So tell me what you want, what you really, really want.

A trip to Dallas? (Arlington for our Nat Geo types.) A date with the biggest jumbotron this side of a Japanese arcade in JerryWorld? Two weeks of contemplating vengeance against Texas for 1996?

Then finish it Saturday, in a game that won't test Nebraska's talent as much it will its patience.

Let's be blunt: Kansas State, 6-5 and clawing for its postseason life, is a shade more talented than Iowa State. The Wildcats remain, 11 games into their season, a work in progress. It's Ron Prince's parting gift to leave behind an undersized-if-energetic defense. The offense has two key playmakers – Brandon Banks and Daniel Thomas – who have to account for the lion's share of KSU's yards and points. Quarterback Grant Gregory is a better story – sixth-year transfer from South Florida makes good – than he is player.

Bill Snyder's 2009 team is not terribly unlike his last one in 2005. Fairly stingy at home. Weaker on the road. Run-heavy. Patient. Opportunistic on the special teams. But not a great team - and not one that should, with everything that's at stake Saturday, beat Nebraska, on Senior Day.

A loss for the Cornhuskers on national TV – with a berth to the Big 12 Championship on the line – wouldn't be a casual thing. This is, again, one of those defining moments. Good coaches – good teams – find ways to close out these games. Pundits talk about comparing the 2009 defense to 1999. Well, that 1999 bunch stoned top 20 teams – Texas A&M (37-0) and Kansas State (41-15) – in back-to-back weeks to help secure a Big 12 crown. KSU was still undefeated, in fact, at the time of its game with NU.

All the 2009 version has to do to is overcome a thoroughly mediocre Snyder club.

Just a little perspective – before the pressure sets in.

On to the keys:

To the Banks: KSU receiver Brandon Banks is the Wildcats' one true home run hitter. He's the punt and kick returner, for one – and he's dangerous enough in that arena. But his speed makes him sneaky tough to cover on deep routes, and his shiftiness makes him a pain to tackle in the flat. Kansas State tries to get him five-ten touches per game in a variety of ways – screens, sweeps, deep shots, quick slants. Nebraska needs to know where he is, successfully mark him and then – tackle, tackle, tackle.

Power Play: Both teams will line up in heavy formations, try to put “hat on hat,” and grind out clock and yards. And both teams will try to use their playaction passing game off of the power game. And both teams will do so out of a variety of formations, motions and personnel groupings. In short, plan to see two offense with the same goals, equally good running backs, and equally iffy quarterback. The difference?

Front Four: We're about to find out just how good Nebraska's much-praised defensive line really is at accepting the challenge of a straight-ahead running game with a big, talented, physical running back in Daniel Thomas. This isn't going to be a “flash” game for Ndamukong Suh and Jared Crick so much as a test of guts, strength, pad level and sheer technique. Again – great defenses eat one-dimensional teams like KSU for lunch. Behind the front four, NU's linebackers – expect plenty of Phillip Dillard, Sean Fisher and Will Compton, and maybe even Eric Martin – need to wrap Thomas and drive with their legs.

Zac Attack: Nebraska fans better hope Zac Lee's strong play at Kansas wasn't a one-week wonder. Not only does Lee need to keep NU in down-positive situations with timely scrambles and smart throws, he needs to continue on an improvement curve toward that game in Dallas, where Texas promises its own brand of nasty.

The Snyder Factor: Snyder is a major storyline in the game. But his best strengths are, in truth, minor, understated touches on gameday.

The man prepares well and gets his assistants to do the same. His offenses usually take care of the ball and rely on field position for points. His defenses aren't flashy from a sacks/tackles for loss perspective, but they tend to have guys in the right place against the run, relying on the athleticism of the secondary against the pass. The special teams are across-the-board strong. KSU conservatively clings like a leech to a small lead.

The Wildcats aim to win the hidden details, all while giving up yards, sacks and style points. Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini and his staff may be tested by this mindset. Or, the Huskers could jump out in front and run away with a three-touchdown win.

It may depends on which team can taste Dallas the most.

Is Nebraska as good as we remember? Saturday night - two contenders become one.

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The swift, sad decline of Kansas head coach Mark Mangino is more than just another tawdry tale of a coach who prodded, poked and pushed the wrong football players in his seven-year tenure at KU. And it's about much more than merely his weight.

The investigation into Mangino's behavior – and his presumed firing, the way he's hacking away at former players and their parents (and the way they're hacking away at him) - is a cautionary tale that deserves a little perspective. A little tough talk, as I'm sure Mangino would term it.

The recap is this: Mangino is like hundreds of college coaches in every division, in every sport, of both genders, and all ages: He uses words – apparently cruel ones – to get the attention of his players. The physical stuff – what little of it there is in this case – is merely a logical extension of his verbal abuse. You don't arrive in someone's face, after all, by silence service.

Mangino threatens. He cajoles. He curses. He brays. He molds like a punk-rock potter would handle bricks of mud and hay. Maybe you've played for a man or woman like this. Maybe you know someone. Maybe you are that person.

Like most angry people, Mangino blames the whistle-blowers - the outspoken players, some of whom were quite good at KU – for bitterness. He blames their parents for failing their children before they arrived on Mangino's doorstep. Never mind that Mangino readily admitted, at the Big 12 Media Days, to recruiting “tough” kids with an “edge,” which means he's fully aware – and always has been – of the risks his style involved. You can't offer Pandora a full-ride scholarship and expect her box to come with a chastity belt.

But, in the face of allegations, Mangino's sheer refusal to admit any wrong – legal tactic? – and unequivocally blameshift deserves a strong rebuttal that, again, goes for any Big 12 coach – Nebraska's included – who may indulge such notions.

Sure, kids have changed. Parents have changed. The money has changed. The scrutiny has changed. Most importantly, athletic directors have changed. They're businessmen. They raise money, press hands and kiss the feet of rich boosters. When you move and sit in the worlds of men and women who barely lift an eyebrow to summon a phalanx of aides to their side, you learn to loathe the cajoler. The world is a colder place for the domineer. Fewer willing souls to dominate.

But, you know, some things haven't changed. Namely: People rarely forget a personal slight or insult. And parents never forget the insults levied at their children. What – you think one imperfect man's notion of “character-building” can ultimately get in the way of blood? Child, please. Since when? On which day? In which sliver of a minute in an hour?

That time, to a rational person, does not exist. But a coach – or any leader with great responsibility – is not always rational. Primordial forces and all that. Delusions – of grandeur, of whatever – are reasonably necessary in college sports. You have to be a little mad – figuratively (and doubly so!) - to drive a bunch of kids toward a championship. Madness lends itself to audacity, audacity to conscience-crossing cruelty. Ever stepped outside yourself in your worst, most rage-filled moment? Did you ever just know it was gonna hurt the intended target in a personal way? The id running amok.

You think of military/political leaders, best to worst. Admired to reviled. But the line between Hannibal and, oh, Nero is thin, practically indistinct, even as their legacies are magnified in opposite directions amidst historians. In their own days, both struck their chords in Rome. The first was exiled, the latter, a suicide case. History's master strategist and decadent fool both arrived at the same port of life.

Their other bond was, according to most historical records, a shared taste for cruelty.

I think some coaches walk around presuming their victories and rare compliments make up for the hours and hours in which they've run down some kid for running out of bounds, or making a bust on a play.

In the short term, sure, OK, maybe. The burning current underneath? That's not how human nature works. There's a reason Solomon writes so many Biblical verses about the proper use of your yap.

Here's a lovely lesson from Proverbs 25:28: “A man without self control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”

In the long run: Negative Reinforcement. Does. Not. Work. Anger. Does. Not. Work. It doesn't. Write it on a chalkboard 1,000 times. If, as a coach, you don't negate that prospect of fear with heavier doses of love and encouragement, the chain of success will always – always! - break down.

Maybe not in the first generation of players. Maybe not in a coach's entire career. But it will somewhere. In families. In the workplace. Rage, contempt and plain old-fashioned pissiness is the root of so many basic-now-endemic American problems. It threatens to ruin our political system, for one thing. The next smile I see from a politician on TV that isn't rueful, gloating, sarcastic or masking ideologue rage will be the first in some time.

Some coaches think their stentorian bellow is, I dunno, something to behold. They think their constant display of anger is almost virtuous, and reflective of their desire, their passion, their competitiveness. Mangino seems like a smart enough man to have considered all of that, and a driven enough man to thought through none of it. Like a lot of blue collar folks, Mangino seemed only to glance at his methods for fear of losing the ferocity of vision it takes to win. That he rationalizes it with the Brooklyn Bridge analogy – the rest of the Big 12 does it, why not me? - strikes me as a clumsy ex-post facto gambit that isn't true anyhow.

It is not unlike, you see, the “bitter” player, blaming his parents, or his peers, for his own disobedience.

The larger lesson is that we're not merely wise to those indiscretions and departures from consistency – we're willing to tap into our personal offense at them. Woody Hayes was once literally allowed to punch his way out of his profession. And he was, in many ways, a brave and innovative man. Patton was used as a decoy in the latter stages of World War II for indulging in a pointless slap. Mangino, a gifted mind who truly gave the Brothers Pelini fits last Saturday – the only coach to slow the tide of NU's pass rush all year – is bound to a lesser legacy than his talent deserves far before it reached a critical mass.

All for what? Some sharp words that Mangino's long forgotten – but his targets have not?

You look at a man like Tom Osborne. How he did it. How he managed above that fray of chaos and insult. Oh, he made his share of poor decisions - I'm sure, every so often, he'd like to take back the phrase “that girl” - but he had a courtliness about him. Still does. Greatness does not require a rough tongue. There is such a thing as righteous anger, if you're slow it. No such thing as righteous vulgarity.

Of course, it is natural to consider Bo Pelini. No shrinking violet there, right? And the cameras don't lie as to how he acts on the sideline. His berating of assistants and officials is already tiresome and due for an offseason overhaul.

But Pelini enjoys some crucial advantages, too. By all accounts, he relates quite well to his players. He knows how to joke with them – even in brief moments at press conferences – and earn their confidence. Based on every anecdote we've ever heard, he's good with their parents, too. Part of it is a relatively low-pressure recruiting process.

And Pelini is an athlete. Still. He's a runner. He played and knows basketball and baseball. His exultation after the Oklahoma win was a bonding moment in itself – even though he was connecting with the fans, and few players were around. Mangino, because of his size, must struggle to even hug his players after a big win.

Football is rough trade. No coach tiptoes his way the minefield every hour/day/week/year. The bigger question: Has the program invested in love? Not just workmanlike respect. But a bond greater than that.

As more allegations of Mangino's players emerge, this much is clear: They might have enjoyed the taste of winning, but they lacked a heart for the program. Loyalty is born in those positive emotions. And the coach has to plant the seeds. As lovely as it may have looked in 2007, Mangino's garden, sadly, was one of cultivated weeds waiting to poison their own soil.

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It was halftime of the Missouri game, and Nebraska had just laid a scoreboard egg. As NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson left the coaching press box, Tom Osborne wanted a word.

