Welcome to Husker Heartbeat - a sampling of links and quick wit to start your morning! Keep checking each morning, Monday-Friday, for new links! We look for the offbeat as well as the straightforward - so don’t just think of us as a typical link farm!

A quick abbreviation key FYI: OWH=Omaha World-Herald, LJS=Lincoln Journal-Star, CN=Corn Nation, BRN=Big Red Network, HI=Huskers Illustrated, BRR=Big Red Report. If we need to add more - we will. Others, like ESPN, are self-explanatory.

Cool? Cool!

*We pistol-whipped this Suh backlash story more than a month ago; good to see some police backup finally arrive in the form of OWH’s Dirk Chatelain, who writes to trust your eyes on the Suh vs. Gerald McCoy debate.

*Alex Gordon busts up his thumb sliding into second base and is out 3-4 weeks. The Royals, already on pen-pal terms with their most talented player, are thrilled, I’m sure.

*Bo Pelini and Shawn Watson praise Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. In other news, squirrels harvest nuts. Nice tidbit about Brandon Kinnie settling into the No. 2 wide receiver role, though.

*Texas finishes its fifth spring practice; here’s highlights and a spotlight on new QB Garrett Gilbert.

*K-State’s basketball union boss, Frank Martin, finally gets that contract extension. Now he can bolt for the coast when the first good Big East job opens up. After, say, Rick Pitino closes down the restaurant in Louisville?

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Six strong takes as we begin to prepare our NCAA Tournament guide. Look for it a week from now!

*Bo Pelini and Co. can smell a bonanza recruiting season ahead.

We told you, on the 2010 Signing Day, what was coming. Now NU is making its move to surpass the Big 12 North and the back half of the Big 12 South, settling in as the No. 3 recruiting power in the league behind Texas and Oklahoma.

If you look at scholarship offers in talent-rich areas - with a key expansion in Florida - and the aggression toward getting top-notch prospects - like Chandler (Ariz.) offensive lineman Christian Westerman - to attend the Red/White Spring Game on their own dime, there’s a distinct sense of urgency to create buzz and momentum after spellbinding the nation during the Big 12 Championship and turning in the most dominant performance of the bowl season.

According to the Rivals.com database - as always, those gents do terrific gumshoe work - NU has offered nine players from Florida, getting a verbal commitment, thus far, from Clearwater offensive lineman Tyler Moore. There will be more. Few states grow speed - both to stock the spread offense and to stop it - quite like the Sunshine State, and when you get the scent of Tampa, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale in your nostrils, it’s hard to get out.

The key is landing the cream of the Florida crop - not the second-tier better suited for the MAC or its Big 12 brother, Iowa State.

The usual full-court press is being done in Texas. The Huskers have already offered 11 wide receiver prospects, two of which have committed to Texas and Oklahoma, respectively.

Who has NU not offered? Three in-state prospects with D-I tenders: Omaha Central’s Ted Lampkin (Kansas State and Iowa State), Millard North’s Cole Fisher (Iowa and Kansas) and 6-foot-9 Hastings St. Cecilia giant Zach Sterup (Iowa and Ohio). Nebraska will invite all three to camp - Fisher is recovering from an injury - but, by then, the Huskers might have scooped up bigger names based on the varyag of players heading to the Spring Game.

Nebraska walks a fine line with the in-state ham-and-eggers. Bonanza or not, NU needs their camp money, and some Husker faithful believe when a player is worthy of a scholarship offer at Iowa - which will begin next season ranked inside the top ten - then he‘s earned a seat the Big Red’s table. Other (mostly younger) fans wouldn’t care if the entire roster was comprised of kids from Nova Scotia, if that’s what it took to win a Big 12 title.

*The word out of winter conditioning and 7-on-7 drills is that Cody Green appears ready to make the leap. Let’s see in practice and the Spring Game. Zac Lee is the clubhouse leader; Green, still out on the course, will have his chance. Getting scolded earlier in the 2009 season for playing too recklessly in mop-up duty - and that pick six in the Baylor game - shifted Green shifted into a piece of unsteady wood who strung out plays and doubted his skills.

*Ndamukong Suh won’t fall below the No. 3 pick to Tampa Bay - but swish this scenario around in your mouth for a second: The Seattle Seahawks have the No. 6 and No. 14 picks to play around with, and it’s not a sure thing that the quarterback they want - Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford - will be around that long. While Seattle has the ammo to go after the St. Louis Rams’ top pick if it wants Bradford that badly, I wouldn’t be shocked if new coach Pete Carroll packages his two picks to jump a few spots and land Suh.

Talk about a home run. Suh would know Carroll’s defensive system as well as any in the NFL - Carroll mentored Bo Pelini, remember - Seattle is close to Suh’s Portland home, and it’s close to his primary sponsor, Nike. Plus, the Seahawks need defensive linemen. Starters Colin Cole and Brandon Mebane are solid-but-unspectacular.

*Kelsey Griffin is a shoe-in to be a Naismith finalist. She ought to win it - especially after a spectacular 36-point performance to preserve the Nebraska women’s basketball team’s undefeated season - but since ESPN and most other news outlets treat the sport like the Connecticut/Tennessee Invitational, you can expect UConn’s Maya Moore, who won the Naismith in 2009, to win it again.

Let’s look more closely at the numbers:

Moore’s per-game numbers: 18.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4 assists, 2.1 steals and 1 block in 28 minutes.

Griffin’s per game numbers: 20.4 points, 10.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.8 steals, 0.7 blocks in 27 minutes.

Looks like Griffin holds up. Moore is more dynamic, Griffin draws more fouls. While UConn’s non-conference schedule was harder (games vs. Oklahoma, Texas, Stanford and Florida State) the Big 12, top-to-bottom, is stronger than the Big East. And Griffin, let’s face it, means more to Nebraska than Moore does to the Huskies. Moore is one of many studettes in Storrs. Griffin is the straw that stirs Nebraska’s drink.

*Not only would it be nearly impossible to fit a 96-team NCAA Tournament bracket on a 8½-by-11-inch piece of paper legibly, any expansion of the Big Dance hurts the very best teams.

No. 1 and No. 2 seeds would no longer play a retread from the MEAC in the first round, but some 20-win mid-major with a warm-up game already under its belt. No. 9 seeds would play the retreads, getting the advantage of a 40-minute, live practice the No. 8 seeds wouldn’t enjoy. Fair? Not hardly. An expansion only fattens the wallets of programs and coaches whose teams aren’t quite good enough to qualify now. The improved reputation of a few is not worth trashing a beautiful thing.

*Nebraska baseball needs two weeks of passable weather. Livable. Playable. In those two weeks, NU plays five games at Haymarket Park - including a three-game series vs. Houston Baptist - and should win all of them. Every bit of confidence and practice will help when the Huskers head to Texas Mar. 19 for a three-game series. The Longhorns - great pitching, good enough offense - are similar to UCLA, the team that just swept NU.

The Huskers are better than their 3-7 record suggests. Closer to breaking through than slipping back. But they need some good weather. And they need to stick Casey Hauptman in the weekend rotation.

See also: Commentary: Doc On the Clock

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Six takes after your morning shower, shave and, well, you know…

*The most important Husker rolling into spring football? Who is it for you? I’ve been asked this via email and personal chats. My answer may surprise you: Niles Paul. Nebraska’s senior receiver is one of the best offensive playmakers, a local kid and a natural, driven leader. He also turned into a pretty dangerous punt and a kickoff returner toward the end of the 2009 season.

When NU’s offense got stuck in permanent mud during the last half of the season, the plan became:

1. Plunge into the line.
2. Modest playaction pass.
3. Bomb to Niles.

Paul is the team’s best perimeter blocker too, so you have a guy ingrained into Huskers’ offense, plus a respected voice in the locker room. With reduced leadership at quarterback, a beaten-up offensive line and running back Roy Helu skittish with the media, Paul will be one of the team’s spokesmen. It‘s notable that, after gaffes vs. Texas Tech and Iowa State, Paul did not duck the media. Nor did he dodge questions - or teammates - after his cop stop last spring.

Until the last half of last season, Paul hadn’t necessarily fulfilled his considerable potential. But he made clutch plays vs. Kansas and Colorado - you could argue he won both games - and his punt return in the Big 12 Championship should have set up NU’s game-winning touchdown.

*Spring football is now officially Cody Green’s proving ground, now that offensive coordinator Shawn Watson decalred senior-to-be Zac Lee out for this spring.

Watson spoke at length to the Omaha World-Herald’s Tom Shatel in an interview, mostly about last season, a bit about what’s to come. Watson artfully dodged a majority of the questions - he’s good at it - but 2009 is over, there is no use in hashing it out again, and 2010 will be the OC’s proving ground.

But, crucially, Watson said Lee “won't be there at all” for spring football.

“He'll get back in the mix later,” Watson said.

That means Green gets his shot. He couldn’t handle the “emotions” of the Oklahoma game last year, Watson said - and Green looked bug-eyed and confused in the Holiday Bowl, too.

Watson and Co. have two years invested in Green. The OC doesn’t bring his entire offensive coaching staff to Green’s high school state title game otherwise. Green doesn’t enroll early otherwise. Green doesn’t hustle back from a minor groin injury to play last spring otherwise.

I don’t blame them - the size, the speed and the personality all scream: Prototypical QB. But in that second spring, you either make the leap or risk getting leapt over. In this case, those frogs would presumably be Kody Spano and Taylor Martinez.

Jury’s out on what Spano can do - he has to play with two previously-torn ACLs, for one thing - but Martinez…here’s a guy who spent most of last fall as a scout team receiver and scout team Wildcat QB. The regular scout team QB most weeks was walk-on Ron Kellogg.

Said it before, and here it is again: That a kid who has been given, to this point, a token chance at quarterback is in the running for the No. 2 or No. 1 job speaks volumes about the state of the position and the direction of the offense.

*Through three losses to Fresno State, Nebraska baseball has twice handed a two-run lead to closer Mike Nesseth in the ninth inning, and he has twice blown that lead. Both a 7-5 loss on Friday and the 10-9 loss on Sunday stung badly, but yesterday’s heartbreaker was compounded by two wild pitches by reliever Chase Adams, one of which served as the Bulldogs’ winning run.

It’s early, but pitching remains the issue. Casey Hauptmann and Jordan Roualdes appear to be on track as the season begins. We’ll see about Sean Yost, who recovered from a shaky start on Friday. Everybody else?

Let’s be blunt: NU could easily start 1-9 or 2-8. That’s a big hill to climb.

*A huge loss by Notre Dame over the weekend (to Georgetown) puts Nebraska’s women’s basketball team in even-better position for a No. 1 seed now. Get past Oklahoma, and there’s just no stopping NU from a regional date in Kansas City. And if Huskers draw a more beatable No. 2 seed - say, overrated Xavier - than all the better.

Should the Huskers lose to OU, but still win the Big 12 Tournament, that top seed is still in the bag. Lose to the Sooners and in the Big 12 Tourney, and NU may need a little more help from the Irish.

Whatever gets Nebraska to Kansas City. If the Huskers land there - regardless of the seed - NU volleyball fans will get a run for their money.

*No matter how the season ends for the Nebraska men’s basketball team, it’s going to be one bear of an offseason for the returning Huskers under head coach Doc Sadler. This team will work, I know that. And weight training will be a priority.

The inconsistency has to be maddening, and I think it’s a combination of lacking attitude, confidence and toughness and just plain speed, man. NU has to get faster in the offseason. And stronger. How does NU keep brawling away at Kansas State Wednesday night, then seemingly back down at home vs. Missouri on Saturday? The Tigers, who are just slightly more talented than the Huskers - certainly not to the tune of 17 and 15 points in two games - just played harder and hit tough shots. Period.

Know this: Sadler won’t sit still after a year like this.

*A few words about Tiger Woods’ statement and apology on Friday:

It appears clear now that Woods had, to brilliant on-course success, compartmentalized his life into various spheres of golf, family, modern-day brothel, ad image, foundation guy, etc. He wasn’t leading a double life, but several lives. He lived them well, in part, because mankind is generally stupid, and we allow a wider berth to rich, successful people. I got a lotta money to make here, so let me carve out time for the GFE! Mankind does so to their general detriment, as it often turns out, for the sake of our own self-satisfied sycophancy but, you know, back to the point.

