Bo Announces Coaching Staff

Yesterday newly hired Nebraska Cornhusker football coach Bo Pelini revealed his coaching staff. It's taken a little longer than what I initially expected, but it's done and in place before he goes back to LSU to finish up his work as defensive coordinator during the recruiting "dead period," or, when coaches have to get back to coaching for bowl games.

Pelini was asked what he was looking for in an assistant coaches and was quoted as saying he would like teachers, great communicators and high-energy individuals to shape the program and lead the young men that play for Nebraska.

Pelini's staff has two holdovers from the Bill Callahan Era, and in my opinion the two best coaches from his staff, in offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Ted Gilmore. So, so far so good for Pelini keeping the two key components of the offense that ended up being the 8th rated passing offense and 11th rated offense overall in the nation. Now if they can just fix that defense...

Let's have a look at who will be coaching the Huskers in the spring. You'll notice, or you should notice, that there is a lack of a running back coach.

Barney Cotton - Associate Head Coach/Offensive Line Coach
Cotton will make his second trip to Lincoln now under Pelini, previously he was the offensive coordinator under Frank Solich in the 2003 season. Cotton has spend the last three years at Iowa State as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.

Before his tenure with Nebraska in '03 Cotton was offensive coordinator for six years at New Mexico State, coached at St. Cloud State and was head coach at Hastings College in 1995 and 1996.

Cotton played both sides of the ball for the Huskers on the defensive and offensive line from 1975-78. He also played four seasons in the NFL for the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Bengals.

Shawn Watson - Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach
Watson will enter into his third year as a coach on staff at Nebraska this next season. As I mentioned before, the 2007 Huskers threw for more than 3,800 yards and piled up offensive stats not seen since 1997 under Watson. In 2006 Watson was hired as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator before being elevated to his current position almost a year ago.

Watson came from Colorado where he was offensive coordinator under Gary Barnett where they won four Big 12 North division titles and won the Conference in 2001. Watson also brings some head coaching experience to the table leading Southern Illinois from 1994 to 1996.

Hopefully Watson can continue to reproduce what he has over the past two seasons. With Joe Ganz coming back next season, I'm hoping for some more give offensive output.

Ted Gilmore - Assistant Head Coach/Receivers Coach/Recruiting Coordinator
Gilmore is the second and last holdover from the Callahan staff. He's a savvy recruiter and along with Watson, have landed some big names in the last two to three seasons. With a solid staff in place 2009 should be a great year for signing if the Huskers can produce on field results in 2008.

Most of this year may be a lost cause due to some Callahan assistants telling potential prospects to keep their options open because of the shaky future of the coaches. Nice and professional, huh?

The receiver core under Gilmore's direction finished 8th in the nation this year in terms of total receiving production. Outgoing players Terrence Nunn and Maurice Purify finished second and fifth all-time in Nebraska history. Nate Swift will enter his final year next year as fourth all-time as a receiver for the Huskers.

Gilmore has been an assistant at Kansas, Wyoming, Purdue, Colorado and Houston.

Ron Brown - Tight Ends Coach
Another second comer to the Husker coaching staff is a man that should not be a stranger to you. He was tight ends coach at Nebraska for 17 years between 1987 and 2003 and coached 12 players to the NFL Draft and 14 others sign pro contracts.

This should be enticing to big-time tight end recruiting, something that had been lacking since the downfall of Matt Herron a couple seasons ago. Brown has been serving as Nebraska Director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Carl Pelini - Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach
The elder Pelini will come over from Solich's staff at Ohio University. Pelini served in 2003 as a graduate assistant on defense to his brother. While at Ohio, he was apart of staff with Solich that returned the Bobcats around to mid-major respectability. In 2006 they won the eastern division of the Midwestern Athletic Conference and played Southern Miss in the championship game fore the conference. The Cats also made their first bowl appearance since 1968 that year.

Pelini hasn't had too much experience in the big time, if at all. Previous to his work with Ohio and Nebraska Pelini severed as head coach at Fitch High School as head coach for three seasons. He was also head coach and athletic director for Winnetonka High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He was also a graduate assistant under Bill Snyder at Kansas State in 1989 and 1990.

Pelini played two seasons at Columbia University.

Mike Ekeler - Linebackers Coach
Ekeler will follow Pelini from LSU where he was a graduate assistant in 2005 and 2006. He served as a coaching intern in the 2007 season. Before LSU he was also a graduate assistant under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma in 2003 and 2004.

What Ekeler brings to the table that will be most beneficial is the fact that he is a native Nebraskan and before his stint at Oklahoma he was a coach at Omaha Skutt High School and even coached in Manhattan, Kansas.

Ekeler played high school football at Blair High School and played for Kansas State for four years under Bill Snyder.

John Papuchis - Defensive Ends Coach
The next coach to follow Pelini from LSU is Papuchis who served the past four years coaching an outstanding LSU defense. Papuchis got his start under former LSU head coach Nick Saban and contributed greatly to the overall defensive scheme that LSU has been running for the better part of the past four or five years.

Papuchis has coached such players as All-American standouts Glenn Dorsey and Craig Steltz. Papuchis, before his tenure with the Tigers, was the secondary coach at Kansas and was linebackers coach in 2003 when KU reached the Tangerine Bowl.

Marvin Sanders - Secondary Coach
Sanders comes back to the Husker staff after coaching the same squad under Solich and Pelini in 2003. When Sanders led the defensive backs all they did was earn a school-record 32 interceptions on a defense that forced 47 takeaways. In that same season, safety Josh Bullocks grabbed a school record 10 interceptions and became just the second sophomore in school history to win All-American honors.

The last three years Sanders has served as the defensive coordinator at North Carolina. Previous to his time at Nebraska he had coaching stints at Nebraska Wesleyan, Minnesota-Morris, Nebraska-Omaha, New Mexico State and Colorado State.

As a former player for the Huskers under defensive coordinator Charlie McBride and head coach Tom Osborne, Sanders was a three time letter winner and earned Big 8 honorable mention in the 1989 season.

There you have it, the coaching staff the Pelini has put together. Not a whole lot of big names, but people that will hopefully be able to turn the culture back to what it should be in Lincoln. Hopefully we can get our team back under Pelini.