by Darren Sproles with 140 yards and 313 passing yards by El Roberson. It was the same old story on offense however, Nebraska committed 5 turnovers and punted 7 times.

 

*In those 3 losses Nebraska's Defense jsut ran out of gas in the 4th quarter because they were on the field for to long in all of those games. Missouri score 27 points in the 4th quarter, Texas scored 14 points in the 4th quarter and 21 points in the 4th quarter.

-If Nebraska had a better offense that could have held onto the ball and given the defense a rest i think we win the Kan. St. and Misouri games.

 

 

I was listening to Mike&Mike in the morning today and they were talking with Mark Schlereth about the coaches Mark and Mike Golic played for in their football careers. Both Mark and Mike agreed that the coaches that win games usually are coaches that can motivate their players. We all know that Pelini can motivate his players and i love that. We all know that Tom Osborne wasnt this fire breething motivator, but i think you need one coach on your staff that has this abilityand Charlie McBride was that coach for Osborne. McBride i think was more of the motivator and Osborne kept eveything in perspective. So why not have the motivator as your HC and then bring in a perspective guy as your OC and other assistants.

 

Another thing that Pelini has over most of the other top candidates is he is coaching in the SEC right now and doing very well. I do beleive that the SEC is the best conference in the nation, and every week LSU goes up against a very good team. I really like Turner Gill, but he is playing in the MAC conference and he just hasnt faced a tough opponent every week like Pelini has.

 

 

OK this is a very long post but i did all this research and need to show it to someone. So if you make it through all that congratulations.

 

I want to hear everyone else's thoughts on why you want Pelini, or why you dont want Pelini and want a different coach.

[T_O_Bull]

I am starting this thread because i want to know everyone's reasons why they want Bo Pelini as our next head coach. However i also want to know why some people dont want Pelini. So post your support for Pelini, or your reasons you dont like him.

 

I'll start.........

 

I really like Pelini and was intrigued with the people who said they dislike him, so i did some reasearch to see how good of a job Pelini actually did for NU in 2003.

 

And here is what i found.

 

In 2002 (Craig Bohl's last year as DC) NU went 7-7, however they played a very difficult scheduel. Out of the seven losses, 4 of those losses were against teams that finished the year in the top 20 (Penn. St.- 16, Texas-6, Kan. St.- 7, Colorado- 20), so they didnt lose to a bunch of bad teams.

 

That 2002 teams Defense finished the year ranked(in the nation):

total defense- 55th at 362 yds/game

scoring defense- 45th at 24 pts/game

turnover margin-73rd at -.21

 

This defense finished with 32 sacks, 12 Ints and 21 total turnovers, 126 TFL. The top five tacklers on the team were Demario William-91, Barret Ruud-91, Phillip Bland- 84, Scott Shanle-71, Ryon Bingham-67.

Out of those top 5 Williams, Ruud, and Bingham returned the next year. Out of the top 20 tacklers on the team, 13 players returned the next year.

 

When Pelini got here he had a somewhat experienced team with 7 returning starters on Defense (LB-Ruud and Williams DL- Bingham, Trevor Johnson, Patrick Kabongo CB- Fabian Washington S-Josh Bullocks) Pelini then took this team and made them a dominating, ball hawking defense.

 

In 2003 (Pelini as DC) NU went 10-3, While they didnt play the most difficult scheduel, out of their three losses two came against teams that ended the year in the top 15 (Kan. St.-14 and Texas-12)

 

The 2003 Defense finished the year ranked(in the nation):

total defense-11th at 297 yds/game

scoring defense- 2nd at 14.5 pts/game

turnover margin- 1st at 1.77

 

This defense finished with 27 sacks, 32 Ints and 47 total turnovers, 95 TFL. The top five tacklers on the team were Barret Ruud-149, Demario Williams-128, T.J. Hollowell-80, Daniel Bullocks-69, Trevor Johnson-68. Out of those top 5 Ruud and Bullocks both returned the next year. Out of the top 20 tacklers on the team 12 returned the next year.

