7. On the "No Championships" Myth: A Bounce of a Ball Does Not Define a Coach

Pelini critics like to harp about the lack of “championships” at this early stage in Pelini’s career.  To make that complaint, they have to position themselves against Tom Osborne’s philosophy on “championships,” as he wrote in More Than Winning:

“I’ve gotten away from measuring success in terms of wins and losses.  It’s a mistake those of us in coaching too often make when we define a good season as winning a certain number of games or a championship.  It’s very difficult year-in and year-out to win the number of games that the fans, the press, the alumni, or even the coaches themselves feel is necessary to be successful.  Therefore it’s made sense to me to measure success more in terms of how closely a team has come to realizing its potential.”

After winning his first national championship in the 1995 Orange Bowl, Osborne said he didn’t feel any differently than he had after Nebraska lost the previous year's national championship game to Florida State.  In both games, Osborne explained, his teams played like champions.  He was just as proud after the loss to Florida State as he was after the victory over Miami.

Similarly, in More Than Winning, Osborne recalled sitting in his Miami hotel around 2 a.m. after the 1971 Nebraska team beat Alabama to win the national championship, not sharing the excitement of those around him.  To Osborne, the national championship itself was anti-climactic:

“It really isn’t so much achieving the end result – the national championship and the trophies, which are all fine.  But the important thing about athletics really is the process.  It’s the path you follow in attempting to win the championship that’s important.  The relationships that are formed.  The effort given.  The experiences you have.”

After losing a heartbreaker to Miami in the January, 1984 national championship game, Osborne said "we achieved our goals."

"To some," Osborne wrote, "our loss to Miami was simply a bitter, disappointing defeat.  To others, including myself, the game was exciting, well-played, a credit to college football, and, I hope, within God's view of what football and the human spirit should be."

This poignant perspective is sadly lost on today's chorus of Internet loudmouths and the Dirk Chatelains of the world sullying the state of Nebraska with their personal agendas of attack, criticize, attack.

    In 2009, Pelini’s underdog Nebraska squad played well enough to upset Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game, losing only after Texas alum Walt Anderson breached multiple conference and national replay rules to improperly add an extra second to the clock.  Nebraska prepared like champions, played like champions, carried themselves like champions, and would have been labeled champions if not for the Texas alum’s breach of replay rules.  Does that added second make Bo Pelini less of a coach?  If the Texas kicker’s game-ending field goal had hit the upright, would Bo Pelini be considered a better coach today?  In the simple minds of the loudest critics, he would.

 This is the point Osborne made: “Many times the end result – the win or the loss – we cannot control.  It may hinge on the bounce of the football, it may depend on who has the better athletes, it may depend on an official’s call.”

But if you listen to the chorus of fools attacking Pelini’s record, the bizarre twist at the end of this game – something beyond Pelini’s or NU’s control – justifies firing Pelini and his staff today. 

In 2010, Pelini’s team had a 17-0 lead over Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game.  But NU oddly opted to air it out in the second half, with a hobbling and overmatched freshman QB, rather than simply riding Rex Burkead and Alex Henery to certain victory.  This play-calling mistake resulted in a 23-20 loss, and denied Pelini the "championship" badge his critics seem to require.  Pelini learned from the mistake and improved.  He made a quiet and dignified staff change.  He treated the loss as Osborne taught it to be - an opportunity; part of the process.  The process of learning, growing, and fighting to reach potential. 

In 25 seasons, Tom Osborne never stopped learning and improving.  He didn’t win an outright conference championship until his ninth season.  He only won four outright conference titles in his first 18 seasons.  But he competed most years, and the championships eventually started flowing.    

Pelini is on the same track.  Pelini is one of only three coaches in the nation, along with Jimbo Fisher and Frank Beamer, to have guided his team to three conference title games in a four-year stretch during the 2008-13 time span.  Not even the mighty Nick Saban has done it.

As Osborne said, as Saban says all the time, as Pelini says every week: it's a process.  Wise fans sit back and enjoy watching it unfold.  The loudmouths ignore the process and demand instant results readily discernible on an electronic scoreboard, as the scoreboard contains the only level of analysis of which they are capable.

