Saunders
Heisman Trophy Winner
However much time Pelini has at Nebraska, however much he chooses to pay his offensive coordinator — and whoever that coordinator is — Pelini has his recipe.
Protect the defense.
Love it and over-recruit to it. Pat it on the butt. Offensive coordinator Tim Beck should dote on it. Build his attack to serve it. When you have your own head-coaching aspirations — and your boss fully supports an explosive, no-huddle scheme — that can be a challenge. But the No. 1 goal for this offense, if Nebraska's going to get where it wants to go, is to judiciously pick its spots, and let the defense have at least 50 yards to defend before the end zone.
In Nebraska's last five games — Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Iowa and Georgia — opponents started 19 drives in Husker territory and scored 82 points. (This includes Penn State's scoreless overtime drive.) Iowa and Michigan State — NU's only home games and only two losses in that stretch — accounted for 12 of those drives and 59 of those points.
Excluding kneel-downs, opponents started 50 drives in their own territory in those five games. They scored 49 points.
Fifty drives, 49 points.
McKewon Article