Why Bo
21 comments so far
December 1, 2007 by
With reports pointing to Bo Pelini as NU’s next head coach, it seems fair to talk about the choice. Tom Osborne will surely give reasoning on why Bo is the pick, but since BRN’s own Darren Carlson already “outed� me as wanting Bo, it seems fair to talk about why.
Why have I waited this long? Simply put, I am a Husker fan. Whomever is NU’s head coach will always get the benefit of the doubt from me. That’s why I defended Solich and Callahan until the bitter end and will probably do the same for Pelini or whomever comes next. There’s no greater feeling as a sports fan than choosing to believe in your team when there are reasons not to, and then seeing it pay off on the field. Think Colorado and the Alamo Bowl in 2005.
A Track Record of Success
If there was one red flag about Callahan coming in it was that he was coming off a 4-12 season. I appreciate how competitive the NFL is and even Hall of Fame head coaches don’t avoid losing seasons forever. But coming off of a Super Bowl appearance, no team gets that bad that fast without some mistakes by the head coach. Memo to Texas A&M fans – consider yourselves warned.
Pelini on the other hand, in his five seasons as a coordinator in college football has produced top 15 defenses every season and every team he’s been on has won ten games or more. Some of that success came at Nebraska, which suggests he can do it again.
Fixes NU’s Biggest Weakness
No surprise that defense was the Husker’s biggest problem in 2007. It was also a big problem in 2002. In 2003 he took the team from 55th in total defense the year before and made it eleventh-best nationally. It dropped back to 56th the year after he departed. He now inherits the 112th ranked defense. Regardless of what happens with the offense or special teams, you can count on him improving the Husker defense rather substantially. That can pay off big as the 2003 Husker team won 3 games in which they scored 18 points or fewer and went 5-1 when held to 28 or fewer points. The 2007 team by contrast went 1-4 in games in which it scored fewer than 28 points and 0-3 when scoring less than 20.
The Home Run
There are no surefire coaching candidates out there, unless you’ve got an extra $10 million a year to try to lure Jim Tressel to Lincoln (which NU doesn’t). Every candidate has their upside and has some cause for doubt. Pelini appears to have the greatest upside. Quite simply he looks as much like Bob Stoops on paper as anyone possibly could. Stoops has gone 89-16 over the past eight seasons with 4 Big 12 titles (and maybe a fifth today) and a national championship. That is the level of expectation at Nebraska and Pelini seems like the best chance for NU to get back to that level.
Turner Gill deserved MAC Coach of the Year for what he did at Buffalo but that doesn’t necessarily translate to competing for Big 12 championships. And it doesn’t tell us much about what he can do for an ailing defense. The job here isn’t to get to respectability or to .500 in the conference. It’s to win the title. That’s not to say Gill can’t do those things, just that there are fewer clues on paper that say he’d make that happen.
Opportunity for Continuity
For those of us who would like to see some of the current staff retained (e.g. Shawn Watson), Bo Pelini won’t be bringing nine assistants with him like a Jim Grobe might. That’s not to say that Pelini won’t completely clean house, but he doesn’t have to. For those of us who like the Ganz-Watson mojo, it might be a good thing to keep Watson around. That’s certainly not a reason to hire a guy, on its own. But for those of us who would like to see the “transitional pain� minimized, Watson could well help us hang onto some good recruits and keep the hot streak on offense going.
So when you add it all up, why do I want Bo? The real question seems to be, why wouldn’t I?
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ze bop Dec 01 07
I reiterate: WV went from about 110 in '06 in D to in the top 15(?) this year. NE has to find some down linemen that can play and some new lbs, but BOP should get the D clicking again.
What happened to Rutgers infamous 'chop' D this year under Schiano?
Maybe they can go after Gabbert and Gray again for the O once the smoke settles.
darren Dec 01 07
Great "take" on the hire, Steve. Sorry if my Bogasm post tipped your hand in your preference for Pelini. Trust me, I feel the same way.
This morning's OWH is suggesting (but not too strongly...) that Watson and receivers coach Ted Gillmore may be retained on offense.
Does this leave Turner Gill completely out in the cold? Mabye...or maybe not. Stay tuned, I guess.
ze bop Dec 01 07
Hows 'bout that Rudolph guy, he's got the Buckeye connection?
ze bop Dec 01 07
It's clear from this year's Big Red that you must have a great defense first. When you score 39 and 51 points and still lose--or outplay TX for 3 qtrs then give up 250 yds to ONE guy in the 4th--well, I rest my case.
So, do you guys think BOP will act as DC too, or get somebody for that? I hear Tenuda(GT) might be looking for work....
Wow, BOP and Tenuda, now there's cause for a Bogasm--big time!
ze bop Dec 01 07
Now Herbstreit et. al. is saying Tenuda might follow Miles to MI--that s*&cks...
Big Red Cheesehead Dec 01 07
Sherman's record in Green Bay suggested he would be recycled as an NFL head coach, but he never struck me as a college guy. In any case, he has fewer red flags than Callahan, who lost his Raiders team in one year.
Red flag on Pelini? LSU gave up 26 points per game against SEC opponents this year - over 32 if you exclude the shutout of Miss State in week 1. That's not to say he's not the best choice, and there would be question marks no matter who comes in. But it makes one wonder how good a job did he really do.
Steve Dec 01 07
Cheesehead,
A bunch of those points came in overtime. Subtract those out and it drops to 22 points against SEC competition. And some of those points were garbage (South Carolina and Ole Miss) which might drop it to an even 20. The Tigers were still third in total defense nationally on the year which tells you they still have made it awfully tough for teams to move the ball. That's almost three touchdowns better than the Huskers were this year.