8. On the "No Championships" Myth: Pelini's Championships are Wrongly Ignored

Bo Pelini won or shared four division championships in his first five seasons on the job.  Critics are too quick to discard that accomplishment.  The same critics, though, revere Tom Osborne’s list of Big 8 championships. 

Perhaps they should look deeper.  Osborne won 12 conference championships in what was usually a mediocre 8-team conference.  

How does that list really hold up when compared to today’s era of 14- and 16-team power conferences?

The 2012 Big Ten Legends Division, for instance, had five bowl teams alone – and the bowl games demonstrated the caliber of these teams.  (Nebraska took the SEC runner-up down to the final minutes, Michigan State beat a Big 12 team, Northwestern beat an SEC team, and Michigan and Minnesota lost to SEC and Big 12 teams, respectively, on improbable last-second miracles.)  In 2013, 5 of the 6 teams in the Legends Division were ranked at some point in the season.

 Which is more impressive – winning that division title or winning a bad 8-team conference?    Because that’s often what the Big 8 conference as a whole was – bad.

In 1992, for instance, Tom Osborne won a Big 8 championships in a year when only three Big 8 teams (NU, Colorado, and Kansas) managed more than five wins all season. 

NU won the 1988 conference title while the bottom four Big 8 teams went a combined 9-34-1. 

In 1983, another conference championship year, not a single other Big 8 team finished ranked.

In 1982, the only Big 8 teams to finish the season ranked were conference champ Nebraska and 8-4 Oklahoma.

And in 7 of Osborne’s first 11 seasons, the Big 8 finished with zero or one other ranked team.

There may have been little competition in these "championship" years, particularly after Barry Switzer left Oklahoma - when Osborne won 7 of his 13 conference championships, and 5 of his 8 outright conference championships - but for the Internet critics, it is easy enough to find these "championship" badges on Google and look no further.

         A “championship” banner from a mostly uncompetitive 8-team league looks good on a wall or website, but history is demonstrating that it is every bit the accomplishment to win a championship in a bruising division filled with bowl teams.

           Give Pelini his due.   Pelini is one of only three coaches in the country have guided their teams to three conference championships in a four-year span during the Pelini era.  If you don't think those division championships are significant, go ahead ask the programs not winning them.

           A reporter asked Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz this week if Iowa fans would be pleased with Pelini's record.  "I'd like to find out, put it that way," Ferentz said.   If other BCS coaches can see it, and Osborne can see it... why can't Nebraska's fans and media?

9. Bring in Tressel? Pelini Runs a Clean Program. Cherish it.

Look again at the tiny group of BCS coaches who have won more than Pelini since 2008: Saban, Stoops, Gundy, Miles, Kelly, Meyer.  

Do any of those programs carry themselves with the character that has defined the Nebraska program?

Saban is at an Alabama program that has been on probation three separate times in the past 20 years.  Under Saban, Alabama is a flagrant violator of recruiting scholarship limits, chronically guilty of the unethical practice of oversigning recruits (granting one-year scholarships instead of four-year, then cutting players NFL-style to make room for the newest crop of recruits).  Former Alabama players and recruits have tweeted and admitted on multiple occasions to receiving cash payments while at Alabama, only to later attempt to delete or weakly retract their comments.  Alabama had to fire a coach just this month after he was caught giving money to a top player.  It’s no secret: the $EC buys its recruits and plays by different ethical rules than Nebraska does.

Oklahoma has never won a national championship without immediately finding itself on probation for recruiting violations.  That is hardly a coincidence.  OU has a long line of major infractions, and its most recent probation, for major violations on Stoops' watch, just ended in 2009.  In the meantime, OU has been struggling with an epidemic of player drug arrests, failed drug tests, and drug-related suspensions.  And, of course, OU continues to be near the very bottom of the NCAA graduation rates.  But... Stoops has won about a game per year more than Pelini. 

Oklahoma State has had two bowl bans in the last 35 years, and is reportedly under investigation again after a Sports Illustrated report alleged a wide variety of NCAA violations under both Les Miles and Mike Gundy.

Speaking of Miles, LSU hasn’t been on probation under Coach Miles since… 2011.

Urban Meyer left an ugly legacy of player violence, drugs, and dozens of arrests at Florida.  His current program, Ohio State, is on another probation now, fresh off its last probation from way back in… 2008.  Where Meyer goes, so does women-beating, drugs, guns, and arrests.  But, he wins.

