Pelini names 8 of 9 full-time assistants

[BackNBlack97]

BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

Monday, Dec 17, 2007 - 04:29:44 pm CST

Bo Pelini has finalized his first Husker coaching staff, officially announcing eight of his nine full-time assistants on Monday.

 

The Nebraska head football coach’s list of names provided no surprises, all but two of the known hires having coached at NU in past seasons.

 

The new Husker staff consists of Shawn Watson, Barney Cotton, Ron Brown, Ted Gilmore, Marvin Sanders, Carl Pelini, Mike Ekeler, John Papuchis and a running backs coach to be named later.

 

Pelini also announced that former Husker player and assistant coach Jeff Jamrog will serve as assistant athletic director for football operations.

 

“I knew what I was looking for,” Pelini recently told the Journal Star. “I had a lot of certain things in mind, certain people in mind in some instances. I was able to accomplish exactly what I wanted to get. The guys I targeted, I got.”

 

It marks the 40-year-old’s first chance to assemble a staff.

 

On the offensive side of the ball, Watson will return as offensive coordinator, Gilmore as receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. They are the only coaches retained from Bill Callahan’s staff.

 

They’ll be joined by familiar faces to the program. Brown will handle the tight ends and Cotton will handle the offensive line.

 

Cotton also claims the title of associate head coach. Gilmore, too, claims another title — assistant head coach.

 

“Barney will assist me in a number of key administrative duties within our program,” Pelini said, adding that Gilmore will “play a key role in the overall direction of our program.”

 

Not made known is who will coach the running backs. Pelini has already hired someone for the position, but said he will name the individual in early January, after that coach has finished working with his current team in a bowl game.

 

Bo’s brother, Carl Pelini, will be the defensive coordinator and coach the defensive line. Sanders will handle the secondary, though he figures to also be a leading figure on the defensive staff.

 

Bo Pelini said on Thursday: “I’m going to run the defense. Eventually, Carl and Marvin … they’re going to be very significant in the defense. I don’t want to name myself head coach/defensive coordinator, so I’m going to name somebody else. Eventually, they’re both going to have the title.”

 

Pelini also brought some Louisiana flavor with him to this staff. Ekeler, a 36-year-old Blair native, was an assistant strength coach at LSU while Pelini served as defensive coordinator there. He will be in charge of Nebraska’s linebackers.

 

And then there’s Papuchis, previously a 29-year-old defensive intern at LSU, who will coach the defensive ends. He becomes one of the youngest full-time assistants on a Husker football staff, a graduate of Virginia Tech in 2001.

 

Both Ekeler and Papuchis are full-time assistants for the first time.

 

“Our defensive coaches will all have equal input on what we are doing, regardless of titles or positions,” Pelini said. “This staff plans to build on the tradition of hard-nosed Blackshirt defenses at Nebraska.”

 

Here’s a look at the bios of each of Pelini’s hires, the men in charge of trying to turn around a proud program coming off one of its worst seasons in modern history.

 

Shawn Watson

 

Watson has been at Nebraska the past two years, having previously given the Huskers fits as an offensive coordinator at Colorado from 2000-05.

 

Four times, the Buffs won Big 12 North titles while he coached there. He was also the head coach at Southern Illinois from 1994-96.

 

He served as offensive coordinator at Nebraska in 2007, but Bill Callahan called almost all of the plays during the 5-7 campaign. Despite the poor record, the offense was usually not to blame, finishing the year ranked 11th nationally in total offense.

 

“I coached against Shawn. I know about him. He runs an offense and uses a terminology that the players are familiar with and I’m familiar with,” Pelini said. “We share some of the same visions about where we see the offense going in the future. And I didn’t feel like a wholesale change was necessary. That’s not what I was looking for. It all adds up to Shawn being the best guy for the job.”

 

Barney Cotton

 

Cotton was an offensive lineman at Nebraska from 1976-78, and then coached here in 2003 as an offensive coordinator/offensive line coach when Pelini was on the staff. Cotton moved on to become an offensive coordinator at Iowa State, staying there until head coach Dan McCarney resigned late in the 2006 season.

 

He was also an offensive coordinator at New Mexico State from 1997-2002.

