Mr. Inspirational

Well, it's official. Bo Pelini will become the fifth head football coach for the Nebraska Cornhuskers since 1962. In a players only meeting before he was officially announced, the players could already tell the difference. Junior quarterback Joe Ganz was reportedly impressed with his ability to inspire the players and that his fiery demeanor was already apparent.

Pelini was quoted at the press conference as saying that he would not be overwhelmed by the tradition and expectation that comes along with being the Cornhusker head coach, he instead said that he would embrace it and saw the program as "one big family" in the state. You could probably hear the collective sigh of relief across the state.

Since his departure from Nebraska in 2003, Pelini helped the Oklahoma Sooners to the national title game as co-defensive coordinator in 2004 and was hired by Les Miles as defensive coordinator at Louisiana State. Pelini helped build one of the fiercest defenses in one of the nation's best conferences.

In his tenure at Baton Rouge, the Tigers ranked number three in total defense in the country all three seasons. This season they only gave up 284 yards per game and forced 33 turn overs which is fourth in the nation. However, this year was uncharacteristically bad. At least compared to last season with the Tigers were unquestionably the best defense in the Southeastern Conference by leading the conference in six different categories. The team had two separate streaks of 16 and 10 quarters without allowing a touchdown.

Remember what it was like to have a solid defense? The year Pelini was coordinator for Nebraska the Blackshirts (remember them) led the nation in pass efficiency defense at 88.6, ranked number two in scoring defense holding teams to 14.5 points per game, ranked 11th in passing yards only giving up 177.8 yards per game and was 11th in total defense. Pelini's unit also tied a Husker record with 47 takeaways that ranked number two in the country. The Huskers lead in turnover margin over every team in college football at plus 1.77 per game.

So what else? We've all heard stories about how he's got a short fuse. Will it cause him to lose favor in the eyes of the fans, Osborne, the press or more importantly his players? We'll have to wait and see. Up until this point the players that were coached under him had nothing but admiration for their coach. He has a personal touch and ability to speak to players. He has that "it" factor that makes his guys his guys.

Pelini is yet to pick a staff and was quoted as saying he may retain some assistants from Callahan's staff. More to come in the next few days I'm sure.