Is it Time for Bo to Let Go?
Despite the huge defensive improvements that Nebraska made under Bo Pelini in 2003, 2008 and 2009, his history as a defensive playcaller isn't as extensive as say a Bud Foster at Virginia Tech. After Nebraska, Pelini shared responsibilities in Oklahoma before heading to LSU. Now, he still seems to be the man making a lot of the major defensive calls despite his responsibilities as head coach. After some bad defensive performances over the last two seasons on defense in big games, it leads you to wonder. Should Bo fully hand over playcalling duties to his defensive coordinator (whether that's John Papuchis or someone else)?
We heard this refrain once before. When the offense seemed stymied in big games under Frank Solich, fans called for him to hand over playcalling duties to an offensive coordinator. Barney Cotton's one season calling the offense turned out to be even worse than the year before under Solich. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it was the wrong idea, maybe just that Cotton was the wrong guy.
When Pelini arrived in Lincoln in 2008, it was all about the defense. His focus was set squarely on it and it needed to be. He brought it from among the worst in college football to the middle of the pack. Shawn Watson's offense carried the team for most of that season. The following year Pelini's defense became one of college football's best. Meanwhile Watson's offense regressed dramatically. The 2010 season saw the Huskers continue to play good defense but the offense stalled when Taylor Martinez became injured. In 2011, the offense was re-invented under Tim Beck and required some attention from the head man. By 2012, it was mostly fixed (minus some turnover and penalty issues). Meanwhile, the defense, seemed noticably worse.
Might that be a function of the time Pelini has had to spent working and thinking about other aspects of his team? Is he at a disadvantage as a defensive playcaller when compared to coordinators with no responsibilities other than defense?
Can you hang all of the deficiencies of the defense on playcalling? Perhaps that's unfair. Personnel can do a lot to explain the highs and lows of the Pelini (and Solich) eras. With Ndamukong Suh and Jared Crick the defense shined. Without them, they dropped off. Even this season the loss of Baker Steinkuhler at defensive tackle seemed rather substantial. Likewise, the injuries and growing pains for Martinez may have cost Watson his job. Taylor's improvement and experience had a lot to do with the offensive success for the Huskers this year.
So the major question is whether Pelini needs to find defensive playcalling help or if he just needs to bring in better defensive players. As Pelini's known to ask, "what do you think?"
1/5/2013
Better players.
Bo can call plays. And even when you look at the big games we lost. ok, yea, a few times we were in the wrong scheme. But to be honest, most of the time the play is covered and our defense just doesn’t get it done. We have 1-2 good players at a time and usually just 1 great player. (On defense) We need 3-4 good players and 2-3 great players to have a good defense again.
In my opinion.
1/5/2013
Bo needs to keep calling def plays. A guy just dsnt loose defensive calling talent iin a yr or two. Like stated above its players mostly. Hell nebraska still haf one of or the best pass defense in the nation. Thats gta say something
1/5/2013
HEy the skers picked up the commitment from Kevin Maurice DT from ORlando Freedom..
Hes only rated a two star but hes I think its more that there wasnt much to evaluate him on as a DT.. Offers from a few smaller schools .. He played OL for the first three years before moving to DT where he has considerably more upside..
PLEASE PEOPLE WATCH THE FILM AT DT BEFORE JUDGING.. He developed nicely at the DT position as the year went along, and plays in one of the bigger classes in Florida.. Had about 70 tackles and 9.5 sacks.. I really believe its one of those things were he became a player as a senior otherwise he plays just as well as other guys we were going after..
WELCOME TO N MR MAURICE!
Hartford SD
1/5/2013
Most people are not gifted with super speed or strenth. TO was able to develope those most into great athelets. Bo just doesnt seem to be able to do that. Just look at when Rodrigez was put into the game. It looked like he was winded on his 2nd play from scrimmage. Like before the game he ate a large pizza, and washed it down with a 6 pack of beer (very slow and slugish). Now i never played college football, but i did wrestle in college. There never was any type of an off season. Now that was almost 20 years ago. Maybe times have changed, but it doesnt seem like most of Bo’s guys have much of a work ethic, and if ya dont have that you will never get to the next level. Today one of Nebraska’s best DC plays for his 2nd fcs title. Good luck coach Bohl
1/5/2013
To be fair Admiral TO had about 40-50 more players on his roster so its easier to develop guys to make an impact out of that, just mathematically .. Tom would tell ya the same thing.. but we do need to develop better or shucks for darn have a big time commit pan out… Peat, Klachko, Moore, if any of those supposed big time recruits would have panned out, we would have been in much better shape.. Problem is now that a lot of these kids get media and such telling them how good they are that they dont wait around long enough and work their butts off and earn a spot.. We use to not have that problem becuase they wouldn’t let freshman play, kids knew that no matter where they went they would have to sit out a year and learn and develop. I kind of wish they would go back to that..
Hartford SD
1/5/2013
The question is, why is this happening, why does NU keep loosing those big time recruits.
1/5/2013
Two of them was becasue they wanted to be playing now, but apparently had done the work to do it.. Although PEat was hurt so theres that,.. Other one wasnt following team rules ,.. AGain Goes back to most kids not wanting to wait and earn spots.. And that dosnt just happen here it happens everywhere.. The only thing is in a conference like the SEC they just recruit 30-35 players a year and get rid of the rest.. Just check out our past competitor , they have something like 30-32 commits right now, and still apparently have enough to leave room for guys like Toby Johnson and a few others.. AM is now at about 35 because the big 12 dosnt allow the same numbers as the SEC.. If you get another 5-10 guys a year to see who pans out its much easier to get better on the field..
