“I'm never disrespectful. I've been pretty direct. I'm a very direct person. I'm pretty black and white. I understand people have a job to do, and you guys have a job to do. I'm very direct, I'm very to the point. That's who I am.”

-- Bo Pelini, Nebraska Football Head Coach.

Read the entire blog, "Bo: I'm Getting Calmer with Media, Zebras" on Husker Locker October 20, 2009.

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“We’d better have an edge. We’ve got a helluva football team [Texas Tech] coming in here. They’re playing well. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

-- Bo Pelini.


See the entire story from the October 13 blog: "Pelini Snuffs Blackshirt Chatter."

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“Our job is to play our football and celebrate that thing by us playing Nebraska football, and that’s with passion, great effort and executing to our standard.”

-- Bo Pelini, Nebraska Cornhusker's Head Coach.



Read the entire article in "ULL Week: Five Keys" on Huskerlocker.com

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“We need to make this a fuel to make this a better football team, rather than a distraction that can make us divide. We won’t let it happen. We know how address that. That’s the challenge that lies ahead. I love those challenges. Our football team loves those challenges. We’re going rise up. It’s only way I know. It’s the only way this football team knows. It’s what that ‘N’ on the side of the football helmet represents.”

-- Bo Pelini

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“National TV means nothing. Where we’re playing means nothing. It’s about execution between the lines. Period. End of story. If we’re able to do that, we’ll like the outcome." -- Bo Pelini

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“The long sand is gone and the talk is stars. They circle in a dome over Nebraska.” -- Carl Sandburg


From the book, Cornhusker, this is a phrase from the poem "Sunset" published in 1915. Nearly 100 years later, this describes the feeling of being in Memorial Stadium at night looking at the stars with the State Capitol in the distance.

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“I think that’s what makes the University of Nebraska unique over any place I’ve been coaching-how much it means to the state. It’s like one big family, and that’s what I want it to be.” -- Bo Pelini

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“I thought Coach Osborne was very genuine. I knew he really cared about me as a person, even more than he did as a football player. Yes, he recognized me initially because of my football talents and all that, but I knew he cared about me deeply as a person. That means a lot to me.” -- Turner Gill

From “Beyond the Final Score” by Tom Osborne, 2009 published by Regal

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"Celebrity is only important in how you use it—whether you use it to help people or not. Tom did that. He could have endorsed a football shoe or something and made more money, but he chose to do something with his celebrity that would make a difference in the lives of people.” -- Warren Buffett


Praise for “Beyond the Final Score” by Tom Osborne, 2009 published by Regal

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“What we’re tying to do is take the gentlemen that are on campus and develop them and try to push them to reach their potential.” - Bo Pelini

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"Trophies and whistles and bells and rings don't excite me that much. What really excites me is playing as well as you can, getting the most out of your football team, doing it a certain way." --- Tom Osborne.


This quote is from Triumph Book's Game Day published in 2006.

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"Oppossing teams were dumbfounded when our fans stood and congratulated them for a good, clean effort, even on those rare occassions when they won. The state is largely defined by the success of its football team. For some, that burden was too heavy. For those of us who perserved, however, it was easy to see why people say, "There's no place like Nebraska." -- Trev Alberts.

This came from the Forward to Game Day, 2006 by Triumph Books out of Chicago.

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“He taught me so much about life and the spiritual part of myself. He was the main reason I chose the University of Nebraska in the first place, and he was the one who helped me grow into the person I am. I knew he would make me a better person, not necessarily a better quarterback or better football player. And I was right. We have so much tradition, loyalty, and integrity at Nebraska, and that’s what this football program has been about for all these years. I thank God for putting Nebraska there for me.” -- Turner Gill

This is Buffalo head coach Turner Gill’s remarks in What It Means To Be A Husker by Jeff Snook in his 2004 publication.

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"This program is very important to the state. One thing that tends to unify those 93 counties out there is athletics. The football program particularly. It's provided an identity to the state. It's part of the psyche." – Tom Osborne

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“Number one, he can say anything he wants to me at any time. Number two, he has a tremendous understanding of the game. Anybody who has knowledge, you’d be crazy not to listen to them.” --Bo Pelini.


The head coach of the Nebraska football team responded, when asked if he has Athletic Director Tom Osborne contributes to the offense. Tom Osborne’s offense won three national titles.


“I just tell them what little I remember.” --Tom Osborne

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“I'm very excited about the identity forming around this program and the culture forming around this program. And I think we're in for good things." -- Carl Pelini.


