We are still very far from the start of the 2009 football season, let alone the start of the 2010 football season, but Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini is doing a pretty good job even when cameras are not on him.
Nebraska was one of the worst teams in college football two years ago. Bill Callahan did nearly everything in his power to run the most prestigious program in college football into the ground, and he didn’t do half bad.
Players gave up on him and his assistant coaches, and near the end of 2007 it looked like the Huskers forgot what sport they were playing. Quickly, Tom Osborne gets the nod for Athletic Director after former AD Steve Peterson got a swift kick in the rear from Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlmann.
Osborne then took the momentum from Perlmann’s foot and kicked Callahan out of Nebraska after an extremely disappointing 5-7 season with a season-ending loss to Colorado where the Huskers scored 51 points, but couldn’t pull off the win.
Enter stage left: Bo Pelini.
A guy known for his defensive mastery comes back to Lincoln after making the Husker defense one of the most feared defenses just years earlier under Frank Solich.
A year has come and passed in the Pelini era, and nobody would have thought he could have done this well–and now it’s continuing. After taking Callahan’s players and motivating them to a 9-4 season, Pelini is working on this year and the next…and more likely the next and the next and the next.
Nebraska has four solid verbal commits for the 2010 recruiting class, and although it’s no 20 like Texas already has, it has Lincoln talking.
Under Bill Callahan, Husker fans got used to seeing 3-star recruits commit and getting somewhat excited about what they could do in Lincoln–a far stretch from the 4 and 5-star only theme of the 1990s.
Under Pelini, that 90s theme is slowly starting to find its way back onto the scene. By no means are 3-star athletes not good enough to play for Nebraska, but it takes a base of the 4-star and 5-star guys to get the supporting cast that you truly want.
If you land a 4-start quarterback (Cody Green) you wouldn’t need to search for lower quarterbacks to help push the starters. Same thing goes for half backs, receivers and on down the list of positions.
Right now, Nebraska’s four 2010 commits are:
1) Andrew Rodriguez – 12th best offensive lineman in the nation’s recruiting class.
2) Anterio Sloan – 16th best defensive back in the nation’s 2010 class.
3) Keeston Terry – a 6-foot-2, speedy receiver that will add size after redshirting for a year.
4) Mike Moudy – a near 300-pound offensive tackle that will tower over you at 6-foot-7–and he’s the three star of the group.
These kids won’t step foot on campus at Nebraska until at least August if not September or October depending on when they come to visit for a game, but it’s a tremendous start for Pelini and his staff and the expectations will be going up more and more as the recruiting season wages on.
So until then, Pelini will more than likely thinking one thing and one thing only.
Game on.
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