Shatel's Column

beanman

beanman

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College Station, Texas — Bo Pelini lost his mind. The Huskers lost their composure. Nebraska lost a game, 9-6, to Texas A&M.

Can they still hold on to this season?

That's the issue this morning and up until Friday, when the revived Colorado Buffaloes rumble into Lincoln for what shapes up as the biggest game in Bo Pelini's three years at NU.

After a chaotic night, in which Pelini and his team were in meltdown mode, the Huskers' fate was still crystal clear.

Beat the Buffs and Nebraska takes the Big 12 North and has a shot to achieve this season's ultimate mission: win the Big 12 championship.

Lose? The season is a major dud and Pelini takes heat for losing his grip on the situation.

Either way, Pelini will have a hard time living down Saturday night.

He screamed. He raged. Lip-readers in the television audience were covering their children's eyes.

Pelini screamed at tight end Ben Cotton. He yelled at quarterback Taylor Martinez in a surprising scene. He even spewed some fire at reliable kicker Alex Henery.

Then there were the officials. Pelini saved his best fury for the zebras. There were a school-record 16 yellow flags against NU for 145 yards, only two against the Aggies. Pelini let them hear about it in no uncertain terms.

At one point, with his team backed up deep in its own territory in a 6-6 game with field position paramount, he got an unsportsmanlike flag. That's like a hoops coach getting a technical foul late in a tie game.

Then, after the game's final play, Pelini immediately chased after referee Greg Burks to get a few more choice words in.

Pelini has worked hard on curbing his image as the hothead, but it came back in living color Saturday night, overshadowing a valiant night from his defense and a gutsy performance by Martinez on one ankle in the most hostile environment you could imagine.

Did he have reason to chew on some zebra? You bet.

Look, the Big 12 officials have had a bad year. They've been uneven, inconsistent, just awful at times. It's gone both ways, though conspiracy theorists would beg to differ.

Those theorists seemed to get ammunition last week from an espn.com report that said NU ranked first in fewest penalty yards by opponents.

I'm guessing last night's ratio probably added to the margin.

while maybe the Huskers just forgot how to play football, the easy theory is to say there's some striped revenge going on. There was some weird science out there, stuff that officials never have to answer to. Courtney Osborne's personal foul after hitting Ryan Tannehill in the chest? Top of the list.

Honestly, I still have my doubts that this is some huge Big 12 conspiracy. I don't think Big 12 officials are good enough to collectively single out a game plan and execute it.

The truth is, officials are human. They make mistakes — like coaches and players. And Nebraska's move to the Big Ten almost led to the Big 12's destruction. A lot of officials could have been out of jobs.

Would they hold a grudge? I don't know. We can't talk to the officials. We're all left guessing and hoping/assuming there's integrity there.

Here's this, though: how would the Huskers losing to Texas A&M help the Big 12? NU entered the game with an outside shot at the BCS title game and giving the league a second BCS bowl team. And if there's a conspiracy to keep Nebraska out of the Big 12 title game, it couldn't have ended last night. NU still has a shot.

But that's up to the Huskers, not the officials.

What I do know is that Nebraska absolutely has to play above this. And Pelini has to coach above it. They had a hard time with that in the crazy zoo that was Kyle Field.

You knew it was going to be a tough night. NU's old friend, Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne, set the table by calling for Aggie students and fans to show up in record numbers. They did — setting an A&M record with a crowd of 90,079. With record noise. There will be 90,079 hoarse throats today.

There were a handful of false starts by NU linemen. That's too many, but the place was insane. It happens.

But the two penalties for 30 yards — on one play — by Cotton? Can't happen. Not here. Not against this team. Not with the season on the line.

Two personal fouls against Eric Martin? The kid plays full-tilt. But he's also been suspended already this year. Think they might be watching, Eric? Got to dial it back. Fair? Doesn't matter. You can't even put yourself in that situation.

Same for Courtney Osborne. Pelini teaches his players to play aggressively and not hold back. But that kind of 50-50 play isn't going NU's way this season. You can't expect it. If you're Osborne, you just can't hit the guy in the chest after he's released the ball. Bad call, yes. But you can't take that chance.Again, the penalties and the Pelini imagery will be the story from here. It's too bad. The Blackshirts had one of their finest moments, and they should be applauded. Do they have another one left in them?