When two of those many spheres collide, it can have a startling effect. Woods’ game began to decline after his rehab and return from amazing win at the 2008 U.S. Open, and, it seems clear now, the demands of the harem, or whatever you’d like to call the legion of his emotionally-kept women, were beginning to bleed into other areas of his life. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, but I suspect he had friends making sure it didn’t. More than the few who have already been implicated as enablers.

Now. Erase all those enablers and replace them with people who insist the walls are part of the disease - which they probably are - and demand they stay down. That’s a vulnerable state for an elite athlete. Imagine somebody in Woods’ life expressing concern over thrown clubs and muttered curses. To make oneself whole, see, you have to break down every little part. But if one of those parts was the key to Woods’ success on the golf course?

There are advantages to being whole. It’s the real thing, for one. You don’t become an emotional Darth Vader. It also prevents you from becoming the miserable sourpuss Michael Jordan turned out to be, for two. But maybe you lose the “part” you liked the most in the process. You have to rebuild it as part of the whole. Like Woods rebuilds his swing.

Let’s see how he does with his wife and addiction support system tracing his every step. For a man of supreme control to suddenly give it to someone else? Try jumping without a net.

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According to several news outlets, Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne bumped the base salary for head coach Bo Pelini again on Monday - and sweetened the pot for NU’s assistants - particularly defensive coordinator Carl Pelini.

Effective Feb. 1, 2010, Bo Pelini will make 2.1 million per year. Last year, he made $1.851 million as a base, although incentives pushed him over $2 million.

Carl Pelini gets $375,000, while offensive coordinator Shawn Watson gets a small raise to $380,000. Secondary coach Marvin Sanders now becomes the highest-paid non-coordinator, making $250,000 per year. Ted Gilmore, Tim Beck, Ron Brown, and Barney Cotton will make $220,000. Previously, all five, plus Carl Pelini, made $208,360. Watson made $375,000 last year.

Mike Ekeler and John Papuchis were bumped from $150,000 to $175,000.

Bo Pelini is now the fifth-highest paid coach in the Big 12, inching just ahead of Kansas’ Turner Gill, who will make $2 million at KU. Bo is just behind Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s $2.2 million base salary. Like OSU, NU and Osborne has chosen to focus more dollars toward the assistant coaching staff than most programs in the Big 12.

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Wethinks it’s time for a little more fun! Answer the questions below, and we'll pick one random winner to win two tickets to the Nebraska spring game in April.

We'll announce the winner on Friday, so you have until then!

Pretty sweet, eh? Fire away!

1. Which player needs to make “the leap” in spring football for the Huskers?

2. Who do you think will be NU’s starting quarterback in 2010...why?

3. If there’s one position group at NU you could upgrade - which would it be?

4. Has Doc Sadler earned another season at Nebraska? Why or why not?

5. How far with the Nebraska women’s basketball team go in the NCAA Tournament?

6. What’s your favorite event in the Winter Olympics? Your least favorite?

7. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the last year?

8. What did you have for dinner last night?

9. What’s your favorite Bo moment?

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Six strong takes after an enjoyable - and refreshingly quick - Super Bowl.

*Now that the 2010 recruiting class is in the books, there is two are primary goals for the 2011 class, which needs to be spectacular - not just solid - for head coach Bo Pelini.

Offensive line. You can never, not ever, be too deep there. Mike Smith, Keith Williams, DJ Jones and Ricky Henry are seniors next year. Mike Caputo, Jermarcus Hardrick and Marcel Jones are juniors.

With his reliance on the junior college ranks, Bill Callahan left Pelini to play perennial catch-up in this arena. Expect at least four more next year, with the best of the bunch, Florida prepster Tyler Moore, already committed.

Playmakers. Anywhere on the field is fine, but preferably at wide receiver and kick returner. One Rex Burkhead per class - a versatile guy who doesn’t have to come off the field in spot situations - is ideal.

The Huskers appear to be ready to host junior prospects now through the spring game - and you know NU will roll out the red carpet there. Pelini himself said he expected two or three more commits in the coming months. The question becomes: How does the summer shape up? Last summer, NU took a step forward and arguably two steps back, pursuing verbal commitments from three players (Anterio Sloan, Keeston Terry and Tyler Gabbert) that Nebraska later didn’t want.

One note on quarterback commit Jamal Turner: Let’s just see if Texas or Alabama pushes for him to visit on Junior Day. Those are hard invitations to turn down. Nebraska’s Tim Beck did a whale of a job securing a verbal commit. Now Beck will have to keep him from the wolves of top ten programs.

*Because Drew Brees proved it once again in the New Orleans Saints’ impressive 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl, let us repeat it: Height doesn’t matter at the quarterback position nearly as much three things:

1. Accuracy. Knowing where to throw a ball, and how hard to throw it.

2. Evading pressure subtly, but effectively.

3. Chemistry with your receivers.

Brees, Sunday’s MVP after completing 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards in a 31-17 win, is brilliant in all three categories, and most of that stuff is not physical talent. It’s work ethic, classroom study, and instinct. Yes, of course, Brees has a good motion and is blessed with gigantic hands for a man his size. But the position is so much about being canny, more than it about raw skills.

Who in this year’s NFL Draft reminds me of Brees? Colt McCoy. Provided he’s healthy, McCoy would be my pick over Sam Bradford and Jimmy Clausen if I’m a general manager and needed a quarterback.

*One can only hope Nebraska’s fourth-ranked women’s basketball team gets its shot at top-ranked Connecticut before the season is up. At its current pace, NU will have to reach the Final Four at the very least - and maybe the title game.

Nebraska would match up in several key areas - better, arguably, than No. 2 Standord. The Huskers live and breathe a breakneck pace. So does UConn. The Huskies are tenacious in transition. The Huskers get back better than almost any team in the country. Connecticut throws one big after another at teams. Nebraska boasts a deep, versatile frontcourt that can absorb fouls and punishment.

Where the Huskers may struggle is against a deliberate, methodical team with a strong point guard and a stingy zone defense. Credit NU head coach Connie Yori with beating the Big 12 South at its own speed game. I’m curious to see how well Nebraska handles junk defenses - and the ever-increasing burden of perfection - as the season wears on.

*You heard it here: Nebraska’s men’s basketball team pulls a fast one on Baylor this week. The Huskers are getting closer. You see it in their performances.

*I am completely against the NCAA expanding to 96 teams for March Madness. Ugh. I can live with an expansion to 68 teams - or even 72 teams, which essentially banishes the No. 15 and No. 16 seeds to play-in status - but I’d much prefer the NCAA employ some common-sense rules for the Big Dance:

1. An at-large team must finish .500 or above in its conference. If you can’t do that, you have no business in the Big Dance. It’s not a bowl game.

2. If a team from your league hasn’t won a NCAA Tournament game in five years, no more automatic bid. In other words - if your league can’t prove it’s worth one win in the Big Dance, then the next bid needs to be earned outside the welfare program with an at-large selection. Could take one year. Could take 15.

3. Regular-season conference champs get the auto-bid. Spare me the “what about the conference tournament?” argument. Do it during the grind - or don’t do it.

*I don’t care too much that USC’s Lane Kiffin offering a 13-year-old from Delaware a scholarship to play quarterback for the Trojans. I don’t care that the kid, David Sills, verbally accepted the offer.

What irks me is Sills’ “mentor,” Steve Clarkson, trying to book the kid on Oprah and Ellen. And Sills’ dad willingly allowing Clarkson, who funneled several quarterbacks - including Matt Barkley - toward the Trojans - to fly his son to USC games, meet Pete Carroll and make the kid’s decision essentially for him.

We talked about the rise of handlers and street agents just before Signing Day, and here’s a lovely example. Oh, Clarkson may have impressive connections and pupils, sure. And he uses those connections and pupils to get his name in the news. Sills’ father appeared to have his argument all planned for ESPN Los Angeles two days ago, and he makes his fair share of points when it comes to immersing his son in college football.

Just one thing: Who said USC was the best place to send a quarterback? Who’s Kiffin star project? Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart belong to Norm Chow. Mark Sanchez? Steve Sarkisian, Kiffin’s “name” is John David Booty. Some fun.

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A slow summer. A solid fall. A downer December. A fast finish. And, at the wire, two quality picks, and one whale lost.

Nebraska football can certainly live with its 2010 recruiting haul, especially as quarterback Brion Carnes and safety Corey Cooper committed to NU on Signing Day. The class is fourth or fifth in the Big 12 overall, and first or second in the North, depending on whether you think Missouri’s collection of skill talent trumps NU’s trench bunch. (I don’t.)

But in 2011, the Huskers will have their chance to get fat off the recruiting lamb. And Bo Pelini and his staff will put on the 365-day full court press to get it done. Bo seems to know it, too, having landed three commitments for 2011.

“We have a nice group of kids committed for next year already,” Pelini said Wednesday. And NU has lined up more visitors before Junior Day in the spring.

I hate to get all futuristic on you when you’re still luxuriating in the 2010 bath. But Wednesday kicked off what I expect to be the most ambitious year of Bo’s tenure at Nebraska. With a narrow loss in the Big 12 Championship and the blowout Holiday Bowl win, Bo’s confidence turned the corner. He’s thrown out phrases - “five times better,” “Nebraska’s back” - that suggest he’s ready to hit the next part of the process.

“I came here to win a national championship and to win championships,” Pelini said. “And I recruited a class that I fully believe will get that accomplished.”

Most new coaches sign their defining class in year two. That’s the “regime change” class. Or the “you made me promises, promises” class. Look at Bill Callahan in 2005. Nick Saban in 2008. Rich Rodriguez in 2009. Auburn’s Gene Chizik in 2010. Saban, in fact, has signed three massive classes in a row - 32, 27 and 26. Folks, that’s the whole football team. And that’s what you call scholarship turnover. Bama has a national title in back pocket - and more to come.

Pelini, meanwhile, has held off. It’s a curious, impressive restraint, actually. He’s lived up to the old Bear Bryant adage: He took Bill Callahan’s recruits and beat guys he once recruited to Oklahoma.

Because so much of Callahan’s 2007 class didn’t redshirt - and will be counted upon to carry NU to a Big 12 title in 2010 - Pelini has gambled, to some extent, with two small classes (20 and 21 signees in 2009 and 2010) in a row. Texas employed this same strategy in 2008 and 2009. We’ll see if the Horns get away with it. While Bo signed 28 in 2008, six of those players left the program within a year.

Bo could have cut more dead weight from the program, or handed out fewer scholarships to walk-ons, to create more room in 2010. He didn’t. All hands on deck for a huge 2010 season that will be won with Callahan’s last class and Pelini’s first two. Provided NU produces the boffo year fans expect, Bo should have 25 or more scholarships to hand out for 2011, and that’s when he can make the big push with the nation’s best skill players.

As for 2010?

It’s a talented, deep class on defense - second best in the Big 12, I say - even without stud defensive end Owa Odighizuwa, who committed to UCLA. NU got its fill of interior defensive linemen and padded depth at defensive end. JUCO linebacker LaVonte David is, at the very least, a special teams dynamo next year, and potentially more. Safeties Corey Cooper and Harvey Jackson have prototypical size and speed.

Bo is rightly building the side of the ball that best gives him a chance to win the Big 12 North. A great defense can carry an offense looking for an identity. Not in every game, and not forever, but the 2010 bunch matches up exceedingly well to any offensive haul in the Big 12. Yes, including UT and OU.

NU paid close attention to the trenches, too, signing 10 offensive or defensive linemen. It takes discipline to do that, because linemen rarely play well without a redshirt season.

We’ve already rehashed offensive recruiting enough in the last two months. The Huskers have one season - 2010 - to prove themselves to top-flight skill talent and patch over a washout 2008 class and this thin 2010 bunch.

NU arguably has a commit from one of them in Arlington (Texas) quarterback Jamal Turner. San Antonio running back Aaron Green, brother of Nebraska cornerback Andrew Green, is another. Two more signature, top-flight receivers. And more speed. Much more speed.

“The best recruiting tool is to win,” Pelini said. “We’re starting to do that.”

Well, yes and no. Winning helps. But a clear vision - and sheer salesmanship - are the best formula. Saban parlayed a 7-6 season in 2007 into one of the great recruiting classes in the last 10 years, which has already produced Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, Terrance Cody and three other starters on the 2009 national title squad.

Anecdotally or statistically, there’s a connection to getting top-shelf talent - no matter where Rivals and Scout rank it - and turning around that talent in short order. Pelini sloughs off those services, to some extent, because he doesn’t always think they’re accurate.

