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HuskerExtra.com - Lincoln, Nebraska - Huskerextra - Football

Pelini ready for spring drills despite recent turmoil

BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008 - 09:22:02 pm CDT
It may have been a rough weekend on the police blotter for the Husker football program, but Bo Pelini hardly seemed rattled on Tuesday, 15 days before his first spring camp as Nebraska’s coach was to begin.

If he was somewhat annoyed by the recent actions of a few of his players, his confidence was also as thick as ever.

All the friendly chatter that accompanies a new coaching hire is about to give way to the reality of results. Pelini assured he’s ready for the ride.

“Our job is not to fit players to the system,” he said, “it’s to fit our system to the players and make sure we put players in positions where they can be successful. That’s the key.”

Pelini has no depth chart yet. There is no top or bottom, he said. Players will basically receive equal reps at the start of spring ball.

“Obviously you’re going to get a little bit more reps for some guys just by nature of how they earned their way through the depth chart,” Pelini said in his office in a roundtable discussion with local reporters. “The important thing is coming out of spring knowing what each guy can do.”

This may be his first year as the guy toting the head coach’s whistle, but he doesn’t expect that to make spring practices much different from the ones he’s already been a part of as a defensive coordinator.

“Whether you’re in your first year or third year, you have to start from the beginning anyway,” he said. “All it does is alter a little bit the order you do things and how much volume you start with.

“You just have to build a little bit more. You can go a little bit quicker when you’ve been together for a while. But I’ve been through this a number of times. This is not the first rodeo, as far as that’s concerned.”

And if players thought the new guy was going to be lax with punishments for off-the-field hijinks, they might now realize they were mistaken.

After a rash of off-the-field troubles over the weekend, all of them coming in settings where alcohol was present, Husker football players found themselves in a room with Pelini on Monday night.

Pelini said Tuesday that whatever is said in one of his team’s meetings stays there. But it doesn’t take the class genius to figure out the meeting was more grizzly than warm and fuzzy.

Even two former players — offensive lineman Carl Nicks and receiver Maurice Purify — were not clear of Pelini’s sights.

Both those players were ticketed along with a couple of current Huskers at a Saturday party.

Nicks is now banned from participating in today’s pro day in front of NFL scouts at the team’s indoor practice facility.

Pelini said Nicks is banned from being around the program because he has set a bad example with past behavior.

The coach said Purify also might not be allowed to participate in pro day in Lincoln.

Pelini said “a zero-tolerance policy regarding alcohol and social responsibility is now in effect.”

Some of Tuesday’s discussion was about discipline, but plenty of it was about football.

Such as position changes: Has he made any yet?

Pelini said he has a few things in mind, but nothing is yet certain.

“Until you put the pads on and play football, it’s really hard to earmark it. I think things will become clear pretty quickly,” he said.

Pelini said there will not be many “full-blown scrimmages” during spring ball. There will be “mini-scrimmages,” and yes, the quarterbacks will probably wear green jerseys that warn defenders to keep their hands off.

Concerning the April 19 Spring Game, Pelini said it’s possible fans will see the offensive and defensive first-stringers square off against each other, something not done the past four years under Bill Callahan.

“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 injurywise.”

This spring, he said, is about putting down the foundation, establishing the principles that will make the program flourish for the long haul.

“Our job is to take guys in the program and develop them,” Pelini said. “You can’t always assume what a player was is what he’s going to be. Players are going to grow as they move along. We have to keep putting them out there and giving them opportunities.”