“Remember,” Osborne said, “You have that route.”

The “route” to which Osborne referred was actually a concept: A hook pattern by a slot receiver, with the primary receiver running a deep post behind it. Osborne – and Watson – had noticed in film study that Mizzou safeties would sit on certain short routes, exposing the corner to one-on-one coverage downfield.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Watson dialed up the play, and it opened up beautifully. The Missouri safety chased the short route. Niles Paul beat his corner inside. Zac Lee hit Paul in stride for a 54-yard touchdown.

“(Osborne's) box is up by ours,” Watson said. “Every so often, he'll offer advice.”

And you thought it was a rumor.

Turns out that, yes, Virginia, there is an Ozfather.

***

It's a role fit for Brando, were he taller, thinner and still alive. Maybe Clint Eastwood could fill in. You hate inject more saccharine than necessary, but – dadgummit! – if this isn't an interesting story.

We caught a sliver of the tale Saturday when Watson revealed that some of the plays in Nebraska's 31-17 win over Kansas – notably the 37-yard option pass – were from the Osborne vault. So, too, were some of the option runs and power plays in the 10-3 win over Oklahoma.

But it's the way Osborne did it, casually dropping off some film for Watson to peruse, that adds to the mystique of it.

“He left it for us to find,” Watson said. Which, of course, they did.

Could it really be that elegant? Can the spirit of one of the best offensive minds in college football history simply waft off a page of notes, twinkle like a speck of dust in the afternoon light?

Osborne makes no real attempt to hide himself. He's around, a fixture at practices of many sports. I sense he likes to watch coaches in their element – because that's his element. Practice is where teams are born. Practice is where Osborne built a venerable Varyag of a squad, complete with two scout units that prepared twice-as-many players for gameday.

After football practice these days, he smiles as he walks by reporters. Often says hello. Holds doors, waves and moseys out. Some days he's in his trademark red blazer. On Tuesday he was decked in winter wear – a coat and sweatpants. He'd been outside, obviously, on the practice field.

What is his true level of input? Watson and head coach Bo Pelini seem to suggest that Osborne's touch is so light that it barely makes an imprint.

“He has a unique way of doing things in such a way that believe me, he makes it real clear to me that, hey it’s your job, you have to run your team the way you have to run it,” Pelini said. “If anything I wish he would speak up more. He’s not overbearing about anything he does.”

And yet, in the next sentence, Pelini – fully aware of the implication of his statement - said: “He talks to me like my father used to talk to me.”

Supportive. But corrective.

“He’s willing to give his opinion and be real black and white, and say, 'Hey I think this is something you need to fix,' or 'I like how you did this, but this is something you should probably think about working on,'” Pelini said.

It goes without saying that there isn't one athletic director in college football anything like the Ozfather.

Like Somerset said at the end “Seven:” “Around. I'll be around.” And so Osborne is, popping his head into Bo's office when time allows.

“He’ll look at the game tape,” Pelini said. “There are always going to be some Xs and Os things that he thinks could help. I’ll just run some things by him - 'In this situation, what do you think? Punting the football or going for it on fourth down?' The dialogue kind of happens pretty continuously.”

Some Husker fans – a small faction, but vocal – bristle at the image. They think Osborne wields too much influence. They suggest he helped shape Bo's offensive coaching staff. That he pushes for Bo to offer scholarships to in-state kids who aren't worthy of them. That he wants to restore the walk-on program back to a level that no longer is useful.

The landscape has changed, they argue. A well-meaning Osborne is still inserting himself where Bo should assert his leadership. Instead of Osborne acting as paterfamilias, Bo should be the one with the vision for the offense, and he should make Watson adhere to it.

If only life were as simple as it looks, in these human equations we always tend to figure out in our heads.

The flip side is a more compelling argument. Pelini's not a finished product as a coach. He admits as much, of course, but he's better off, right now, growing into the role with Osborne as a net, especially in some of the intangible areas – media, community relations, cultivating a positive sideline image with referees, assistants and players.

One can argue, if they choose to wade into deep water, Osborne's methodology when it comes to winning football games. They can argue with some of his personnel decisions during his coaching tenure.

But the intangible stuff – what made Osborne so likable amongst his peers – probably won him the parting gift of a split national title in 1997.

And I don't see any Husker fans handing back that trophy.

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Death. Taxes. That damn Texas. The stories before Senior Day.

You're a Nebraska football fan. You know the drill, right? Like peonies at Memorial Day. Hay fever in mid-June. The smell of burning leaves, right now, just beyond the city limits.

We're here already. Nearing the end of strange and potentially wonderful 2009 NU season. Money time for the Cornhuskers. Used to be, you'd have the scent of Oklahoma in your nostrils right about now, but the Big 12 ruined that. Now it's an annual dance with Kansas State, followed by a Buffalo Thanksgiving.

Well, those two games knock on the Big Red door.

Where did the time go? Don't ask me. I've got a 2-year-old. I mark time in ear infections, words learned, fruit snacks eaten, and the same 40 books read over and over again.

But this year feels fleeting anyway. It hasn't been a journey for Bo Pelini's second bunch so much as a harrowing, unpredictable ride through dungeons and gilded rooms out of an Edith Wharton novel. Drama tends to move quickly inside a movie theater. It's no different on a football field.

A final, crucial chapter of 2009 is yet to be written. A tragedy, triumph, or typical tale of struggle and virtue? We'll see.

But we know the hero of the story already, however it plays out. As Ndamukong Suh nears the end of a remarkable career - to be punctuated with the loudest Memorial Stadium chant of “Suh!” you'll ever hope to hear – Nebraska fans need to take a minute and appreciate how, in two short years, the 6-foot-4, 300-pounder went from skilled athlete and occasional run-stopper to college football's most dynamic and unique defensive player. And how it almost never happened.

“I think he was testing the waters when we got here,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “But he wasn't ready to come out at that time.”

That's the NFL waters. Suh was a third-year sophomore bearing witness to about as awful a defense in the 2007 Nebraska as could be envisioned.

But his knee required surgery. Plus – Suh had performed far below his own potential in two years at NU. Part of it was consistent work ethic. Part of it was sheer inexperience. You already know this part of the story: Suh grew up playing soccer and basketball. Football, a complex, intricate, brutal game that arguably requires as much mental mustard as any sport, wasn't on his radar until high school.

“I didn't have the mental capacity of a lot of the other guys just because they grew up with it at a young age and they had always been around it,” Suh said Tuesday.

The surgery, and the missed spring practice, turned out to be a remarkable blessing. Suh became Carl Pelini's shadow in 2008, learning without actually doing the drills. But here's the thing, and it's rare for a football player: Suh actually soaked it up just by watching. That's one sharp visual learner.

In the following fall camp, Suh got help from center Jacob Hickman, a cerebral technician who didn't always beat No. 93, but could breakdown his counterpart's game.

“He's one guy that's really understood my game and been able to nitpick at some of my weaknesses,” Suh said. “We talk all the time. You'd see us in fall camp. I might beat him on one play, he might beat me on one play but after we're done with our three reps, we'll get back and talk.”

The rest is statistical history. In 23 games, Suh has 132 tackles, 32 of them for loss, 12.5 sacks, 11 pass break-ups, 25 quarterback hurries, six blocked kicks and three interceptions. Read that again.

“He's played pretty phenomenal,” said Bo Pelini, using the appropriate word.

And he's done so under the following two conditions:

*Offensive coordinators have developed a full-time obsession, since the 2009 Gator Bowl, of making sure Suh doesn't beat them.

*Suh still has more – and arguably much more – to learn.

We're not kidding. Suh tries, at times, to make too many plays. As much as he should trust his instincts, they'll be honed even more in the NFL, where quarterbacks are smarter than, say, Blaine Gabbert or Landry Jones. Once there, he'll also have to live with the reality that sacks and tackles for loss, for an interior 4-3 tackle or a 3-4 end, are rare. Those belong to defensive ends or outside linebackers. The biggest, baddest bull moose in the pros – Albert Haynesworth, Shaun Rogers, the duo in Minnesota – still doesn't get the flash and dash of their edge counterparts.

Take Kansas. Suh's numbers weren't flashy in a 31-17, and Pelini sensed some frustration from his senior.

“He thinks he should make the play no matter how many guys are on him,” Pelini said. KU used a double-team, and occasionally a running back, to block Suh. Baylor often did the same, which opened the door for Jared Crick's big day. Suh's a team guy – but he's also a elite player. Elite guys want to be the solution – not the decoy.

“But you watch the tape, and he played pretty well,” Pelini said.

Pelini doesn't like to compare Suh to his previous proteges, most notably LSU's Glenn Dorsey, a squat grinder who submarined offensive linemen and often blew up plays with his sheer girth and strength. As NU's defense evolves, you'll see Pelini recruit this type of player more often. He already has, in fact, in 2010 commit Jay Guy.

Suh is different. He's nimble. He's certainly not thin, but there isn't an ounce of fat on him. For a guy with so little time in the game, he certainly has a sixth sense of it. He obliterates an opponent's screen game. He peels back to make tackles downfield. Even when he's engaged at the line of scrimmage – which happens more than it should, frankly – he's strong enough to shuck out of it and still make plays.

Nebraska's never seen one quite like him.

Is he the best in NU history?

You could lodge an argument for a number of names – Wayne Mehlen, Rich Glover, Jim Skow, Jason Peter and Danny Noonan are in the mix – but Suh seems to make the most spectacular of plays out of all of them. He may not be as consistent, maybe, but his sack-and-strip of Gabbert in the Missouri game – which hobbled Gabbert and Mizzou's chances at the Big 12 North title in the same blow – is one of the most incredible plays I've ever seen. The strength, speed and perseverance on that single play is a recruiting poster for Bo Pelini's brand of dominating football. If Suh does win the Lombardi, the Nagurski and the Lott, that'll be the play burned in voters' minds when they check his name.

It's fitting that, when asked how fans should remember him, Suh chose a road less traveled. A lot of defensive players would say “dominant” or “great” or “a winner” or some word or phrase that conveyed toughness, victory and pure, hard character.

For Suh?

“A joy to watch,” he said. “I've always wanted to be a joy to these fans.”

The man knows his audience, huh?

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After Oklahoma's 42-30 win over Kansas State three weeks ago, OU coach Bob Stoops located KSU wide receiver Brandon Banks, put his arm around the diminutive Wildcat with the oversized helmet and asked him one question:

You don't have any eligibility left, do you?

Banks had just burned the Sooners for 351 total yards – 195 on kickoff returns alone – returning a kickoff for a touchdown. It was his fourth of the season, which leads the nation. Banks is apparently hard to avoid, as well, as he averages 3.27 returns per game – first among any kick returner in the nation's top 20.

NU head coach Bo Pelini knows Banks' skills firsthand. He returned a kickoff for a touchdown vs. Nebraska last year in a 56-28 loss – at the time, it was the first in his career.

The best defense, Pelini joked, is a “60-mile-an-hour wind” at the back of kickoff specialist Adi Kunalic, who's currently fourth in the nation in touchbacks. Short of that, Pelini said, the Huskers will have a plan for dealing with Banks “based on the weather conditions.”

