Details from Monday's Press Conference

Two days ago head coach Bo Pelini addressed the media regarding elements of spring practice in Lincoln. He had a lot of interesting things to say in terms of how he and his staff will guide the team in their approach to practice and hopefully the season schedule in the fall.

When asked what his goals were for the spring, he replied that building a solid foundation would be key in obtaining measurable success on and off the football field. "Build a foundation, he said. “Just keep building a foundation, which we have been doing down in the weight room and in the conditioning program. (We’ve been) developing the athleticism and that type of thing, and now we just get to put in some X’s and O’s.” Quite the change from the last staff. The X's and O's were paramount to the success of the team on the field under the philosophy of the old regime. Building on the gameplan was the key, which is fine in my opinion, however Callahan and company had obvious issues converting their generally good schemes into sensible information in the players minds and most importantly results on the field. Bad in game adjustments didn't help either. But anyway, I'm digressing.

Spring practice will not be open to any media until the Spring Game on April 19th. This shouldn't be that big of an issue to tackle, considering that most major college programs abide by the same theory on the media and practice. Pelini also stated his opinions on the matter in his usual no-nonsense type of answering questions. “I don’t want some guy making his determination of where our football team is and what we’re doing or not doing, and who’s playing well and who’s not playing well, based on his perception of what a guy might or might not be being asked to do. I just want to make sure the information getting out is correct.”

There are some players, as I've mentioned in the previous weeks, that will not be participating in spring drills. Unfortunately, both players are on course to be rather instrumental in the upcoming 2008 campaign. Defensive Back Anthony Blue, who tore his ACL and underwent recent surgery, and Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh will sit out for the entirety of the spring. On the running back front, Kenny Wilson who missed the entire year last year do to a broken leg will see limited action and Cody Glenn who has been hampered with foot problems will be "full go" according to Pelini.

If you attend the Spring Game, be prepared to see a bit more physicality and to see the possibility of the offensive and defensive starters squaring off against each other April 19th. Callahan's approach was to avoid this by having first stringers play their own back ups, but the possibility of the game featuring starters versus starters is very real according to Bo. “It depends on where we are at that point. I’m sure there will be some aspect of 1s versus 1s,” Pelini said. “But it’s hard to commit to that yet until you know where things are and how the spring goes and where we are at that point injury-wise.”

Another big question that was brought up and addressed by Pelini was the possible fragile state of any confidence that may be left over from 2007. “If they start feeling the success and believing in the system, believing in their coaches, believing in each other, then that mental psyche will take care of itself over time,” Pelini said. “Me sitting up there in front of them and trying to read a bunch of psychological books to try to talk to these guys, that isn’t what it’s all about. It’s about developing their confidence in the belief of what's going on.”

Hopefully what he is saying and starting with this team will get things turned around. What I am afraid of is will the Husker faithful give Bo the time he needs to undo the past few years and make the program into his own? How long is the leash that the school has on the athletic department? Specifically, Tom Osborne and Pelini? If you think the school administration is willing to sit back and be overly patient when it comes to progress, you might be kidding yourself. Osborne is a legend not only in Nebraska and across the world of college football and Pelini has achieved a certain level of folk hero status with only three months or so on the job, however my guess is that once the season is underway this fall the clock will be ticking.