Bye week doesn't mean rest for Husker Coaches
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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
Bo Pelini got his first words out before anyone could ask a question after Saturday’s Husker triumph.
“No players will be available tonight,” he deadpanned.
He went silent a few seconds, hoping the pause might sell it.
Then the smile cracked. “Just kidding.”
Such are the good spirits that come from a head coach of a team that has won four out of its last five.
But present with Pelini’s post-game satisfaction also seemed a realism that a 56-28 win over Kansas State — a 4-7 team with a lame-duck coach — doesn’t signal you’ve arrived anywhere other than where people expect you to be.
“We did some good things,” Pelini said. “We still haven’t reached our potential. We still have a long ways to go.”
Pelini has been preaching all year that a team can’t get too high after wins or too low after losses. And he was certainly walking the walk here.
The total yards slanted NU’s way 610 to 247 on Saturday, but there were enough hiccups for Pelini to keep his team from getting too high on itself. The special teams allowed a 98-yard touchdown return, and third-quarter penalties on offense kept Nebraska from putting away a game that probably shouldn’t have been as close as it was going into the final 15 minutes.
A similar third-quarter lull came in Nebraska’s other road win this year — a 35-7 victory over Iowa State.
“You just got to keep talking to them about playing every down,” Pelini said on Sunday. “Really, it’s more of a mental aspect. We took ourselves out of some drives with some careless penalties and stuff like that. We can’t allow that to happen.”
But it’s mostly positive vibes that surround Nebraska as it heads into a bye week at 7-4. A nine-win season is suddenly very plausible with a Nov. 28 game against Colorado (5-6) all that remains on the regular-season docket. And after last year’s train wreck, nine wins would seem like a whole lot of sunshine.
Given his team’s recent winning ways, it’s no wonder Pelini expressed some disappointment about now having to come to a stop sign. Nebraska has already had one bye week this year and followed that with a 35-30 home loss to Virginia Tech.
“I’d just like to play straight through, but it doesn’t work out that way,” Pelini said Saturday.
So what will be the main priorities of this bye week?
* Recruiting, for starters. The Husker coaching staff started on the trail Sunday and will continue to recruit through Tuesday. Friday is also expected to be a big recruiting day.
Pelini said the bye allows his coaches “to get an early jump on recruiting before December approaches.”
At the moment, NU has 16 known commits in its class, eight of them coming from Texas.
“It’s not bad for where we are right now, but we want to finish off the right way,” Pelini said. “We kind of have targeted position groups, certain numbers at each position. We’re on our way as far as that’s concerned, but we have a ways to go yet.”
* Healing also goes on the priority list this week.
Pelini said he is hopeful that junior linebacker Phillip Dillard will be available by the Colorado game, “but time will tell.” Dillard has missed the last three games with an ankle injury.
One linebacker who won’t be back for the CU contest is Matt Holt, who was injured against Kansas. Holt has already had shoulder surgery for his injury.
But the week off should do NU’s offensive line some good. Jaivorio Burkes (toe) didn’t make it through the first series against K-State and Lydon Murtha didn’t play at all, meaning Nebraska was basically down to using five guys Saturday.
“Murtha should be coming back this week. Jaivorio should be coming back this week,” Pelini said. “I think we’re OK there.”
Granted, the injuries didn’t seem to slow the Huskers on Saturday as redshirt freshman Marcel Jones filled in very well for Burkes at right tackle. NU amassed 340 yards rushing.
“I think they’re invested in it, they’ve made a commitment to it,” Husker offensive line coach Barney Cotton said of his players. “And we’re by no means there, but this is a right step in the right direction.”
* The bye week also provides some extra clean-up time.
The special-teams kickoff coverage will no doubt be checking to see what wrong on a 98-yard kick return by KSU’s Brandon Banks early in the fourth quarter.
Part of the reason Nebraska pooch-kicked the ball in the second quarter while going against the wind was to keep Banks from touching it.
In the fourth quarter, with the wind at the Huskers’ backs, Pelini said, “We thought we could kick it out of (the end zone).”
But Adi Kunalic didn’t get it there and Banks made NU pay.
“It’s a concern because it happened. But we know why it happened and we got to get that fixed,” Pelini said of the kick coverage. “There’s no excuse for that.”
Of course, the fact that Nebraska had a few warts and was still able to win by four touchdowns on the road in a league game shows the progress. Just consider that Nebraska did not win one conference road game last year.
No one has to remind senior offensive lineman Matt Slauson about how it was.
Said Slauson: “It speaks great things about our staff and our team that we’re able to not play our best but still come out that one-sided.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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