They'd better. NU's offense is going backwards fast. Martinez still doesn't look right. He reinjured his high ankle sprain early when center Mike Caputo stepped on it while Caputo was being driven back by a defender.

Martinez came back in the second half. But he's not pushing off on the right foot with confidence when he's throwing, and you wonder if that had something to do with an interception that took away at least a Henery field goal.

This would be the perfect time to grind out a power running game, but the Huskers seemed to have lost that mojo, too.

They'd better find it. And fast. Nebraska had better take a deep breath, get its composure and find a way to stop a confident bunch of Buffs who have given NU fits in Lincoln since 1996.

At this point, the best revenge for NU would be to get to Arlington, Texas, and force Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe to hand Tom Osborne and Pelini the trophy.

First, they have to get there.

 
Osborne's hit was textbook. I wouldn't ask him to do it any other way. I agree with the whole "rise above" theme here, but you can't ask your players to dial it back in a FOOTBALL GAME.

 
While he obviously swung the pendulum back the other way a bit too far, resorting to extremism to attract eyes and make a point, In principle, I agree with what he says.

You can either take the shafting and scream/whine/freak out about it, with the excuse that it's justified, deserved and that you have every right to act that way, or you can tighten it up and tell your team, "Look, we're going to have to do more than we should to win this game tonight. It's not fair, but life's not fair, we have to get over it, we can't let them take this from us."


 
After I read his column this morning I thought-Man! I thought he was on OUR side? Blah!

beanman said:
My link

College Station, Texas — Bo Pelini lost his mind. The Huskers lost their composure. Nebraska lost a game, 9-6, to Texas A&M.

Can they still hold on to this season?

That's the issue this morning and up until Friday, when the revived Colorado Buffaloes rumble into Lincoln for what shapes up as the biggest game in Bo Pelini's three years at NU.

After a chaotic night, in which Pelini and his team were in meltdown mode, the Huskers' fate was still crystal clear.

Beat the Buffs and Nebraska takes the Big 12 North and has a shot to achieve this season's ultimate mission: win the Big 12 championship.

Lose? The season is a major dud and Pelini takes heat for losing his grip on the situation.

Either way, Pelini will have a hard time living down Saturday night.

He screamed. He raged. Lip-readers in the television audience were covering their children's eyes.

Pelini screamed at tight end Ben Cotton. He yelled at quarterback Taylor Martinez in a surprising scene. He even spewed some fire at reliable kicker Alex Henery.

Then there were the officials. Pelini saved his best fury for the zebras. There were a school-record 16 yellow flags against NU for 145 yards, only two against the Aggies. Pelini let them hear about it in no uncertain terms.

At one point, with his team backed up deep in its own territory in a 6-6 game with field position paramount, he got an unsportsmanlike flag. That's like a hoops coach getting a technical foul late in a tie game.

Then, after the game's final play, Pelini immediately chased after referee Greg Burks to get a few more choice words in.

Pelini has worked hard on curbing his image as the hothead, but it came back in living color Saturday night, overshadowing a valiant night from his defense and a gutsy performance by Martinez on one ankle in the most hostile environment you could imagine.

Did he have reason to chew on some zebra? You bet.

Look, the Big 12 officials have had a bad year. They've been uneven, inconsistent, just awful at times. It's gone both ways, though conspiracy theorists would beg to differ.

Those theorists seemed to get ammunition last week from an espn.com report that said NU ranked first in fewest penalty yards by opponents.

I'm guessing last night's ratio probably added to the margin.

while maybe the Huskers just forgot how to play football, the easy theory is to say there's some striped revenge going on. There was some weird science out there, stuff that officials never have to answer to. Courtney Osborne's personal foul after hitting Ryan Tannehill in the chest? Top of the list.

Honestly, I still have my doubts that this is some huge Big 12 conspiracy. I don't think Big 12 officials are good enough to collectively single out a game plan and execute it.

The truth is, officials are human. They make mistakes — like coaches and players. And Nebraska's move to the Big Ten almost led to the Big 12's destruction. A lot of officials could have been out of jobs.