As a second-season coach on his brother, Bo Pelini’s staff, Carl Pelini helped the Cornhusker team to one of the nation’s most improved defensive units. The defensive coordinator and defensive line coach, Carl Pelini’s defense finished second in the conference in total defense. Nationally, the defense also ranked in the top twenty-five teams in rushing defense. The Pelini Blackshirts had 35 sacks in 2008, well above the 13 sacks in the previous year.


“As a staff, we decided that certain things would be integral, or essential, to our operations. One of the things is simple and that's effort. We went out and looked at every play during the spring and then went back and graded it on a second look to see their effort. We did that and took a lot of time to do it, but it changed the whole makeup of our team.”

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"Bo comes across as a guy who doesn't engage in a lot of double-talk and has a good work ethic. There's a feeling he's going to get the team to play hard, that there'll be a lot of passion." -- Tom Osborne.

This was the feeling of former Head Coach and now permanent Athletic Director for the Nebraska Cornhuskers on his hiring of Head Coach Bo Pelini.

Dr. Tom Osborne knows that what is essential as a coach in this environment, is a great work ethic. Nebraskans practice what others preach on the work ethic.

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“You can tell by looking at me that I've got more miles behind me than I've got in front of me. When you reach that point, if you've got some good years left, you want to make sure that you use them wisely.” --Tom Osborne.

Serving as Athletic Director is a wise use of his time. The good news yesterday for the University of Nebraska and their Cornhusker sports, is that Tom Osborne has agreed to stay. The 72 year-old former national championship coach had originally planned to step down in 2010. He became athletic director in 2007 on an interim basis, and full time as Bo Pelini took the reins as head coach.


Osborne retired from coaching in 1997 after 25 years as head coach, winning national championships in 1994, 1995, and 1997. His record was an amazing win/loss percentage of 255 wins, 49 losses, and three ties.


"I enjoy working with student-athletes, coaches and other athletic department personnel and hope that together we can serve the people of Nebraska and the university well."

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“Friends are like elevator buttons, they either take you up or they take you down.” --Tom Osborne.


Friends can mentor and guide you through life. To further this concept, Tom and Nancy Osborne founded the TeamMates Mentoring Program in 1991 in an effort to provide support and encouragement to school aged youth. The goal of the program is to see youth graduate from high school and pursue post-secondary education.

To reach this goal, youth meet one hour per week with a caring adult who serves as a mentor. Mentors are volunteers from the community who have dedicated themselves to making a difference in the life of a young person. Mentors give youth a sense of hope, purpose and vision.


The TeamMates Mentoring Program currently provides a mentor for over 3,000 youth across Nebraska and Iowa. The goal of TeamMates is to serve 10,000 youth and be nationally recognized as the leading school-based mentoring program by 2015.


www.teammates.org

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"He was very, very considerate, compassionate, and loyal. He was a guy who was really there for the team and assistant coaches. He treated everyone the same. And when I say that, I am talking about whether you were the first-team quarterback or the fourth-team defensive tackle, he would treat you the same way. He would talk to you the same way, he would encourage you the same way. He was there for you--for your ups and downs, whether you were doing well on the field, off the field, academically, with your family. He was consistent in everything he did. There was no up and down with Tom Osborne." --Turner Gill.


This quote comes from the book written by Steve Richardson, called "Then Osborne Said to Rozier...": The Best Nebraska Cornhusker Stories Ever Told. The book was published by Triumph Books out of the Chicago in 2008.

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"If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work." -- William Shakespeare.

The poet seems to write the common sense we all know. It truly describes why we find our Cornhusker sporting life so refreshing, and why we wait in anticipation for fall.

This quote is from Henry IV, Part 2, I.ii.208-209. "Coach" Shakespeare writes in this play about the sporting life in the 15th century and the interactions between a young prince, Hal; and, his closest friend and mentor Falstaff, a jovial, aging, witty criminal. Falstaff and some of Hal's other friends have won wealth and power at the Battle of Shrewsbury. We watch Falstaff, now an army captain, drink in a London tavern and travel around the countryside to recruit young men to serve in the upcoming battles.

He touts the sporting life and the battles to be won for the aging King Henry IV and the upcoming prince Hal. The young prince ends up at his father's house as the King is dying and vows to be a responsible King. As the play closes we see the new King Henry V place Falstaff in his rightful place.