 

When Cosgrove got to NU he had about the same amount of experience as Pelini got when he came to NU. There were 6 returning starters for the 2004 season (LB- Ruud, DL- Benard Thomas, Le Kevin Smith CB- Fabian Washington, S- Josh Bullocks and Daniel Bullocks). After Pelini left this defense was never the same.

 

In 2004 (the year after Pelini left) NU finished 5-6 while only playing two teams that finished in the top 20 (Texas Tech-18 and Oklahoma-3)

 

The 2004 Defense finished the year ranked(in the nation):

Total Defense- 56th at 371.5 yds/game

Scoring Defense-71 at 27 pts/game

turnover margin-110 -1.09

 

The defense finished with 25 sacks, 14 Ints and 21 total turnovers, and 112 TFL. The top five tacklers were Barrett Ruud- 143, Stewart Bradley-67, Josh Bullocks- 63, Daniel Bullocks- 58, Chad Sievers- 54.

 

So after looking at all these numbers i think it is very impressive what Bo Pelini did at Nebraska. Pelini took a D that was barely in the top half of college defenses and almost made them a top 10 defense, then he leaves and they go right back to being barely in the top half of defenses.

 

 

Now i am sure people are going to say that Pelini did a terrible job against any good team he played because of those three losses in 2003. However you need to take a closer look at those 3 losses.

 

-In the loss to Missouri 24-41 in Columbia, Brad Smith did burn NU's D with 123 rushing yards, however Nebraska's offense committed 6 turnovers. You cant expect a team not to score when you give them the ball that many times

 

-In the loss to Texas 7-31 in Austin, Nebraska gave up a lot of yards on the ground with 353, but that was to 2 very good players in Vince Young and Cedric Benson. Once again the offense did very little to help the defense, eventhough they only turned the ball over once, the huskers managed only 175 total yards. They punted 9 times.

 

-In the loss to Kansas St. 9-38 in Lincoln, Again the Huskers got burned by Darren Sproles with 140 yards and 313 passing yards by El Roberson. It was the same old story on offense however, Nebraska committed 5 turnovers and punted 7 times.

 

*In those 3 losses Nebraska's Defense jsut ran out of gas in the 4th quarter because they were on the field for to long in all of those games. Missouri score 27 points in the 4th quarter, Texas scored 14 points in the 4th quarter and 21 points in the 4th quarter.

-If Nebraska had a better offense that could have held onto the ball and given the defense a rest i think we win the Kan. St. and Misouri games.

 

 

I was listening to Mike&Mike in the morning today and they were talking with Mark Schlereth about the coaches Mark and Mike Golic played for in their football careers. Both Mark and Mike agreed that the coaches that win games usually are coaches that can motivate their players. We all know that Pelini can motivate his players and i love that. We all know that Tom Osborne wasnt this fire breething motivator, but i think you need one coach on your staff that has this abilityand Charlie McBride was that coach for Osborne. McBride i think was more of the motivator and Osborne kept eveything in perspective. So why not have the motivator as your HC and then bring in a perspective guy as your OC and other assistants.

 

Another thing that Pelini has over most of the other top candidates is he is coaching in the SEC right now and doing very well. I do beleive that the SEC is the best conference in the nation, and every week LSU goes up against a very good team. I really like Turner Gill, but he is playing in the MAC conference and he just hasnt faced a tough opponent every week like Pelini has.

 

 

OK this is a very long post but i did all this research and need to show it to someone. So if you make it through all that congratulations.

 

I want to hear everyone else's thoughts on why you want Pelini, or why you dont want Pelini and want a different coach.

 

 

Great post, what a lot of work you did.

 

I like Peleni because he's a defensive minded coach, which we obviously need. The coaching and recruiting on the defensive side has been lackluster to say the least and from what we saw last week Ganz and the offence my not be our worry. Bo also has the fire to motivate young men and get a lot out of them. The only thing that bothers me is he seems to move around quite a bit. GB to Lincoln to Norman to LSU. What are his career goals? Does he see himself ending up in the pros and how soon? I don't want someone for 4 or 5 years and then have to go through all this again. We were blessed that TO was so stable. Lots to think about but we need to re-establish the Black Shirt tradition and I think Bo P. is the coach to do it.