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Among the many conversations Bob Lee had with his son, Zac, about playing quarterback, the former NFL signal-caller once said this: You're not a true quarterback until you've been run out of at least one town.

Zac Lee certainly wasn't sent packing from Nebraska's football program – but the junior was benched during periods of the Texas Tech game, and seemingly for good when freshman Cody Green took the helm at Baylor. Fans and pundits who had seen Lee's on-field confidence and performance waver with each double-clutch and each tentative throw didn't figure the San Francisco native had a second act in him.

They also didn't know Lee's dad, who spent 12 years in the NFL with three teams – mostly in a backup role – had already prepared him for such a moment.

“Taking that to heart, and hearing that for as long as I've heard that – it's just part of the deal,” Lee said. “I've said that before.”

And yet – Lee's confidence went somewhere, didn't it? Head coach Bo Pelini had called Lee “borderline arrogant” during fall camp – Lee bristles a bit at this – but, by the Texas Tech game, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson termed Lee's mistakes as “chasing ghosts.” Misreading coverages. Refusing to scramble.

“Maybe earlier I was trying to make plays passing the ball too much instead of just reacting and going,” Lee said. “Holes close pretty quick.”

A seat on the bench for Baylor – and the first two drives of the Oklahoma game – woke up Lee, Watson said, to the realities of the position. At least the realities of NU's offense right now, as the Cornhuskers try to shift from a shotgun spread offense into a power-based, double-tight without pumping the clutch.

Such a jarring transition needed a steadier hand.

“He saw he wanted to play,” Watson said. “Wanted to be out on the field. Given his opportunity, he grasped what we've been trying to get him to grasp, and that's just managing the game. Start there, and grow from there.”

On the sidelines, Lee found “a little extra hunger that maybe I didn't know I had.”

“It was realizing you've got to do whatever it takes to win,” Lee said. “No matter what that may be.”

Against Oklahoma, that meant handing off and executing safe, playaction passes. Against Kansas, that meant reducing his reads – with the power formations there weren't that many reads to check anyway – and running when the holes were available.

“It wasn't an extremely conscious decision,” Lee said. “I just saw some lanes and took off...if 1 or 2's not there, take it, tuck it and run.”

He rushed for a career-high 53-yards at KU. Threw for 196. Considering the opponent, the hostile setting and Nebraska's so-so defense, Lee agreed it was the best game of his young career.

While Watson prepared some plays designed to utilize Green's strengths in Lawrence, Pelini said they weren't necessary.

“Why make a switch when you don't need to?” Pelini said.

Maybe that's why Pelini has noticed “a little swagger out of Zac.” And Lee has noticed it in himself.

“I don't want to necessarily call myself arrogant, but there's a certain amount of confidence you've got to have when you're the quarterback of a team,” he said. “A certain amount of it comes from just having fun, just playing, being an athlete. I got that back.”

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If Nebraska's football team had any intent of scaling back its practices this week, head coach Bo Pelini wasn't tipping his hand to that effect Monday.

“We’re not going to lighten much up,” Pelini said. “We know how to take care of their legs, but we need to get our work done this time of year.”

NU did cut its workout time in the Hawks Center by 20 minutes Monday, practicing in half-pads. Defensive coordinator Carl Pelini hinted after the Cornhuskers' 31-17 win over Kansas that the Blackshirts were leg-weary after a grueling month of football.

His brother brushed off that notion Monday.

“Everybody is tired this time of year,” Bo Pelini said. “It’s something you have to deal with. It’s something you have to overcome. It’s more mental than it is physical. Our guys are in good shape. They are ready to go.”

Indeed, this may not be the week for Nebraska to gear down. The Big 12 North championship is on the line, as is a date with Texas in the Big 12 title game. Kansas State, NU's foe, relies on the run more than any team in the league, and has running back Daniel Thomas, who leads the Big 12 with 1,166 yards rushing.

“They play smashmouth football,” NU safety Larry Asante said. “And (Thomas) is a real good tailback. They run the ball. They're going to come in here to run physical.”

That suits Asante, who's third on the team in tackles with 54 and whose forte is run support, just fine.

“I'm in the box in this game,” he said. “I can't wait. I feel like this is my strength.”

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[url][/url]Water under the bridge.

That's how Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder characterized a tense post-game meeting between he and Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini after KSU's 38-9 win over NU in 2003, when Snyder was on his way to his only Big 12 Championship, and Pelini was the Cornhuskers' defensive coordinator.

Pelini had strong words after the game for Snyder, who kept his starters in despite enjoying a comfortable lead. The extent of the loss was considered by most the final nail in Frank Solich's coaching coffin; Solich was fired shortly thereafter. This past summer, Pelini said he “regretted” the incident.

“We haven't talked about it,” Snyder said during Monday's Big 12 Coaches Teleconference. “I don't think it's an issue. On my part it's not. I hope it's not with Bo. Kind of a heat-of-the-moment thing. Competitive people respond competitively. I'd like to think it's beyond us.”

Snyder spent a good chunk of his time during the teleconference praising Nebraska's defense, which ranks tenth in total defense and third in scoring defense.

“They're every bit what people say about them – and perhaps more,” Snyder said. “They play hard. All 11. They pursue well. They've got speed and quickness to compliment the effort.”

Snyder said Bo Pelini, his brother Carl and linebackers coach Mike Ekeler – who played for Snyder at KSU – have enough shared history together to create a solid, cohesive defensive mindset in a short amount of time.

“They're well ahead structure-wise and implementation-wise and schematically and fundamentally than most teams would be with a staff's that come in,” Snyder said.

Pelini returned the praise to Snyder, who employed Carl Pelini was as a graduate assistant, along with long-time friends Bob and Mike Stoops and Brent Venables.

“I was pretty familiar of what was going on at the time and how far he took that program,” Pelini said. “Really he's done it again. Just goes to show how good of a coach Coach Snyder is. He does a great job; he works hard at it. He gets the kids to be committed, and they play tough, very sound, fundamental football. That's a pretty good equation.”

Pelini singled our KSU running back Daniel Thomas, who leads the Big 12 with 1,166 yards.

“They use him really well,” Pelini said. “They do a good job of getting him the football in places where he can make plays. He's very athletic. He's also very physical and tough. He has nice size. He's a load.”

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Be wary. Be plenty wary.

As Nebraska's football team floats into that final bend in the Big 12 river, it is, to borrow a Bo Pelini phrase, pretty obvious that just about anything can happen to the Huskers – that anything can happen to any team in the North division, for that matter.

It's the kind of league, right now, where Colorado, that collection of sunshine boys, has an outside chance at heading to Dallas (er, sorry Nat Geo types – Arlington) for the league title game.

We use the phrase “happen to” because, until a four-quarter defensive masterpiece vs. Oklahoma, NU hadn't fully seized its own destiny in the conference season. The offensive gameplan was geared toward a chess match with the opposing defense – not helping the Blackshirts. Running back Roy Helu either wasn't fully committed to playing hard or was sending mixed messages to the coaching staff about his relative health. Suddenly, of Helu's own volition, he toughened up and turned it around last week with a terrific performance vs. OU.

It seems now, finally, the Cornhuskers have found an identity for the whole, instead of the individual parts. Run big sets. Hope Helu busts a few. Throw playaction to offset the run. Let the defense do its thing.

And so – Kansas.

KU has the worst offensive line the Big 12. That's two years now, and that's on Kansas Coach Mark Mangino. Its defense is better, but still overmatched against stronger teams. But the Jayhawks have three skill players – quarterback Todd Reesing, wide receiver Dez Briscoe and wide receiver Kerry Meier – who can make plays off the board. The kind of guys who can take advantage of NU's momentary lapses in concentration.

It's senior day for Reesing and Meier, and it is might as well be for Briscoe, a junior who's gone, baby, gone to the NFL after this year, considering KU needed glue and chicken wire, so to speak, just to keep the kid academically eligible this year. They're going to put up a fight. As much as defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh would like to run over their collective dog, don't be surrprised if, entering the fourth quarter, you're wary. Plenty wary. On to the keys:

QB Shuffle: No easy answers for Nebraska's signal-caller, but we think the starter is Zac Lee, sprinkled with a dose of zone read from Cody Green. Bo Pelini hinted strongly that both quarterbacks might play in Lawrence. To what advantage? We've no beef with quarterbacks sharing time, so long as they're not out there doing the same thing. Use Green to run the spread game. Keep Lee in hand-off and playaction mode.

Reesing's Last Run: You get the sense that, despite a high degree of competitiveness, Reesing is about ready to move on with life. He's an international business guy, he's been running around behind an awful offensive line for two years, the crowds on Mt. Oread are indifferent, his coach is suddenly benching him for fumbles. Reesing has his magical year in 2007, he has win memorable win over Missouri, he has his place in the KU record book. Expect a loose, exciting effort from him on Saturday. Kansas has lost four in a row. There's not much else to lose.

Short Stuffed: Nebraska's secondary has been consistently excellent against the short pass. Bubble and tunnel screens, quick slants, rub-off routes, stops, curls, you name it. NU's cornerbacks are aggressive and confident 15 yards in. Kansas won't be immune to this treatment. So the Jayhawks have to gamble, and send their talented receivers deep. Reesing has to hit them. If they can't make plays downfield, the short-to-intermediate game will be closed for business, and KU is in for a lot of punts and potential interceptions.

Vengeance: Don't kid yourself. That 76-39 score from two years ago is in the hearts and minds of a lot of Husker players who lived through it – especially guys like Ndamukong Suh, Barry Turner, Roy Helu, Phillip Dillard, Larry Asante and Jacob Hickman. You think they've forgotten? Not a chance. You will see an emotional, hungry team Saturday. They won't give KU an inch. This is intended, after the OU win, as a statement game.

Keep It Together: NU's offensive line needs a half without penalties. Just a itty-bitty half of clean football. No false starts. No 15-yard hi-lo blocks. No personal fouls. No holding. No failing to place one's head at Hickman's torso. No illegal men downfield. A clean half. It would do wonders.

The Beck Advantage: Former Kansas assistant – now current NU assistant – Tim Beck knows the Jayhawks well. He recruited Reesing. He coached the wide receivers. He helped incorporate a spread running game at Nebraska. His knowledge of KU's scheme and personnel was invaluable last year – and it will be again this year. Kansas hasn't changed much since 2007, and the personnel is still similar.

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It's a frequent debate I have with a friend: Is it harder to be the head coach in college football, or in the NFL?

He claims the NFL, where the expectations are higher, players act like primadonnas, the media is merciless and the owners can essentially say and do whatever they want. No job security.

It's not a bad case. But it's not modern college football.

One reason: Program-building, which requires being a head coach, a salesman, a general manager, an owner, an occasional warden, a sociologist and, at long last, a father figure. In this era, it's a little like nation-building in a third world country. (Mea culpa for, you know, comparing football to an outbreak of malaria and genocide in the subtropical steppe.)

Building a program is hard enough. Sustaining it in places not named Florida, California and Texas is even harder. Look at the Big 12 North.