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“Coach Osborne seemed very relaxed the week before the game. After each practice he’d call us to the middle of the field for a short team meeting. He was extremely businesslike. He’d tell us how he felt the practice went. He told us that we would play a game like we practiced and that if we practiced hard and didn’t make mental mistakes, then the same would be true during the game. “You play like you practice.” ---George Mills.


This is an account of a young athlete in Coach Tom Osborne’s first year as head coach in A View from the Bench. A back-up for John Dutton on the Cornhusker team, George Mills gives a first hand account of being a student athlete in the Nebraska football program. It tells about the struggles and joys of being a member of the Cornhuskers, even in a back-up role.


“It was like the coming together of 120 athletes around a lone figure, a tall, red-headed man in sweat clothes and a ballcap, in an empty shadow-covered stadium…The man cared. We cared. For a brief moment we were a family.”


A View from the Bench was published by the University of Illinois Press on paperback in 2004.

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"The red ones...the long ones in stripes, and each of the little black and white checked ones. Keep them: I tell my heart: keep them another year, another ten years; they will be wanted again. They came once, they came easy, they came like a first white flurry of snow in late October. Have a red one...have these yet a year, yet ten years." -- Carl Sandburg.


This is from the poem, "Films" in the Pulitzer prize winning collection, Cornhuskers. The collection of 100 poems about the everyday life, dreams and hope of the people on the plains was published in 1918 by Henry Holt and Company.


Sandburg was a historian, poet, and folk singer about life on the prairie. Cornhusker shows how well he knew the working-class people, their intense optimism, and undying loyality.

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"There is no end to the plan and the clue, the hunt and the thirst. The motors are drumming, the leather leggings and the leathers coats wait...out to the stars we go." - Carl Sandburg.


This is from the poem, Leather Leggings in the Pulitzer prize winning collection, Cornhuskers. The collection of 100 poems about the everyday life, dreams and hope of the people on the plains was published in 1918 by Henry Holt and Company.


Sandburg was a historian, poet, and folk singer about life on the prairie. Cornhusker shows how well he knew the working-class people, their intense optimism, and undying loyality.

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"I'll not budge an inch." -- William Shakespeare

From the Taming of the Shrew, I.1.14

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"We need a head coach with strong defensive credentials and great leadership. We were also looking for someone who can inspire confidence and get players to play with great effort.

And, of course, we also wanted our new head coach to understand our traditions, including the importance of our walk-on program and the importance of football in this state." -- Dr. Tom Osborne, Introducing Bo Pelini as Head Coach.

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“When you surround them with that type of kid [walk-ons], who grew up living or dying whether Nebraska won or lost, and you look around and some of those talented guys and some of those guys from across the nation, they became that much more committed to the program because they were surrounded by people who had an extreme level of commitment. That’s what it’s all about.” -- Bo Pelini

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"This [walk-on] program is very important to the state. One thing that tends to unify those 93 counties out there is athletics. The football program particularly. It's provided an identity to the state. It's part of the psyche." – Tom Osborne.


In the words of our Husker Locker editor in an article prepared on the Walk on program, Sam Mckeown said, “Walk-on. If you grow up in Nebraska, you’ve heard the term 100 times before the fifth grade. Old men sit around and wax poetic about the idea of it. It is, in this state just as common as the local boy who gets a scholarship to Dear Old U and does good. It is the local boy who doesn’t get a scholarship to dear old U, and does good anyway.


The term is often used admiringly in connection to Nebraska football. Sometimes – when a blue chip is surpassed by one – the term is used with the slightest bit of derision. Other times, it becomes a verb describing something close to a quest on the road less traveled: He decided, instead, to walk on at Nebraska"


There is a mystique about it. Osborne said Pelini's effort this year brought in a crop of walk-on players "as good as we ever had in our peak years."

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“There is a tremendous commitment from the people and the state. The more guys we can bring in from this state, the more ownership the people of the state of Nebraska are going to feel for this program. It is extremely important to all of us involved.” -- Bo Pelini

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“I am a brother of the cornhuskers who say at sundown: To-morrow is a day.” --Carl Sandburg.

This is from the poem "Prairie" published in the collection titled Cornhuskers in 1918 by Henry Holt and Company. The collection is over 100 poems and won Sandburg a tremendous following across the United States as a man with the "prairie voice."


Husker Locker is a sharing place, a community. We call it "Big Red Soul." We share the entire spirit of what it means to be a Fan. Carl Sandburg's poetry captures this hope and excitement. The poety endures nearly a hundred years later as it paints a true feeling of what it means to be a "Cornhusker!"

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