“I like our football team,” Pelini said. “As long as we stay on track of where we are and the direction we’re headed and they keep working the way they are, I like our football team…we want to develop each and every guy on our team and if we do that, we can compete with anybody in the country.”

That confidence in infectious, and it speaks to Pelini’s holistic recruiting philosophy: The selling doesn’t end when the LOI is faxed.

“Recruiting just started today,” Pelini said. “Now it’s our job is to take these young men who have high goals, high expectations, and help enable them to make those dreams come true. And I believe that’s where this staff is at its best.”

Bo’s plan has won 19 games in two years. He’s sticking to it. Now - let’s see if it gets a little broader in 2010.

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There were no Signing Day surprises for Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini as he unveiled the Cornhuskers’ 21-member recruiting class Wednesday afternoon.

Despite three high-profile players announcing their college destinations earlier in the day - quarterback Brion Carnes and safety Corey Cooper signed with NU, while defensive Owamagbe Odighizuwa inked with UCLA - Pelini said the day “played out exactly how I knew it was going to play out.”

“I knew before I went to bed (Tuesday) night,” Pelini said. Apparently, all three players - including Carnes, who committed to Western Kentucky just days before - had informed Pelini of their intentions by then.

So while Nebraska lost its big five-star whale, Odighizuwa, to the Bruins, Pelini said the class - supplemented by a 16-member group of walk-ons - “filled some needs” and “provided depth” at key positions, specifically the defensive line, where the Huskers signed six players with a variety of sizes, offers and skills.

Two of them, Chase Rome and Jay Guy, enrolled at NU in January. Another, Jake Cotton, is the son of Nebraska’s offensive line coach, Barney. Three more - Walker Ashburn, Donovan Vestal and Tobi Okuyemi - should start at defensive end.

The Huskers added three offensive linemen, too. The best of them, junior college transfer Jermarcus Hardrick, is already on campus. Nearly half of the 2010 class (see graphic) is devoted to players in the trenches.

“We were thin at all the line position,” Pelini said. “We’ve added depth. I just look at our overall depth chart and it looks mighty different than when we got here.”

The quarterback position looks different, too. Chart the gulf between current starter Zac Lee, a pro-style pocket passer who looks awkward running the zone read, and Carnes, a 6-foot-1, 180-pounder from Bradenton (Fla.) Manatee High School who operates as a dual run/pass threat, almost exclusively out of a shotgun spread.

Carnes became NU’s top target after Tyler Gabbert decommited in December; he told his high coaches he committed to WKU before “praying” on the decision with his mother, and making a Wednesday morning reversal before many Huskers fans had finished their coffee.

"I felt like I (committed to WKU) because a couple of people were telling me that would be a good place for me instead of thinking for myself," Carnes said. "This process is about me. This is where I'm going to be the next four years. And I really thought about it, and I'm happy with my decision.”

Pelini said Nebraska was prepared to finish the 2010 class without a quarterback; NU already has a commitment from Arlington (Texas) junior Jamal Turner for the 2011 class.

“You’re not going to take somebody just to take somebody,” he said.

Nebraska’s best prep quarterback in 2009, Millard South’s Bronson Marsh, will play safety, Pelini said. Marsh is a grayshirt for now, which means he won’t enroll until January 2010. But he may able to earn a fall scholarship in winter conditioning.

Cooper, out of suburban Chicago, was presumed to be NU’s top safety target. He picked the Huskers over Illinois, Arizona, Florida State and Notre Dame. The key? NU secondary coach Marvin Sanders, a Chicago native himself, who handled Cooper’s recruitment.

“We get along well,” Cooper said. “He’s a good coach and he can get me to the next level. It’s good to have somebody from my area to make me feel comfortable.”

Cooper, along with Hardrick, Carnes, Rome, Aurora (Neb.) offensive guard Andrew Rodriguez and Youngstown (Ohio) Cardinal Mooney running back Braylon Heard, are the new Huskers with the most fanfare from myriad recruiting analysts. As a whole, NU’s class was No. 23 in the Rivals.com team rankings. Scout.com, which generally downgrades teams for signing JUCO players, had NU at 30. The Huskers are not ranked inside ESPN’s Top 25. Landing Odighizuwa would have provided a healthy boost.

Florida landed what was unanimously considered the best recruiting class in the nation. So much for Urban Meyer’s 24-hour retirement having any effect on UF’s program. Only one Husker signee - Rome - scored an offer from the Gators. Texas and Oklahoma are in the top five of the team rankings. Texas A&M and Missouri are ahead of NU on both the Rivals and Scout lists.

Pelini, no fan of the services, spent a portion of his press conference taking shots at their work.

“I like to base my decisions on my analysis, not someone who isn’t watching the same films I am,” he said, after asking which analysts didn’t care for NU’s class. “Everyone’s going to have their opinion, but we’ll talk about it in a couple years and find out who’s right. How about that?”

And: “It’s amusing to me. It provides me with a lot of enjoyment reading the analysis, the rankings and the stars that go into recruiting. Honestly I don’t pay much attention to it other than when I’m down and I need a good laugh.”

NU’s head coach prefers to define recruiting more broadly than most coaches, and certainly his NU predecessor, Bill Callahan.

“Recruiting just started today,” he said. “Now it’s our job is to take these young men who have high goals, high expectations, and help enable them to make those dreams come true. And I believe that’s where this staff is at its best.”

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Six strong takes as we hunker down for football Christmas, also known as Signing Day:

*The annual debate over whether college football should adopt an early signing period - be it in June or August or even during the season - generally has me torn and trying to devise a “perfect” rule.

But I’ve decided I’m against it. Here’s why:

1. The rich only get richer. Texas, Florida, Alabama and USC would basically use an early period to strong-arm the majority of “can’t miss” prospects into accepting “now or never” offers before many of these players even get to visit their full allotment of five schools, and drink in the game day experience.

2. Teams like Nebraska would have to resort to guessing on players. And that’s not a good thing. Look: In many of the nation’s best high school programs, kids aren’t starting until their junior season, and they don’t necessarily round into shape until their senior campaign. An early signing period basically negates a player’s senior year. If guys regress or get hurt; too bad, you’re stuck with a lemon. And you’re left scouring sophomore tapes, which can be too early for 97 percent of prospects.

3. Players get stuck with coaching changes, and new coaches with unwanted players. Sure, you can always “release” a kid from his letter of intent. But what if the coach wants a kid who doesn’t want to stay? What if the kid wants to keep his scholarship but the coach wants no part of him? There’s a huge difference, for example, between the regimes of Lloyd Carr and Rich Rodriguez.

4. Less room for sleepers and late-bloomers. Some of the best recruits are the ones who hit their growth spurt at the right time and splash with big senior seasons.

5. There already is an early signing period. It’s called “January enrollment,” and a number of the best programs are legitimately using it to acclimate some of their most coveted recruits to the college life and game.

A defined early signing period simply doesn’t favor Bo Pelini and Co. Which recruit in the 2010 class would have been ready to sign by, say, June? Two guys NU ultimately didn’t want - Keeston Terry and Anterio Sloan - and one quarterback - Tyler Gabbert - who no longer fits the dual-threat direction of the Huskers’ offense.

*Would an early signing period guarantee Nebraska holds onto 2011 quarterback commit Jamal Turner? Sure. But NU wouldn’t accept his commitment this early if he wasn’t one of the crown jewels of that class and, in the Huskers’ estimation, worth the effort.

Turner, who plays for Arlington Sam Houston, is an intriguing prospect. His recruiting tapes look terrific, but of course they would. Texas high school football, great as it is, often devolves into a 7-on-7 competition, and because Sam Houston’s defense gave up 42 points per game last year, Turner fell victim, to some extent, to the statistical anomaly of getting countless chances to score.

Remember the nutty numbers Cody Green achieved in his senior year at Dayton, and how that translated to college. Texas is still America’s best state for quarterbacks - but adjustment is necessary.

*If Brion Carnes is out - and all signs point to him heading to Western Kentucky - then Bo needs to throw the ball away on a QB recruit this year, instead of taking a sack or risking an interception. Yes, it’s always possible NU missed out on the next Joe Ganz. The Huskers also might land a Jordan Adams, Brian Hildebrand or Beau Davis. You don’t have to take a girl home every Signing Day.

*Here’s my question of the week: How did such a superb athlete such as Tim Tebow develop such a faulty throwing motion? And why are unorthodox throwing motions - like the San Diego Chargers’ Phillip Rivers or the Tennessee Titans’ Vince Young - seemingly more frequent in high school, college and pro football?

Don’t have a great answer here. It just seems bewildering why Tebow, who possesses every other intangible to be a NFL quarterback, throws in a way to invite fumbles and inaccuracy.

Let’s hear ya, experts!

*Doc Sadler is a victim of his own success and the ticking biological clock of a Nebraska basketball fan. NU’s tiny lineup so overachieved last year - and Sadler did such a masterful coaching job - that expectations in “year four” - that dreaded phrase - were off-kilter with the experience on hand, and the Big 12 hornet nest. The 0-5 league start flew in the face of a sold non-conference run and Doc’s ability to ice so-so opponents like Iowa State at home.

So it was good to see NU beat Oklahoma 63-46 Saturday night - and do it Doc’s way, with defense and strong guard play. The win was also a reminder: Sadler is not after a quick fix to the Huskers’ 12-year NCAA Tournament appearance drought. When he arrived at Nebraska, flooding the roster with ill-advised recruits, maybe. But Sadler has corrected those errors with an eye at building a program, and not just a season.

Which is why, despite the recent rough road, Husker fans have to let it play out.

*Congrats to Lehann Fourie of the Nebraska track team, who tied an NU school record with a 7.7-second time in the 60-meter hurdles over the weekend. That’s quickest in the country for a guy who suffered horrible luck in the 2009 outdoor season, when he was cruising to a spot in the NCAA Championships when he hit a hurdle and flipped it over his head and back onto the track, if you can believe it.

The NU men are favored to win the Big 12 crown and have a shot at the national championship. Chew on that for a second, considering how good the Big 12 is in men’s track. Looks like Gary Pepin still has the magic to meld Nebraska kids with international talent for a top-shelf team. The winter’s big indoor meet - the Frank Sevigne Invitational - is Feb. 5-6.

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Time for Bo Pelini to close the 2010 recruiting class with a flourish. And if you’ve been paying attention to the recruiting cycle, you know whom that flourish represents.

Quarterback Brion Carnes. Safety Corey Cooper. Defensive end Owa Odighizuwa.

Their absence won’t break the Huskers’ class, but their presence makes it particularly memorable on defense - and gives NU another quarterback option on offense. Odighizuwa, down to UCLA, Oregon State and NU, is a legitimate game-changer, a natural edge pass-rusher. A handful come out of college each year, and Odighizuwa - because of his frame and apparent intelligence - is the most promising of the bunch. Cooper is a nice-sized safety with range. Carnes is the Bradenton, Fla., quarterback with more polish than I expected him to have.

And that flourish just might include keeping current linebacker commit Lavonte David in the fold. David, a JUCO prospect from Fort Scott, Kan., appears to be flirting with South Florida, taking a visit there last weekend. Oh, he returned and remained “committed” to Nebraska.

But you know how these things go. Or, more often for the Huskers, how they don’t go.

David’s grades weren’t good enough to manage a January enrollment with Fort Scott teammate Yoshi Hardrick. So it’s unlikely David can make the same kind of immediate impact cornerback Dejon Gomes did in 2009.

Unlikely. Not impossible. Besides, the last Fort Scotter who chose USF over Nebraska was defensive Jason Pierre-Paul, who parlayed a single season with the Bulls into 6.5 sacks, 16.5 tackles for loss and a likely spot in the NFL Draft’s first round. Bo would’ve taken that and a side of fries - even with his terrific front four in 2009.

It’s about difference makers. Guys you don’t necessarily need - but have to put on the field. Could NU have survived with Gomes? Sure, probably. But Gomes was that last injection of excellence to an already-tough defense. That crucial corner piece. On the offense, it was Rex Burkhead, when he was healthy.

Defensive ends coach John Papuchis - the best recruiter NU has, for my money - fought tooth and nail for Burkhead’s services. And he’s been the lead guy on Odighizuwa. That Nebraska’s even in the conversation for a kid who otherwise would stay close to home speaks to JP’s skills. But if Bo can’t close it, then Papuchis will have spent the bulk of his time on two guys - Odighizuwa and Louisiana wide receiver Curtis Carter - the Huskers didn’t get.

