HuskerfaninOkieland
Heisman Trophy Winner
This is actually a pretty good read
NE Statepaper
"How many times I got to tell you? Don't fight the rabbits. Because, boys, if you fight the rabbits, the elephants are going to kill you."
-Bobby Knight, in “The Rabbit Hunter”
"Bottom line is some guys crawl into a shell when you get in their face, other guys respond the right way. As you are around guys longer and have more experience with them, you have a better understanding of how to reach each and every individual."
-Bo Pelini, Oct. 25, 2008
He said he was sorry, and well, what the hell else do you want? With a bunch of fat faces and lean faces and grim faces and moon faces – a veritable inquisition fed by Valentino's Pizza and Pepsi - peppering him really like he's never been at NU before, judging him the same, the prophet of Nebraska football, Bo Pelini, asked for his believers and accusers to sit and reason with him. A figurative placing of palms on the table as if to say, see, here's me, the sins of my scarlet temper.
Now you'll have to decide whether to forgive them and whether, as fans, to hold Bo accountable to his claim that he'd done losing it on the sidelines. That, in his words, “it won't happen again.”
Monday's the best you'll get from the man, a Western omelet of contrition, humility and steadfast certitude in his own methods. Fans will laud Bo's press conference performance, conducted in a packed room that had more tension than half of the Huskers' football games this year. It felt like an event, and when Bo entered the room, walking briskly to his seat, the air changed. The jiggling bellies and wagging tongues froze and fixed their most prominent features on a small spot just below Bo's gaze, the better not to meet it, even with a belly button. People are intimidated, if you didn't know.
Bo delivered an impromptu speech. No notes. Extra conviction.
When he allows himself to be, Bo is a forceful, gifted speaker, if not loquacious. He twice painted the image of walking into the home of kid's parents – and the promise he makes there. It was a justification of who he is and a clever recruiting pitch in the same breath.
“I tell parents I’m going to have your kids back, I’m going to fight for them every step of the way,” he said. “I’m going to be there for your kids. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure your kids have a fair shake and prepare them for the rest of their life in a lot of different ways. I’m going to love them unconditionally.”
Then: “I just need to watch the passion I bring to it, and make sure I do it in the right way.”
That Pelini would add that coda makes you wonder – just what did chancellor Harvey Perlman and athletic director Tom Osborne say to him? I suspect the message was forceful. Unvarnished. Here's what we – and you – will stand for. This isn't, after all, a Banana Republic private school, but a public institution that just pulled up the the academic big boy table of the CIC and the Big Ten. Perlman is a cold-blooded killer, as his adversaries – and Missouri - will attest. He has a dogged toughness and ego to match Bo's, frankly. That's how he dragged NU to the Big Ten against long, unlikely odds. He's not a typical academician.
Bo's not a typical head coach. At least not in this era. He has a sharper edge, and he wears it, plus his loyalty, on his sleeve. He doesn't play cute with the press or fans – and, until Monday, felt no great impetus to do so. In some aspects of his job, this stodgy, throwback nature is a strength. But it's a weakness when Bo concerns himself too much with incidentals – a minor press flap here, a borderline pass interference call there. As his need for control in the moment spirals out of control, his team goes down with him, as the offense clearly unraveled Saturday night.
Does Pelini truly get that? We'll see. He spoke of his team in terms of a family, and while it's commendable – the way it ought to be – Pelini practices a kind of rough, older brother affection for his players that means chewing them out one play, and hugging the snot out of them a few plays later. He railed at Taylor Martinez on Saturday, and had a long, good joke with him during practice Monday.
“One thing about our players - I promise you they know this - I got their back,” Pelini said. “And they understand also that I expect them to have mine.”
Said Peso Eric Hagg: “Of course he has it his way, but his way is the best way. So there's no way about arguing it. Whatever you need, he's there to help you.”
La Cosa Bostra.
