Steven M. Sipple: Coaching now more important
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A few pigskin nuggets on which to chew during Nebraska’s off week.
* Your daddy’s college football is gone for good, replaced by parity to the point where it’s hardly big news anymore when the nation’s Nos. 4, 5 and 6 teams all lose, as was the case last week.
Six times this season a team ranked in The Associated Press Top 10 has lost to an unranked team.
I’m uncertain exactly when parity gained a permanent foothold in the college game, but I’m certain that parity places a premium on quality coaching.
If overall talent level is comparable in a given contest, the team that’s better prepared physically, mentally, emotionally, fundamentally and tactically gets the edge, right?
In college football today, game-to-game consistency is perhaps more crucial than ever to achieve high-level success, which is why Nebraska coach Bo Pelini and his staff hammer away at the importance of weekly improvement.
The objective is to remain focused and on an even-keel, even after a draining experience such as Nebraska’s 16-15 defeat Sept. 19 at Virginia Tech.
“We’re going to be better in all areas by the time we face Missouri (Oct. 8),” Husker defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said Saturday night after NU’s 55-0 triumph against Louisiana-Lafayette. “Otherwise, I don’t deserve to get paid.”
Nebraska’s staff is earning its pay. In the 12 games since last season’s 52-17 home loss to Missouri, the Huskers are 9-3 and have thrown only one clunker, a 62-28 loss at then-No. 4 Oklahoma.
Gone are the wild mood swings from 2007, when Nebraska self-destructed one week at Kansas to the tune of 76-39 only to come back the next to defeat Kansas State 73-31. Such crazy swings are a telltale sign of abject mediocrity. Did those weeks really happen?
I thought our Curt McKeever summed up Nebraska’s current mind-set nicely in the last line of his Sunday column: “Teams that have hard edges about themselves don’t relax,” he wrote.
Not even during off weeks.
* With their Grade-A performance Saturday, the Huskers (3-1) squelched any lingering doubts they might’ve lost confidence after the loss at Virginia Tech.
“I think if anything, they gained confidence (against the Hokies),” Carl Pelini said. “They played great that day. Again, it’s all about this: Finish, focus and re-focus. That was a great learning experience for our guys. You can preach as a coach that, hey, every single play is important. It’s always easy to preach that, but it’s hard for a young man to understand the importance until a tough loss happens.
“The loss was a sick thing, but in the end our guys responded to it very well.”
* Virginia Tech climbed to No. 6 in the two major polls released Sunday (Nebraska is Nos. 23 and 24). I was going to write a dissertation about the Hokies’ ranking relative to the Huskers’ rating, but decided I rather do something more interesting and worthwhile, like scrub the mud off my truck’s floor mats.
* I agree with a suggestion e-mailed to me by one of Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead’s former coaches: Line up Burkhead and Roy Helu in the same backfield more often, then send Sir Rex in motion to become a slot receiver. The kid looks great catching and running.
* Nebraska’s 300th sellout celebration gave us reason to recall the program’s rich history.
Don’t know if I would ever tire of hearing Tom Osborne talk about Bob Devaney.
“He had been a high school coach for many years, so he was pretty knowledgeable on both sides of the ball,” Osborne said last week. “But Bob also was very good at delegating. As time went on, Monte Kiffin was pretty much given free rein with the defense, and over the years, I was given a lot of latitude with the offense. Bob didn’t try to micromanage. He was never somebody who would get in the middle of a drill and interfere with a coach and say that’s the wrong way to do it. He would never question a coach in front of the players. He was a great guy to work for.”
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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