1/5/2013
I dont know what the correct answer to that is , do you set up an amount of kids you can get each year or do you just follow in the SEC footsteps.. THey are just doing what they need to do to remain competitive, until its outlawed I dont know that I blame them..
San Diego, Ca.
1/5/2013
A mix of possibilities. What you’ve described, Steve, is a cycle of players and coaches, these 11 years. Proficiencies on both sides of the ball never quite merging, during the same season.
‘02 and ‘03, for example, Solich replaced Crouch with Lord. The stable of IBs went from Alexander, Buckhalter and Diedrick in ‘00 to Diedrick and Collins (‘01,‘02) to Horne, Davis and Ross, in ‘02 and ‘03. Combined with depth issues in the line, this was a drop off that couldn’t be made up for, in anybody’s offense. How was Cotton going to fix all that, in ‘03? Recall that he was also the only line coach, as well as OC. I’d heard references that Solich still called the plays, at points of that season. Pelini took essentially the same players from ‘02, and made a really nice D, in his only season with Solich.
At least they were physical. Would’ve been nice, to see that offence get a chance to develop, from ‘04 on.
This season, it came down to what was left in the middle of the D, including the ‘backers. It got exploited, Pelini saw it, obviously, and didn’t have the personnel to solve it and still have safety help at the back end. Tough to watch, but the staff and players put in a great effort and it was still a very entertaining season and a team that was easy to root for. I’d like to see Cameron Meredith get a shot at the NFL, if he’s interested. Imagine what he went through…
Looking forward, Nebraska should be quicker, faster at linebacker and Pelini now has the prototype 6’1” 300 pound tackles he wanted, after leaving LSU and it’s great DT, Glenn Dorsey. Don’t know about Thad Randle, though. He’s had knee problems about his whole time in Lincoln. The senior safeties, like the senior ‘backers will be replaced by guys, Cooper and Jackson, who should be ready, better be ready, in year 4.
Realistically, Nebraska should have the bases convered on the D, in year 6.
1/5/2013
The parody of college football is alive and well in Lincoln as well as anywhere else. Athletes can recruit to anywhere, tour any place they want and if we loose recruits to the “I want to play now,” statement, it makes me think that they are probably the same ones that become NFL players two years to early. I Want It Now! That is a scary thought and will never get Nebraska anywhere.
The one thing Nebraska developed under Tom Osborn was consistency in the program. Nebraska is not there yet however Bo Pelini can get the Big Red there. The work ethic is good and the development of players will get better.
Agreed he has had five years in the program but retooling was needed for the Big Ten and in year two, I felt that Nebraska was a few big plays from being where they needed to be.
Further more, playing a national contender on nearly their home field with in a handful of points, I can’t cry about that a lot.
The future looks good in my opinion and I think Bo needs a couple more years to grow the program. I have them top ten in 2015.
All The Best an Go Big Red!
Hartford SD
1/5/2013
Coach Bohl gets the reapete(my oh my)
1/6/2013
COllins is N!! WELCOME TO THE FAMILY..
Also sounds like Newby is announcing tomorrow or Tues between UCLA and Neb .. Deciding not to go on the remainder of his trips to Oregon and such.. N Lean ?? Lets hope
GO BIG RED !!
Valencia, CA
1/7/2013
The Husker staff has clearly shifted it’s recruiting focus to big defensive linemen and athletic linebackers. The 2011 and 2012 version of the Blackshirts clearly lacked in this regard. In fact, take a quick look at the Notre Dame front 7 which led the nation in total defense in 2012.
I’m not a big Notre Dame guy but if you look what Brian Kelly has done at Notre Dame, you do not need a PhD to figure it out. He brought in/developed stud linebackers (Manti Teo) and bad ass defensive linemen as the front three of Notre Dame (Stephon Tuitt: 306 lbs., Kapron Lewis-Moore: 306 lbs., and Louis Nix III: 326 lbs.) could stop a dump truck if they so desired. That’s almost 1000 lbs. of beef to move out of the way before the linebacking core is even involved.
I believe Bo is a capable defensive play caller. When your defensive line is getting blown off the ball every play, I think it is a miracle that the Huskers have 10 wins this season.
http://www.B1GRedFootball.com
@B1GRedFootball
1/10/2013
Beck’s salary increased from $365k to $700k. Two articles said he had interest from two schools. I would like to know who they were, his salary should not be based on fear, but on performance in relation to the norm. I see Pap got only a $10k raise from $300 to $310. Perhaps Bo is not happy with Pap? Garrison got a big raise, from $160k to $245k.
1/11/2013
BallField
I would say BEcks salary was increased on performance but also a little fear your going to lose him is going to help.. Hes also been with Bo for what 6 years.. Not to mention NU is something like 6 in the conference for Assistant salaries and BEck whos offense was in at least the top two in the conference should at least be up there in salary.. You pay to keep top cordinators and we have done that.. Many wanted Bo to hire a big name but he payed Beck an entry level and let him earn it on the field, I would say he has ..
As for Pap not to much differenct from what BEck got from year 1 of cordinator .. Make them earn I like that..