Would they hold a grudge? I don't know. We can't talk to the officials. We're all left guessing and hoping/assuming there's integrity there.

Here's this, though: how would the Huskers losing to Texas A&M help the Big 12? NU entered the game with an outside shot at the BCS title game and giving the league a second BCS bowl team. And if there's a conspiracy to keep Nebraska out of the Big 12 title game, it couldn't have ended last night. NU still has a shot.

But that's up to the Huskers, not the officials.

What I do know is that Nebraska absolutely has to play above this. And Pelini has to coach above it. They had a hard time with that in the crazy zoo that was Kyle Field.

You knew it was going to be a tough night. NU's old friend, Texas A&M Athletic Director Bill Byrne, set the table by calling for Aggie students and fans to show up in record numbers. They did — setting an A&M record with a crowd of 90,079. With record noise. There will be 90,079 hoarse throats today.

There were a handful of false starts by NU linemen. That's too many, but the place was insane. It happens.

But the two penalties for 30 yards — on one play — by Cotton? Can't happen. Not here. Not against this team. Not with the season on the line.

Two personal fouls against Eric Martin? The kid plays full-tilt. But he's also been suspended already this year. Think they might be watching, Eric? Got to dial it back. Fair? Doesn't matter. You can't even put yourself in that situation.

Same for Courtney Osborne. Pelini teaches his players to play aggressively and not hold back. But that kind of 50-50 play isn't going NU's way this season. You can't expect it. If you're Osborne, you just can't hit the guy in the chest after he's released the ball. Bad call, yes. But you can't take that chance.Again, the penalties and the Pelini imagery will be the story from here. It's too bad. The Blackshirts had one of their finest moments, and they should be applauded. Do they have another one left in them?

They'd better. NU's offense is going backwards fast. Martinez still doesn't look right. He reinjured his high ankle sprain early when center Mike Caputo stepped on it while Caputo was being driven back by a defender.

Martinez came back in the second half. But he's not pushing off on the right foot with confidence when he's throwing, and you wonder if that had something to do with an interception that took away at least a Henery field goal.

This would be the perfect time to grind out a power running game, but the Huskers seemed to have lost that mojo, too.

They'd better find it. And fast. Nebraska had better take a deep breath, get its composure and find a way to stop a confident bunch of Buffs who have given NU fits in Lincoln since 1996.

At this point, the best revenge for NU would be to get to Arlington, Texas, and force Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe to hand Tom Osborne and Pelini the trophy.

First, they have to get there.
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I think Shatel is trying to hard to be a voice of reason, which anyone can be guilty of. I agree largely with the gist of this piece, which is odd, since I used to usually just dump on any Shatel article I see (I forget why, honestly), but the line about Osborne is just egregiously wrong. He hasn't seen the replay, I'm guessing. Because if you do, Osborne launches for the sack while the ball is still in Tannehill's arm. Credit Tannehill for a lightning quick release getting it out. 0.3 seconds later and he would just be down.

 
Maybe I read too much of Nebraska football press, but Shatel might as well have taken a week off. I've read his column twice now, and the only lingering impression I can take from him as a journalist is that he napped his way through the game and cashed in some crinkly, pre-written bollocks in place of actually doing his job, which is attempting to find out just how in the hell we had a 16-2 penalty discrepancy in a season where Nebraska's opponents have been shamefully under penalized, and that the game was literally decided by a referee crew.

How about the fact that one of the boys he's supposed to be covering was sexually molested by an aTm player? Care to comment, Tom? What's that? Too busy phoning in your performance of 'objective journalist'?

Somewhere spliced between his idiotic insights, maybe the thought might have come, "How in the hell do you exactly 'coach above' a vindictive zebra crew who is more than slanting a game towards a team?"

I'll wait, Tom. I'll wait a long time for an answer.

What we saw wasn't a game last night, Tom. It wasn't a sport. There was no open competition, no battle of athletes at all. No one won, and no one lost, because there was no fair game to coach, and there was no fair game to play.

We can't talk to the officials. We're all left guessing and hoping/assuming there's integrity there.
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You have names. You can dig up contact information. You have freedom of the press. Do your job.

