Curt McKeever: Pelini's description should motivate NU
Print
digg it!
Facebook
del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit
We knew Bo Pelini struggled with his patience long before he drew groans Tuesday describing how his Nebraska football team looked to him during its season-opening stroll against Florida Atlantic.
But, seriously. Soft?
A coach can spit a disparaging stream of words at a player who’s screwed up play after play and watch the guy smile and passively go back to the huddle as if he'd just been paid a compliment. But if you want to test someone's manhood, cause him to rip off his helmet and maybe fling it in your direction (accidentally, of course), call him soft.
It's with that in mind I suggest the Huskers will leave plenty of blood on their plow today in Memorial Stadium against Arkansas State.
Soft? Didn't Howard Schnellenberger intimate that Texas was soft before the Longhorns put a 52-10 whuppin’ on the Owls in last year’s opener.
“They came out on fire,” FAU linebacker Frantz Joseph said afterward.
Noted a smiling Texas coach Mack Brown: “I thought the guys played for 60 minutes with energy and toughness.”
Lopsided results aside, nothing will satisfy the hunger of a football coach more than watching a team exhibit incessant energy and toughness. Conversely, nothing will bring him to a boil faster than the lack thereof.
"I thought at times you saw some good hits, some physical play," Pelini said of the Huskers' opening act of 2009. “But, overall, man-to-man, 11 guys playing it, I thought we played ... "
Sorry, I couldn’t deal with the end of that. You knew where he was going anyway.
But here's the thing. If Pelini's not just blowing smoke about what he did or didn't see, what needs to happen to make him describe his team with another word besides one guaranteed to cause grown men to cringe?
More crunches? Maybe some sessions with those in-your-face, scared-straight dudes?
What would probably do the Huskers more good is better attention to technique and fundamentals.
At least that’s what came to mind as Pelini watched tape of the game and saw the offense slow to pick up tempo and defensive players positioning themselves too high to take on blocks and ball carriers.
"If you’re just looking to make a play instead of defeating a block or making your block, or whatever it may be, and you forget about your fundamentals, that leads to a bad play," Pelini said. "And that happened a number of different times.
“The want-to was there, but the how-to wasn’t taken care of.”
We say, “But, coach, you won 49-3. You kept an NFL Draft-worthy quarterback from flashing that potential.”
And the response we get is the ‘S’ word?
“That was a reality of how we played," said Pelini, who's been quite complimentary about the Huskers' practice habits this week.
Amen for that. Now give us fresh blood on the plow.
Don’t have the stomach for that? Imagine how queasy you’d feel if Pelini is still talking about having a team that plays soft.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
Most Commented Football