Bill Snyder reached the mountaintop with his unique formula of 100-hour work weeks, JUCO imports and maniacally-driven assistants. Then he walked away in 2005, and it immediately fell to pieces under Greedy Grimace. Missouri is punch-drunk on its passing game, which falls apart, clockwork, in the second half. Colorado is an unmitigated disaster, the Buffaloes never fully recovering from Katie Hnida, recruiting violations, and thrice getting thunderstruck in the Big 12 Championship game.

It's a big, unruly white whale, consistent success. Try Kansas on for size.

Mark Mangino's size masks his skill to fans, but opposing coaches aren't sitting around telling fat jokes, I assure you. He's toiled at the ultimate basketball school west of the Mississippi by creating a Texas-based recruiting template, alighting on the right quarterback in Todd Reesing, and scheduling quite modestly in the non-conference season.

In 2007, his team was the story of that year. Nobody to somebody in three months. The 12-1 record. The Orange Bowl win. KU took a step back in 2008, but it was expected – new defense, young offensive line. Still – when Reesing hit receiver Kerry Meier on that magnificent fourth down pass to slay Missouri in the Big 12's best game of the year, the prevailing notion was this: 2009 could be special.

I never bought it. I had KU fourth in the North, behind Nebraska, Mizzou and KSU. Mangino had built up everything but his offensive and defensive lines. He'd recruited like a devil to the offensive skill positions and the defensive secondary and left out the most important part. Surprising, considering Mangino is an offensive line guy. But that's how hard the job is.

The defensive line stunk it up in the first half of 2009. The offensive line still does. KU started 5-0 and watched that record crumble into a four-game losing streak.

“I’m not naïve,” Mangino said Tuesday. “I’ve been down this road before. It’s not uncharted waters for me. Through the years when we’ve had a tough spell, we’ve stayed the steady course. We didn’t panic, we don’t blame players, we don’t blame anybody, and it’s our own fault that we didn’t win. We keep our same routine, we keep encouraging the players and we keep coaching them. I think that’s the best way. When you take drastic measures during a tough time, the kids wonder if the coach is panicking or if they don’t have confidence that they can pull out of it.”

Except, if you've been paying attention to KU during the last month – Mangino did panic. He pulled his best player, Reesing, from the Texas Tech game – while it was still within reach – out of “fear for his health.” That's a Ron Prince move, folks, blaming your best player for running around for the last 30 games because he gets no protection. It's not Reesing's fault.

And the benching backfired. Reesing was rattled by it, and pressed terribly in a 17-10 loss to Kansas State. Was it a reaction? Of course. When KU had to force a KSU punt late in the game – the only weapon the Wildcats have is running back Daniel Thomas – the Jayhawks couldn't do it. No clutch defense.

Kansas is a casualty, of sorts, of what the Big 12's become in 2009. It's trending toward the run, and defense. The Reesing-Meier-Dez Briscoe trio that looked so trendy before the year is now just a collection of yards and touchdowns. It's not translating into wins.

KU is staring right down the barrel of 5-7. That's how quickly it can change.

There's a lesson in that for Nebraska, of course.

Bo Pelini enjoys more advantages than Mangino does – tradition, history, better facilities, a real fan base – but NU's program remains in a fragile stage of its growth. Pelini said Tuesday, flatly, “I want to win now,” which is good. Wins, right now, is what NU needs. It needs a run to the Big 12 title game. It needs to knock Texas quarterback Colt McCoy on his rear end a dozen times. And it needs to run whatever ugly offense it takes to accomplish those goals.

The Huskers are going to get a ton of television exposure over the last month of the season. With every win comes a little more credibility, a little more exposure, a little more attention from recruits. NU's almost filled its 2010 class. But the 2011 class gets built next March. How valuable would it be for Nebraska to own a win over Oklahoma, and a strong performance vs. Texas in Dallas when that time rolls around?

So you get those Big 12 North wins any which way. Period. And then try to pitch a Bob Gibson shutout vs. Texas.

But Bo has to be mindful of the larger picture. There's something dreadfully wrong with the offense. The statistics prove it. A simple eye test proves it. That unit, as a whole, has not been coached or developed as well as the defense. And the offense does have the talent. Roy Helu is an NFL running back. Mike McNeill is a NFL tight end. Kyler Reed and Ben Cotton are mighty talented, too. Most of NU's offensive line has prototypical size and agility. Khiry Cooper, Brandon Kinnie and Niles Paul all have excellent athleticism and good personalities to boot.

It's not just a matter of experience. Folks, don't buy it. Jared Crick, Cameron Meredith, Alfonzo Dennard and Dejon Gomes are all key parts of NU's defensive success in 2009. Two of them didn't play a down last year. Crick and Dennard didn't play much.

Does the offense have similar success stories?

We've rapped fairly hard on offensive coordinator Shawn Watson and his staff, and clearly, they're troubled by the lack of production. Judging by his demeanor, by his willingness to make changes in scheme, personnel and how he calls plays, Watson probably hasn't had a tougher year. He's “all in” here. His gameplan to beat Oklahoma was painful – but perfect. I'm not kidding; had Zac Lee thrown, oh, five more passes, one of them would have been picked off. OU needed just one more turnover, but never got it.

"It takes a lot of guts to call that kind of game,” Watson said. “It really does. It's a hard game. It's easy in some respects, but it's hard in other respects because it's what we needed to do to win. You've got to get your ego out of it. Your ego's got to leave. You want to throw it, you want to do all that, but you've got to get rid of it.”
Watson's job, for the rest of this year, is to avoid grease fires. Some points would be nice, too.

But, after the season, he has to be on Bo's hook for what's happened. Bo and Watson need to take a hard look at why the offense went sour – lack of leadership, injuries, practice habits, coaching styles, inconsistent playcalling - and fix the bigger picture. Not merely react within the moment.

After a week of blaming the media and fans after the Texas Tech game, the loss to Iowa State woke Bo up. And, from there, we've seen a different coach. A smarter one. Better with the media. Open to more changes. More involved in the play-by-play details of the offense. I like NU's chances down the stretch here. And I like Nebraska to give Texas a very interesting game in Dallas, should it come to pass.

Just know this: Program-building is more – much more – than winning a handful of games. Sustaining it is even harder. Ask Mangino.

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A four-game losing streak. A star quarterback with a case of the mopes. A beleaguered offensive line that plays like a bunch of overfed hotel clerks. A crowd with one eye toward the parking lot the second the game goes sour.

This defines the last month of Kansas football. Throw in a couple brawls with the KU basketball team, and Jayhawks 5-4 season is heading toward the toilet.

But KU hasn't flushed quite yet.

“You have to figure they're going to be at their best,” NU head coach Bo Pelini said of the Jayhawks, who have been outscored 128-74 in their last four games and committed 12 turnovers. “You've got to got to figure they're going to execute at a top-notch level no matter what. That's how we prepare our guys...you have to be prepared for their best shot.”

NU defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said he was “surprised” Kansas, after a 5-0 start, had stumbled so much, especially in losses to moribund Colorado and seemingly-underrated Kansas State.

“I definitely thought they'd be at the top, contending for a title,” said Suh, who is 2-1 in his time vs. Kansas.

But KU still has “great pieces” on offense, Suh said, particularly at receiver and quarterback, where diminutive Todd Reesing is the most experienced Big 12 quarterback Nebraska's faced this season.

Reesing hasn't been immune to KU's struggles. He threw three interceptions in a 35-13 loss to Oklahoma, including one returned for a touchdown. Fumbles in a 42-21 loss to Texas Tech and a 17-10 loss to Kansas State arguably cost Kansas potential wins.

KU head coach Mark Mangino even benched Reesing at the end of the Tech game, citing his desire to protect the quarterback's health behind an awful, leaky offensive line that allows nearly three sacks a game – with a mobile quarterback who plays almost exclusively out of the shotgun.

Mangino said the media blew the benching out of proportion.

“Using the word 'benching' is quite strong,” Mangino said. “I have my reasons for why I took him out of the game.”

But, four days after it happened, Reesing still hadn't received an explanation for it. The captain even organized a players-only meeting to address the matter.

“It was a big deal to me,” Reesing said at the time. “It is what it is. It’s above my pay grade. It’s his decision. I’m still the starting quarterback here, there’s no doubt about that. This job is not up for grabs. I’m going to move forward.”

But Reesing didn't play much better against the Wildcats, clearly pressing to make plays, especially with his legs, that weren't there. Kansas State recovered a fumble just before halftime and converted it into a crucial touchdown.

“It's not a matter of his confidence,” Mangino said. “He's a confident guy. Prior to (Kansas State) he had already had a pattern of having some turnovers.”

Pelini expressed great respect for Reesing after NU's 45-35 win last year – arguably handing out more praise for Reesing than Oklahoma's Sam Bradford – and still sees him as a “heckuva football player” in 2009.

Said NU defensive tackle Jared Crick: “He's still a great quarterback no matter what's happened the last couple weeks...he can run. You wouldn't think for a little guy, but he can really scoot. You see that every game. The pocket breaks down and he just squirts out. We've got to take a good pass rush approach knowing he can do that to us.”

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Boise State has an offer Nebraska's football team shouldn't refuse.

One game in 2011. No return date. On NU's home field. ESPN will televise it. And it would be on the opening weekend of the season - Sept. 3.

In other words - when everybody else is tearing into a cupcake or pastry for its first meal of the year, NU-BSU would draw boffo ratings and a whole glut of national media coverage. ESPN's College GameDay in Lincoln. The nation's major newspapers in Lincoln. Millions of households and potential recruits looking at a warm, sunny, glittering Memorial Stadium.

The great, big debate: BCS landed gentry - UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman is, after all, the lead spokesman for this unholy mess of a system - vs. the populist mid-major.

Mulling this over is like putting a date with Christy Turlington on hold.

NU currently has games vs. Fresno State and Washington and a game Wyoming. Unless you consider UDub a major player in two years, it's the kind of schedule that can allow for a Boise State to be added to it. Especially at home.

This ball got rolling in a Yahoo Column last week after Boise's lackluster 45-35 win over Louisana Tech Friday night.

Perlman's name was brought up, of course, because Perlman's primary argument in front of Congress, as to why Utah didn't play in the national title game, was that the Utes didn't play Nebraska's schedule. I'd argue it's the fault of Utah's coach, Kyle Whittingham, for failing to scream, bray, yell and lobby his heart out to the Associated Press for a split national title. And then I'd fault Florida coach Urban Meyer for pretending his former team didn't deserve a share after slapping around the same Alabama team that gave UF fits.

But then I'm a media guy. And I think you can change a whole lot through the media if you make a big enough, smart enough stink.

To the Broncos' credit, they're trying. The WAC hired a PR firm to help make the case for Boise in the BCS. Some in the media scoff at this because, well, they're stupid. They fail to make the connection between Oregon's rise to national prominence with a few Joey Harrington ads in New York and some funky Nike uniforms. They fail to see that Miami's best recruiting tool, at this point, is really the prospect of saying the words "The U" on Sunday Night Football. Boise, meanwhile, has the trick plays and the blue turf. And the "anywhere, anytime" mentality going for it.

