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'Stay The Course'
Pelini faces adversity finding "the truth"
by Samuel McKewon
October 07, 2008
It was just weeks after Hurricane Katrina, and in the midst of all the chaos in Louisiana at the time, Bo Pelini had to worry about an LSU defense that had just given up 890 total yards in his first two games as the Tigers’ coordinator. A defense that had missed whole chunks of practice time, played just twice in September and had family members throughout the Bayou without basic necessities.
It’s a weird world, where levees break and some fans still have linebackers on the brain. Still – it was the hand Pelini was dealt.
“After my first two games at LSU, they wanted to run me out of the state,” Pelini said. “Ask anybody down there. I was No. 1 on the hit list in Louisiana for awhile.”
Well – at least on the pigskin hit list. LSU played the ten next weeks, and lost just once, in the SEC Championship game, allowing just 266 yards per game for the year.
So although Pelini’s resume suggests he’s rarely experienced the kind of long-term failure that many others in the profession have – and thus may be in for the task of his career in rebuilding wounded Nebraska - he said he’s tasted adversity of the brand he faces now after NU’s 52-17 loss to Missouri.
Pelini’s remedy: “No matter what, stay the course.”
“You have to look at the truth and work to fix it,” Pelini said at his Tuesday teleconference. “I’m pretty blunt guy. I’m pretty black and white. I’ve always been able to sift through all the things that are being said and not being said and criticisms and look at, ‘OK, this is where we are, this where we need to go, and this is the best way to get there.
“…Do I feel like I’ve got to crawl in the hole and separate myself from the world? That isn’t how I approach things. I’m the same guy I was two weeks ago.”
Of course, NU isn’t the quite same team. The loss to Mizzou was a nationally-televised embarrassment on many fronts, not the least of which was the Huskers’ 14 penalties.
Nebraska’s image took a further hit when MU quarterback Chase Daniel accused an unnamed Husker of spitting on him. The news item was picked up by most major news outlets and broadcast on ESPN’s college football programs. A quick search of “Chase Daniel spit on” on Google elicited 97,100 results. Assuming duplicate stories, that’s still a lot of Web sites that will never bother to report that Pelini and Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel consider it a “dead issue.”
“It hurts,” Pelini said of the accusation. “That’s not the kind of program I run or I’m gonna run.”
While “by no means” questioning Daniel’s story, Pelini said there was two sides to it and that the Huskers “fully understand that nothing like that would ever be acceptable.”
Nor would a repeat performance against Texas Tech, where the Lubbock boys await with an offense just as dangerous as Missouri’s. Expect NU to counter with something a little more sound than its plan for the Tigers.
In retrospect, Pelini said, his defensive scheme “got away from what I believe in.”
“Sometimes you try too hard,” he said. “I regret some of the things that we did in our plan. In my efforts to simplify some things and be aggressive, I didn’t make the right decision.”
Pelini wouldn’t go into detail, but the Huskers’ defense seemed particularly focused on pressuring Daniel, who burned NU for a touchdown on the game’s third play and drew a personal foul when Zach Potter was called for hitting Daniel’s helmet with his own.
“He’s shorter than I am and that’s the main reason it was called,” Potter said. “I’m never gonna back down from playing hard just because I got a personal foul and I don’t think Coach Pelini wants us to back up game or play timid or anything like that.”
Potter’s word reflected the team’s general mood. Pelini said the Huskers “got after it” in Monday’s practice – especially the offensive line – and they began to develop an “us against the world” mentality that’s necessary for road games.
The renewed spirit actually began, wide receiver Todd Peterson said, in meetings, as players reflected on the loss in a way that sharply contrasted, he said, with the reaction in 2007.
“I even heard guys whispering about it on Sunday,” Peterson said. “They’re like ‘That’s embarrassing. I don’t ever want to feel that again.’ Just things like that. It’s good to hear that. When guys are taking it to heart they’re going to do something about it.”
