SI's Andy Staples weighs in on NU & Bo: At the end of the day...

Saunders

Saunders

Heisman Trophy Winner
Coaches have their verbal tics. Steve Spurrier often begins orations with "Ooooo-kay." Urban Meyer often recalls that "somebody made the comment" before relaying exactly what that comment was. Nick Saban punctuates points with "aight," which is a shortened form of "all right" commonly used by rappers and, presumably, football coaches from West Virginia.

For Nebraska's Bo Pelini, the go-to phrase is "at the end of the day." He peppers his press conferences with it, usually in the process of explaining some decision he has made. For Pelini, who is not prone to sugarcoating, the most literal translation of the phrase is "when you cut through all the BS." So let's cut through it now.
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Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c.../#ixzz2kepj8yCY

 
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What get's old is people outside of the program dictating what our expectations should be regarding Nebraska football. Nebraska has always been a northern, unpopulated state with limited recruits. What sets us apart from others is not the fact that we used to be on TV more than everyone else. It was the Nebraska work ethic and the incredible player development that set us apart. And I would like to think it is still that way today. We have strayed a little bit, but not much, and hopefully we are right back on track.

 
I don't think any of this talk would be happening if we didn't keep getting blown out on national television. There were tough times and bad losses under TO but we were never embarrassed. This falls squarely on the shoulders of BO!!

I have been a big BO supporter but I am not sure that he can take us back to relevance, and that is the problem......

 
hskrfan4life said:
I like how he says we will finish with 4 losses again. You know they still play the games right?
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I think he is just playing the law of averages on that one. That is on Bo to prove that he can lose less than 4 games a year. If he manages that feat against this patheic schedule, then I don't know how people can defend him.

 
Well written and pretty damn supportive of both Bo and the Husker legacy.

Also, he doesn't say Nebraksa will finish with 4 losses. He just speculates what fans and the university might think if we do. He is a lot nicer than many of the fans here on HuskerBoard.

Wasn't it just a couple weeks ago that a lot of folks on this board thought a 9 - 4 season was suddenly out of reach?

 
misread that my bad. Either way I am ready for my voice to be gone Saturday!

 
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I'm glad Bo is our coach. I wanted him here in 03.

There's better out there for sure, but I don't know, I just kinda him for us.

But what grinds my gears, looking at this year, we have still "lost a game we thought we'd lose" and "lost to a team we all thought we'd beat".

Whether we win out or not, that's the feeling I can't shake w Bo. That's the pattern. All we're missing is the "how did we get blowout??" loss.

Which I hope and wish doesn't happen.

 
That was a good article. But I'm actually pretty partial to the article that he linked to:

One day in late December, dry-erase boards stood staggered a few yards apart on the track surrounding the field at the University of North Florida. A Nebraska assistant coach was posted in front of each board, and around each coach huddled a clutch of Jacksonville-area high school coaches. The Cornhuskers had come to the Sunshine State to face Clemson in the Gator Bowl, but first-year coach Bo Pelini and his staff figured that while they were there, they should lay the foundation for a recruiting pipeline into the state that, from 2004-08, produced more BCS-conference football players (981) than any other
The Nebraska coaches have little choice but to hit the road. Their state produced only 43 BCS-conference players in the past five years, and the annual output isn't likely to grow. If they don't get their players from Florida, then they must go to California, Texas, New Jersey or some other state rich in high school football talent. To land those players, Pelini will have to work harder now than former coach Tom Osborne did when the Cornhuskers dominated the sport for the better part of two decades. Back then, a winning program was enough to lure recruits, in part because only powerhouses such as Nebraska, Michigan and Notre Dame appeared on television regularly. Now, every BCS conference team plays most of its games on television, and 15 years of the 85-scholarship limit has slammed shut the gap between football's ruling class and the former pigskin proletariat.

In the process, the three most important factors in college football recruiting have become location, location and location. Now, the best players are more likely to stay close to home. That, combined with the U.S. population's shift to the south, has fundamentally changed the sport. Notre Dame and Nebraska have given way to programs such as LSU, the only BCS-conference team in a talent-rich state that borders equally talent-rich Texas and Mississippi.
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I am I said:
I'm glad Bo is our coach. I wanted him here in 03.

There's better out there for sure, but I don't know, I just kinda him for us.

But what grinds my gears, looking at this year, we have still "lost a game we thought we'd lose" and "lost to a team we all thought we'd beat".

Whether we win out or not, that's the feeling I can't shake w Bo. That's the pattern. All we're missing is the "how did we get blowout??" loss.

Which I hope and wish doesn't happen.
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UCLA 2nd half

 
I agree a lot with that article. The only thing I disagree with is the insinuation he makes, or at least the way I took it, that Nebraska can't get the talent that it used to. T.O. said they pulled in recruiting classes that averaged around the Top 25. Some classes were much better than others, of course.

And it wasn't too long ago that Callahan recruited a class that became arguably Nebraska's greatest defense of all time in 2009. They had really good talent.

While I agree Nebraska certainly has recruiting disadvantages in place, I think their problems have definitely been more mental than anything else, which is a reflection of coaching. I mean you don't go from beating Wisconsin at home to getting blown out by 40 points in a title game. That's mental, discipline and focus, imho.

 
winning solves a lot of problems. Winning consistently in prime time solves many recruiting problems. I think we'll eventually get there.

 
I got the impression that he began that article before the Michigan game, with the intent of writing a hot-seat piece, but when we won the game he had to change tack and rewrite it a bit. There's still that tinge of "Husker Fans are sharpening their pitchforks" to the whole thing, as if a loss or two more and he's gone. Which is absurd.

The best thing about that article is Andy's mention of Phat Jack's, which is not overwhelmed with business by Lincolnites like it should be, but is a very well-known spot amongst the national media. His mention of Burnt Ends is a stab in the back though - that's something that should have stayed a secret for those in the know. If the rank-and-file Lincoln diners all get wise to Burnt Ends there won't be enough for those of us who truly deserve them.

 
Andy had a long back-and-forth about DONU with Dirk Chatelain and some pharmacist last night on Twitter. T'was... something.

 
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