Brian Kelly’s career will always be shadowed by the ghost of the student killed when the coach required him to dangerously attempt to videotape a practice on a shaky lift in extreme weather. 

By comparison, Pelini has emphasized recruiting character, and demanded the same in his program.  He has displayed a near zero-tolerance level for misbehavior, benching players for classroom issues and permanently dismissing talented players for violating his rules of behavior.  The team boasts a high graduation rate and team GPA, and continues to produce Academic All-Americans and winners of national scholar-athlete awards.  Pelini’s version of NCAA trouble was this: the athletic department self-reported to the NCAA that its bookstore inadvertently distributed “recommended” books to its student-athletes in addition to the “required” books.   That’s a report you won’t hear from an SEC team.

While the few programs with more wins than Pelini have generated off-field headlines with scandals, Nebraska has generated them under Pelini with the team’s touching embrace of a young boy fighting brain cancer.  ESPN crowned the boy’s spring game touchdown run as the national “sports moment of the year” at its most recent ESPY’s, and the boy and his family have publicly lauded Pelini and his program for exemplifying the right character and priorities. 

While Saban cuts players to the harm of their college education, Pelini is honoring his four-year scholarship offer to recruit Zack Darlington - despite the risk that Darlington may never take another step due to concussions.

Which type of program do Nebraska fans want?

Tellingly, and sickeningly, critics of Pelini have been clamoring for the program to be handed over to Jim Tressel – man who resigned in disgrace and scandal just two years ago.  Numerous reports link Tressel to a long-running pattern and practice of recruiting and ethical violations throughout his career, from Youngstown State to Ohio State.  Tressel is in fact under a “show-cause” order until 2017, and any program risking a Tressel hire would face severely heightened NCAA penalties should Tressel resume his ways at his next coaching stop.  (What do they say about old dogs again?)  But tune in to any Nebraska radio show or internet site where the critics have a voice, and you’d be hard-pressed to go 20 minutes without some alleged ‘fan’ lusting after Jim Tressel, willing to sell the program’s soul and heritage, and risk the inevitable debilitating sanctions … for another 1.3 wins per season. 

      Sick.

10. Pelini Has Delivered NU From the Abyss of the Harvey Perlman Debacle

There is no way to understate the cesspool Bo Pelini inherited from the combined failures of UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman, former athletic director Steve Pederson, and former head coach Bill Callahan.

For 41 consecutive years, from 1962 through 2003, Nebraska maintained college football’s most successful program.  In his book More Than Winning, Tom Osborne attributed this unprecedented run first and foremost to the “stability” and “continuity of the coaching staff.” He also cited the loyalty of the fans and the support of the administration and athletic department.

 Using these pillars as the foundation, head coaches Bob Devaney, Tom Osborne, and Frank Solich amassed an incredible record of 414-93, a winning percentage of .817, with 22 conference championships and five national championships.

It is quite obvious that Mr. Perlman never got around to reading this book.

In 2003, Perlman chose to completely dismantle this 41-year foundation.  Perlman and his newly-chosen athletic director Steve Pederson fired Solich, who had won more games in his first six seasons than either Osborne or Devaney had, and who had been named the Big 12 Coach of the Year in two of the preceding five seasons.

Perlman and Pederson instead handed the program to fired NFL coach Bill Callahan, who immediately vowed to “flip the culture” of the Nebraska football program.

With Perlman's support, Callahan succeeded in exactly that: flipping the culture.

In just four years, the Perlman-Pederson-Callahan experiment managed to destroy every standard, streak, benchmark, and ideal that had been so painstakingly built for the previous 41 years. 

       The Perlman-Pederson-Callahan experiment quickly turned the proud Nebraska program into an abject disaster:

-       a 27-22 overall won-loss record;

-       a 24-22 record vs. FBS opponents;

-       a .333 winning percentage against teams finishing above .500;

-       a 15-18 conference record;

-       a 1-12 record against teams in the final rankings; 

-       14 double-digit losses in four years;

-       an 0-17 record when trailing at halftime;

-       the ending of numerous cherished Nebraska football streaks, such as the national-best 35-year streak of playing in a bowl game;

-       universal resentment and anger from former players; 

-    discontent and strife throughout the athletic department; and

-       an ugly division of the fan base.