'Stay The Course'
Pelini faces adversity finding "the truth"
by Samuel McKewon
October 07, 2008
It was just weeks after Hurricane Katrina, and in the midst of all the chaos in Louisiana at the time, Bo Pelini had to worry about an LSU defense that had just given up 890 total yards in his first two games as the Tigers’ coordinator. A defense that had missed whole chunks of practice time, played just twice in September and had family members throughout the Bayou without basic necessities.
It’s a weird world, where levees break and some fans still have linebackers on the brain. Still – it was the hand Pelini was dealt.
“After my first two games at LSU, they wanted to run me out of the state,” Pelini said. “Ask anybody down there. I was No. 1 on the hit list in Louisiana for awhile.”
Well – at least on the pigskin hit list. LSU played the ten next weeks, and lost just once, in the SEC Championship game, allowing just 266 yards per game for the year.
So although Pelini’s resume suggests he’s rarely experienced the kind of long-term failure that many others in the profession have – and thus may be in for the task of his career in rebuilding wounded Nebraska - he said he’s tasted adversity of the brand he faces now after NU’s 52-17 loss to Missouri.
Pelini’s remedy: “No matter what, stay the course.”
“You have to look at the truth and work to fix it,” Pelini said at his Tuesday teleconference. “I’m pretty blunt guy. I’m pretty black and white. I’ve always been able to sift through all the things that are being said and not being said and criticisms and look at, ‘OK, this is where we are, this where we need to go, and this is the best way to get there.
“…Do I feel like I’ve got to crawl in the hole and separate myself from the world? That isn’t how I approach things. I’m the same guy I was two weeks ago.”
Of course, NU isn’t the quite same team. The loss to Mizzou was a nationally-televised embarrassment on many fronts, not the least of which was the Huskers’ 14 penalties.
Nebraska’s image took a further hit when MU quarterback Chase Daniel accused an unnamed Husker of spitting on him. The news item was picked up by most major news outlets and broadcast on ESPN’s college football programs. A quick search of “Chase Daniel spit on” on Google elicited 97,100 results. Assuming duplicate stories, that’s still a lot of Web sites that will never bother to report that Pelini and Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel consider it a “dead issue.”
“It hurts,” Pelini said of the accusation. “That’s not the kind of program I run or I’m gonna run.”
While “by no means” questioning Daniel’s story, Pelini said there was two sides to it and that the Huskers “fully understand that nothing like that would ever be acceptable.”
Nor would a repeat performance against Texas Tech, where the Lubbock boys await with an offense just as dangerous as Missouri’s. Expect NU to counter with something a little more sound than its plan for the Tigers.
In retrospect, Pelini said, his defensive scheme “got away from what I believe in.”
“Sometimes you try too hard,” he said. “I regret some of the things that we did in our plan. In my efforts to simplify some things and be aggressive, I didn’t make the right decision.”
Pelini wouldn’t go into detail, but the Huskers’ defense seemed particularly focused on pressuring Daniel, who burned NU for a touchdown on the game’s third play and drew a personal foul when Zach Potter was called for hitting Daniel’s helmet with his own.
“He’s shorter than I am and that’s the main reason it was called,” Potter said. “I’m never gonna back down from playing hard just because I got a personal foul and I don’t think Coach Pelini wants us to back up game or play timid or anything like that.”
Potter’s word reflected the team’s general mood. Pelini said the Huskers “got after it” in Monday’s practice – especially the offensive line – and they began to develop an “us against the world” mentality that’s necessary for road games.
The renewed spirit actually began, wide receiver Todd Peterson said, in meetings, as players reflected on the loss in a way that sharply contrasted, he said, with the reaction in 2007.
“I even heard guys whispering about it on Sunday,” Peterson said. “They’re like ‘That’s embarrassing. I don’t ever want to feel that again.’ Just things like that. It’s good to hear that. When guys are taking it to heart they’re going to do something about it.”