Huskers are back with Pelini on board

The long national nightmare is over.

OK, so it's not a NATIONAL nightmare, but the four-year abortion known as the Pederson-Callahan Carnage came to a conclusion Sunday when Tom Osborne brought a familiar face back to Nebraska to lead the Husker football team.

Granted, Bo Pelini wasn't around long -- he was the defensive coordinator during Frank Solich's final season as the head Husker back in 2003 -- but he made one hell of an impact on Husker fans in his short tenure in Lincoln, turning around a pathetic defense that became one of the nation's best and putting some fire and "badness" back in the Blackshirts.

During Sunday's news conference, Osborne -- the architect of three national titles and over 250 wins in 25 years in Pelini's position back in the day -- said defense was his biggest concern when he went looking for Bill Callahan's replacement last week. And after talking with Pelini in an Atlanta hotel, he pretty much knew he had the guy that best fit the bill.

But it isn't just defense that Pelini had to sell Osborne on. The big thing was whether or not Pelini "gets it" when it comes to Nebraska's history and tradition. We're a one-pony town in these parts -- no pro sports teams within miles of our borders -- so Nebraska football is something the entire state rallies around. Entire generations grew up watching the Huskers. Local kids walked on, got some playing time and some even developed into superstars and legends.

Bo knows -- he understands what the walk-on program means to the people who support this program. He knows what this team means to the people of this state, and he's ready to get to work to build a program that is, in his words, "where everybody in the state is proud of what we have going here."

It would certainly be a turnaround from what we've got going now.

This past season was, in a word, pathetic. The defense, once among the meanest and baddest in the land, couldn't stop a powder-puff girls football team. Opponents scored more often than the homecoming king and the prom king put together. Records were obliterated thanks to a defense that couldn't stop a soft summer breeze if their collective lives depended on it.

Think about it -- in 40 years under Devaney, Osborne and Solich, opposing teams scored 40 or more points against Nebraska FIVE TIMES. That's five times in over 400 games.

This year? The Nebraska defense gave up 40-plus . . . brace yourselves . . . SIX times. Teams put up 60-plus TWICE. Kansas set a record by scoring SEVENTY-SIX points, and had more than a full quarter left in the game before they actually called the dogs off.

Had KU coach Mark Mangino REALLY wanted to pay Nebraska back for all those decades worth of bitch-slappings, the Jayhawks could have hung 100 on the Huskers that day. Easily. And there is no way this year's BlackSKIRTS defense could have stopped them from doing it.

Those days, thankfully, are over now that the nation's best defensive mind is in charge.

Pelini turned Nebraska's defense into one of the best in the nation in one season. At LSU, the Tigers have had one of the nation's best defenses three years running, and will be playing for a national championship this January, thanks in no small part to that defensive scheme concocted by one Bo Pelini.

There had been talk all week that Pelini and former Husker quarterback Turner Gill were the leading candidates. Either way, I felt Nebraska was going to come out ahead on this, and I'm thrilled that Osborne went with Pelini for several reasons:

-- Foremost in mind is the defense, not only from the execution standpoint, but the fact that Pelini is a very passionate and fiery personality. I can't guarantee how many wins the Huskers will have next year or in the years ahead, but one thing I can guarantee is that there won't be a more fired up, passionate team than a Pelini-led Nebraska team. He will have these boys spitting nails and breathing fire, and those who don't simply won't be on the team. That's something that was missing in vast quantities during the Callahan era.

-- Pelini is putting together a very strong team of assistant coaches, many of whom have past ties to Nebraska. People like Ron Brown are going to not only bring the Husker Way back, but are going to also bring a tremendous reputation and sense of class to this program. Pelini is hiring not only some tremendous football talent, but some people of very strong character who will bring so much more than X's and O's to the program.

-- Pelini has a great shoulder to lean on in Osborne, and he's made no secret to the fact that he will bounce things off the legendary coach. Osborne will be a tremendous asset in helping Pelini develop as a head coach -- we all know Pelini is a little rough around the edges in the diplomacy department after seeing him light up Kansas State coach Bill Snyder for running up the score -- and drawing on that knowledge is going to be huge for Pelini.

As far as Turner Gill is concerned, I know there are a lot of people who wonder why he wasn't selected. After all, he's a Nebraska boy, a very close friend of Osborne and -- unlike Pelini -- has head coaching experience.

It's a question that the media -- in its zeal to trip over each other to get "breaking news" -- dropped the ball on. They failed miserably in asking some hard questions of Osborne in this regard, but my guess is one of two things happened in relation to Gill:

1. Osborne was very impressed with Pelini and felt he was just a better fit considering the current situation.

2. Gill is either happy at Buffalo and feels he has unfinished business, or has an opportunity on the horizon (he has been mentioned as a candidate at Washington State) that might be an even better fit for him.

Anybody who says race had anything to do with Gill not getting the job (and, yes, there are those morons out there chirping those very words) are 110 percent delusional. If you know anything about Osborne, you know that he's a man of impeccable character in that regard. Gill is one of his closest friends in the UNL football family and was the best man at Gill's wedding. I think the bottom line with Gill is that Osborne feels Pelini is the better fit considering the current situation, and that Gill is going to come out of this with a bigger and better opportunity for him down the road.

There are still nine months until Pelini debuts as the full-time head coach at Nebraska, and as a lifelong Husker fan I am beyond excited to see what this team does in the years ahead. One thing is for certain -- the legendary Blackshirts are back, and they're going to be "badder" than ever with Pelini in charge.

And when I mean "badder" -- I'm not talking about somebody hanging half-a-hundred on us. Kansas, Colorado and everybody else standing in our way had better realize that they've had their shot -- those days are ohhhhhh-vahhhh.