Is Bo a solid closer? I suspect he‘s pretty good in his own way. He doesn’t necessarily project “father figure” in a living room, probably, but many players don’t need a John Blake. Of course, some do. In general dealings, Pelini is honest and confident. If you’re with me, let’s roll, if not, good luck. He’s said before he’s not a hand-holder, but Nebraska’s support staff - in academics, in student life skills - are as good as there is in America.

People critique Tom Osborne’s “input” on Bo’s recruiting - offers to Micah Kreikemeier in 2008 and C.J. Zimmerer in 2009 remain tied to Osborne’s recommendations, for better or worse - but the new student center was one of his best strategic decisions. It speaks to what parents want - a place their kid can succeed without getting overwhelmed or relying too much on football. And while not a perfect antidote to homesickness, classroom success is a key indicator of athletic progress. A surefire sign of a transfer is the student who’s fallen off the map academically. NU’s staff doesn’t let that happen easily.

Not surprisingly, Bo’s already put together a defensive class that can eventually win Big 12 titles. Cooper and Odighizuwa would be cherries on top. And I like Bo's commitment to recruiting a lot of offensive and defensive linemen.

But this offensive class - with or without Carnes - smacks of the transitional phase Nebraska finds itself in. It can’t happen again. Had not Bo and running backs coach Tim Beck personally attended Youngstown (Ohio) Cardinal Mooney, running back Braylon Heard doesn’t think twice about the Huskers. And Heard is, by far, the cream of the offensive crop.

If you want to know the cost of Nebraska’s identity crisis in 2009, the 2010 recruiting class provides some clues. NU searched for one type of quarterback heading into the season; now it prefers a mobile, dual-threat type. Although receivers Quincy Enunwa and Kenny Bell could turn out to be quality picks, they were clearly Plan B cases after a number of NU’s primary targets - Carter and decommit Keeston Terry included - fell away. Bell, a Boulder product who broke his collarbone early in the 2009 high school season, could be a sleeper. But, of course, his frame may make him susceptible to injuries.

Presumably, Bo and offensive coordinator Shawn Watson can chart the course now, and start to land guys who fit their joint vision.

Thus far, the jury remains out on their offensive recruiting efforts.

From the 2008 class, Ben Cotton, Khiry Cooper and guard Ricky Henry have played sizable roles on offense. Tight end Kyler Reed, when he’s healthy, appears to be a playmaker. But tackle David Grant never made it. Tight end Tyson Hetzer and Justin Rogers - who switched to cornerback - were washouts. Most - Lester Ward, Collins Okafor, Tim Marlowe, Brandon Thompson, Kody Spano, Antonio Bell, Steven Osborne - haven’t contributed much.

The 2009 class looks better. Rex Burkhead, Traye Robinson and Cody Green played quite a bit. Brandon Kinnie became a start at wide receiver by the end of the year. Four young offensive linemen may find themselves in the two-deep next year. And the wild card, Taylor Martinez, could fit in any number of places.

The 2010 bunch is fairly set in stone. Only Carnes, who is a decent thrower with better-than-expected footwork, can really add to that.

In other words, 2011 is a big year to accumulate skill talent. Consider that Roy Helu, Niles Paul, Mike McNeill, Dreu Young and Zac Lee depart next year. So does Henry, Keith Williams, D.J. Jones and Mike Smith on the offensive line. The huge senior class dictates a huge recruiting class.

Bo will have more than a few chances to close on playmakers. Consider this final week a trial run. Nebraska doesn’t necessarily need any of the players left on the wish list. But the wish list gets a lot bigger next year.

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Bake these six takes at 350 degrees and enjoy!

*As we coast through the final 10 days of recruiting season, we’ll look closer at Bo Pelini’s production and methodology, although the latter can be difficult to discern with Bo, who isn’t prone to explicating to how he narrows down his prospect list, where he looks for them, and which high school coaches and contacts he leans upon to set NU on the right path. What Bo looks for, publicly, isn’t any different from most college coaches: Character, speed, aggression, athleticism. Which college coach looks for slow, lazy troublemakers, right?

In his third class, you see promise in Pelini’s recruiting - and maybe two concerns.

The promise is in building an elite defense with sterling, big-bodied prospects like defensive linemen Chase Rome, Jay Guy, Walker Ashburn, Tobi Okuyemi and Donovan Vestal, defensive backs Ciante Evans and Harvey Jackson and potentially safety Corey Cooper and defensive end Owa Odighizuwa. Of the commits, NU took Rome and Guy away from other teams and identified the rest early in the cycle, landing players with generally impressive offer lists. The Huskers have stayed in the hunt with Cooper (Chicago-area) and Odighizuwa (Portland) despite the distance. If both pledge Big Red, don’t let any recruiting service fool you: This is one of ten best defensive recruiting classes in America.

The offensive class, as it now stands, isn’t anywhere near that.

But that’s not the concern I want to discuss. Rather, it’s this: NU has only three commitments from high school players in border states surrounding Nebraska. Rome is from Columbia, Mo. Wide receiver Kenny Bell is from Boulder. Offensive tackle Mike Moudy is from Castle Rock, Co. Throw in the three in-state recruits - Tyler Evans, Andrew Rodriguez and Jake Cotton - and you’re talking just six high school players within roughly 600 miles of Lincoln.

As of this writing, Missouri has produced 16 players who committed to BCS-auto conference schools for 2010. Colorado had ten players. Kansas has at least eight. Iowa has its share.

Gleaning the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is good. So is hitting the rest of Texas and California and strengthening old ties at Cardinal Mooney in Youngstown. The Pelinis have made connections at some of the best high school programs in Louisiana, California and Texas, and it will pay dividends down the road.

But, in three classes, Pelini’s signed as many players from Mooney - two - as he has from the entire state of Missouri. He’s signed just three from Colorado. If you exclude the junior college players from Kansas, Bo’s signed just one player - Kyler Reed - from the Sunflower State. And Reed was a Kevin Cosgrove verbal commit in the first place.

Over the long haul, NU has to own the border states better than that. Contrary to some of the myths about Tom Osborne only making his mark in Nebraska, Osborne frequently pillaged Kansas City, St. Louis, Wichita and Denver for some of his best players. Check it out for yourself.

Nebraska ought to see itself like the Boston Red Sox treat the rest of New England. NU’s winning tradition, its budget, its facilities and its notoriety dwarfs the rest of the Big 12 North. Yes, still. Bo’s influence can’t stop at the state line in Falls City. As uncomfortable as it initially may be, reaching out to the extended Husker nation - through the media, by pounding the halls of border state high schools - is crucial to getting the Huskers “back” in recruiting, as well as on the field.

*The border state player Nebraska most could have used? Liberty (Mo.) wide receiver Marcus Lucas. That 6-foot-5 frame sure would have been nice for three or four years. Shawnee, Kan., athlete Justin McCay would have been high on my list, too, but apparently Nebraska wasn’t terribly interested in him.

*All that said - NU has a chance to make the “leap” in its 2011 class. Oklahoma is signing its monster class of 30 recruits this year, Missouri is plum stocked with offensive and defensive skill players, Colorado will have a lame duck coach in Dan Hawkins, Iowa State is hellbent on collecting crumbs in Texas and Florida, and Kansas State is typically off making its own plans in JUCO land. That leaves Bo and Turner Gill in the Big 12 North working the border state chess board.

*Now that Millard South quarterback Bronson Marsh has committed to UNO instead of waiting for a possible offer from Nebraska, it’s official: The best player on the best high school team in the state wasn’t coveted enough by NU for a scholarship offer.

Now - maybe that says something about the talent in the Omaha and the state. Maybe it says something about the Huskers. But it says something, doesn’t it?

Again - hard to sustain a walk-on program in these financial times. Hard to ask kids to foot the bill when the bill just keeps getting bigger and bigger. The kid better have a bunch of smaller academic scholarships lined up, or have parents who planned decades in advance for the moment their son or daughter chose to pay - and when you can’t hold down a second job because of the time commitment, trust me, you’re paying - for the opportunity to play intercollegiate athletics.

*Carpe diem, Husker women. The chance to define the Nebraska’s women’s basketball program as a perennial contender won’t come around again. Right team, right time, right star player in Kelsey Griffin, whom I suspect becomes a college color analyst - or a coach - after her inevitable professional career is over.

NU is 17-0 and, while it could happen, the Huskers certainly don’t have to lose in the regular season. The slate is tough - especially a road game at foil Oklahoma, and home games vs. Texas A&M and Oklahoma State - but nothing Nebraska hasn’t already seen. The question may become: Would it benefit Yori’s bunch to lose before the NCAA Tournament, so long as a No. 1 seed is secured?

“We know we’re not going to win every game,” Yori said off-handedly last week, before NU’s 71-56 win over Kansas State.

That statement, I suspect, is out of respect for a grueling Big 12 conference. But opponents aren’t singing the same tune. Nebraska is a smart, hustling, aggressive team with top-shelf talent. A coach’s dream. A fan’s dream, too.

*Honest observers of Nebraska’s basketball team had the Huskers at 1-3 through four Big 12 games. So an 0-4 start, while disappointing, isn’t wildly off-target. A loss at Colorado Wednesday makes life for Doc Sadler a bit harder in February and March. And NU’s 1-3 in Boulder since 2006.

Does Doc have time for life lessons like the one he gave Christian Standhardinger at Missouri? The one he gave Quincy Hankins-Cole for the first three league games?

He does if he has confidence that NU can turn the corner over the last two months, and get hot when the schedule gets a bit easier. Yori survived such a season last year, after all, in preparation for a glorious 2010. Danny Nee once survived a similar campaign in 1989, only to win 26 in 1990-91 when his best guys got healthy, and Eric Piatkowski started to play.

These Huskers - or Doc - shouldn’t harbor illusions about a NCAA Tournament run this year. It’s about getting better, building a resume, and creating chemistry. The pieces are there. If it takes two months to make them fit, so be it.

But Doc has to put those pieces on the floor from here on out.

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Six strong takes, just as you like them, Husker football right at the top.

*One week ago, I mentioned heightened expectations for Nebraska’s football team. The definition of being “back.” Now that the Cornhuskers are beginning to appear in the top ten of various (and ridiculously early) top 25 rankings, you can begin to get the picture.

NU will be playing a 365-day season in 2010 - not 150. In recruiting, offseason development, spring football, the summer police “blotta” and all the rest, the Huskers will get more play - good and bad - from the national media outlets that control, to some extent, preseason perception and placement. Those things are important, understand, when it comes to bowl pairings later in the year. Possibly even BCS bowl pairings.

In a sense, that’s just another challenge for Bo Pelini and his staff. Whether or not Bo sees himself as a creature of the media - he’s going to become one. There’s something attractive - authentic - about his occasionally explosive sideline style, the emotions worn on his sleeve - hell, his bare arms. Bo isn’t prone to quotables, but his confidence plays well on talk shows and TV programs that crave black/white statements.

Bo has some acolytes in the national media. Jim Rome is one of them. Kirk Herbstreit, a former teammate, is another. Throw Andy Staples of SI in there, too, for all the positive pub he’s given the Big Red. Here’s a New Year’s resolution hoping he reaches out to those guys before spring ball, during spring ball, and throughout the summer. The recruitiniks at Rivals and Scout, too. Hey - those guys know how faithfully Husker fans follow Signing Day in February. Then - you post every one of those appearances and articles on Bo’s personal Web site.

Bo may not personally want that kind of hyper-attention. But it’s the kind Nebraska needs to keep up with the Big 12 South’s primary outpost, Texas.

*Would I put NU in the top ten right now? Upon further review, I guess not yet. Not until Zac Lee’s rehab points toward full recovery.

If Lee rehabs OK, I’d look hard at top 5-7, along with Alabama, Boise State, Virginia Tech, Ohio State and a few surprises.

If not - I’d need a crystal ball detailing Cody Green’s development. Green will never get a better chance at taking the reins than this offseason - his second at Nebraska. These three months - that’s his window, whether he officially beats out Lee or not. If Green makes the leap, he’s the guy, at the very least, in 2011. If not, there will be some freshman nipping at his heels.