 

...T_O_B

 

[NEHUSKERS311]

Just like the NFL teams do you bring in a coach that best supports what your team does best, for example say the Baltimore Ravens they are built around the defense side of the ball so you bring in a coach that is a good defensive coach or lets say the Colts there strength is offense.. I think you get the picture and I know this is college football an not the NFL but I think the same apply's with us.. Neb is known for there lights out black shirt defense an running the ball.. Bo as we all know is a very good defense coach and I think he will bring some form of running offense with him at least more running then what the idiot that calls plays right now knows.. I just think Bo is a good guy that will stay around for awhile an someone the fans/players can rally around someone that will pump them up to play football the Nebraska way!!! This is just my opinion take it for what its worth...

[Wally]

Great post!

 

I agree with your analysis and if Nebraska has one tradition that defined the Huskers through all the Devaney and Osborne years it was DEFENSE!

 

Let's hire someone who can re-build our BlackShirt tradition. If we can do that, we win championships every year we can assemble a decent offense.

 

I've told Tom Osborne as much in my letter to him last month. Judging from his reply, I think he agrees with me.

[admo]

Now i am sure people are going to say that Pelini did a terrible job against any good team he played because of those three losses in 2003. However you need to take a closer look at those 3 losses.

 

-In the loss to Missouri 24-41 in Columbia, Brad Smith did burn NU's D with 123 rushing yards, however Nebraska's offense committed 6 turnovers. You cant expect a team not to score when you give them the ball that many times

 

-In the loss to Texas 7-31 in Austin, Nebraska gave up a lot of yards on the ground with 353, but that was to 2 very good players in Vince Young and Cedric Benson. Once again the offense did very little to help the defense, eventhough they only turned the ball over once, the huskers managed only 175 total yards. They punted 9 times.

 

-In the loss to Kansas St. 9-38 in Lincoln, Again the Huskers got burned by Darren Sproles with 140 yards and 313 passing yards by El Roberson. It was the same old story on offense however, Nebraska committed 5 turnovers and punted 7 times.

 

*In those 3 losses Nebraska's Defense jsut ran out of gas in the 4th quarter because they were on the field for to long in all of those games. Missouri score 27 points in the 4th quarter, Texas scored 14 points in the 4th quarter and 21 points in the 4th quarter.

-If Nebraska had a better offense that could have held onto the ball and given the defense a rest i think we win the Kan. St. and Misouri games.

 

Apparently excuses can be over looked when it's a Pelini defense. Lets put it a different way. Instead of the "but.." or "the offense turned the ball over".. "The offense didnt move the ball".. "It's the offense fault".., how about giving credit to the other team's defense? I can look at those losses and say with confidence that Missouri, Texas, K-State all played better defense. Thus the turnovers and reason why the NU offense couldnt keep up. But when the other team plays great defense, so should yours. Pelini's defense doesnt deserve a break from that. It's a copout. They didnt do the job it takes to stop the other team from scoring. They are suppose to defend. Not just 80 yards away, but at all times. Those three teams put it to us and the excuses that it wasnt related to Pelini's defense is tiring.

 

I think your research is very well done, statiscally.

[husker rob]

i dont think that there will be anyone on here that says that BP didnt do a great job with the defense the one year that he was here.

 

he has done a pretty decent job at LSU also while he has been there.

 

i think that the only reason that he was at OU is because Bob Stoops wanted his insight on the Big 12 North with NU's players being the main reason

 

i dont know and no one knows what kind of HC he will be.