Most Husker players would echo those same sentiments. It was telling Monday that former Husker Phillip Dillard, who spent some time inside Bo's doghouse, came his defense on Facebook, applauding his former coach to lighting into Martinez, the mercurial quarterback whose insular nature ultimately needs to change if he's going to be the long-term signal-caller at NU.
Ah, Martinez. An example of the lengths to which Bo will go to reach a kid. Rumblings of Martinez's discontent have been there since his arrival in 2009, and while peddled rumors of his exit remain premature, why won't they subside? Saturday's A&M flap aside, Pelini has given Martinez ample room to grow. He's not compelled to speak to the press, and when he does, Bo apparently doesn't know that he makes head-scratching statements like “it's my team; it's no one else's team.” Martinez takes a tongue-lashing and heads right back in the game on a gimpy ankle. T-Magic can take T-Much latitude.
But for as tough as Bo's exterior seems, he'll walk the extra mile with Martinez, and I think there's a reason for it: Trust. Bo wants to build it, against long odds, with a kid who seems to lack it for just about everyone not in his small inner circle.
Others disagree with me, but I think on the other side of Martinez's seeming petulance lies a potentially-terrific leader. Pelini's trying to get to it and if he does – if he harnesses Martinez's independence and turns it into a generalissimo - Nebraska has its franchise quarterback for three more years. That's worth a lot of wins.
Bo won't give up on this kid, and he won't let the kid give up on NU. Yet. Whether this stubborn streak is wise or wasteful remains to be seen.
Martinez's status with the Huskers is no small thing, of course, and neither was Bo's performance Monday. It felt, in many ways, like the biggest moment in Pelini's career since his hiring. He wore humility uneasily but sincerely, answering calmly the kind of questions that, just one week ago, would have fetched a “next question” for the interviewer's efforts. Reporters weren't baiting Bo, but they were seizing on a rare moment to get the goods. Not once did Bo fall back on feigned bewilderment, knee-jerk contrariety or my favorite, “What do you think?”
In short, he put his cards on the table. I must decide what to make of them in these next weeks.
So does Perlman.
So does Osborne.
So does Martinez.
So do you.
NE Statepaper
"How many times I got to tell you? Don't fight the rabbits. Because, boys, if you fight the rabbits, the elephants are going to kill you."
-Bobby Knight, in “The Rabbit Hunter”
"Bottom line is some guys crawl into a shell when you get in their face, other guys respond the right way. As you are around guys longer and have more experience with them, you have a better understanding of how to reach each and every individual."
-Bo Pelini, Oct. 25, 2008
He said he was sorry, and well, what the hell else do you want? With a bunch of fat faces and lean faces and grim faces and moon faces – a veritable inquisition fed by Valentino's Pizza and Pepsi - peppering him really like he's never been at NU before, judging him the same, the prophet of Nebraska football, Bo Pelini, asked for his believers and accusers to sit and reason with him. A figurative placing of palms on the table as if to say, see, here's me, the sins of my scarlet temper.
Now you'll have to decide whether to forgive them and whether, as fans, to hold Bo accountable to his claim that he'd done losing it on the sidelines. That, in his words, “it won't happen again.”
Monday's the best you'll get from the man, a Western omelet of contrition, humility and steadfast certitude in his own methods. Fans will laud Bo's press conference performance, conducted in a packed room that had more tension than half of the Huskers' football games this year. It felt like an event, and when Bo entered the room, walking briskly to his seat, the air changed. The jiggling bellies and wagging tongues froze and fixed their most prominent features on a small spot just below Bo's gaze, the better not to meet it, even with a belly button. People are intimidated, if you didn't know.
Bo delivered an impromptu speech. No notes. Extra conviction.
When he allows himself to be, Bo is a forceful, gifted speaker, if not loquacious. He twice painted the image of walking into the home of kid's parents – and the promise he makes there. It was a justification of who he is and a clever recruiting pitch in the same breath.
“I tell parents I’m going to have your kids back, I’m going to fight for them every step of the way,” he said. “I’m going to be there for your kids. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure your kids have a fair shake and prepare them for the rest of their life in a lot of different ways. I’m going to love them unconditionally.”