These catchphrases matter. They're cultural cache, if you will. What TV creates, for better or worse, counts in the minds of fans. How many times do you think you'll see that Ndamukong Suh highlight where he strips Blaine Gabbert of the ball and nearly breaks his leg in two before the 2010 NFL Draft? How many recruits - and if not that, official visits, letters answered, moments devoted - do you think that's worth to Nebraska's football program? Precisely why NU should have pushed Suh for the Heisman.

Boise vs. NU is cultural cache to the hilt. You set aside concerns of schedule overloading. In 2011, NU should have an experienced quarterback in Cody Green. It should have a veteran, excellent defensive line and linebacking corps. The secondary will be young - but the offensive line should be reasonably well stocked. And it's entirely likely that Nebraska will be coming off of a BCS appearance of some kind, if the cards unfold like I think they will next year.

Bo Pelini seemed taken off guard Tuesday by the question of playing the Broncos - but not because it was coming from left field. He said he hadn't thought much about it. He didn't say it hadn't come up.

NU Director of Football Operations Jeff Jamrog, meanwhile said the Huskers are talking to "a number of teams" for that spot. It'll be a Division FBS school, no doubt. The question is: Is it Boise? Or is it another lamb to slaughter from the Sun Belt?

Y'know, it's interesting. Pelini made a very candid comment about NU's crowd Tuesday, and I'm glad he did it. He said that, for much of 2009, Memorial Stadium had been missing that "juice" that was so present in the 10-3 win over Oklahoma.

"I don't think a crowd realizes how much impact it can have on a football team, the whole aura of the game," Pelini said. "Give us that extra juice. Sometimes the crowd feels like 'Oh, they should win this game.'

"...I thought they had a huge impact on that game. I hope that continues. I hope that to be the case whether we're playing Oklahoma or Scott Junior High School."

Except that - and Pelini acknowledged as much - human nature doesn't work that way. Yes, NU's crowd should have been better in a 31-10 loss to Texas Tech, although the Huskers' uninspired, sloppy play sure didn't help matters. But when you trot out the Sun Belt Three - thanks again, Steve Pederson - you remove the illusion of tension. From tension springs forth emotion, energy, juice and excitement.

If nothing is at stake, it's hard to get crazy at a three-hour glorified scrimmage merely for the sake of it. Especially when you stick the student section up in the nosebleeds where it can least affect the rest of the crowd.

Boise State is a perfect antidote to that malaise. And the media attention makes it worth the risk. If Bo can pull the trigger on a 2-for-1 series with Fresno State, he can pull the trigger on a game like this.

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It was three hours before Saturday night's kickoff, and Nebraska's football team had just hopped off two red Arrow buses and prepared make the short, winding “Unity Walk” around the north side of Memorial Stadium. As is custom, Ndamukong Suh, headphones blaring, led the team. Linebacker Phillip Dillard and center Jacob Hickman were there, too.

Freshman quarterback Cody Green was right beside them.

Zac Lee was somewhere toward the back, tucked under a red “N” hat. Along the path he quietly, almost sheepishly, shook the hands of the few fans paying attention as he walked by.

It was a startling picture of their momentary fortunes that switched suddenly in the second quarter, when offensive coordinator Shawn Watson pulled Green and inserted Lee, who threw one excellent goal line pass for a touchdown and otherwise made perfectly safe, pedestrian plays that Green could have made. But Green never went back in to make them.

Watson said Green was “nervous in the service.”

Head coach Bo Pelini thought inserting Lee “felt like the right thing.”

“Make no mistake about it, I've got a tremendous amount of confidence in Cody Green” Pelini said. “(But) you've got to go with your gut. I felt that way. Wats felt that way. It played out for us.”

Will they reverse their places in the Unity Walk line this week? Do they both head to the front? Does Green start and Lee play relief pitcher? Does Lee start and Green become a mid-game spark?

Now that the euphoria of Nebraska's 10-3 win over Oklahoma has worn off a bit, the Huskers' offense are left with, among many, this central question: Who be the QB?

Green?

Lee?

Both?

Roy Helu in the Joker? Kidding. Maybe.

It's become a mess to assess, frankly. Watson seems caught between a spread running game and a power one, a quick passing game and one built on long, playaction fakes. The spread attack favors Green, who can run the ball, and isn't afraid to stick his passes in tight spots, whereas the power stuff favors Lee, I suppose, who's a slightly better ball handler and in better command of the offense.

Can Watson really try to run two different offenses? It hasn't worked so far. Green seemed stripped of his wits Saturday night. The quail Green threw into a wide expanse of field was not a good sign. Yet Lee is so comically painful on those zone read and option plays that you wish he'd make an executive decision, and simply change the call in the huddle. He had a “blow the whistle!” look about him every time he ran.

But Lee quite effectively ran three playaction passes. The touchdown to Ryan Hill. A little wide receiver drag route to Brandon Kinnie. And the best of them, a fake-then-throw to Helu, after the defense had vacated Helu's area.

It's baby steps for rebuilding Lee's confidence and skills. He can still throw a mean deep ball. And he's OK in playaction. If Watson wants to start there, and sprinkle in Green on some shotgun stuff, that's a plan that could win Nebraska the Big 12 North.

What about Green's confidence? Outwardly, it's there. You could say the same of Lee, I suppose. Inwardly – who knows?

The kid from Dayton,Texas has been often been presented as “the answer” to Nebraska's struggling offense because he make plays off the board, on athleticism and instinct, that Lee cannot.

But Green is trapped inside a rigid structure of NU's offense, which finally is playing to its dominant defense. Green talks a good game about letting instincts take over, but it's hard to freelance in the thick of a conference race, in the West Coast Offense, in an offense desperately trying to possess the ball behind a leaky, creaky offensive line. Watching the game tape again, Green's setting seemed stuck on “overload” of all kinds – emotional, mental, physical – and the WCO is too precise, even when masquerading as a spread, to accommodate that state of being.

Lee has already been there. Watson still hasn't stripped the quarterback run game from Lee's list of plays, but he has toned some of the other elements.

Is the offense too complex? It doesn't have to be. But you need a staple on the table first. Last year, Nebraska rolled its opponents with a short, controlled passing game of screens, stops, curls and crossing patterns. Defenses crept up to take it away, and Joe Ganz burned them with long throws to Nate Swift and Mike McNeill.

Lee is not a good short-game passer. Green is designed for a free-wheeling attack that allows him to hit the edge, throw all over the joint, and generate mismatches.

There is no good answer. Just survival.

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Players of the game and report card for Nebraska's 10-3 win over Oklahoma:

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Roy Helu. He's back – and just in the nick of time! Helu made a few runs Saturday that only he, on NU's football team, can make. His vision and quick cuts to the hole are rare for a player at any level, and more than once he caught an OU defender peeking or heading the wrong way. He needs to improve with his pass protection. But what college running back doesn't, right?

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME: Matt O'Hanlon. He called his interceptions a product of being in the right place at the right time, which is true. But MattyO was terrific in run support – his tough tackles help convince OU to move away from the running game, and his one interception return – which helped set up a field goal – was fairlu crucial. Great game for a kid who's earned it.

GRADES

QUARTERBACK: C The position has now shifted into “don't kill us” mode for the rest of the season. Zac Lee and Cody Green didn't exactly make many plays Saturday – but they didn't lose the game, either. Who Nebraska plays from here is anybody's guess.

RUNNING BACK: B+ Roy ran like the old Roy, Traye Robinson had some authority, and Tyler Legate was solid in the blocking scheme. This unit is so much better when Helu is reasonably healthy.

WIDE RECEIVER: I For “incomplete.” They blocked, mostly. Only two receptions by the position all night, both belonging to Brandon Kinnie.

OFFENSIVE LINE/TIGHT ENDS: C Oklahoma has an awesome defense, and NU occasionally held its own in the running game, especially when Nebraska chose the power route with Legate as a lead blocker. But the pass pro was fairly shabby Saturday night. Neither Green nor Lee had much time.

DEFENSIVE LINE A The front four played so damn hard, blunting OU's run game and producing enough of a pass rush on Landry Jones to throw him off his rhythm. The Huskers are as physical and imposing across the front as any defense in college football. The Sooners and Alabama are up there, too.

LINEBACKERS: A Essentially a grade for Phillip Dillard – and we're OK with that. Dillard made two or three key tackles on screen passes, had an interception and a sack, and served as on-field emotional motivation for the defense. He's become an all-conference caliber player in a matter of months.

SECONDARY: A Landry Jones will see these guys in his dreams. O'Hanlon played great, Prince Amukamara and Alfonzo Dennard constantly challenged receivers, Eric Hagg and Dejon Gomes worked over the inside slot routes, Larry Asante provided the hits, and Anthony Blue and P.J. Smith looked good in spot duty. And what about Hagg's big tackle on fourth down? Yep – these guys can play!

SPECIAL TEAMS: B Nebraska's punt coverage units were a little leaky, sure, but Alex Henery's punting was strong overall, and Ndamukong Suh blocked a field goal attempt in the second quarter. Kickoff coverage was excellent. Niles Paul displayed sure hands on punt returns. Gomes needs to be a little more careful out there – he cost NU about 35 total yards on two penalties.

GAME MANAGEMENT/PLAYCALLING: B+ From a defensive perspective – brilliant! Bo and Carl Pelini constantly had OU guessing on offense, and the Sooners kept choosing the wrong door. On offense, coordinator Shawn Watson played it safe and smart. For this week, we can live with it. Expect Kansas and Kansas State to have better plans though, and Watson better figure out a way to move the ball. The offensive penalties early in the game were simply absurd. Why is Ricky Henry cut-blocking the opposite guard's man, 10 yards away from the play?

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It was, as they'd say in the basement of some mafia den, with stacks of money and stolen cigarettes all over the room, a beautiful thing.

The Blackshirts, that is. The pass rush. The aggressive coverage. The hitting. The tackling. The blitzes who seemed to know just where OU quarterback Landry Jones would look first – and where the Sooners' protection would not be. A beautiful, brutal thing to behold. A 10-3 win that goes above the fireplace. How many times have you watched the game by the time you read this? Be honest. You'll savor it more, too.

Feels good, doesn't it? After nearly ten years of stump speeches about pressing forward, never surrendering, mediocrity, offense, quarterbacks, recruiting and all the things that go with the new wave of college football, wasn't it nice to witness four hours of the Blackshirts kicking the rump of an opposing quarterback all over the field? Are you noticing the changes in college football this year? The spread ain't dead, but it's not taking seconds at the buffet line anymore. Teams are figuring it out.

Bo Pelini especially. He played the Sooners like a Stradivarius, didn't he?

“It's ain't about me,” he said.

He's modest. And wrong. Bo was hired for this moment, for he and his brother Carl to stand toe-to-toe with Oklahoma's defensive braintrust, Bob Stoops and Brent Venables, and win the chess match. And he won it. You cannot deny that. Bob and Brent are about pressure. Bo is about a four-man pass rush, and a dizzying, frustrating coverage strategy that put his guys in the right positions and quarterback on a bus to confusion.