 

he had the right to be bitter with the way things were handled by SP. I wish that BC would have given him the opportunity at DC instead of his buddy Coz

 

but the one thing that i do not like about him is the way he used the negitive recruiting right after he left NU. do you remember the comments that Dillard and the Roarks had to say after committing to NU

 

can i forgive him for that? i dont know

 

one thing that i do know is that i will support the coaching staff that is here next year, because who ever is the coach, Dr Tom Osborne thought he was the best thing for the N program

[NPhusker]

do you remember the comments that Dillard and the Roarks had to say after committing to NU

 

I am jsut curious what they said because i honetly dont remember.

 

Addison Mode i am not trying to take anything away from what Missouri, Texas, or K-State did in those games. Also i posted this as support for Pelini, and eventhough you are right that a maybe the defense jsut needed to make more plays. However when you are playing a team that has as much or more talent than you do, you cant make a bunch of mistakes. All those teams i beleive had as much or more talent than NU and when you give them that many chances you are going to get burned evenually.

 

I went back and read the game recaps and i think that we would have lost to K-State and Texas even if our Ofense hadnt made all those mistakes. But the Missouri game was different, this little paragraph was from the official game recap:

 

Turnovers...Nebraska 5 (4 fumbles, 1 interception)...Missouri 2 (2 interceptions)...After Josh Bullocks picked off Brad Smith on Missouri's first drive, the Huskers scored three plays later on a Lord-to-LeFlore 55-yard pass and made the extra point. After Josh Davis fumbled Missouri's punt on the ensuing drive, Missouri recovered at the NU 7-yard line...Missouri scored two plays later on a 6-yard Abron's run. On the ensuing short kickoff, upman Jack O'Holleran fumbled the kickoff and Missouri recovered at the NU 29, but Smith was picked off by linebacker Demorrio Williams, his first career interception. I-back David Horne fumbled on the Missouri 12 and the Tigers recovered with approximately 6:30 remaining in the first half. Missouri did not convert. In the fourth quarter, Nebraska's Lord fumbled and MU recovered on the Nebraska nine. The Tigers converted the turnover into seven points on a touchdown via a fake field goal. Behind 34-24 in the fourth, Lord threw an interception which Zach Ville returned 39 yards to the NU 7. Missouri scored two plays later. Nebraska has gained 21 turnovers this season (NU had 21 turnovers gained in 14 games last season), and turned them into 61 points, while opponents have gained 15 turnovers and turned them into 28 points (21 by Missouri).

 

I was not trying to give Pelini's D a pass in these situations but you also cant crucify him for those games like some people have(thats why Pederson claimed he fired them).

[admo]

do you remember the comments that Dillard and the Roarks had to say after committing to NU

 

I am jsut curious what they said because i honetly dont remember.

 

Addison Mode i am not trying to take anything away from what Missouri, Texas, or K-State did in those games. Also i posted this as support for Pelini, and eventhough you are right that a maybe the defense jsut needed to make more plays. However when you are playing a team that has as much or more talent than you do, you cant make a bunch of mistakes. All those teams i beleive had as much or more talent than NU and when you give them that many chances you are going to get burned evenually.

 

I went back and read the game recaps and i think that we would have lost to K-State and Texas even if our Ofense hadnt made all those mistakes. But the Missouri game was different, this little paragraph was from the official game recap:

 

Turnovers...Nebraska 5 (4 fumbles, 1 interception)...Missouri 2 (2 interceptions)...After Josh Bullocks picked off Brad Smith on Missouri's first drive, the Huskers scored three plays later on a Lord-to-LeFlore 55-yard pass and made the extra point. After Josh Davis fumbled Missouri's punt on the ensuing drive, Missouri recovered at the NU 7-yard line...Missouri scored two plays later on a 6-yard Abron's run. On the ensuing short kickoff, upman Jack O'Holleran fumbled the kickoff and Missouri recovered at the NU 29, but Smith was picked off by linebacker Demorrio Williams, his first career interception. I-back David Horne fumbled on the Missouri 12 and the Tigers recovered with approximately 6:30 remaining in the first half. Missouri did not convert. In the fourth quarter, Nebraska's Lord fumbled and MU recovered on the Nebraska nine. The Tigers converted the turnover into seven points on a touchdown via a fake field goal. Behind 34-24 in the fourth, Lord threw an interception which Zach Ville returned 39 yards to the NU 7. Missouri scored two plays later. Nebraska has gained 21 turnovers this season (NU had 21 turnovers gained in 14 games last season), and turned them into 61 points, while opponents have gained 15 turnovers and turned them into 28 points (21 by Missouri).