Even a "bad" year for Bo looks awfully good to me.
cvldfg Dec 01 07
GREAT article Steve. You expressed in better ways than me the same reasons why I like Bo.
Does anyone know where Tommie Frazier is?
BTW, did I mention how happy I am?
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
cvldfg Dec 01 07
Sorry, I won't do that anymore.
ze bop Dec 01 07
Uh, I think OT counts:
A) why did the game get to OT?
B) why didn't you stop them in OT?
Forever Red! Dec 01 07
Bob Stoops was on ESPN the other day and stated how unfair it is for the D in overtime. Nothing in overtime should go toward your game stat's. The offense starts out in scoring position. You don't even have to gain a yard to kick a field goal. Overtime possession's need to start on the 40 yard line. Why do you think the average overtime this year was 3? Overtime in College means nothing, it's all about who gets lucky.
Here is my guess for why the games got to overtime...............The two teams were tied at the end of regulation.
Greg Morrow Dec 01 07
Couldn't agree more, Steve!
A lifelong fan of the team, (born on the bandwagon) with a workable grip on reality, I support the staff as much as individual players. Always.
Pelini, still under 40, has 5 solid seasons at the college level. At 3 top echelon schools (okay, one used to be). He's now well dialed in on "irrational exuberance" concerning fans expectations. He's got mucho energy and enough talent to get the current players to have that winning confidence again, which is so crucial when playing teams of equal and better talent.
It's implied that he's not a smooth interview. Would Tom Osborne ever have been a "smooth interview"?
He thought he was ready in '03. Then he must be REALLY READY as '08 closes in!
Quick aside. I would like to see Callahan get another HC crack with a college team again, someday. If only to see what the extra 4 years of experience had taught him. Most likely though, he'll get an assistent job soon after the NFL regular season ends.
Josh Dec 01 07
I'd like to see a few of the coaches from Cally's staff stay on.
Gilmore, Watson, Rudolph, and Jordan, in my opinion, did pretty darn well.
Some would argue that our receiver's underachieved. I don't know. Maybe. And, Gilmore isn't the one dropping balls.
Watson, I think, has a lot of upside - player's respect, and savvy playcalling ability. That is, when Billy C. would relinquish the playcalling duties to him.
Rudolph is from Ohio State so that may bode well for him. And, considering the suspect talent we had to work with this year at tight end, I think he did as good of a job as anyone could have.
As for Jordan, I think our running backs have always been a strongpoint. Sure, you could argue that there was talent mismanagement. But, what we don't know is if the temporary vanishing of Castille at times was Jordan's call, or Billy C's.
The odds that Bo will keep all four of those guys is about the same as me getting a date with Jessica Simpson. Zero.
Dwayne Dec 01 07
Is this chicken or tuna? Such as...
ze bop Dec 01 07
"A) why did the game get to OT?"
My point here being, the D should've played well enough in regulation to win the game.
Thought that was obvious.
Forever Red! Dec 01 07
How bout that LSU D today? I'll take it.
Steve Dec 01 07
ze,
I think Forever Red said it all for me, but points are cheap in overtime, so adding them in with regulation points is not a real good representation of a defense. Yes, he obviously gave up some points in regulation to get to OT, and those can be held against him. But giving up 20 (that's LSU's average for the year) is OK by me. A college offense should be able to get 21 points.
WOW Dec 01 07
Alrighty then.
Overtime points are 'different' than regulation points.
The lucky team in overtime wins.
I thought Notre Dame's loss to Navy in 3 OT's was because they played horribly. It's good to know that Navy just 'got lucky'.
I suppose we can call the Zac Taylor to Cory Ross screen pass to defeat Iowa State in 2005 as just getting lucky too.
Am I the only one who sees these 'qualifications' of overtime points/play as crazy-speak??
JR
Steve Dec 01 07
WOW,
Some of these marathon overtime games account for about half the points each team scored. That's not a representation of how a defense looks for 60 minutes. Rather, it tells you what happens when you back a dog-tired defense up to it's end zone and have an offense that's so desperate that half the time they need to attempt fourth-down conversions or two-point conversions rather than kick. It's very much unlike the rest of the game.
It also shows why LSU could have the third ranked defense this past year in terms of total yards but be ranked 22nd or something in scoring defense. Because their are a bunch of points coming late that teams that avoid overtime don't give up.
I'm surprised I need to defend Bo. Did anyone else see the game today against Tennessee?
ze bop Dec 01 07
I agree that OT points are cheap points, especially since they can pretty much get a field goal every time. They should start around the 40 like said above.
Great D showing tonight by BOP and the gang! I called the pick 6 right before it happened!
I can see BOP on the NE sideline. I don't think there's a better D coord. out there, but LSU also has some ridiculous talent.
Anyway, LSU should've never gone to OT vs ARK, let alone lose it. ARK does have Mcfadden and Jones, but their O scheme is pretty pathetic IMO.
Offenses DO have the upper hand in general, though, these days.
ze bop Dec 01 07
Awesome, Sooners open up a can of whoopa$$ vs Miz-Who? 3 touchdown victory as I predicted!
Daniels proves to be a big time whiner! Too bad he won't have another shot....maybe KU vs OU in the Fiesta; no BCS for Miz-Who?!
WOOOHOOO!
Last pretender--HI--is getting killed by U DUB!!!--yes U DUB--in the first. Looks like the NFL vs highschoolers.
WOOOHOOO!