*And that freshman, if I had to play a hunch, will be Brion Carnes, Bradenton (Fla.) Manatee quarterback who will take a visit in January. If he can get past being “Tommie Frazier’s nephew” - a hurdle in Lincoln - Carnes possesses many of the skills a new, more physical NU offense desires. Carnes - who was committed to South Florida, but has wavered with the firing of Jim Leavitt - is mobile, has better-than-average footwork, and knows how to make throws on the run.

If not Carnes, than possibly Kain Colter out of Colorado. If not, Colter, then the mystery man, Darian “Stump” Godfrey, the Gilmer, Texas product who accounted for 64 touchdowns and more than 4,400 yards in leading his team to an undefeated season and a 3A championship.

NU is trying to put some tasty frosting on its 2010 recruiting class, as Chicago-area safety Corey Cooper and Portland defensive end Owa Odighizuwa are the biggest names the Huskers continue to pursue, and both seem intent on waiting until Signing Day to make their decisions. If Nebraska gets both, the class becomes a nice comeback after a slow summer. If both go elsewhere, you get the sense that NU may make changes in its approach for 2011. More changes, I mean, than the ones that have already been made.

The best potential recruit of the 2010 class? Jermarcus Hardrick, if he morphs into a Phil Loadholt clone and mans the right tackle spot for the next two years. Among the four-year recruits, Columbia (Mo.) product Chase Rome jumps out as a major defensive tackle in two years, with potential for Jared Crick numbers. Landing Odighizuwa - a bright, athletic end whose background, demeanor and intelligence is eerily reminiscent of Ndamukong Suh - would trump them all.

My sleeper? A guy Nebraska landed almost a year ago - offensive tackle Mike Moudy. A 6-foot-7, 300-pound rock. I just like the way he attacks defenders on film.

*So the SEC won its fourth straight national championship. It has to say something, right? Sure. But I’m not sure it’s saying the same things, year after year.

In 2006, Florida’s speed and defensive aggression forced an over-hyped quarterback, Ohio State’s Troy Smith into a game-long meltdown.

In 2007, LSU was simply better than Ohio State, and everybody knew it. Throw the statistics out the window. The Buckeyes actually competed more in that game than I anticipated.

In 2008, Oklahoma controlled the first half, threw the game away with its insistence on the no-huddle offense at the goal line, and wore down in the second half as Sam Bradford wasn’t protected by penalty flags like he was in the Big 12.

In 2009, you know the ugly story.

The binding statistic - SEC teams all rushed for more yards than its opponents - reflects a consistency of style, a commitment to traditional football, albeit from unconventional (or shall we just say old-fashioned) means: The single wing, the option, the counter trey. Three of the four opponents (Ohio State in 2006, OU and UT) were spread/shotgun offenses that routinely used four and five wide receivers. All of them were stymied in one way or another by the SEC‘s defensive speed, and unable to adjust.

Trends can be tough to detect. Was Nebraska a trend in the 1990s? Not on offense. On defense, though, absolutely: Following in the footsteps of Miami, Washington and Florida State, NU got smaller, faster and more aggressive. That trend remained true until Michigan and Tennessee won national titles with more traditional base defenses/pro-style offenses in 1997 and 1998.

Is there a SEC method that Bo’s trying to copy? You’d hope so, because it seems to work. It’s not exactly foolproof - goodness, look at LSU, post-Pelini, and South Carolina, since forever - but it puts Nebraska in a unique position in the Big 12.

*USC is panicking for the moment, but Pete Carroll’s departure from the program is precisely what it needs. That’s right. Carroll, for all his considerable strengths, was beginning to construct a team of diminishing returns, choosing transfers and freshmen over more seasoned position players, and a green staff over assistants who, like Norm Chow once did, might steal Carroll’s thunder.

While he was far from losing control of the Trojans’ program, Carroll had lost track of it, to a certain extent, and his hubris over Mark Sanchez’s timely departure last year, coupled with his various shrugs at off-the-field issues in 2009, suggested he was as committed to his highly-laudable work in the Los Angeles community as he was to game-planning and roster management. Nowhere was that more evident than in a game vs. Oregon - a team Carroll typically owned - in which the Ducks so badly out-schemed the Trojans that it looked as though USC was back in its Paul Can’t-Hackett days.

The Trojans ought to hire Carroll-lite - Stanford’s Jim Harbaugh, whose shoulder chip is similar to Carroll’s in 2001, with equal charisma and passion to burn - now that Mike Riley is no longer available. Harbaugh has the ego, NFL background and sheer personality to deal with USC athletic director Mike Garrett, who has a history of rubbing folks a certain way.

*Excellent debut for Christian Standhardinger, who scored 13 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in a 64-53 loss at Texas A&M Saturday. He got to the line five times and made four free throws. Expect those numbers to continue, and increase.

I know it’s not easy for head coach Doc Sadler to sacrifice defensive possessions and potentially wins in developing Standhardinger and center Jorge Brian Diaz as NU’s primary offensive threats, but everything I saw vs. the Aggies confirmed, again, that putting those two on the floor at the same time represents NU’s best long-term interests. Standhardinger provides at least some resistance on the boards, and Diaz really does have a deft touch around the basket. Plus - they can draw fouls. Right now, who among Nebraska’s true guards - be it Brandon Richardson, Sek Henry, Lance Jeter or Eshaunte Jones - is consistently doing that.

Sadler wants the Huskers to work for better shots instead of settling for long 3-pointer. But I’m not seeing any guards with a first step quick enough to do it. I am seeing two post players, now that Standhardinger is in there, who can create their shots and are serviceable from the foul line.

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Six strong takes for the New Year!

*Too many bowl thoughts to count. Well, that’s not true.

1. When asked which bowl team made the most dramatic statement of the year (through the New Year’s Day games) former Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione, who’s been working overtime as a bowl analyst for ESPN Radio, didn’t hesitate.

“Nebraska made an awesome statement,” he said Saturday on ESPN.

You wonder if Coach Fran enjoyed watching that two-back option play that he used ad nauseum while coaching the Aggies.

NU certainly outpaced its Big 12 mates, didn’t it? Oklahoma State and Missouri turned in embarrassing offensive performances, Oklahoma looked sloppy on defense and was fortunate Stanford’s starting quarterback was hurt, A&M predictably got out coached on special teams, and Iowa State barely nipped a Minnesota club that would have finished dead last in the Big 12.

Given the circumstances - we’ll touch on this later - Texas Tech managed distractions and handled Michigan State 41-31. But that game was no masterpiece, either.

Only Texas remains. If the Longhorns can figure out some way to run the ball, either with quarterback Colt McCoy or running back Tre Newton, they’ll keep Alabama within striking distance.

2. Ohio State has some serious defensive talent. Oregon’s offense has all the pieces - speed, athleticism, power, multiplicity - but the Buckeyes matched up, made plays, and forced a couple key turnovers. Don’t kid yourself: That’s the best game Jim Tressel’s crew has played in years. Recruiting counts. Even in the Big Ten.

3. If I’m LSU, I root for Michigan to fire Rich Rod and hire away Les Miles. And then? Dead aim on Bo Pelini and Will Muschamp, I’d suspect. But Miles, I’m sorry, isn’t for long in Baton Rouge. It took the Tigers far too long to figure out Penn State’s pedestrian defense in the mud. And they still can’t manahe the clock.

4. Cincy WKRP was quite possibly one second away from playing for the national title. The Sugar Bowl proved, to some extent, why it’s hard to run no-huddle spread in the SEC, although it appears Auburn will try: The defenses are too fast, the cornerbacks are too good. Cincinnati’s receivers were open most of the season. Not Friday night.

5. The triple option works, as Air Force and Navy proved in rather easy wins over more talented, no-huddle passing teams Houston and Missouri. It makes defenses do the right thing over and over, without much room for freelancing. And that’s hard for modern college defenders. It looks mundane, but it relies on the creativity of the quarterback - as opposed to the creativity of the offensive coordinator - and, I assure you, that’s not an easy ego diet for most assistant coaches to go on. Hubris is the leading obstacle to the use of the triple option - be it in the wingbone or wishbone - among teams that could really benefit from it.

6. The no-huddle is no longer useful like it was two years ago. Referees are getting wise to offenses trying to snap the ball before defenses have a chance to match personnel, and they’re also - finally! - starting to call false start penalties on offensive linemen who fidget around before the play like five-year-olds.

Look at Oklahoma State and Missouri. Neither did themselves any favors in their bowl games by hustling through plays, only to see them wasted by poor execution or, in the case of OSU, turnovers. Both teams seemed needlessly rushed - and for what reason? Their offenses needed to possess the ball to give their defenses a breather.

*Before the Mike Leach saga descends into legal soup, where it’s destined to go, it’s important to remember: Change is part and parcel of life. For everyone. For the TV announcer whose son just isn‘t as good as the dad. For kids who go from star to benchwarmer. For the coach who envisions himself beyond reproach. For the hypocritical athletic director who hires an irascible basketball coach - then lets that guy’s untested son go batpoop insane in his first year - but can’t manage an eccentric football coach. Change is hard, but, man, it’s worth it to maintain a thriving success story in the middle of nowhere. Right?

*When Bill Callahan gets a great offensive line, like the one he has with the New York Jets, he truly is a top-notch football coach. But the best cooks don’t need Kobe beef to cook a great steak.

*Was that former Nebraska defensive end Zach Potter catching a pass as a tight end for Jacksonville on Sunday? I believe it was. Kudos to Potter for making the switch to stay in the league. He has the athleticism and smarts to make it there. Now he has a position.

*What a fun 2010 it’s going to be in college basketball. Most of the big names - Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Duke, North Carolina - are in the thick of it, undefeated Purdue is a blue-collar fan’s dream team, the Big 12 and Big East are packed to the gills with competition, and then there’s Texas, which has throttled an impressive array of opponents - Carolina, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, USC - without much of a challenge from any of them.

Nebraska, at 11-3, is still in the thick of everything. Presuming NU beats Southeastern Louisiana Tuesday, it heads to conference play with two big wins (USC and Tulsa) and what appears to be one bad loss (at slumping Creighton). A 7-9 record in the Big 12 would put the Huskers close to the NCAA bubble. An 8-8 mark puts NU on the right side of it.

How do the Huskers pull that off? Beat Oklahoma, Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Missouri at home. Sweep Colorado. Then - find one more. Kansas State in Lincoln. At Texas A&M or Oklahoma State. Or a potential - albeit unlikely - sweep of Iowa State.

Kansas, now hitting its stride, looks like a tall order anywhere. Doc Sadler can coach the pants off of UT’s Rick Barnes, but the Longhorns have three jaw-droppingly good freshmen. Manhattan is a graveyard for Nebraska, and has been for 15 years.

Remember, too - Doc gets Christian Standhardinger come Big 12 season.

*We end with a question: Where, now, does Pelini rank among Big 12 head coaches? Mark Mangino is gone. Leach, too. Is Bo squarely third behind Mack Brown and Bob Stoops? And, if so - is his salary commensurate to that?

Here’s where we stand on salary issues. Where do you? Give Bo a raise? His assistants? The recruiting office?

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Air Raid. Spread. No huddle. Zone read. Fly sweep. Wildcat.

After years of offensive fads in the Big 12, get ready for a defensive one: The Match Read Zone. The name that’s been given to Bo Pelini’s spread-killing defense. A system that’s not easy to get down but - much like a match-up zone defense in basketball - can be hard to crack.

You can be plenty sure league defensive coordinators have been paying attention to Pelini since he arrived in the Big 12. You can also be sure they took notes as Bo dismantled Texas and Colt McCoy with it.

Why does it work? Because it’s zone, masquerading as man, taking away the simplest throws for a quarterback. Because it’s aggressive against bubble and tunnel screens. Because Nebraska has the back seven personnel - and the four-man pass rush - to pull it off.

It’s a perfect storm of sorts that met the two perfectly vulnerable - though normally productive - spread offenses - Texas and Arizona - at the end of the season.

Bo’s the new fad of the Big 12. With two of the offensive gurus - Mike Leach and Mark Mangino - floating away on rafts made of their own egos, the problem to solve for 2010 won’t be how to stop their passing games. But how to crack Bo Vinci Code.

Two-tight end formations - which forces Nebraska to replace corners with linebackers - might be part of the solution. Straight power football might be another. With a full season of tape to view, offensive coordinators will begin to chip away at the few weaknesses the Blackshirts possessed in 2010. Washington, armed with a good quarterback (Jake Locker) and even better playcaller (head coach Steve Sarikisian) will pit its West Coast principles vs. Match Read excellence.

