Where's the Kool-Aid Stand?

*** My apologies to any other Husker bloggers (and readers), as we inevitably all have some variation of the exact same information. This tends to happen when there are 20,000 bloggers for one college football team.


WHOOOOO! SPRING FOOTBALL MOTHA-F***ER!!!!

That seems to be the collective feeling of Husker Nation as we enter the first spring practices of the Pelini era. Everyone you talk to seems to be completely bombed off of the Pelini Kool-Aid, myself included. Unlike the last time we had a regime change, there's no bitterness over firings or anything like that--everyone is genuinely excited we have a different coaching staff, which is understandable considering everyone (including the players, apparently) really didn't like Callahan and his crew.

Every player has given glowing endorsements of Pelini's practice style, and the media as well as the fans are eating up every sound bite they are fed by the Big Red. I'm not going to analyze or quote every single interview that was given or try to break down Pelini's defensive schemes after just one practice (that would be pretty dumb at this juncture). What I am going to do in this post is look at what some of the the players are saying about the new staff as well as the old one (these quotes were particularly eye opening). Anyways, I, along with the rest of Husker Nation, find myself with a spring in my step this week. Sure, it's a new staff, a new outlook, and we are back at square one. But I'd rather be at square one in the Pelini era than whatever number we were at last year in Callahan's......because his "drive program into ground" square completely sucked.....

One article I definitely want to touch on is this gem by the OWH's Dirk Chatelain, discussing how the players last year would often fall behind mentally because Callahan's staff wouldn't stop to make sure that everyone understood what was being taught. If you fell behind, someone who understood was going to be playing instead of you (which is probably why we saw a lot of guys playing who weren't really the best football player). Typically revealing was this little soundbite:

"Coaches weren't really in teaching mode," safety Larry Asante said.

So whoever understood the information, Asante said, "that's the guy who played."

"There were guys out there lost."

Really? No way! I always thought the defensive guys were spot-on in their assignments. I mean, those 15 yard-wide holes against USC had to have been planned, right? Oh, wait, it's because nobody knew what they were doing? I really couldn't tell. As the article states, Callahan's practices were better set up for NFL players who could quickly pick up his schemes with minimal instruction. After all, by the time you make it to the league, you're expected to understand most football schemes, and there isn't much individual instruction and follow up to make sure the players get it. Because if they don't you can simply find someone who will. College ball is different. You still need to be a teacher, you still need to help the kids out, you can't expect 19 and 20 year olds to be able to pick up a scheme instantly. In addition to that, apparently the staff waited till they were in film later that night or even the next day to point out mistakes made in practice. This is one of the DUMBEST things I have ever heard of. Players need correction and re-enforcement right away, you don't wait a day to let them know they screwed up.

One thing I have loved reading about is the intensity and effort that Pelini is demanding (and apparently getting) from his Husker defenders. Take this quote from Phillip Dillard:

"Every play he's yelling, 'Run to the ball, run to the ball. D-linemen, I want you running 10 yards to the ball no matter what,"' Dillard said. "If you're not, you're going to hear from him."

"If you're messing up, he's talking to you, and he's going to correct you because he wants everything done right," Dillard said. "If you're not doing something right, he's going to call you out. And the other players are going to call you out. That's the way it's supposed to be."


I know that seems like a given, but there were a lot of times last year where the effort was questionable at best, and to be a successful, ball-hawking unit that Pelini likes, there has to be guys flying to the ball every single play. The goal is to always have about 7 guys in the picture when you're watching film of a tackle. There has a to be a wolf-pack mentality, where every one is fighting for scraps. This is especially true of a unit that wants to create turnovers. There were several times last year where the opposing team fumbled, only to recover it themselves because nobody was around the ball (which was partly due to Cosgrove's insistence on sticking with man-to-man defenses). This quote by Niles Paul to Brian Christopherson of the LJS was particularly encouraging: “The defense was flying to the ball, picking up fumbles, dropped passes, they were picking them up and taking them to the house.” After watching the Blackshirts sleepwalk through embarrassment after embarrassment last year, it's refreshing to hear of their enthusiasm to impress their new coach.

Anyways, I just wanted to check in with some stuff on this post, we're only one practice in after all. But I want to leave with you with one more snippet from Barry Turner about what Bo is telling his troops about the upcoming season:

"Coach Pelini is doing a great job of just saying there's no team on the schedule we feel like we can't beat," said Turner. "That's how your mind's got to be."

Damn right.