LA Times shows DONU some love

[Spooky Tooth]

LA Times writer does a good job of capturing what NU has gone thru since TO retired, and what Pelini is doing now.

 

Can't hurt some of those CA players to read this.....

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-colleg...0,1176369.story

 

 

 

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Chris Dufresne's preseason top 25: No. 20 Nebraska

Cornhuskers continue rebuilding the program with defense in the offense-crazy Big 12 Conference.

Bo Pelini

 

 

 

Bo Pelini, entering Year Two on the gigantic job, has already transformed the Cornhuskers' famed "Blackshirts" defense into a premiere outfit.

 

OK . . . premiere for the Big 12 Conference.

 

Nebraska's national total defense ranking of 55th in 2008 isn't going to make anyone hold a nickname contest, but it ranked second in the league behind Texas at No. 51.

 

Look at it this way: Every other Big 12 team registered between yellow and orange on USA Today's color-coded weather map: Kansas State (117, Death Valley), Texas A&M (114, Needles), Iowa State (112, Desert Hot Springs), Missouri (98), Oklahoma State (93), Kansas (89), Baylor (85), Colorado (78), Texas Tech (79) and Oklahoma (68).

 

There's a debate raging as to whether porous defense in the Big 12 is a byproduct of prolific offense. The conference, after all, boasted five of the country's top 10 offenses in 2008.

 

The only clue we had in the end last season was Oklahoma, which averaged 50 points a game, scoring 14 against Florida in the BCS title game -- but maybe that was just a blip.

 

One thing was certain in Lincoln, Neb.: The gushing on defense had to stop. Players and citizens alike take great pride in "blackshirt" tradition, which dates to the early 1960s and involves deserving defensive starters pulling dark-colored practice jerseys over their pads.

 

Trust me, it's special.

 

Pride took a hit in late 2001, when undefeated Nebraska yielded 62 points to Colorado in Boulder and reached the nadir in 2007, at the end of the Bill Callahan era, when the Cornhuskers allowed 76 points (whoa) at Kansas and 65 (yikes) at Colorado.

 

Pelini, a former Cornhusker assistant, was almost airlifted in from Baton Rouge, where he had coordinated Louisiana State's defense to the 2007 national title.

 

Nebraska improved from 5-7 in 2007, with a horrific No. 112 total defense ranking, to 9-4 last year and victory against Clemson in the Gator Bowl.

 

No wonder Cornhusker fans are excited. Nebraska's defense this year is built around 300-pound nose tackle Ndamukong Suh, aka the Human Silo.

 

Pelini, typical coach, warns that Nebraska's blackshirts are not back yet.

 

"We're not in the same galaxy of where I want to be on defense," he says.

 

That said, the first defensive coach in the Big 12 who can slow down a Big 12 offense may be on to something.

 

Offense could be an issue early for the Cornhuskers, with Zac Lee replacing Joe Ganz at quarterback, but working out kinks should be easier with five of the first seven games at home. Nebraska also misses Texas this year in the regular season and gets Oklahoma in Lincoln.

 

More than a decade after Tom Osborne retired with his third national title, and the ugly in between involving replacements Frank Solich and Callahan, Nebraska seems a serious threat to reclaim the Big 12 North.

 

"We won't be satisfied until we win them all, until we're playing for a national championship," Pelini says.

 

Now that's the kind of Lincoln talk they like to hear.

[Alamo City Husker]

Man if they could take that kind of unbiased reporting to the front page they might have a newspaper!

[HighPlainsDrifter]

A win in Blacksburg would do wonders from a respect standpoint.

[huskerswrkhavoc]

and who says NU isn't still national?

[HuskerT]

and who says NU isn't still national?

 

I agree! It was nice to pick up the paper in here L.A. and read about someone other than USC.

[huskered17]

That was nice to get some ink out west. It can only help. Sports Ill has Neb and Cal playing in the Holiday Bowl, in their early predictions. Also has us rated 34th. Don't agree with that one though. ND rated above us and Mich way below us. The Big 12 seems to have lost their tie in with the Alamo Bowl. Going to be Big 10 and Pac 10 now. Lets just hope the Big Red is playing in a bcs bowl.

 

GBR!!!

[HuskerNMO]

That was nice to get some ink out west. It can only help. Sports Ill has Neb and Cal playing in the Holiday Bowl, in their early predictions. Also has us rated 34th. Don't agree with that one though. ND rated above us and Mich way below us. The Big 12 seems to have lost their tie in with the Alamo Bowl. Going to be Big 10 and Pac 10 now. Lets just hope the Big Red is playing in a bcs bowl.

 

GBR!!!

 

Not sure where you got the info on the Alamo Bowl, but it's wrong

 

http://www.valeroalamobowl.com/main/bowl_faq.php

 

Who is playing in the 2010 Valero Alamo Bowl?

The game will be Big Ten vs. Big 12. Teams will be announced on Sunday, December 6.

 

It will be Pac 10 vs Big 12 in the future though as the Big 10 is taking the Gator Bowl slot that bounces between the Big 12 and Big East.

[huskered17]

That was nice to get some ink out west. It can only help. Sports Ill has Neb and Cal playing in the Holiday Bowl, in their early predictions. Also has us rated 34th. Don't agree with that one though. ND rated above us and Mich way below us. The Big 12 seems to have lost their tie in with the Alamo Bowl. Going to be Big 10 and Pac 10 now. Lets just hope the Big Red is playing in a bcs bowl.

 

GBR!!!

 

Not sure where you got the info on the Alamo Bowl, but it's wrong

 

http://www.valeroalamobowl.com/main/bowl_faq.php

 

Who is playing in the 2010 Valero Alamo Bowl?

The game will be Big Ten vs. Big 12. Teams will be announced on Sunday, December 6.

 

It will be Pac 10 vs Big 12 in the future though as the Big 10 is taking the Gator Bowl slot that bounces between the Big 12 and Big East.

 

 

Arizona Daily star had an interview with Stoops, the head coach at Arizona. He was saying how great it was for the Pac 10, to get that tie-in to the Alamo Bowl. I thought it was this year that he was talking about. If not this year, it may be happening next year. This is what the paper is reporting here in Tucson. I will see if I can find that article again.

 

GBR!!!

[HuskerNMO]

That was nice to get some ink out west. It can only help. Sports Ill has Neb and Cal playing in the Holiday Bowl, in their early predictions. Also has us rated 34th. Don't agree with that one though. ND rated above us and Mich way below us. The Big 12 seems to have lost their tie in with the Alamo Bowl. Going to be Big 10 and Pac 10 now. Lets just hope the Big Red is playing in a bcs bowl.

 

GBR!!!

 

Not sure where you got the info on the Alamo Bowl, but it's wrong

 

http://www.valeroalamobowl.com/main/bowl_faq.php

 

Who is playing in the 2010 Valero Alamo Bowl?

The game will be Big Ten vs. Big 12. Teams will be announced on Sunday, December 6.

 

It will be Pac 10 vs Big 12 in the future though as the Big 10 is taking the Gator Bowl slot that bounces between the Big 12 and Big East.

 

 

Arizona Daily star had an interview with Stoops, the head coach at Arizona. He was saying how great it was for the Pac 10, to get that tie-in to the Alamo Bowl. I thought it was this year that he was talking about. If not this year, it may be happening next year. This is what the paper is reporting here in Tucson. I will see if I can find that article again.

 

GBR!!!

 

It is happening next year, but the Big 12 is keeping it's spot, it's the Big 10 that is no longer part of the game.