Much like he declared the Huskers back for good after the Holiday Bowl, Pelini has set the bar for his defense, at, oh, only “five times better” than it was this year. Statistically, trust us, it’s basically impossible. So we can presume Pelini is talking experience, expertise and playmaking ability.

Nebraska looks to have the nation’s best secondary in 2010. Credit Pelini and position coach Marvin Sanders for just about all of it, as Prince Amukamara and Eric Hagg were merely raw prospects in spring 2008, and Alfonzo Dennard, Dejon Gomes and P.J. Smith - all projected starters - weren’t yet on campus. Is it on par with the 2003 unit, Pelini’s first college secondary, that featured three future NFL starters in Fabian Washington, Josh Bullocks and Daniel Bullocks, and led the nation in interceptions? Potentially.

The front four loses Ndamukong Suh. He will be sorely missed - and don’t let pundits or even the Brothers Pelini attempt to sweep his departure under the rug. Suh was arguably most valuable on screens, draws, shovel passes and backside running plays. A stat nobody kept track of: How many first downs Suh - and Suh alone - saved by peeling back to make downfield tackles. And you can’t teach his instincts for pass defense and finding the ball. What’s left is pretty good. But Suh made that unit dynamic and versatile.

The warning flags appear to be at linebacker. It was telling that, in the last half of the season, Gomes and Hagg were serving as de facto linebackers on key downs, as opposed to Will Compton and Sean Fisher. Spread passing teams carry light cargo, and allow Nebraska to get away it. But almost half of NU’s opponents in 2010 can and will go heavy. And if Pelini found it necessary to pick up JUCO linebacker LaVonte David, it speaks, potentially, to the health and inexperience of some of the guys behind Compton and Fisher. Eric Martin is a exciting playmaker as a sophomore, but he won’t see the field until he knows the defense.

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Can NU keep its defensive staff intact for one more season? After 2010, all bets are off, because Carl Pelini, Marvin Sanders, John Papuchis and Mike Ekeler could easily be headed for head coach/coordinator roles somewhere. Can Bo Pelini convince them to see through one more potentially championship-winning season? We’ll know for sure in the next two weeks.

How does Bo adjust to life without Suh? No. 93 can’t be replaced, so that option is out. But the remaining pieces on the defensive line - Jared Crick is chief among them - are pretty solid. Of course NU retains a base four-man look, with Crick at his spot, Terrence Moore plugging the nose, and Pierre Allen and Cameron Meredith crashing on the ends.

Do Sean Fisher and Will Compton keep developing? We have no reason to think they won’t - but, with at least five offenses on the 2010 schedule requiring a nickel-or-base defense - Washington, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Colorado and Kansas State fit that bill - NU needs two - not just one - of Mike Ekeler’s guys to perform at the level Phillip Dillard reached in 2009. And it doesn’t appear JUCO linebacker LaVonte David will hit the scene until fall.

How do Mathew May and Matt Holt fit back into the defense? Both injured in 2009 - May played mostly on special teams, Holt didn’t play while recovering from a torn ACL - these two walk-on breakout players of 2008 will have to fight for time in what’s become one of the nation’s defenses. They’ll get a look, because they have the size - and speed - to stay on the field in a dime set as a hybrid linebacker/safety.

What defensive wrinkles get unfurled in 2010? One option just to chew on: A three-man line that kicks Crick out to a hybrid tackle/end, uses a heftier Meredith at the other end, and sticks Moore - or maybe true freshman Jay Guy at that true nose tackle spot. We suspect Bo and Carl get creative with the players on hand.

Does Eric Hagg stay at nickel, or rotate back to free safety? And, if the latter, does Rickey Thenarse shift down into Hagg’s role? Thenarse is a wild card best used 10-15 times per game then he left on the field for 60 minutes. The rest of the secondary - Prince Amukamara and Alfonzo Dennard at the corners, Dejon Gomes at slot corner, P.J. Smith at strong safety, Austin Cassidy, Lance Thorell and Anthony West as priority backups - seems pretty set. Our take: Keep Hagg where he is, pick your spots with Thenarse, and give Cassidy a long look at Matt O’Hanlon’s starting job.

Who is this year’s Dejon Gomes? Thad Randle? Alonzo Whaley? Courtney Osborne? Smith? Cassidy? Andrew Green? Jason Ankrah? That’s what’s fun about prognosticating, isn’t it?

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Shotgun to stay? Whether we or you or any Husker fans prefers an under center power game is immaterial to what offensive coordinator Shawn Watson’s players can actually execute. And the Huskers look better in a shotgun spread offense. They just do. It suits the quarterbacks, the running backs, the offensive line, the receivers and the Wildcat formation.

How long does it take Zac Lee to recover - and is recovery successful? Funny that Nebraska fans would pin a potential national title run on the health of No. 5, but, after seeing Cody Green’s wobbly work in the Holiday Bowl, so be it. Lee is unquestionably the No. 1 guy going into spring practice - and he still isn’t very good. So not only does he have to rehab after surgery on his right torn flexor tendon, he has to find a way to improve without throwing the ball - possibly through all of spring camp.

Can Cody Green capitalize on Lee’s absence to develop for 2010 and beyond? We can’t ignore his struggles during the last half of the season - but we also can’t take too much from them, either. Green hasn’t been allowed to grow into a starter - too much attention for a handful for a good plays, too short of a leash for a handful of bad ones - and he should make “the leap” in the spring. Well, he’d better, anyway.

Whither Kody Spano? The things Spano reportedly did best - throwing those skinny slants and posts, and hanging in the pocket when bullets started flying - are attributes Watson appreciates most. Can he come back from two ACL tears? Can he trust his knee enough to make plays. It’s rare - but possible.

Is there a No. 2 receiver in the building? Some Husker - Brandon Kinnie, Khiry Cooper, Antonio Bell, Curenski Gilleylen - has to take the heat off of Niles Paul. And receivers coach Ted Gilmore has to stop sampling every guy on the roster for the role. Find two or three complimentary receivers, stick with them, and develop chemistry with Lee - when he returns - Green and whoever else tries out at QB.

How much can the redshirt freshmen - plus Jermarcus Hardrick - push the vets on he offensive line? Hardrick will push Marcel and D.J. Jones at right tackle - and potentially win the job. As for the redshirt freshmen, we’re talking about Brent Qvale (guard), Jeremiah Sirles (tackle), Jesse Coffey (guard) and Nick Ash(guard/center). At the very least, Qvale (huge, and nimble) and Sirles (looks the part) were slated for the two-deep before injuries tilted the risk/reward scale against burning their redshirt. Neither will likely start for NU in 2010, but they can provide important depth every third or fourth series, or serve as injury protection. At any rate - they sorely need experience for the future.

Where does Taylor Martinez fit in? We dug around in the few weeks after the Big 12 Championship game about Martinez, and found he was more feared as a receiver than he was at quarterback. And yet he’ll start at QB - potentially as a Wildcat guy - and take a run at the backup job. Either way - the kid needs to see the field, and get the chance to make plays. He’s among the fastest players on NU’s roster and he’s big enough to take some licks. T Magic is more like T Mystery.

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The story of Nebraska’s offense in 2009 turns out to be a crackerjack courtroom drama, complete with compelling characters, riveting testimony and a twist ending - touched off by a surprising revelation - that has some Cornhusker fans sailing out of theater satisfied, and others wondering if all plot threads meet up.

The men on trial - offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, his staff and quarterback Zac Lee - won acquittal in a 33-0 thumping of Arizona, returning to the shotgun, unveiling an effective version of the Wildcat - which running backs coach Tim Beck correctly described as an offense, not merely a play - and getting Lee to a point where he can run the zone read competently - if not beautifully - for yards and first downs.

Everything you could have hoped to see vs. Arizona - third-down efficiency, big running plays, Niles Paul, Mike McNeill, a dominant offensive line - you saw. Roy Helu got hurt early, but Rex Burkhead capably replaced him.

For the first time since the Kansas game, Lee looked like the solution instead of the problem. Afterward, when he revealed he’d been playing with a torn flexor tendon in his throwing arm, which requires surgery and nearly three months of rehab, it was like that beer glass in the novel “Presumed Innocent” that nobody could find - because nobody ever asked the guy who took it from the evidence room to return it.

“It was them that (screwed) up,” Lipranzer tells defendant Rusty at the end of Scott Turow’s best book.

In this case, the few left in Watson’s corner could say the same of his many naysayers. If you only you knew of all the injuries on the offensive line, at running back, in Lee’s right arm.

You can see how the arguments set up.

Credit where it’s deserved: Watson crafted a good plan, and called an even better game. He and Barney Cotton got their offensive line to fire off the ball. He trusted Lee on third-and-long to extend drives. Lee did. In short, Watson seemed to be returning to midseason 2008, when Nebraska sliced and diced Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State with a dizzying array of formations and plays.

Lee was a poor man’s Joe Ganz, which, with Bo’s defense, was more than enough. He’s a tough kid who chooses to struggle with injuries and inconsistencies in relative silence. Commendable enough.

But “Holiday Bowl scoreboard” isn’t a sufficient salve for every offensive problem in 2009.

“Torn flexor tendon” isn’t a sufficient answer for why Watson had Lee throwing the ball in the Missouri rain, or why Watson couldn’t bear to call a trick play - just one! - vs. Texas in the Big 12 Championship.

“O-line injuries” doesn’t explain why the wide receiver corps fell apart, with two starters apparently so unmotivated and disinterested that they spent two weeks on the scout team.

No, Watson didn’t suddenly forget how to call plays.

But we can’t suddenly gloss over real struggles, either.

The offseason, beginning with Lee’s surgery and rehabilitation, will be a test of patience, creativity and coaching for Watson and his assembled crew. I look forward to watching skilled - but embattled - guys whittle away the problem, with a prominent chip on their shoulder, I suspect, and something to prove.

*At quarterback, Watson will have to play it by doctor and trainer as to when Lee can return. Then he’ll have to develop quarterbacks Cody Green, Kody Spano and Taylor Martinez in three distinctly different places in their career. Will Ganz, a new graduate assistant, help? Sure. But even that’s a adjustment, for these Huskers know and respect Ganz quite a bit, and may initially see Lee - or any signal-caller - in stark relief of the former No. 12. When a former teammate suddenly becomes a mentor, it’s can be an interesting transition. Ganz isn’t going to sugarcoat anything, nor should he.

*At running back, Tim Beck has to manage Roy Helu’s health, devise new ways to exploit Rex Burkhead’s skills and find a No. 3 running back between Traye Robinson, Lester Ward and Austin Jones.

*At offensive line, Barney Cotton gets to integrate young pups Brent Qvale, Jeremiah Sirles, Jesse Coffey and Nick Ash, get JUCO signee Jermarcus Hardrick quickly up to speed, break in center Mike Caputo, wait out the recovery of Keith Williams - who has a torn pectoral muscle - and hone the games of Ricky Henry, Mike Smith, Marcel Jones and D.J. Jones. Cotton has the most important - and arguably toughest - job of the bunch. As goes the offensive line, so goes NU.

*At wide receiver, Ted Gilmore needs to build around senior-to-be Niles Paul, with an emphasis on guys who can actually catch, run and keep their balance on a wet field. Gilmore has to put a better product on the field than NU offered up in 2009, when Menelik Holt’s drops cost the Huskers at Virginia Tech, and Paul’s midseason lapses in concentration contributed heavily to losses vs. Texas Tech and Iowa State.

*At tight end, Ron Brown just needs to keep doing what he’s doing, juggling time and snaps for a gifted unit.

Presuming he has enough healthy pieces, Watson then gets to play chemist. Which combination of formations, plays and players make the best brew? Injuries, execution and “inexperience” - plus Bo’s intervention right around the Oklahoma game - prevented him from figuring that out in 2009.

What are the key questions for this offseason? Click here.

Otherwise, continue the debate. Does the Holiday Bowl resolve your concerns? Does the end of the movie forgive its dull middle?

In 2010 - a national-title contending season - we’ll have the sequel.

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“Nebraska is back and we’re here to stay.”

-Bo Pelini, after NU’s 33-0 win in the Holiday Bowl

Just in case you presume he hasn’t been listening to the media during the last two years. Just in case you think his offhand, almost dismissive air regarding questions of the Cornhuskers’ place in college football was an accurate inventory of his actual thoughts.

Bo Pelini was paying attention all along. He didn’t have an ear to the ground. He didn’t have a finger in the air. But he was listening. And waiting.