 

“He’s going to be a strong guy in the room with Shawn, a lot of ideas. His track record speaks for itself,” Pelini said. “He’s a helluva football coach and a guy I have a lot of respect for. He’s going to coach hard. He’s going to coach the right way and he has a lot of love for the University of Nebraska. That all adds up to being a heckuva hire in my opinion.”

 

Ron Brown

 

Though he’s been out of coaching for four years, serving as state director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes ministry, Brown needs little introduction to most Nebraska fans.

 

He coached Nebraska’s receivers for 17 years, and the tight ends for 16, part of three national championship coaching staffs under Tom Osborne.

 

“He coaches hard. He coaches with passion,” Pelini said. “He recruits his butt off. I wasn’t sure whether Ron would want to come back, but when he was, I was thrilled. It was a no-brainer for me. I’ve been talking to Ron for a long time. I told him four years ago if I ever get a head job, I’m coming to get you. I don’t know if he would have come back and done it, except for this place.”

 

Ted Gilmore

 

Gilmore was part of Bill Callahan’s staff for the past three years, coaching the receivers and serving as recruiting coordinator. Prior to Nebraska, he was an assistant at Colorado, Purdue, Houston, Kansas and Wyoming.

 

He’s already been in living rooms with Pelini trying to sell recruits on Nebraska.

 

“I don’t know if Bo knows this, but not only was he recruiting those kids, he was recruiting me,” Gilmore said. “I was listening to every word. I listened to the way he conducted business, listened to what his philosophy is, what his vision is for the program. And I can stand here before you and say I’m excited to be a part of it.”

 

Carl Pelini

 

Carl Pelini, one of Bo Pelini’s four older brothers, has spent the past three seasons as a defensive line coach for Frank Solich at Ohio.

 

Before that, he served as a graduate assistant at Nebraska in 2003, then was the defensive coordinator under Jeff Jamrog at Minnesota State-Mankato in 2004, helping the Mavericks to a 6-5 mark after a winless season the year before.

 

“I can’t even express the excitement,” Carl Pelini said. “As you go through your career, you want to reach the pinnacle. You want to work for one of the great tradition-rich programs.”

 

Marvin Sanders

 

A former Husker defensive back (1987-89), Sanders also spent a year on the Nebraska coaching staff as a defensive backs coach in 2003.

 

That team set a school record for defensive takeaways. Sanders went on to coach three seasons at North Carolina. The 40-year-old spent the past year out of coaching.

 

He’s also coached at Nebraska Wesleyan, Minnesota-Morris, Nebraska-Omaha, New Mexico State and Colorado State.

 

Pelini has said that Sanders was one of the major parts of Nebraska’s defensive turnaround in 2003, believing the coach’s efforts sometimes flew under the radar.

 

John Papuchis

 

Papuchis makes a big career leap, moving from defensive intern at LSU to full-time work at Nebraska.

 

Before LSU, Papuchis spent some time at Kansas as a graduate assistant. His name did get swirled in some controversy in his stop there.

 

Papuchis and fellow Kansas graduate assistant Mike Burns were drawn into an internal and NCAA investigation for their involvement in improperly trying to help prospective junior-college transfers gain eligibility for the 2003 season.

 

Burns was found by the NCAA to have committed academic fraud. Papuchis was not penalized.

 

Papuchis was involved in every aspect of the defensive game plan for the Tigers during his last four years at LSU.

 

Mike Ekeler

 

A 1990 graduate of Blair and former Kansas State linebacker, Ekeler was a grad assistant at Oklahoma while Pelini was a co-defensive coordinator there in 2004.

 

They met up again in Louisiana, where Ekeler was an assistant strength coach while Pelini coached the LSU defense. Like Carl Pelini, Ekeler was also a defensive coordinator at Minnesota State-Mankato under Jamrog.

 

Pelini said he thinks both Ekeler and Papuchis are going to be “stars in the business.”

 

“You know, you train guys, you’re around guys, you evaluate guys as you work for them. They’re on the same page as I am,” he said. “They’ve been part of the evolution of this system. They’ve seen some of the changes. They’re excellent. No matter where I went, they were coming with me.”

 

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.

[Vegas Popinjay]

Just curious...who's coaching Special Teams?

[Wally]

And, who is the Strength & Conditioning Coach?

[sarge87]

And, who is the Strength & Conditioning Coach?

I've heard Bryan Bailey's name being tossed around.