He will call a blitz – and he did Saturday night, often at the right times – but he wants turnovers even more. And blitzes don't always produce turnovers. You've got to devise other ways to get them.

And Bo was like a shark in the water against the Sooners. Jones was the chum.

Jones - that poor kid, starting just a handful of games, asked to throw nearly 60 mind-boggling passes against a solid four-man pass rush and a seven-man coverage scheme?

Sam Bradford might have been up to the task. Jones wasn't. How could he have been?

Nebraska coaxed OU to reveal just about every route they've got stored in their schooner – especially all the short stuff that NU excels at taking away – and then the Huskers delivered on the clutch downs. You may think Jones simply overthrew a couple passes – he wasn't that accurate – but he was baited into bad throws, forced to play Peyton Manning, to stick the ball into a tiny four-yard window. Constantly, he thought the Huskers were offering the middle of the field – and they weren't. NU is almost always “middle closed.” Jones didn't see it. Why?

Pelini. He had Jones and Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson snookered all night. Spooked, too. The Sooners, never trailing by more than seven, played as if in a shootout. They abandoned the run. Stopped thinking about the field position battle. Starting taking big shots down the middle of the field – again, hasn't been open for business all year – and duly paid for it with three picks from Matt O'Hanlon.

“We kind of disguised our coverages so he didn't really get a feel for who was in a run fit, or what of coverages we were running,” strong safety Larry Asante said. “It just kind of threw them off a little bit, which cause them to throw some ill-advised passes."

And remember – Jones essentially takes his marching orders from the sideline 15-20 seconds before the play. When NU is supposedly showing its hand to the offense, and OU is adjusting accordingly.

Oklahoma racked up yards, but schemed sloppy. Three times, Wilson put his kicker, Tress Way – who had kicked all of one field goal all year - on the sharp hook hash. No wonder he missed two of three. He constantly sent Sooner running backs wide even though Nebraska was successfully spiking its cornerbacks and O'Hanlon was filling run support like a beast. NU's scared to death of deep fade routes along the sideline, but OU rarely took the chance. Nebraska's fairly maniacal about the deep middle, and the Sooners kept testing it.

If it sounds like a broken record, well, look: It's coaching. You saw a master class of it Saturday night. Nebraska doesn't have Oklahoma's athletes. And Jones, despite his numbers, is a better quarterback than either Zac Lee or Cody Green right now. Through scheme, effort, guts and a terrific front four, NU simply checkmated the Sooners.

Nebraska's offense? I'm not going to put lipstick on the pig here. It's not real pretty. Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson wisely kept it vanilla once NU grabbed a 7-0 lead. Green, apparently, isn't the answer. Watson certainly wasn't interested in finding out tonight.

Which, for this game, is OK. Roy Helu surprisingly returned to the player we saw nearly two months ago at Virginia Tech. The offensive line actually got some push on a few power plays. Aside from a mind-numbing fumble on an option play, NU protected the ball. For his part, Lee never threw a dumb pass, never fumbled and gained a yard or two on the option. He still looks about as comfortable as a candyman in the dentist's chair.

“We just wanted to keep pounding it and running the football,” Pelini said. “We were going to be fairly conservative, try and keep them from blitzing and some of the things that they did. We stuck with it. We were able to get the lead, which was huge. It allowed us to play to our defense.”

Now Bo's got it. The offense is NU's defense. The defense is NU's offense. The former should serve the latter so the latter can set the table for the former.

What a night for the program. The Memorial Stadium atmosphere was electric. Like old times. Fans tailgated and milled around for hours before the game. The Heisman Trophy winners were gracious and smiling at the Husker Nation Pavillion. Barry Switzer got off a bus and 100 Husker fans nearly lost their heads. A Sasquatch – with a giant red N painted on its belly - was seen on the premises. NU and OU fans talked and mingled, old friends. There was a sense of investment from the fans Saturday night – and not a sense of entitlement. Of course, the Huskers' defense gave them plenty to cheer about.

It all had a big-game feel. It was a big-game crowd. And it's been too damn long since there was a big home win to go along with the vibe.

Pelini delivered it. He did what Bill Callahan never could – he beat Oklahoma. A shame we won't see the Sooners for another years in these parts. Can we savor it that long?

You'd better believe it.

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Phillip Dillard keeping peeking at the clock on the scoreboard. Five minutes. Three minutes. Two minutes. Under a minute. Under forty seconds.

Nebraska's defense, which had rebuffed No. 24 Oklahoma all night with interceptions, timely tackles and stifling pressure of quarterback Landry Jones, had to do it again. One more time – with a 10-3 lead over the rival Sooners, whose own defense had stoned NU into 11 punts.

“We just had to keep fighting,” Dillard told the huddle. “We've fought this long, we have to find something else down deep inside.”

The Sooners had run 30 more plays, had 16 more first downs and 145 more total yards. They visited NU territory 12 times. An electric, almost angry crowd of 86,115 fans at Memorial Stadium alternately hollered and clutched their hands. Huskers cramped all over the field, including defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who dramatically collapsed to the ground with a thigh cramp on OU's second-to-last drive.

But where they failed at Virginia Tech, the Blackshirts delivered the defining, signature moment of the still-young Bo Pelini era, a 10-3 victory that rested solely on the shoulders of the defense – whom Pelini was hired to rebuild and resurrect. A defense that gave up 62 to Oklahoma last year. A defense that was tired of hearing about the superior Sooners.

“We had to step up and show this defense could play,” Dillard said. “That this defense can ball.”

Consider it done, along with a startling defensive turnaround in less than two years. From 2007 – when NU allowed 40, 41, 45, 49, 65 and 76 points in various games – until tonight, when the Blackshirts set up all of the Huskers' points and withstood OU's withering no-huddle pace and world-class speed to stay alive in the Big 12 North race.

“They sucked it up and found a way,” a drained Pelini said. “I'm proud of that group of men.”

Was it Pelini's best coaching win? Remember, he owns a Super Bowl ring and a national title in previous stints as an assistant.

“This ranks right up there,” he said. “That's a good football team we played out there tonight. Make no mistake, Oklahoma is a helluva football team. That game could have gone a lot of different ways; we just found a way to kind of hang in there and hang in there, and we made enough plays. (Oklahoma) played their hearts out, too.”

NU intercepted Jones five times – all in Cornhusker territory – and turned over the Sooners twice on fourth downs. Oklahoma contributed to its own demise by missing three field goals. Senior Matt O'Hanlon tied the school record with three interceptions – a Husker hasn't done that in 30 years – and added 12 tackles.

Nebraska's front four didn't have flashy numbers, but it spooked Oklahoma's running game enough for Jones to throw an eye-popping 58 passes. He only completed 26. A dozen times, he simply threw the ball away. Jones' final pass of the night with a painful, floating balloon, higher than a punt, that O'Hanlon fielded at the 6-yard line with 27 seconds left. Game over. Party in Lincoln.

“Luckily I got my hands on it,” O'Hanlon said. “I thought it was up there for about ten seconds.”

After the pick, O'Hanlon stood up and threw the ball in the air. He got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. He didn't seem to care. The guy who blew a key coverage in a 16-15 loss to Virginia Tech had his vindication, a place in the record books, and his own chapter in the lore of the NU-OU series.

“After the Virginia Tech game I was down,” O'Hanlon said. “I just needed a kind of breakout game to get my confidence back. This game did that.”

In front of regional television audience on ABC, all of Nebraska's defense had a breakout game, setting up the Huskers' 10 points, including the game's only touchdown.

Early in the second quarter, after OU had already blown two chances at points with missed field goals, NU junior cornerback Prince Amukamara aggressively jumped a slant route and intercepted Jones at OU's 23-yard line, returning the ball to the Sooner 1.

“Huge play,” Pelini said.

After an offsides penalty, quarterback Zac Lee – who replaced starter Cody Green – floated a one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Ryan Hill.

“For a second I thought 'Oh no,'” Lee said. “Then I saw Ryan. It kind fell in his hands. I was just trying to put it up in the back corner, and he went and got it.”

Pelini said he “felt it was right” to insert Lee after Green's shaky start.

“It was an emotional game and I guess you could say I just got caught up in it,” Green said.

Green's last pass was thrown into oblivion, 40 yards upfield toward no receiver or defender.

“Get up,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said to Lee. “You're going in.”

Lee wasn't asked to do much – he only completed 5-of-9 passes for 35 yards – other than not lose the game and hand off to Roy Helu, who returned to form with 138 yards, most of it after contact.

“Roy Helu played his tail off tonight,” Pelini said. “We just wanted to keep pounding it and running the football. We were going to be fairly conservative, try and keep them from blitzing and some of the things that they did. We stuck with it. We were able to get the lead, which was huge. It allowed us to play to our defense.”

Oklahoma made five trips to Nebraska territory in the first half – and scored only three points. Sooner kicker Tress Way yanked one field goal and had another blocked by Ndamukong Suh. NU thwarted a 15-play OU drive when Eric Hagg smothered running back DeMarco Murray for a loss on fourth down. Only the Sooners' final drive of the half produced points, a nine-play, 59-yard march that ended with Way's 28-yard field goal.

In the second half, OU made six more trips – and scored nothing. Jones threw four interceptions, including the three to O'Hanlon, whose first interception, returned to Oklahoma's 44-yard line, set up Alex Henery's 28-yard field goal. Jones would consistently hit two or three passes on each drive – receivers DeJuan Miller and Ryan Broyles combined for 13 catches – but couldn't finish off those drives. NU often disguised its coverage before the snap, moving its dime defense in and out of man and zone looks. Jones, who took over for an injured Sam Bradford, looked confused and frustrated.

“We were fairly consistently moving it,” OU coach Bob Stoops said. “We'd just get behind the chains. You've got to credit them, on third or fourth down, we had our opportunity, and they made plays, they covered us or pressured us or whatever it was to get out of it. That's where we needed to be better.”

Nebraska threatened for a fourth-quarter score after runs of 12, 8 and 24 by Helu, but Henery pushed a 42-yarder off to the left – his first miss under 50 yards in almost two years. NU stopped the Sooners two more times after that. Dillard intercepted a fourth-down pass tipped by Jared Crick, and O'Hanlon caught the Hail Mary punt.

After that, Lee came into the game, sneaked for a yard, and the game was won.

“It feels good to win, no matter how ugly that may have been,” Lee said. “It's probably the best feeling I've ever had in football. The way we hung in there and kept fighting. The way we stuck by each other the entire game.”

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We're 21 games into the Bo Pelini era – please, no counting the 2003 Alamo Bowl – and we've got a pretty good handle on the guy as a coach.

Where Bo's good – namely, defense – he's performed as advertised. He's a little rough on the media, but we can take it. He'll pull the trigger on off-the-field issues (booting Quentin Castille off the team) and playing freshmen.

He left the offense fully in the hands of offensive coordinator Shawn Watson for more than a year, but now he's got his fingers in it a little bit, and the Cornhuskers will, bit by bit, eventually define itself by the same kind of power running game imposed on Watson by Gary Barnett in Colorado. It worked at CU. It'll work here.