He just didn’t want to address it until his team had earned it. The Holiday Bowl, with NU’s muscular, thorough thumping of a lean, brittle and careless Arizona team, merely confirmed what Pelini sensed weeks before: The Huskers, at least on defense - where it counts most - had figured it out. Like a chess shark in Central Park - or Robert Downey’s character in “Sherlock Holmes” - Bo, Carl and crew had predicted the moves in advance, swamping the Wildcats with an unusual approach - max pressure coverage with a occasionally (just slightly) delayed four-man rush - until Arizona tipped over its king onto the board.

Really, Nebraska was “back,” in terms of notoriety, somewhere in the first quarter of Big 12 Championship, when the Blackshirts slugged Texas quarterback Colt McCoy for a couple picks and a couple sacks.

When the burnt orange blushed red, and UT’s haughty fans assembled in the gaudy palace of Cowboys Stadium squirmed in their seats and delayed that trip to the concession stands.

When America - its sportswriters, punditocracy and casual fans on a Saturday night - settled into their couches and decided they had to see this, a team with one arm tied behind its back, whaling away at an armored truck of talent - and winning!

Cincy WKRP, that close to a trip to Pasadena!

Until a combination of bonehead errors and controversial calls - so reminiscent of the 1994 Orange Bowl that I half expected Bobby Bowden had taken Mack Brown’s place as UT coach - sunk NU’s chance at victory.

But not its confidence. Clearly not.

Pelini spent the last two weeks chuffed and fired up like one of Flannery O’Connor’s characters set for the inevitable fall - it seems ill-timed at best, doomed to punchline at worst - only Nebraska fulfilled his words and more. It’s fun to be wrong when 33-0 is the result.

When a coach has that kind of read on his team, when they’re that positively in sync - that’s a scary thing. I recalled Florida’s unusual certitude before the 2007 BCS title game, USC’s certitude before just about any bowl game, and Nebraska’s certitude after the 1994 Orange Bowl for, oh, the next six years or so. Like Alexander’s army before they hit India.

Is there an India out there for NU in 2010? I suppose, after 33-0, we chew on a modified version of that question for eight months now:

Can Nebraska, with all the variables happily lining up next year, pull off a natty champ in Bo’s third year? Damn straight.

One cannot help but look forward. In the Big 12, Texas takes a step back. Has to, right? Oklahoma State does, too. Oklahoma must replenish a big chunk of that defense. Texas Tech looked like a foil until Mike Leach let his ego get him fired. Missouri visits Lincoln with a spread offense that can’t score inside the 20-yard line. The biggest road games - Washington, Texas A&M, Kansas State - seem eminently manageable.

Nationally, Alabama will be there. Florida won’t. USC has an offensive line to rebuild. Oregon is a myth. Ohio State is probably the truth, with Terrelle Pryor finally beginning to tap the deepest veins of his remarkable talent. Boise could be preseason top 5. TCU will put in its two cents. Virginia Tech again. Watch for Clemson, even without C.J. Spiller.

But all of it lines up right, you know? That 2010 will not be 2008 or 2004, when there were four or five teams worthy of the national title. Winning the Big 12 crown, of course, remains at the top of the list. But, as new Kansas coach Turner Gill so sagely pointed out a few weeks ago: You win the Big 12, and you’re usually right there for the national title hunt. In 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009 that was true. Had Missouri beaten Oklahoma in the 2007 Big 12 Championship, it would have been true there, as well. In 2006, OU was a ripoff loss to Oregon away from supplanting Florida in the 2007 BCS title game.

Even if NU loses in Seattle, the real game is afoot in October and November. Shoot the moon there, and every significant goal is intact for Dallas 2010.

What we’ll examine over the next couple days: How the Huskers get there, and what questions need to be answered - first in the offseason, then in spring ball - to achieve it.

Because there’s the pressure of expectation now. That’s what 33-0 does. The problem with playing your best football - or close to it - is that fans, pundits, coaches and players have now seen what it looks like to execute at an elite standard. Anything below it elicits tougher questions, more fingers, harder decisions, and even more pressure.

Bo knows so much - and he must also know that, now, in declaring “Nebraska’s back” on the podium in San Diego, he’s marked his words, not unlike Steve Pederson did when he fired Frank Solich.

But Husker fans know what “back” looks like. They lived the 1990s.

“Back” is dominating the Big 12 and playing in the BCS. It’s been 10 years since NU won a league crown. Eight since it played in the BCS.

“Back” is winning big non-conference games on the road. How long has it been? Pittsburgh in 2004? Notre Dame in 2000?

“Back” is maintaining the defensive excellence Pelini developed over two years.

“Back” is having an enviable offense that punishes and challenges most defenses.

“Back” is having top-flight kicker and punter (Consider that done.)

“Back” is recruiting the six states surrounding Nebraska like a fiend, with a supplement of big-timne talent from Texas, California and elsewhere, as needed.

“Back” is signing the quarterback you want - not the quarterback you’re left with.

NU’s commander-in-chief has completed most of the major combat operations in restructuring the Huskers to his brand of attitude, work ethic and athleticism.

Now it’s time to stomp out the fires in Fallujah. Beat Texas. Win the Big 12. Storm the doors in Scottsdale.

The 2009 Holiday Bowl wasn’t the end of anything. It’s only the beginning of one dramatic season - for good or ill - to come.

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The Play You Didn’t See: Matt O’Hanlon picked off Nick Foles on the third play of the game - Foles made an awful pass - and returned it to the sweet spot for NU’s offense and an early, quick touchdown. Just Matty being Matty - at least over the last half of the season.

Dillard Down the Field: NU linebacker Phillip Dillard probably earned himself a few slots in the NFL Draft when he aptly covered Arizona running back Nic Grigsby on a seam route down the field, breaking up what was probably Nick Foles best pass of the first half.

Sack Party 1: Pierre Allen puts a nasty move on Arizona’s right tackle and hammers Foles, stripping him of the ball for a nine-yard loss. He and best friend Barry Turner engage in a celebratory dance.

Sack Party 2: Allen, Turner and Ndamukong Suh all converge on Foles for the second sack of the game one drive after the first one.

The Shutout Preserver: Bo Pelini calls a casino blitz with all the fixins, and backup safety P.J. Smith delivers on fourth down, batting down the Foles pass.

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So much for motivation, preparation, hangovers, skeptics, doubts or close games in the Holiday Bowl.

Turns out Bo Pelini had a reason to strut in San Diego. A reason to gift-wrap a six-day break for his team before Christmas. A reason to bust out some lofty talk about 2010 in a handful of interviews.

What did Bo know? Something. That’s for damn sure.

Three plays, one Matt O’Hanlon pick, one quick Zac Lee touchdown, a dash of the Wildcat starring Rex Burkhead, Niles Paul as a triple threat, that magnificent golden foot of Alex Henery and Blackshirts, Blackshirts, Blackshirts.

First round knockout. Boom! Down! Nebraska as Mike Tyson, and Arizona as a weak-kneed Michael Spinks.

“We got whacked,” Arizona head coach Mike Stoops.

Yep. Thumped. Striped. Punished. Seems like the two teams did their share of trash talking during the week at joint functions, and the muddy blood carried over to Wednesday night. Like so many fights that start with a couple of loose jaws, it ended with one party - the Wildcats - on the floor - a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.

Savor this Big Red ribeye of a win, Cornhusker fans. It tasted so good, sizzling from the start - and mostly because NU cooked it just so. In all three phases, I can’t recall a more complete bowl win since the 2000 Alamo Bowl. And even there, Nebraska had a few leaks. You might have to go back to the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. Or the 1969 Sun Bowl, when NU beat Georgia 45-6. Or maybe never. I’m leaning toward never.

At some point, Stoops stopped with his Jimmy Cagney/George C. Scott facial grimaces and submitted to total defeat. His willingness to forego an easy field goal at the end of the game and try for a touchdown - knowing full well his quarterback would face a seven-man blitz - was not merely a nod to his old friend Bo. It was a tip of the cap to the Husker defense as a whole. You’ve earned the right to shut us out. Good for Stoops. Intense guy. Class move.

Yes, the Blackshirts evoked memories of those days of heaven, the mid-1990s, when opposing quarterbacks gazed wistfully into the defense in the mere hope of completing a pass. Foles had that “blow-the-whistle!” look all night, his impressive arm - yes, I’ve seen it in other games - reduced to a bad parody of the Balloon Boy saga. Just 21 snaps in the first half. For 32 yards. And the Huskers didn’t even have to commit a blitzer on the pass rush. TV can’t do justice to how well NU’s cornerbacks challenge and blanket opposing receivers, so Foles, with the relative mobility of Pooh Bear, had no choice but to dance around, fruitlessly searching for downfield targets.

Once again, we saw irrefutable evidence that the best way to great defense is through a quarterback’s rattled cage. How many signal-callers have answered the bell vs. NU this year? In retrospect, just one: Texas Tech’s Sticks Sheffield.

“It’s nothing fancy,” Pelini said. In a sense, he’s right. Challenging receivers at the line of scrimmage, and taking away those easy throws spread teams thrive on isn’t fancy. Doesn’t mean it’s easy, either, but it’s not fancy. And the recipe works.

The secondary was nothing short of brilliant. I doubt Arizona had ever seen such aggressive coverage. A healthy Alfonzo Dennard, coupled with a healthy Prince Amukamara, might be as good a cornerback tandem as there is in college football.

And color me pleased by the offense, and impressed with offensive coordinator Shawn Watson from this perspective: He said NU would travel back in time with its offense, and that’s precisely what we saw Wednesday night.

Nebraska spread it out and mixed pass and run. Zac Lee throws much better out of the shotgun, and runs a competent zone read, even if he takes the ball too often. The big wrinkle - the Wildcat - was more of a no-brainer, considering how good Rex Burkhead was at running it, but it was good to see Watson actually put it on film and put it to good use.

Burkhead is a keeper. He runs hard, headlong, with the occasional surprising flourish - a spin move, a hard cut. A little Correll Buckhalter. A little Derek Brown. A little Josh Davis. Watson has a weapon there, whether or not Burkhead stays at the Wildcat QB, or hands the reins to Taylor Martinez.

Does Watson have a quarterback? Lee took a step forward Wednesday night, but I still think he is inconsistent and a little robotic as a runner. Cody Green, who burned a timeout and nearly threw a bad interception, again looked adrift and ill-prepared on the field. But it’s hard to get a grip in a couple drives when Lee gets the whole game.

Unfortunately, you don’t get the offensive sequel for nine months. You won’t even get a sneak peek trailer for four months. And don’t presume that Nebraska solved its problems in one bowl game. Arizona seemed struck by the stage and the stakes. Stoops’ team needs to grow up some. I suspect that he knew that earlier in the week, and hoped it wouldn’t matter too much in the game. But it did.

Arizona’s at now where Nebraska resided in early 2008. What a journey since then for the Big Red. Despite the kind of losses that make you want to starve for a week, Pelini pulled his troops through, and has them positioned for a national title run in 2010.

I don’t know about the Huskers being “five times better” next year. For one thing, a lot of pro-style offenses roll onto the schedule, and you can’t just trot Dejon Gomes out there at linebacker to stop the inside counter. The Huskers absolutely must find two or three serviceable linebackers.

But, provided Nebraska does that, a trip to Phoenix - for one of two BCS games held there - should be the early expectation. The Big 12 will be ripe for the plucking. The best of NU’s recruiting classes - the 2007 bunch rotates fully into upperclassmen mode. That solid class of 2008 - that included all of the red shirt freshmen, finally begins to contribute more, as well.

Hope springs eternal. Football championships are autumnal. I think we have 33 reasons to put those two sentiments together for next year.

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The five plays that thousands of Nebraska fans missed at the outset of the 2009 Holiday Bowl turned out to be the only ones No. 22 NU really needed to secure victory over No. 20 Arizona.

What followed the Cornhuskers’ touchdown in the first 75 seconds of the game - which went untelevised on ESPN because of the end of Idaho’s 43-42 win in the Humanitarian Bowl - was gravy, and arguably the most dominant performance in Nebraska bowl history, as NU crushed the Wildcats 33-0 at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium Wednesday night.

"It was a complete win," said a relatively subdued head coach Bo Pelini, who badly beat his friend, Arizona head coach Mike Stoops. "...It was nothing fancy."

