Well it has been a little over a week since the coaching change was made official and Dr. Tom hired his man, Bo Pelini to lead the Huskers for the next several years. I myself had to take a week off to basically recharge my batteries, as many of you know this has been a very long draining season for me as a fan, the longest in my 50 plus years. So I will start by reviewing what has been going on in Lincoln and what to expect over the next few weeks. In many ways I feel sorry for fans such as ItOffishul, as it has been what 3 weeks now and no factual news in hiring a new head coach for Michigan. I know how that is, as it took over 5 weeks back in 2003 for Nebraska to find a new head coach and look how that turned out. Now don't get me wrong, I don't wish what we went through on, anyone.

Pelini's first week on the job has been a mixture of reuniting the community with the team, reestablishing that "Huskernation" feeling that had existed up through the 2003 season. Bo has also been putting together his coaching staff for next season, and one thing that will not be changing, and I am thankful of is that Shawn Watson, last seasons offensive coordinator, will be retained in his current position. "Offensively we're not making a ton of changes on offense," Pelini said. "We'll tweak it a little bit here and there, and Coach Watson will put his flavor on it. Let's face it; Bo was not brought in here to fix the offense that ranked among the national leaders in several categories. No Bo was hired by Dr. Tom to bring back the "Blackshirts", the defense that led us to the 3 National Championships in 4 years in the mid 90's. To give us our "swagger", our "Mojo" back. You really think it was a coincidence that when Pelini was here we ranked 11^th nationally in total defense to a 5-6 record the following season under Callahan/Cosgrove. Then of course there was this past season, when the Huskers dropped down with the Texas State's and Florida Internationals of the country ranking, 112^th and allowing more points, total yards and first downs than any other team in NU history.

Another aspect of Huskernation being restored by both Pelini and Osborne is the connection that was shattered under Callahan with the Nebraska High School coaches. Do you really think it was a coincidence that the first scholarship offered this past week was not by Pelini, but by Osborne to a Class C-2 (4^th lowest in Nebraska) honorable mention linebacker, Micah Kreikemeier, whose father and high school coach were former walk-ons for Osborne in the 1980's? No that was done to reestablish that bond between the University and the states coaches, who up until this past season (another coincidence?) had never recruited in the state. Osborne is the rudder that has been missing from this ship for the past 6-7 season. It boils down to this, Tom can be trusted, Tom will do the right thing. The national spot light will ignore Lincoln for the time being, things in this conservative state can get back to normal.

Some people may wonder if Osborne will continue his "hands on" control as he is currently doing. I don't think he will and many others close to the program do not think so either. Typically, a new head coach takes over and receives complete authority. But Bo Pelini's main task, it seems, is rebuilding the Blackshirts. The program's greater vision, at least for now, appears to be Osborne's. In many ways, Osborne is now driving Husker football. He's still the face of the program and will be until Pelini returns from the national title game and finds time to warm his office, said Al Papik, Osborne's friend and a former Nebraska athletic administrator. If your average coaching legend participated as Osborne has the past few weeks, Papik said, it'd be fair to wonder how the A.D.-head coach relationship would function. But not Osborne, Papik said. He won't meddle.

"Once he gets everything under control, I think he'll be the athletic director," former Nebraska All-American Dave Rimington said. "He'll be hands off." When Osborne took over coaching for Bob Devaney, the one thing that Osborne admired most about Devaney, who was the athletic director at the time, was that he did not meddle. Osborne made sure that the staff would have connections to the "old school", coaches such as Barney Cotton, Marvin Sanders and Ron Brown. These are all coaches who Pelini worked with while he was here and fit in well with, if he didn't, Pelini would not have taken the job, he is not that type of person to allow his will to be dominated, he is not a "coaching puppet" for Osborne, no, I believe that he shares the same vision of Nebraska that Osborne does, he experienced it when he was here in 2003 and also saw a similar situation at both Oklahoma and LSU. Bo understands the importance of tradition to a school such as Nebraska. It is the same that exists in the "Michigan's, Ohio State's, Oklahoma's of the country. That you have to pay the proper respect to the people who came before him and built back what was being tore down over the past 4 years.

The State has also calmed back down and relaxed over the past 2 weeks because of Osborne. It is the trust in Osborne; you can not find a single person in the state who questions a single thing that he has done. Papik was down at the local barber shop the other day and folks are already talking about 2008, wishing it was already here. The "days of depression" are gone, it is like the cloud was lifted off the entire state, everyone is happy and at peace with Dr. Tom, it is all like it should be. Like Dorothy said "It is great to be back in Kansas, err Nebraska again", "There is no place like Nebraska". GBR folks.

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JEH45 said:

In the big scheme of things I don't think taking your time to hire a coach is a big deal. Who you hire is a big deal. The potential weeks of waiting are hell on the fans, especially in this day of fan forums. I do not know how important Nebraska talent is to Nebraska, but in Ohio it is everything to Ohio State football. John Cooper managed to alienate Ohio high school coaches. Jim Tressel on the other hand comes from Ohio high school sports. There is no question we have a different day in Ohio these days with Tressel as opposed to Cooper. For your sake Bugeater GBR! PS My boss down here is an Iowa grad & I explained to him last week that I have become a closet BR fan because of the Hell you have gone through. My boss was not at all happy with this sentiment. He spoke about some kind of pouring it on episode, possibly early in Ferentz's reign. He hates you guys. As a matter of fact, my boss hinted that he has put up with alot of crap from me ( one thing I believe he meant was writing for Deathrattle on company time) but rooting for Nebraska was unacceptable.

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December 11, 2007
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Bugeatersteve said:

JEH45, Now that comment about your boss made me LOL so loud and quickly that I spit Dr. Pepper on my screen. It isn't that the "talent" in Nebraska is so critical for them to get. No it is more the "in the blood" mentality, that all the kids in a state with a total population of a little of one million have. It is all their dream of growing up and playing for the "HUSKERS" while playing catch in their backyard. Callahan and Pederson took that AWAY, by all but killing the "walk-on" program. I don't have pity on teams who got pounded by the Huskers during Osbornes reign. Let's face it, Osborne ran the ball, he didn't throw it, and once the game was in hand, he always put in his 3rd and 4th string. Now if the opponent could not stop the running game, that wasn't his problem, how hard is it to put 8 in the box? It wasn't like he kept the starters in when winning by 40 points and kept throwing the ball. Also, back then you are talking about the big 8 against the mighty BIG 10 now.

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December 11, 2007
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JEH45 said:

	I'm sorry I didn't get the specifics re the game. You know my boss told me, but at my age I can ony remember so much. I will ask him re the particulars of the game he was referring to. He may look me up anyhow he is a Deathrattle visitor.
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December 11, 2007
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Bugeatersteve said:

Well the series against the "Vaunted" Hawkeyes over the past 30 years (1979) stands at Huskers 5 Hawkeyes 1. with the games as follows: 1979 - Huskers 24 Iowa 21 1980 - Huskers 51 Iowa 0 1981 - Iowa 10 Huskers 7 1982 - Huskers 42 Iowa 7 1999 - Huskers 42 Iowa 7 (Solich) 2000 - Huskers 42 Iowa 13 (Solich) My curious question is over the past 6 match-ups what is the result for Iowa against both Michigan and Ohio State?

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December 11, 2007
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