The recruiting wonks say Bo needs to work a little harder in the summer, press kids more effectively on their official visits and build more bridges. Eh, maybe. I say Bo's smart not to sell kids a bill of goods, which they repay with a bill of effort.

Pelini's 14-7 overall, and only one those games – Iowa State - was an unexpected loss. NU isn't “back.” It's not eating worms, either.

But here comes the first mid-term. Here comes the measuring stick, being pulled from the closet of expectation, to see how Nebraska stacks up with Oklahoma. How Bo stacks up against Bob Stoops.

"I'm at the infant stages of my tenure," Pelini said Thursday. "I'm not in a position to measure up to what Bob's done. He's won a national championship, he's won Big 12 Championships. I'm finding my way and trying to build a program here. Obviously, he's set a helluva benchmark on how to go about that."

Fair enough. Beat Oklahoma. Or hang with OU for four quarters. Start there.

Considering the variables - reputation, control of the Big 12 North, momentum, a nice TV audience, a huge recruiting weekend – games like this are either a big step forward or several steps back. They don't often break you. But they can make you. And they usually define you.

The process may not be complete, but Bo's put his imprint on the Huskers, no denying it, shaping the emotional and athletic makeup of the team.

It's Bo who redshirted the entire 2009 recruiting class, and Bo who's chosen to burn the redshirts of several freshmen this year. Bo who adjusts like a demon on defense, and Bo who wastes timeouts on that same defense. Bo who argues too much with game officials. And Bo who riles up with players with passionate pregame speeches.

Some of his strengths can be weaknesses, and vice versa. So it is with most of us. The man is who he is. The team is what it is. Time to find out if that's enough to handle the Sooners.

Bo was hired to win the pitcher's duels, the low-scoring games often played in the SEC. Bo knows stalemates and four-quarter games.

Stoops used to win those games without much sweat. These days, the longer a game remains in doubt, the more you can count on the Sooners falling apart.

Can NU keep OU on the burner long enough to hit its melting point?

This is no vintage Oklahoma squad – its weak offensive line and speed remind me of Clemson in the Gator Bowl – but it's still the best team Nebraska's played since the last dance with the Sooners in 2008.

The best lesson from 62-28? Don't get buried early. Stick with the gameplan. Eat clock. Stop momentum. Get some first downs.

Earlier this week, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson seemed to have a pretty good handle on how the game might unfold by calling it “a NFL game.” Manage the clock. Don't waste timeouts. Don't waste time, period, bawling out the referees.

Watson's bound to get cute with Saturday's gameplan at some point. These West Coast Offense guys, God love em, might call three running plays in a row only to switch each of them to a pass because a strong safety might be creeping into the box. It's on Bo to tell Watson “run it anyway.” It's on Watson to know it without being told, which goes back to planning during the week, knowing the hook on which you'll hang your hat.

We'll be watching NU's discipline in the game, too. How about a night with zero personal fouls, false start and illegal motion penalties? How many yards do the Huskers just hand to Oklahoma?

Does Bo switch quarterbacks if Cody Green starts cold? Does he remember to look for crafty punt fakes and onsides kickoffs? When does he dial up blitzes? Do they work?

Remember Clemson? Nebraska was rocked back on its heels by the faster, more athletic Tigers. Ask the NU conditioning crew, and they'll say it was that game that opened their eyes to reality about Nebraska's speed and power. Folks, it's not there yet, as Oklahoma's speed and athleticism will make clear.

But Bo won all the coaching points in the Gator Bowl. Made the right blitzes. Seemingly had plays diagnosed before they occurred. Got field goals instead of gambling for touchdowns. Watson won some, too, pounding Castille in the power run game and schooling then-quarterback Joe Ganz into stepping up in the pocket, and buying enough time to hit big passes.

Coaching won that game. Saturday could boil down to that, too. For either team.

Nebraska isn't favored to win. It shouldn't be. But this game could reveal so much about the team, Bo, Watson and their direction together.

See also: 10 Key Players and Commentary: A Big Measuring Stick for Bo and Five Keys: Oklahoma and OU scouting report and video breakdown.

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Let's begin with this: It's a shame Oklahoma only rolls into Lincoln every four years. Just the same as Baylor, and half as often as Iowa State. Almost makes you want to stomp on one of those shiny, metal-button Sooner coats Barry Switzer used to wear on the sidelines. Almost.

You know what I'd rather do? I'd rather press Bob Stoops and Bo Pelini – two good friends back Youngstown way – to push for real change in the Big 12 Conference's scheduling practice. Or at least lobby for an exception.

Clearly the athletic directors, Joe Castiglione and Tom Osborne, have gone out of their way to honor Husker and Sooner greats over the last two years. At the very least, they would back their coaches publicly. And the Big 12 isn't thrilled with how league teams have taken that extra non-conference game bestowed upon them by the NCAA a few years ago and chosen to schedule, for the most part, various Taco Bells, shoe stores, and rest homes as opponents. Texas is trying to get a two-game deal with a Grandy's location in Denton.

The league needs - and its fans deserve - a nine-game conference slate complete with permanent division partners. Nebraska and Oklahoma would be the first natural fit.

Unfair, you say, that NU would draw OU and Missouri would, say, draw Baylor? Well, Florida and LSU drew each other in the SEC. Hasn't stopped those schools from winning five of the last 13 national titles, has it? Tennessee and Alabama seemed to have survived, too.

The Huskers would only benefit from playing another elite school every year. As it is, Nebraska doesn't play those teams nearly enough, and not at all in the Big 12 North. Instead of looking at the Sooners as a potential loss, flip the script and realize games against great teams, win or lose, are the best possible barometer of your team's progress.

The ball's in Bo and Bob's respective courts. If they push for change, there's at least a chance of it happening. Do you really think the Big 12 athletic directors would drag their feet so much at the prospect of losing a freebie home game in which the price tag for slaughtered lambs goes up every year, when they'd get, every other year, a fifth home conference game, no strings attached?

Just some food for thought.

Y'all want some keys?

Field position: Nebraska has to win this category. Cody Green can orchestrate 55-yard touchdown drives much easier than it can 85-yard drives. The rule of thumb: Start with good enough position that one 20-plus play puts you on the opponent's side of the field, and one 30-plus play leaves you three simple downs from an Alex Henery field goal. In the 2006 Big 12 Championship game, NU did just that, but didn't have a kicker of Henery's length and skill. Nebraska also fell behind 14-0 and was forever in catch-up mode, which leads us to...

Haymakers: Oklahoma wants to knock opponents out with its no-huddle offense and pressure defense. When the Sooners can't do that, they come down off the high of that initial surge and struggle to make plays. Nebraska must withstand the first quarter barrage and trail by fewer than ten points. A four-quarter game favors the Huskers. But first, they've got to get there.

O-Line litmus test: NU and OU's defensive lines are the proven commodity. Their respective offensive lines, on the other hand, have folded like an elaborate Trapper Keeper in some games. Whichever unit plays smart, limits sacks and tackles for loss and doesn't accumulate dumb penalties goes a long way to determining the game's winner. If ever Marcel and D.J. Jones had a B+ performance in them, Saturday night, vs. Jeremy Beal and Auston English, is the time to bring it out. Line play is so much about good coaching and sheer toughness. Time to see what Barney Cotton's got to give.

Little things that kill: Oklahoma wants to establish a short, screen-based passing game that chews clock and stresses Nebraska's back seven. Not only does it get Landry Jones in a rhythm, it keeps him from getting thrown to the FieldTurf. The Huskers will counter with one of nation's best short passing defenses. Cornerbacks Prince Amukamara, Alfonzo Dennard, Dejon Gomes and Eric Hagg are terrific inside of ten yards, and have been all year. The little success Missouri, Baylor and Texas Tech had in the throwing game were beyond 15 yards or working against linebackers. The Cornhuskers will not give Jones his short passes. That means OU must work over the top, and hope its line holds NU's front four long enough to complete the throws.

Gambles not worth the risk: If there's a distinct difference between coaching staffs, don't expect head coach Bo Pelini to point it out. But here it is: Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops will take bigger risks than Bo to grab momentum. Sometimes those gambles – trick plays, surprise onside kicks, fourth-down calls – pay off handsomely. Sometimes they backfire. We also know this: Stoops is not a premier gameday coach. He builds a program as well anyone, but he's put his team in tough spots before, his defense in even tougher spots, and doesn't always have the time or the talent to dig out of them.

We'll say what others won't: Pelini and Co. can win the coaching battle on Saturday. It might only be worth a field goal – but that could be an important damn field goal.

See also: 10 Key Players and Commentary: A Big Measuring Stick for Bo and Five Keys: Oklahoma and OU scouting report and video breakdown.

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Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini served as a spokesman, of sorts, for defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh Tuesday, answering questions about Suh's Sunday morning car crash that totaled one car and severely damaged three others.

Pelini said he instructed Suh not to answer any questions about the accident "so he could concentrate on football." Suh's Tuesday session with the media was full of queries about Oklahoma and teammate Jared Crick – not his ticket for negligent driving, received after, according to a Lincoln Police Department accident report, Suh swerved to miss a “small dog or cat” and slammed into three parked cars on different sides of the street.

Suh was over at a friend's house, Pelini said, when he woke up and proceeded to drive home. He immediately called Pelini after the accident, which occurred at 2:20 a.m. Pelini said Suh “handled it the right way” but would get some measure of internal discipline – but no suspension - for the ticket and being out that late.

“I understand why he was up that late, but that was probably the thing that disappointed me most...you leave yourself open to bad things that would happen.”

Even though Suh had been drinking, Pelini said, his blood-alcohol content .035 was well below the legal limit of .08. Pelini said he has a “zero tolerance” for drunkeness.

“He was far from drunk,” Pelini said. “I know exactly where he was and what he did that night, and this doesn't fall into that category. I deal with those issues on a case-by-case basis. If somebody gets drunk and gets in trouble, that's a different case.”

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Childhood friends, former colleagues and now Big 12 head coaches on opposite sides of the field, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and Nebraska's Bo Pelini both reflected Monday on the renewal of the NU-OU rivalry, watered down as it may be after the formation of the Big 12 Conference and its North and South divisions.

“Anytime you've played for a long time and the games were meaningful, there's going to be a different air to the game,” Pelini said during Monday's Big 12 coaches' teleconference. “A lot of people take it real seriously and we're looking forward to it.”

Stoops said the rivalry has “no question” changed now that the teams only play two out of every four years, but the OU staff – which includes former Sooners Cale Gundy, Josh Heupel, Chris Wilson and Jackie Shipp - “puts it in front of the players” during game week. In the past, Oklahoma has shown a video of classic moments from the series.

“You do your best to educate them on it,” Stoops said. “You'd like them to sure understand where the rivalry used to be and the tradition of it.”