Indeed, Stoops said Pelini "had mercy" on Arizona, which in turn prompted Stoops to forego a chip-shot field goal late in fourth quarter and try for a touchdown on the Wildcats lone successful drive of the game. Reserve safety P.J. Smith knocked down a fourth down pass from Arizona quarterback Nick Foles, preserving the shutout and touching off a wild, out-of-character celebration on NU's sidelines.

"Nothing was right all night," Stoops said. "Give Nebraska credit...I don't know if we were just content getting here, but we certainly didn't show up."

Nebraska certainly did - in all three phases.

Building off a brilliant defensive performance in the Big 12 Championship game, the Blackshirts managed to better themselves, notching the first shutout in the Huskers’ 46 bowl appearances, and the first in the history of the high-scoring Holiday Bowl, too. Nebraska held Arizona - an offense averaging more than 400 yards per game - to just 109 yards, more than half of its coming on the game’s final drive.

Nebraska, 10-4, felt disrespected by Arizona prior to the game, all-everything defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said. Suh and his mates wasted little time in earning it, as safety Matt O'Hanlon intercepted Foles on the third play of the game, returning the ball to the Zona 6-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback Zac Lee scored on a naked bootleg around the right end, diving over the pylon.

Anxious, frustrated Husker fans only saw a replay of that touchdown. ESPN joined the Holiday Bowl feed just as kicker Alex Henery made the extra point.

"It was huge," Pelini said. "We got momentum right away."

The next 58 minutes of the game weren't much different. The NU secondary blanketed Arizona's wide receivers. Foles, confused and frustrated, overthrew several targets, completing just 6 of 20 passes for 28 yards. Passes Foles threw well were dropped. The Wildcats (8-5) didn't bother trying to run the ball until their final drive of the game, when Keola Antonin ripped off 36 of the team's 63 rushing yards on a single play.

"I didn't have a good throw all night," Foles said. "I've got to get my butt back to work."

Henery nailed four field goals - a Holiday Bowl record - of 22, 41, 48 and 50 yards. Niles Paul set up the Huskers with excellent field position with a punt return of 28 yards and a kickoff return of 44 yards.

The surprise was NU's offense, which produced 396 total yards and a number of big plays, highlighted by Zac Lee's 74-yard touchdown pass to Paul in the third quarter.

"It was a little bit of redemption," said Lee, who added that Nebraska had won enough ugly games during the regular season to endure a repeat of that in San Diego.

Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson - back in the booth for the Holiday Bowl, instead of down on the field - unveiled a series of wrinkles, including a shorter shotgun formation for Lee to run the zone read with Rex Burkhead and Roy Helu and the Wildcat formation with Burkhead playing quarterback. That formation accounted for most of the yards on a seven-play, 82-yard touchdown drive that padded Nebraska's lead to 17-0.

"It's something we had in our hip pocket," Pelini said. "It's a good wrinkle - something that Rex does well."

Said Stoops: "They kept us off balance all night. They had a good plan. Our defense struggled for some reason."

Nebraska churned out 226 yards, executed almost exclusively out of the shotgun, which mirrored the offense from earlier in the season.

"This was more 'us,'" said Lee, whose arm helped NU convert 9 of 18 third down attempts.

Lee tossed for 173 yards - 123 of them went on four passes to Paul. He played most of the meaningful snaps in the game. Freshman backup Cody Green got a series in the second quarter with NU leading 17-0, but nearly threw an interception. A series in the fourth quarter led to another three-and-out.

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Of all the gin joints in the world, they had to put Bo Pelini and Mike Stoops in the same one Wednesday night at the Holiday Bowl.

Could have been worse, Pelini said, than Nebraska and Arizona locking horns in San Diego’s beloved bowl game.

“There was a chance for awhile there that Mike was going to have to play (brother) Bob,” Pelini said of Oklahoma and its head coach, Bob Stoops. “I don’t know what the heck would have gone on there.”

The Youngstown buddies laughed and joked throughout their joint press conference Tuesday. Both wearing sport coats - Pelini donned his usual collarless shirt as an undergarment - they traded jabs about painting houses at youths, and “some fun card games,” Stoops said, when they were both graduate assistants at Iowa. He didn’t elaborate.

“What goes in Iowa, stays in Iowa, I guess,” Bo said. “I don’t think people realize how intertwined our families were for such a long time. Our families are tight. We’re good friends. It’s like playing against your brother.”

From there, they covered the usual territory. Growing up together. Shared philosophies. The elder Stoops, Ron, and the effect he had on the Pelini coaching tree.

“Mike’s father was like a second father to me,” Pelini said. “When you play under a man like that and in a culture like that, it has a big impact.”

Then there’s how Pelini felt for Stoops when, at LSU, his Tigers thumped Arizona 45-3 in 2006.

“Everything he had worked for up to that point - sometimes it gets clouded when you get a setback like that,” Pelini said. “When you see a friend going through that, with all the hard work he put into it, it was hard to watch. It was hard for me to be a part of that.”

A luncheon of old, familiar friends. It remains to be seen just which Nebraska team - and which Arizona team - actually appears Wednesday night.

Bo seems confident, almost ebullient. This is Bowl Bo, who flashes a big smile and adds a dash of charm. It’s a curious short-term transformation from the guy who, for much of the season, bandied back and forth with reporters, frustrated at some of the questions - and the lack of offensive progress. On Tuesday, he busted out warm-n-fuzzy buzz words - mature, fresh, love - to describe a team whose last experience on the field was among the most painful in NU history.

“We keep getting better every week,” he said. “I love the culture about how our kids go to work every day. I love their attitude and their commitment to each other. It gives us a chance to win a long time to come. And that’s not going away. I believe our depth is growing and in every aspect of our program I see things heading in the right direction. And that gives me a great sense of satisfaction.”

Maybe a week traveling with Ndamukong Suh helped him appreciate just what he’s done at Nebraska in two short years. Maybe he’s shifted into a mode we’ll see annually from this point forward. Maybe it’s that, frankly, not much is at stake in San Diego, no matter how fans want to drum up manufactured disrespect or illusory goals that the Huskers just don’t have.

I suggested as much last week and got thrown on the spit for it.

I wasn’t claiming then - or now - that NU would be unmotivated or unprepared. Nebraska’s always ready for a scrum, save a 62-28 loss to Oklahoma.

Rather, NU has to create motivation, rather than having a shoulder chip piping hot out of the oven. And that’s not always been easy for the Huskers to do in the Pelini era. You have two Colorado games as evidence.

If USC had been the Holiday Bowl opponent, I think you would have seen a large measure of vengeance - for two severe beatdowns suffered at the hands of the Trojans in 2006 and 2007 - playing a role for some of the juniors and seniors who were around for those debacles.

Arizona provides no such grist for the mill.

And Bo, offering up more smiles and compliments this week than he’s doled out in almost two years, isn’t trying to conjure it up, either.

“It does provide momentum for in the offseason, winning your bowl game, but it’s not going to define you for the future,” he said. “It’s the next challenge ahead of us. What’s on the line? I think it’s the next challenge.”

What about the ten-win season?

“Did I come into this season saying ‘We have to win ten games?’ No, I didn’t,” Pelini said. “Right now our record is at 9-4. Our goal is to win game ten. It’s the next step in the process. That’s up to you guys, to make a big deal about whether it’s nine or ten.”

You can bet fans will, Bo. Trust me.

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And so, the final turn of a strange horse race for Nebraska football in 2009, ending in a place where folks still flock watch horses run: Southern California. It’s Nebraska’s second, and potentially last, trip to the Holiday Bowl, seeing that the game swaps places with the Alamo Bowl following this year, and NU has zero intent ever falling back down to fifth or sixth in the Big 12 bowl slots again.

Arizona, the Cornhuskers’ opponent, probably won’t be making the trip again, either. The Pac 10 is hopping to San Antonio, too. Weird that the Holiday Bowl actually wants an also-ran bunch from the Great Lakes in its game, as opposed to the Mountain West champion or runner-up, which hearkens back to the game’s impressive roots. But that’s that nature of bowls today. Remember - they’re about the kids!

Kudos to Qualcomm Stadium getting a full house, though. It’s an atmosphere every bowl game deserves and Husker fans typically deliver. If there’s one gift the best fans in college football give to their team each year, it’s the guarantee of the best possible bowl destination. If only more fan bases poured out their support like the Big Red. Sellouts at home. Clans of cornheads on the road. Can’t beat it.

On with the keys:

Preparation: I won’t say Nebraska has taken it easy during its bowl workouts. That would be inaccurate. The Huskers’ practices are plenty tough. But Pelini invoked no less than an NFL-style prep schedule for this game: Six days of install back in Lincoln, a five-day break, and three more practices in San Diego, all in the morning, with an eye toward letting the players enjoy their afternoons. I don’t much count Tuesday’s walk-through as a practice.

Arizona’s pursued a slightly busier schedule, arriving two days earlier.

What difference might that make? We’ll see. Nebraska’s defense, at this point, doesn’t need a lot of fine-tuning, while the offense needs so much that modesty is probably the best course of action anyhow.

Foiling Foles: Arizona quarterback has the stature, arm strength and feathered hair to make it as an NFL quarterback. He doesn’t jump off the page, but he puts some zip on the ball, and isn’t afraid to stick the ball into a tight window of defenders.

The question for the Holiday Bowl, of course, is whether he can do it against a highly aggressive nickel/dime’dollar defense. Against the nation’s best four-man pass rush.

Arizona will try to scheme success, I suspect. Watch for clearout slants like Kansas State used, and back-shoulder throws against man-to-man coverage, with the intent of drawing pass interference penalties. Any offense must already know how hard it will be to consistently hit passes in the 5-10 yard range. Nebraska doesn’t allow it. Texas tried for two drives, then gave it up. Missouri kept trying, and paid the price.

Only Texas Tech really figured it out. And I still think NU’s safeties are vulnerable against the deep out and throwback plays. Will Foles get the time to make those throws and reads?

Physical speed vs. mental speed: Arizona’s not your typical Pac 10 football team. Built on principles borrowing heavily from Oklahoma (defense) and Texas Tech (offense), the Wildcats are about as quick off the paw as any team NU’s faced, including OU, Virginia Tech and Texas. Because Zona blitzes more than most Pac 10 teams, it’s incumbent on the quarterback - in this case, Zac Lee - to make the right checks before the snap, have his hot reads ready, and fire under pressure.

Color me surprised if the Huskers are able to get in super-heavy formations and pound away at Arizona, although, most assuredly, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson will try. Rather, NU’s offensive success - at least when Lee is in the game - boils down to a short, smart playaction passing game balanced with inside runs.

Green Light? The mini-audition of freshman quarterback Cody Green intrigues me. Is it a half-hearted stab at putting the kid on the field as a gold watch, of sorts, for burning his redshirt? Or is it a full-bodied attempt to exploit his talents and create mismatches on the edge of the defense with zone read plays and moving pockets?

I suppose it depends on how Watson sees a kid like Green. Does he envision a Terrelle Pryor type, who struggles to throw the ball consistently, yet makes dynamic, exciting plays with his feet? Or does he envision somebody like Texas A&M’s Jerrod Johnson, who only scrambles when flushed and play an above-average West Coast quarterback?

Yes, I know I just asked four questions without giving you an answer. Mea culpa.

I’m just skeptical of Watson and Pelini’s plans for the kid, is all. Since his let-it-all-hang-out performance vs. Texas Tech - in which he flashed promising spirit and playmaking skills - Green has been asked to perform the bare minimum in terms of offense, rarely getting the chance to operate the versatile shotgun attack he ran in high school. If Nebraska ties Green to the proverbial tree in San Diego, there’s a better chance he makes a more costly error than if NU turns him loose. Hence, the skepticism. If you place an athlete - used to making decisions on the fly - inside a system that programs those decisions and asks for precision within a window the size of Mike Leach’s dark, cool closet, aren’t you trying to pound a round peg into a smaller square hole.

I’ll let you answer that one.

The Specials: Nebraska will meet its match in the Arizona, which sports excellent returners, a decent kickoff unit (11 touchbacks) and kicker Alex Zendejas, who made 17-of-22 field goal attempts this year. The Wildcats are a bit weak in punt coverage, but, otherwise, they comprise the best special teams test NU’s faced since, well, Virginia Tech. All those little details - snap, placement, lane integrity, creating space to catch the ball, protection on the punt team - will add up to one big play Wednesday. The question is: Who gets the play?

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