Changing the Culture

8 comments so far April 16, 2009 by Steve Hanway

When Bo Pelini took the helm as head football coach at the University of Nebraska one of the things he said he needed to do was to change the culture. When you talk about something as nebulous and abstract as “culture”, it becomes very difficult to assess the progress. Nevertheless, evidence abounds that Bo and his staff are taking the kinds of actions that can lead to a culture change.

What Was Broken
The obvious question when it comes to judging a change in culture is what was wrong with the existing culture and what about needed to change? Some clues to that come from David Kolowski’s book, “Diary of a Husker” who played between 1998 and 2002 (the first five of Frank Solich’s six seasons as head coach). He felt that the overabundance of walk-ons with minimal prospects of playing time led to an apathy that came to permeate the team. Conditioning was done half-heartedly at times and the results became apparent on the field.

Things did not improve under Bill Callahan as we saw players grow bigger, but without getting stronger or faster. In fact, some players seemed to regress physically as they spent time in the program. By at least one account, a walk-on player had covertly worked with speed coaches outside the program because speed was not a meaningful part of the Husker conditioning program under Callahan.

But simply offering the right kind of conditioning and nutrition programs isn’t going to produce outstanding results. There are limits to how much coaches are allowed to supervise off-season work, so ultimately it’s about how committed the players are to their own conditioning. "Conditioning" might not even be the right word. Really, it's more like "suffering". Players need to push themselves beyond every pain threshold on an almost daily basis in order to truly become the kind of athlete that was once in abundance at NU.

And conditioning is the recipe for success at Nebraska. The Huskers are never going to outrecruit USC. The national championships came when the Big Red outworked the competition. I still recall former UCLA head coach Terry Donahue gushing about the Nebraska in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl and how they had a three-deep of strong and lean 300-lbs. linemen. We know about Unfinished Business in 1994 and Grant Wistrom making teammates run until they puked in 1997. Husker championships have been won in the offseason.

Coaching legend Pat Riley demanded that the New York Knicks team he took over be the best conditioned team in the NBA. With one true superstar and a bunch of role players, he took the Knicks within a game of an NBA championship, and likely would have won one if not for the transcendent talent (and commitment to conditioning) of Michael Jordan. Conditioning matters everywhere in sports, and when Bo Pelini arrived the conditioning at Nebraska was not special when compared to the most elite teams in the country.

Fixing the Problem
If getting guys to fully commit to conditioning was easy, it would happen everywhere. The one place you’re going to be tested is when the more talented players, players that don’t need a lot of work to outplay those around them, decide they aren’t going to work very hard. The coach must make a tough choice, do you make empty threats to try and get the player on track or will you actually bench a guy for an inferior player in order to make sure that everyone’s working hard. You’d think it’s a no-brainer that you play the better athlete, but if you’re willing to pay the price at one position, the cascading impact on the rest of the team can be powerful. Because instead of having a slew of talented performers who aren’t pushing themselves, you’ve got a squad of guys working hard with just a few guys left behind.

Case in point – Phillip Dillard. Dillard came to Nebraska as a highly regarded recruit. By the time Pelini and company arrived (and again this year), Dillard was the most experienced linebacker, the type of player that would unquestionably be inked in as a starter in the Callahan days. But clearly Pelini’s not afraid to demote a talented returning starter if he’s not doing the right things in the offseason. And the payoff should be that every other player gets the message and does the work.

Likewise, Pelini showed that the unheralded guys that do the work can earn a spot, even over an established player. Offensive lineman Mike Caputo seems like a clear example. The walk-on player added 10 lbs. of muscle this off-season and could take the center position from returning starter Jacob Hickman even with a hard-charging prospect like Ricky Henry in the mix at guard. The rise of Caputo not only pushes the scholarship players, but it also sends a message to every other walk-on to keep trying.

Beyond physical conditioning, Pelini's also sought out a greater number of four-year players and serious students. He's made redshirting the norm again and reduced dramatically the number of kids who haven't shown the commitment to working in the classroom. Bill Parcells, the legendary NFL coach, was famous for saying that smart players seldom make stupid plays. While classroom smarts and football smarts are different things, they aren't necessarily uncorrelated. Teams like the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts have loaded up with college graduates (versus those who departed early or otherwise didn't seek degrees) in the past decade. Obviously, they see a relationshiop.

Nebraska’s still got work to do to get back to the top echelon of college football. But Bo Pelini’s willingness to think long term and his determination not to let the inmates run the asylum seems to be sending the right message. Hopefully we see the results sooner rather than later.

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