Then: “I just need to watch the passion I bring to it, and make sure I do it in the right way.”
That Pelini would add that coda makes you wonder – just what did chancellor Harvey Perlman and athletic director Tom Osborne say to him? I suspect the message was forceful. Unvarnished. Here's what we – and you – will stand for. This isn't, after all, a Banana Republic private school, but a public institution that just pulled up the the academic big boy table of the CIC and the Big Ten. Perlman is a cold-blooded killer, as his adversaries – and Missouri - will attest. He has a dogged toughness and ego to match Bo's, frankly. That's how he dragged NU to the Big Ten against long, unlikely odds. He's not a typical academician.
Bo's not a typical head coach. At least not in this era. He has a sharper edge, and he wears it, plus his loyalty, on his sleeve. He doesn't play cute with the press or fans – and, until Monday, felt no great impetus to do so. In some aspects of his job, this stodgy, throwback nature is a strength. But it's a weakness when Bo concerns himself too much with incidentals – a minor press flap here, a borderline pass interference call there. As his need for control in the moment spirals out of control, his team goes down with him, as the offense clearly unraveled Saturday night.
Does Pelini truly get that? We'll see. He spoke of his team in terms of a family, and while it's commendable – the way it ought to be – Pelini practices a kind of rough, older brother affection for his players that means chewing them out one play, and hugging the snot out of them a few plays later. He railed at Taylor Martinez on Saturday, and had a long, good joke with him during practice Monday.
“One thing about our players - I promise you they know this - I got their back,” Pelini said. “And they understand also that I expect them to have mine.”
Said Peso Eric Hagg: “Of course he has it his way, but his way is the best way. So there's no way about arguing it. Whatever you need, he's there to help you.”
La Cosa Bostra.
Most Husker players would echo those same sentiments. It was telling Monday that former Husker Phillip Dillard, who spent some time inside Bo's doghouse, came his defense on Facebook, applauding his former coach to lighting into Martinez, the mercurial quarterback whose insular nature ultimately needs to change if he's going to be the long-term signal-caller at NU.
Ah, Martinez. An example of the lengths to which Bo will go to reach a kid. Rumblings of Martinez's discontent have been there since his arrival in 2009, and while peddled rumors of his exit remain premature, why won't they subside? Saturday's A&M flap aside, Pelini has given Martinez ample room to grow. He's not compelled to speak to the press, and when he does, Bo apparently doesn't know that he makes head-scratching statements like “it's my team; it's no one else's team.” Martinez takes a tongue-lashing and heads right back in the game on a gimpy ankle. T-Magic can take T-Much latitude.
But for as tough as Bo's exterior seems, he'll walk the extra mile with Martinez, and I think there's a reason for it: Trust. Bo wants to build it, against long odds, with a kid who seems to lack it for just about everyone not in his small inner circle.
Others disagree with me, but I think on the other side of Martinez's seeming petulance lies a potentially-terrific leader. Pelini's trying to get to it and if he does – if he harnesses Martinez's independence and turns it into a generalissimo - Nebraska has its franchise quarterback for three more years. That's worth a lot of wins.
Bo won't give up on this kid, and he won't let the kid give up on NU. Yet. Whether this stubborn streak is wise or wasteful remains to be seen.
Martinez's status with the Huskers is no small thing, of course, and neither was Bo's performance Monday. It felt, in many ways, like the biggest moment in Pelini's career since his hiring. He wore humility uneasily but sincerely, answering calmly the kind of questions that, just one week ago, would have fetched a “next question” for the interviewer's efforts. Reporters weren't baiting Bo, but they were seizing on a rare moment to get the goods. Not once did Bo fall back on feigned bewilderment, knee-jerk contrariety or my favorite, “What do you think?”
In short, he put his cards on the table. I must decide what to make of them in these next weeks.
So does Perlman.
So does Osborne.
So does Martinez.
So do you.