Four years of the Perlman experiment had destroyed the team and the fan base.  Players quit.  Coaches were disrespectful of former players and fans alike.  In the final weeks of the Perlman-Callahan era, Nebraska gave up 49, 40, 41, 45, 36, 28, 76, 31, and 65 points to its opponents.  Opponents scored on an astronomical 51 of the final 82 drives against Nebraska.

Perlman, an intellectual property attorney turned academic, was the man in charge of this debacle – but he appeared wholly oblivious to it.  In July, 2007, Perlman gave Pederson a contract extension, then followed up that up just weeks later with a contract extension for Callahan.

Just weeks later, Perlman fired Pederson.  Appearing to recognize that his experiment with the athletic department had failed, Perlman turned to Osborne.  Osborne returned to the athletic department, fired Callahan, hired Pelini, began the process of healing the massive wounds caused by Perlman and Pederson, and deferentially walked away upon the successful completion of his rescue mission.

            As a result of Perlman's negligence in the poorly-drafted contracts and misguided 2007 extensions, NU had to pay Pederson and Callahan several million dollars in buyouts.  Of the three leaders responsible for this entire debacle, for the dismantling of the 41-year Nebraska legacy, two were fired.  But Perlman remains, looming, and offering no indication that he has learned from his past.  Perlman, as history demonstrates, is a threat to the future of the NU football program.

A quote from Osborne is worth remembering:

“It’s occurred to me often that many problems in athletics – perhaps most problems – result from people having an inappropriate understanding of athletics. 

     Chancellor Perlman’s dalliance with the athletic department is a prime example of Osborne’s pearl of wisdom.

While Perlman's hiring decisions were disastrous, Osborne’s selection of Pelini proved successful.  Despite having no prior head coaching experience, Pelini stepped into the Perlman cesspool and somehow managed to clean up the mess, flipping the culture of the program back to the Osborne-Devaney-Solich model of consistency and character.  Not only has Pelini pulled the program out of the Perlman-Callahan abyss, but he has created one of the most consistently successful programs in the nation.  Only he and Alabama’s Nick Saban have guided their teams to at least 9 wins per season over this span.  

Despite inheriting this disaster, Pelini has won more games than all but 6 of the 130 BCS coaches on the job during Pelini’s tenure. 

Six years after the Perlman-Callahan experiment ended, suspicion abounds that Perlman is once again interested in toying with the athletic department, like a bored man of wealth itching for a new toy, and that he may again step in to force out a winning football coach after six years of sustained high performance on and off the field.

As a philosopher once wrote: Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

11. On the Criticism of Pelini's Demeanor

Bo Pelini came into the Nebraska job as an old-school football coach from the blue collar town of Youngstown, Ohio.  Pelini learned the game from Hayden Fry, George Seifert, and Pete Carroll, before serving on the staffs of Solich, Bob Stoops, and Les Miles.  Five of those six coaches were born between 1929 and 1953, growing up in a different era of football.   

When Pelini was the fiery Defensive Coordinator in 2003, he was all the rage and exactly what Nebraska fans wanted.  He was a throwback to Bob Devaney, the beloved, hot-tempered Irishman, prone to verbal tirades not fit for the newspaper, whose statue sits outside Memorial Stadium, and who would not be allowed to coach in 2013.

Now this same passion has become a tired talking point against him.

The truth is, love them or hate them, Pelini’s bursts of sideline temper are a thing of the past.  So are his occasional annoyed rebuffs of the childish, needling members of the local media.  Pelini has made a dramatic change in his on-field and off-field demeanor over the past six years, and now maintains better control over himself than most head coaches.  In fact, many Pelini admirers openly wish he would return to his fiery behavior of the past.

This past weekend’s game at Penn State is a prime example.  Ameer Abdullah scored on a thrilling long touchdown run that looked to be the game-winner.  But an official negated the score with an inexplicable penalty for an “unnecessary block” by a Nebraska player trailing Abdullah near the 15-yard line.  The TV broadcasting crew lambasted the call.  The sizeable Cornhusker internet contingent exploded.   The penalty was historically awful, one that will be remembered for years in Husker football lore with the Ruud-Phelps fumble, the 1982 Penn State call, the Corey Dixon return, the Walt Anderson theft, and the Courtney Osborne hit.  More importantly, the call could have cost Nebraska the game and Bo Pelini his job.