 

I was not trying to give Pelini's D a pass in these situations but you also cant crucify him for those games like some people have(thats why Pederson claimed he fired them).

It's cool NP . I like the recaps, the stats and such. And I'm being honest by saying you did a great job with the research. I just wanted to give a different perspective. Those were three gut-buster games. I dont think its accurate to say the defense gave up so many points just because of a poor offense.

 

That team had several guys that are now playing on Sundays (Demario Williams, Barrett Ruud, Scott Shanle, Fabian Washington, Josh Bullocks) BTW.

[NPhusker]

That team had several guys that are now playing on Sundays (Demario Williams, Barrett Ruud, Scott Shanle, Fabian Washington, Josh Bullocks) BTW.

 

I am pretty sure that Shanle graduated the year before Pelini was there, but that doesnt really matter. Maybe this is all showing how bad a DC Cosgrove is because he was given all these guys (except Demario Williams) and all these guys now had atleast a year of starting time, plus he was also was given the other Bullocks brother Daniel, Stewart Bradley, Jay Moore, Adam Carriker(even though they were kinda young) Le Kevin Smith and Titus Adams, all of which i beleive are in the NFL if not playing a lot of minutes. So maybe the more amzing thing isnt how good Pelini was, maybe it is how bad Cosgrove was.

[NEHUSKERS311]

I read somewhere one of the big 12 coachs I am not sure which one commented on how every week they didnt know how to plan for Bo's defense cause he could change it from week to week.. IMO I like that leave the opps guessing but that also may have been a down side in a few games.. I dont know but I like a coach that makes changes an trys unlike the ones we have now....

[junior4949]

I read somewhere one of the big 12 coachs I am not sure which one commented on how every week they didnt know how to plan for Bo's defense cause he could change it from week to week.. IMO I like that leave the opps guessing but that also may have been a down side in a few games.. I dont know but I like a coach that makes changes an trys unlike the ones we have now....

 

 

You're kind of right. It was a former Big 12 coach named Les Miles that said that about Bo. It was the reason he asked him to come on board for the LSU train.

[hack]

bo pelini turned me into a newt!

[1_NUFAN]

For me - It all starts on defense. Remember when we used to defer 'til the second half just to get our D on the field and punch the other team in the face? We always had a simple offense that managed to put points on the board, but our D is what gave us our momentum, and kept it. I believe it gave our O some fire as well.

 

We have an "Offensive Minded" HC, and it is NOT working. I would love to see our D punching people in the face again, and I feel BO is the man that can make this happen.

[seed60]

FACTS DON'T LIE!!!!

 

Great post!!!! Pelini is definitely the right man in my eyes, and obviously in yours as well.

[hskrpwr13]

 

 

 

Great post, what a lot of work you did.

 

I like Peleni because he's a defensive minded coach, which we obviously need. The coaching and recruiting on the defensive side has been lackluster to say the least and from what we saw last week Ganz and the offence my not be our worry. Bo also has the fire to motivate young men and get a lot out of them. The only thing that bothers me is he seems to move around quite a bit. GB to Lincoln to Norman to LSU. What are his career goals? Does he see himself ending up in the pros and how soon? I don't want someone for 4 or 5 years and then have to go through all this again. We were blessed that TO was so stable. Lots to think about but we need to re-establish the Black Shirt tradition and I think Bo P. is the coach to do it.

 

...T_O_B

 

 

I want Pelini and I've thought about that. I think Husker fans can have the best of both worlds. If Pelini comes in and either cant get the job done or bolts to the NFL, Gill will always be available. When would he not jump at the chance to be head coach at NU, assumming he's asked within the next 20 years or so? This may not be the best way to go about things, but the scenario needs to be considered.