 
You know, it got me thinking some more and I remembered something a poster I respect a lot over at HI said about Bo. He said Bo needs to treat people better, people like journalists, even when you want nothing to do with them. He said that people all love Bo now, while we are winning, but if he builds up enemies like he is, then they will be waiting at the first opportunity to strike at him, and run him out of town. I don't think I would underestimate the effect of "a fanbase turning on Bo" or the perception of such.

So on second thought, maybe Shatel isn't just trying to be a voice of reason. Maybe he's got an axe to grind against Bo, and while this is still just a two-loss season, shot a tentative volley up there.

I think it's no secret that Bo could work on this aspect of his game, but I also think this would be a good time to defend him and this staff. Because honestly people are making a mountain out of a molehill, and blowing things up when Bo is really just opening himself up to it and not doing himself any favors with the way he is acting. Like a swarm of vultures, reporters are going to jump on this, and fans, too, eventually. I think we all need to back the heck off, because the point's a fair one and has been made, but there shouldn't be any "anti-Bo being HC" sentiment in there.

 
zoogies said:
You know, it got me thinking some more and I remembered something a poster I respect a lot over at HI said about Bo. He said Bo needs to treat people better, people like journalists, even when you want nothing to do with them. He said that people all love Bo now, while we are winning, but if he builds up enemies like he is, then they will be waiting at the first opportunity to strike at him, and run him out of town. I don't think I would underestimate the effect of "a fanbase turning on Bo" or the perception of such.

So on second thought, maybe Shatel isn't just trying to be a voice of reason. Maybe he's got an axe to grind against Bo, and while this is still just a two-loss season, shot a tentative volley up there.

I think it's no secret that Bo could work on this aspect of his game, but I also think this would be a good time to defend him and this staff. Because honestly people are making a mountain out of a molehill, and blowing things up when Bo is really just opening himself up to it and not doing himself any favors with the way he is acting. Like a swarm of vultures, reporters are going to jump on this, and fans, too, eventually. I think we all need to back the heck off, because the point's a fair one and has been made, but there shouldn't be any "anti-Bo being HC" sentiment in there.
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I think you make a good point, except that this is all predicated upon the idea that anyone in Husker Nation has any respect for the media profession these days. Frankly, print media is a dinosaur, already looking to be second class compared to the kinds of user-driven information you can get on places like Huskerboard. The fact that Bo has nothing but contempt for media doesn't bother me. He's winning a lot of ballgames. He's the perfect coach for Nebraska.

Bo does have some serious attitude issues to work through. Some of that will come with experience. But when the deck is so stacked against you like it was last night, there is no release valve. It just erupts. It'll be forgotten in a month.

 
Yeah, and to be clear, Bo's contempt for the media doesn't really bother me. It just makes me worry a little, for his sake. The minute it looks like he isn't winning a lot of ballgames, they'll turn on him, and that's going to be really ugly.

I hope it'll be forgotten, but I think there is going to have to be some positive effort put into changing perception at this point.

 
I agree that the article was unhelpful and that we should take this opportunity to support Bo and our team. At the end of the day, Bo is an amazing coach and we're lucky to have him. We're all still behind you, coach. Last night did suck a little, but I'm over it.

All that said it would have been surprising if we didn't see a story or two like this in the media today. You've got to admit that was a pretty impressive and obvious meltdown he had on national TV last night, even if it was understandable to a a point... I think Bo will learn from this and move on.

Whatever. Time to fix up our offense and kick some Buffalo a$$.

 
beanman said:
My link

...Nebraska's move to the Big Ten almost led to the Big 12's destruction. A lot of officials could have been out of jobs.

Would they hold a grudge? I don't know. We can't talk to the officials. We're all left guessing and hoping/assuming there's integrity there.
Click to expand...
This is all that really needed to be written. Could've skipped the article and just blogged this.

With any allegations, the first thing looked for is possible motivation. There is plenty of motivation for everyone employed by the Big 12 conference to dislike Nebraska, and anyone that denies at least that fact is just wrong.

 
I agree with the spirit of the article. His comment about Osborne is ridiculous, and his comments about Martin are unfounded, unless he has some kind of proof concerning what Martin did.

 
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