Years ago, Pelini would have ran onto the field, red-faced and screaming, and would likely have had to have been restrained by an assistant.  Not today.  Pelini protested properly but kept his cool - more composure, I'm sure, than the majority of Nebraska fans had in their reactions.  His composure was admirable, an impressive sign of his maturation.

It doesn’t take a lengthy search on a Saturday to flip through the remote and find coaches behaving viciously on the sideline.  Notre Dame’s Kelly is a chronic offender.  Another Big Ten head coach nearly came to blows with an assistant on the sidelines during a recent game.

    In his sixth year, Pelini has clearly grown more comfortable in his role.  He is diplomatic and respectful with the press (whether they deserve such treatment is another story).  He is always respectful of other programs, coaches, and players. 

More telling of Pelini's demeanor and personality is this: the way, to a man, former and current players speak of their coach.  They speak openly of their absolute “love” for Bo Pelini the man, the father figure, and regularly credit Pelini for teaching them how to become men off the field. Compare this with the aloof, arrogant nature of Perlman's choice for the previous 'coach.'

  

By all reports, Pelini's football program – from players to coaches to staff – is operating with a close-knit bond.  Players and coaches respect each other and have each other’s back.  Pelini openly takes responsibility for everything that happens on or off the field, a “buck stops with me” approach.  He openly and candidly talks about his own process of learning and improving as a coach and leader.

Compare this current climate with that of the coach selected by Perlman.  In their four-year experiment, their coach blamed the players and denied any responsibility for the record-breaking failures, stubbornly insisting to the end that he personally was doing “an excellent job in all areas.”

Or compare Pelini’s demeanor with the behavior of other prominent head coaches over the past few years. 

-  Nick Saban’s unethical practice of oversigning and cutting players damages lives but gets a whitewash from the press; by comparison Bo Pelini pledged to commit to his four-year scholarship offer to a high school recruit who may never take another snap after suffering concussions;

- Urban Meyer’s run of 31 player arrests at Florida, chronic drug and violence issues, and continued player arrests at Ohio State;

    - Bob Stoops’ probation and epidemic of payer drug-related arrests and suspensions;

-       The sideline rages of numerous head coaches;

-       The arrest of Gary Pinkel;

-       Steve Spurrier’s recent interview while intoxicated;

-       Bret Bielema, well, being Bret Bielema;

-       Lane Kiffin’s trail of being loathed for arrogance and failure at all stops;

-       Reports of abusive behavior by coaches from Todd Graham to Mark Mangino to Mike Leach to Charlie Weis.

-       The Pete Carroll scandal;

-       The Jim Tressel scandal;

-       The Joe Paterno scandal;

       -  The Chip Kelly scandal;

-       The burgeoning Oklahoma State investigation and its allegations against Les Miles and Mike Gundy;

By contrast, Pelini’s program is one filled internally with love, respect, character, and values.  As it was under Devaney, Osborne, and Solich.  As it wasn't under Perlman's failed experiment.

12. On the Criticism of Specific Team Struggles

A.  Penalties and Game Management

For the first few seasons of Pelini’s career, his critics wailed loudly about the high number of penalties called on his teams, and for what at times appeared to be poor game management.  Indeed, Pelini’s teams were flagged for between 62- and 71-yards of penalties per game in four of his first five seasons.  But look now: Nebraska has been flagged this year for just 52 yards per game in penalties, a significant reduction.   And many of this year's penalties have been called against second- and third-team offensive linemen forced into action after injuries to the starters. 

Clearly, Nebraska plays a much cleaner game now than in Pelini’s first few years.  Gone are the regular personal foul penalties.  Gone, too, are the frustrating delay of game penalties and last-second timeouts caused by the staff’s slowness in signaling in the play calls.  Fans used to howl about those moments.  Those problems are gone.  The critics don't seem to offer credit, though.

Pelini and his staff have made significant improvements in these areas.