Another common thread in the 2009 game: Defense. Nebraska and Oklahoma are near the top of the Big 12 and the nation in several defensive categories – NU is 9th and 4th in total and scoring defense, while OU is 11th and 8th against slightly better competition – and have accomplished their success in similar fashion: With strong pass rushes – both teams average more than three sacks per game – and tough run defenses.

“Very physical,” Stoops said of NU's defense. “A great front four. Better defenses are really good up front. Strong, physical guys up front and physical guys across the board. Very disciplined, which you'd expect from watching Bo's defenses.”

Said Pelini of OU: “There's some similarities, some differences. They're a little more pressure-oriented than us right now and they've been in the system a lot longer than we have. They do a good job.”

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Right after Bo Pelini was hired to coach Nebraska in 2007, a good helping of Cornhusker fans, well-versed in both modern and historical college football, pointed to this upcoming week as an early mid-term, if you will, on NU's progress under Pelini.

A home game vs. Oklahoma, the standard-bearer of the Big 12 in the 21st Century, coached by Pelini's old buddy, Bob Stoops. If Pelini had a grace period of, say, 20 games – he's coached 21 thus far – OU, with its balance, talent, speed and reputation, would be an apt measuring stick for how far the Huskers had come – and how far, still, they had to go.

As we stand here now, with both fighters bruised and frustrated, it's harder to see that stick in the mist of injuries, offensive woes and close, painful losses.

But it's still there. And all of Nebraska's goals are still there, too. The Huskers control their destiny. Win out and punch a ticket to Dallas and the Big 12 Championship vs. Texas. Win out, and NU, with its fan base and classy reputation, is guaranteed no worse than the Holiday Bowl to tangle with another of Pelini's mentors, Pete Carroll and his USC Trojans.

Yes – win out, and a fairly cool prize awaits at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.

NU's 20-10 victory over Baylor isn't the kind you love to relive, aside from one particular performance. We'll do it anyway, with an eye on the big stick that Nebraska would very much like to carry into the final quarter of its season – after measuring up to it, of course.

Five Players We Loved

Defensive tackle Jared Crick: Opponents pay so much attention to Ndamukong Suh that Crick feasts on the single-blocker approach. But Saturday, he tossed those blockers aside and chased Baylor quarterback Nick Florence like a wolfman. Thirteen tackles? Absurd. Crick's small-town persona only adds to the appeal.

Linebacker Eric Martin: He's been threatening to make a big special teams play all year; Saturday, he finally made it by setting up a blocked punt that was returned by Justin Blatchford for the Huskers' first touchdown. If Martin is able to make the leap defensive back Alfonzo Dennard made from his freshman to sophomore season, watch out.

Quarterback Cody Green: Warts and all, Green ran hard, competed bravely and generally seemed in command. He's got some work to do, particularly on timing routes, but he's finally a position to do something about it on the field.

Punter/kicker Alex Henery: Nailed two important field goals – Baylor's Ben Parks missed a chip shot of his own – and made a touchdown-saving tackle on a wild BU punt return right at the end of the game. Athlete first. Kicker second.

Cornerback Prince Amukamara: One terrific interceptions with three more pass breakups to boot. Amukamara rebounded from a so-so game vs. Texas Tech with a strong performance here.

Three Concerns We Have

No Daylight: Nebraska ran the ball 19 times in the second half for 61 yards. How many teams is that going to beat? The beefy offensive line has to earn its keep.

Going Horizontal: Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson laid off the sideways passes for the first half. Then, with a seemingly comfy 20-0 lead, he started getting cute again, trying to burn Baylor for loading the box by throwing 20 yards sideways, in the hopes of creating one-on-one situations on the perimeter. You all know what eventually happened. If Watson wants to go horizontal, here's a thought: Run wide receiver sweeps.

Shaky coverage: Baylor was close on a couple kick and punt returns to busting one open for a touchdown. The Huskers have to keep lane discipline and learn to break down and tackle better, instead of searching for the killshot.

Reviewing The Five Keys

Play to win, not to dominate: Nebraska did just that with a modest offensive gameplan and a defensive strategy that called for maximum coverage and zero blitzes. The result? Seven sacks and three turnovers on defense. Safe to say the plan worked.

Match up and move it: Dejon Gomes, Lance Thorell and Sean Fisher probably were exhausted by game's end, running in and out of the game as NU mixed and matched nickel, dime and dollar coverages, but the Huskers were rarely out of position, and almost always had double coverage on the deep receiver, which led to Gomes' interception. The Huskers were lucky that Florence wasn't more accurate on that skinny slant pattern to Kendall Wright, though.

Neutralize the earth-movers: Baylor couldn't do anything against Crick and Suh, while Nebraska had initial success against the Bears' front four, with that success waning by the second half.

Traye and Jay: Dontrayevous Robinson looked like Nebraska's best running option until he got hurt in the fourth quarter; Robinson, like Green, competes hard on every play. BU's Jay Finley was not a factor.

Bo vs. Briles: Baylor head coach Art Briles threw the kitchen sink at Nebraska, and the Brothers Pelini dodged nearly every bullet and landed some haymakers of their own. NU won this coaching chess match with a big dose of help from Crick and Suh.

Three Questions We Still Have

Is Roy Helu anywhere near getting healthy? Why did he play Saturday? Repeat: Why? If Nebraska couldn't beat Baylor without Helu – and, just for the record, the Huskers pretty much did – then Nebraska had no business winning, period. Helu should have stayed home and nursed his injured shoulder.

Where in the world is Mike McNeill, and how does Watson get him involved in the offense again? McNeill's too good to be wasted on well-covered tight end routes. Give the kid a chance to work on the edge and use his size advantage. He's a mismatch waiting to happen. Isn't Watson all about that?

Can the Nebraska crowd find some inner resolve? And create a nightmarish atmosphere for Oklahoma this week? Memorial Stadium needs to be the toughest environment that OU quarterback Landry Jones has ever played in.

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WACO, Texas - Finally. Maybe. We think. We hope. Sigh.

Yes, it's like that, right now, for Nebraska's offense. For Nebraska, period.

NU seemed to locate its offensive identity Saturday in 20-10 win over Baylor. For a half, anyway. It's not fully-formed, it still remains trapped a bit in the inane intricacies of West Coast Offense, but it's a start. Maybe. We think. We hope. Sigh.

Cody Green at quarterback, scrambling when necessary, running with poise and authority. A power offense designed to punish lesser teams and set up deep passes. A strong, forward-leaning running back in true freshman Traye Robinson. And, at long last, a compliment of big-bodied tight ends on the field – at the same time.

Fireworks, it wasn't. Well – unless you count the ones that got shot off after Baylor intercepted and returned one of Green's two mistakes for a touchdown.

What did you expect after a month of sideways passes, soft-bellied screens and tentative quarterback play from Zac Lee? Sixty points? Saturday was a modest step forward. Finally. Maybe. We think. We hope. Green had all the advantages - a special teams touchdown, a dominant defensive performance, a Baylor offense, set to the melt setting every time it ventured into Nebraska territory. And there were times – like most of the second half – where he didn't do anything with those advantages.

But this is change we can believe in. Finally. Maybe. We think. We hope. It's an offense that, at long last, suits the kind of defense Nebraska has become. Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson had to descend from his perch – physically and philosophically – for it to happen. Yes, that was Watson on the sidelines, in his trademark sunglasses, barking excitedly, getting in the faces of his linemen at key moments.

“That was to help Cody,” Watson said. “We've got a freshman tailback (Robinson) that's playing a lot, we've got a freshman quarterback now. I wanted to be there with the guys. Something some of the older guys asked me about. I did that for them.”

It was good to see. He took ownership Saturday. He didn't have much of a choice.

Oh, Watson got cute again midway through the third quarter – and Green got lazy. Watson started calling the horizontal passes again, and Green locked onto receiver Khiry Cooper on a third-down play. The result: A Pick Six that might have had the last remaining members of the Zac Lee camp saying “I told you so.” A fourth-quarter fumble – when Green rather inexplicably left his feet on a quarterback draw – had them roaring a little bit louder.

We think they're wrong. Maybe. We hope so.

It really doesn't matter if NU can't run the ball. Once again Saturday, Barney Cotton's bunch did not deliver on its potential or responsibility. They played hard, but not in sync, and not as a smoothly-operating, confident unit. And head coach Bo Pelini was plenty vocal about it after the game.

“It's a huge concern,” he said. “We've got to be able to run the football better. We didn't run the ball to my liking today.”

This is the tone Pelini has to strike – the same kind of aggression and expectation he shows with his defense. He needs to show it weekly – heck, daily - with Watson, Cotton and that offensive line, which is too big and too experienced to make communication gaffes for the bulk of the second half. Watson tried pounding the ball with big sets, fullbacks, inside zones and the old-school Callahan stretch play. The offensive line didn't respond with enough gashes for Robinson, Roy Helu, Lester Ward and Austin Jones.

Yes, I just named four running backs there. Marcus Mendoza played a couple snaps, too. If Helu isn't 100 percent healthy, the Huskers really have no bellcow. Robinson can only do so much with the time he's been given, and the rest of the backs are not consistently good runners. Baylor wisely took away Green's running lanes on the zone read Saturday, forcing Helu and crew to pick their way through narrow holes, just hoping to stay upright and healthy. Helu got dinged again. So did Robinson.

Even if NU stumbled into success Saturday – even if it's a first step to something better – the Huskers have to healthy and confident enough to keep it going.

Bo pulled the trigger on Green. It was a must. Lee might have given the Huskers some looks in the passing game. But, honestly, I doubt it. NU's receivers were again average. Baylor's corners mostly did stayed with them. The Bears brought two or three blitzes that Green stepped away from for positive scrambles, or withstood in the pocket to throw first downs. Lee wilted under those same blitzes in recent weeks. Green gives defenses an element to worry about. And right now, the Huskers need every element on the periodic table they can get.

But now, Bo has to aim his sights on that offensive line. Whatever they've given already to the team – they've got to dig in and give a little more. The unit is not completely healthy – center Jacob Hickman is nursing a severely sprained ankle – but it's healthy enough.

Time for Cotton – who is a tough, honest coach and a skilled teacher from this point of view – to drive that unit just a little harder, and get them to execute a little better. Oklahoma blows into Lincoln next week plenty ticked off – with a wicked defense to match. If NU can't dent that OU front line, the Sooners will eat Green – or Lee – alive.

This is a unit fighting back the light, folks. The offense remains under siege from pundits and fans. Just one minute into Pelini's press conference, a fan clutching a white gate just feet away screamed a particular insult about Watson.

His boss took it in stride at the moment, but after his media session was done, he walked over to that fence, shook hands with athletic director Tom Osborne, and looked into that crowd. He wanted to know – who had the big mouth? It wasn't the most politically correct moment, but it was vintage Bo. Loyal and tenacious to the last. Nebraska fans may not always like it. But it's what they paid Osborne to find, and Bo to do.

Bo's in the thick of tough, grueling season. He knows it. This is the year that will forge his coaching character even more than he's already forged it himself. And he's fighting back with the best defensive front four I've seen at NU in years.

Now that offensive front five has to do their part.

Can it? Finally?

Maybe. We think. We hope. Sigh.

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