I want to apologize for not having a recap of the Huskers Impressive win over New Mexico State 38-7 with the Big Red rolling up an impressive 330 yard rushing; thanks in part to the return of senior right tackle Lydon Murtha. So what we have at this point is a team that is 3-0, off the radar on most national media's screens and looking at a very daunting 3 game stretch upcoming after this bye week.

It was almost at this same point last season (Sept 15^th) when faced with a season defining game against USC, which exposed those Huskers as to what they were and began a 7-game stretch, through the end of October where we went 2-5 and brought the end of the Pederson/Callahan era, brought back Dr. Tom and in turn fan favorite Bo Pelini as the head coach. Is the team better now with the Osborne/Pelini tandem than it was last year? That is a very good question.

First off it was obvious that Osborne was not, at any time worried about losing his job as athletic director by who he decided to hire as his head coach. If Osborne had been, he probably would have went more for someone like Paul Johnson, who ran the wishbone at Navy or Jim Grobe at Wake Forrest, who has a very established reputation as a very good college head coach. But in my opinion, Pelini was the best choice for the program at the time and will do a great job over the next few years in restoring the pride and reputation of Husker football. Pelini's first great decision was in retaining offensive coach Shawn Watson and letting him have a lot of control over the offense. It is also quite clear that Bo and Carl Pelini can flat out coach defense. While it can be argued the defense was a place where any improvement at all would be easy to do when you look at the train wreck that was last season. No it is more than just the improvement in the defensive numbers; it is also about the player's attitude, their mental outlook that is different. The Pelini's have taken this shell of a defense and given it a purpose, an identity of its own; they are now a physical team on this side of the ball. Look at some of the numbers after just 3 games.

So far the defense has produced a combined total of 15 sacks/turnovers, last season's 12 game total was 24, they are also holding teams to just 80 yards per game rushing, and while that total will probably increase as we move into Big 12 play, it will not approach the 232 yards per game given up last year. I have some more telling numbers regarding the improvement over last season. Last year the defense had only 5 stops out of 61 red-zone chances (92%). So far this season they have held opponents to 57% (8 out of 14) on trips inside the 20 yard line. This improvement was never more evident than in Saturday's New Mexico State game where there was a sequence late in the 3rd - 4th quarter where New Mexico State, had 10 plays from the 13 yard line and failed to score, despite 2 pass interferences calls and the ball at the 2-yard line. Instead we forced the quarterback into a bad decision and intercepted the ball. Once again this week Pelini was asked about the awarding of the "Blackshirts" to the defense and as has been the case all season Pelini response was the same; "Maybe sometime," the coach said. "I'm not sure when. To be honest with you, that's the furthest thing from my mind right now. Time will tell."

If you can force turnovers and ball up against the run, you can compete with anyone and that alone makes this a better team than last season's, which over the last 2 months did not compete with anyone. However just competing will not get you wins over teams like Virginia Tech, Missouri, and Texas Tech in three straight games. A 2-1 record against those 3 might just get you back into the top 25 though as it would bring a 5-1 record with 2 wins against top 25 programs.

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