As a further testament to Pelini’s improving game management, Nebraska has now won eight straight games that were decided by six points or less.  Nebraska’s longest previous streak of winning close games was a streak of four more than 20 years ago.  At LSU, by comparison, the much more experienced Les Miles has produced enough footage for a humorous highlight (lowlight) reel of his clock mismanagement debacles.

To successfully manage comebacks, quick do-or-die drives, and wins in down-to-the-wire Big Ten slugfests, requires a coaching staff that excels in preparation, poise, and leadership.  And to be doing this well in these areas just six years into his first head-coaching tenure speaks very well of what's to come in Pelini's future.

B.    Blowout Losses

There is no denying that Nebraska has lost some games by wide margins under Pelini.  More often than not, they were the byproduct of turnovers and poor play in all three phases (and in reality, misfires in the 2010 recruiting class).  Pelini, to his credit, doesn’t make excuses.  He accepts responsibility and vows to improve.

But the critics are erroneous in what they alleged to be the frequency of the blowouts.  In Pelini’s last 70 games, Nebraska has lost by more than two scores just 7 times, or 10 percent of the time.  By comparison, in the last 44 games of the Perlman-Callahan Experiment, NU lost by more than two scores 13 times, or about every third game.   So in transitioning from the Perlman-Callahan abyss to a brighter future, NU has progressed from an average of bad losses every three games to an average of a bad loss every 10 games.  

That is significant progress.  Imagine what's to come.

The thorn in the critics’ side are the two blowout losses at Wisconsin and Michigan in 2011, and the two that followed in 2012 at Ohio State and in the Big Ten Championship game vs. Wisconsin.  In those four games, turnovers and special teams breakdowns plagued the Huskers, and Pelini made no excuses. Got outcoached and outexecuted.

What the critics like to pretend, however, is that 2013 is the same as 1983.  But it’s not.  Scholarship limits and other factors have dramatically leveled the playing field.  Blowouts even happen to the best programs nowadays.  Just look at the latest Top 20.  There’s Oregon, one of the powerhouses of the modern era, losing its last game 42-16 to an unranked team.   There’s Bob Stoops, arguably the premier coach of the past 15 years, getting blown out three times in 10 games, not far removed from a 44-10 loss to Oklahoma State.  There’s Clemson, a top 5 team until suffering a 51-14 rout a few weeks ago, perhaps still scarred by a 70-33 loss in its 2012 bowl game.  There is Baylor, eyeing a national championship until losing last week by a count of 49-17.  There’s Missouri, in the top 5 this week, but last year losing four games by three or more TD’s.

Osborne himself suffered his share of blowouts.  From 1988 through 1992, the five seasons preceding his tremendous closing stretch, Osborne lost by double digits no less than 10 times.  Pelini critics like to defend those losses by arguing that Osborne lost to highly ranked teams.  But in Pelini’s four blowouts in 2011 and 2012, three of those victors also finished ranked in the Top 10 (2011 Wisconsin and Michigan, 2012 Ohio State).  The critics can’t have it both ways.  By their logic, Nebraska should have fired Osborne around 1992. 

The point: you don’t fire coaches because of a few bad losses.  If that was the rule, most BCS teams would swap coaches on an annual basis.

Instead you look for improvement.  This season, despite fielding an offense decimated by injuries and a defense dominated by first-time players, Nebraska is 8-3, had double-digit leads in its first two losses, and gave away the Michigan State game with five turnovers by freshmen forced into action due to injuries to starters.  A regular slate of injuries and this year’s team is likely 10-1 at worst.    

As Osborne has explained, as Saban has explained, as all great coaches explain: it is a process.  

C.    Turnovers

Yep, Pelini needs to fix this one.  Every team has its strengths and weaknesses, and Nebraska has been strangely plagued by the turnover bug.  You won’t find the answers here. A couple theories, but those are cheap.

But what you will find here, for the many reasons articulated above, is this: the faith that Nebraska has the right head coach to figure this one out. 

 D.  Recruiting

For those consumed by star ratings of recruits, who think that classes ranked around 20th or 25th will be the downfall of the program, the type who complained when we signed the 128th-ranked RB in the nation (some kid named Abdullah) - go back down to your mom's basement and resume your arguments that Bill Callahan wasn't as bad as people say.  And please find a new team.  May I suggest the Dallas Cowboys?