Steven M. Sipple: Curtain set to rise on The Bo Show
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Seems like we know everything we need to know about Bo Pelini.
We know he likes to jog down O Street and read military thrillers. We know he’s a family man. We know the names of his dogs (Buckeye and Lucy). We’ve even heard the guy can coach a little defense. We basically know the book on Bo.
Except for one thing.
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How good of a head coach is this guy?
We’ll know that in time. We’ll know more tonight. Be patient, though, because this Big Red football reclamation project could require a few years to get off the ground. Anybody else notice Pelini saying this week that the Nebraska defense remains a work in progress? Perhaps he was trying to temper expectations.
“Are we the finished product yet?” he asked. “No, not yet. We probably won’t be for a while.”
Or maybe Pelini will wave a magic wand and — presto! — a return to the Top 10.
One thing we do know: Memorial Stadium will be a cauldron of anticipation and energy for tonight’s season opener. It’ll be fascinating theater, with probably too much potency in the atmosphere for Western Michigan to overcome. Let the Bo Show begin. No question, Pelini’s presence has unified and galvanized the fan base.
Even so, you hope the season eventually will become less about Pelini hysteria and more about the players. It should always be about the players. Which ones will rise to the occasion?
By the way, Bo doesn’t pay much attention to all of the attention he gets.
“I just go about my business,” he said. “I’ll go out to dinner with my family. If we don’t play well (tonight), I’m sure I’ll be getting some dirty looks. Whether it’s good or whether it’s bad, it doesn’t affect me.
“We’re probably not going to be as good as people say we are, and we’re not going to be as bad. We’re probably going to make a lot of mistakes. If we don’t play well, it doesn’t mean we’re dead. On the other hand, if everybody thinks we play great, trust me, I ain’t going to let our team know we played great.
“Bottom line is, we want perfection. Until we get there, we won’t be satisfied.”
Throughout a seemingly endless offseason, you heard Nebraska fans saying they’ll be satisfied just to see the team playing with passion and energy and sound fundamentals again, especially on defense. Fan expectations do feel, well, tempered a bit, which is probably a good thing. But Husker fans aren’t known for patience. We’ll see how long it lasts.
Let’s say things don’t go so well for Nebraska tonight. Say Broncos wideout Jamarko Simmons repeatedly finds seams underneath and breaks tackles in the young secondary. Say the Huskers’ inexperienced crew of linebackers is chasing ball carriers all night. Say the pass rush continues to be a no-show. Say the crowd grumbles. How would it affect NU’s overall confidence, which is likely fragile coming off a 5-7 season.
This is where Pelini comes in. My guess is he possesses the unwavering confidence in himself and strong character to push a program through adversity. Heat from fans won’t bother Bo. Bo will be Bo no matter the final score, no matter the record. That’s among the many reasons I thought he would make a great head coach at Nebraska. This can be a turbulent and downright ugly place to coach when things go poorly. We didn’t need Bill Callahan to teach us that. But the last four seasons certainly reinforced it.
“I know it affects a lot of people,” Pelini said of harsh criticism from outside the program. “But honestly, it doesn’t affect me. Listen, if I’m letting outside influences affect my decisions, then I’m leading the program the wrong way. I look at the (video)tape and what’s going on within our building, within our walls. If I can look in the mirror at night, then so be it.
“I believe in my process and what we’re doing and how I go about things. I have confidence because I’ve seen it work. I know it works.”
Pelini said something interesting Thursday on Jim Rome’s nationally syndicated radio show. The coach said Nebraska players “were beaten down and battered a bit” after last season. They lost some confidence in themselves, he said. What’s more, the fan base was fractured. It lacked unity. Make no mistake, negative fan energy seeps into locker rooms all over America.
Around dinner time tonight, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything resembling negative energy anywhere near Stadium Drive.
However, if the Husker landscape gets rocky once this 2008 season finally commences, well, that’s where Pelini comes in. Don’t underestimate his skills as a communicator and his ability to build meaningful relationships with players.
“When you’re not communicating with players, and when you’re not building that cohesive culture and developing relationships within, that’s when the outside forces come into play,” he said. “When there’s division outside of here, you better be able to pull your team in and say, ‘Hey, forget all those people. It ain’t about them. It’s about us.’”
To this point, of course, it’s been mostly about Bo.
We know the book on Bo, or at least most of it.
Now comes the tricky part.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
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