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 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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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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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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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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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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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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Six strong takes for your Monday morning coffee. It’s free of snow - we promise.

*Kudos to Bo Pelini granting a long-form interview last week with Tom Shatel of the Omaha World-Herald. Bo needs to do this more, not less, often. The man is sharp and expansive in a relaxed setting, and, dear Husker fans, the man is not in a relaxed setting when he walks off the practice field.

About 25 percent of the chat focused on the future of Nebraska’s offense - as it should - and Bo’s apparently shared vision with offensive coordinator Shawn Watson on its identity and direction. Bo already stated his plans one week ago, but he reiterated them again, drawing comparisons to Alabama - which has an equally good defense as Nebraska, but a more productive offense.

A couple thoughts about the comparison.

1. Bill Callahan didn’t want Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy. Maybe could have had him; didn’t want him. McElroy, as it turns out, has the savvy, intelligence and playmaking skills necessary to be a top-flight QB. Chew and choke on that.

2. Alabama’s offense uses the wildcat with Mark Ingram. Only ten snaps per game, but it works. Here’s the Tide’s left guard Mike Johnson on why it’s been successful.

"When you think about stacking the box, one of the main things we focus on is that we're just trying to get the running back through one gap,” Johnson said. “They can have all they want to up there, but they can't fit nine people into one gap. If we can get the running back that seam, then we'll be successful and gain yardage."

Rex Burkhead - a former quarterback with decisive moves - is an excellent fit for the role.

3. Take a look at Youngstown Cardinal Mooney’s offense and running back Braylon Heard in it. Look familiar? Once Heard packs 10-15 pounds for the college game, he’ll be a downhill runner with wiggle.

4. Alabama’s Julio Jones may not have eye-popping numbers at wide receiver, but his size and ability force defenses to roll their safeties toward him in bracket coverage. That opens up the rest of the field for the Tide‘s receivers and tight ends. Translation: Niles Paul has to be good enough in 2010 to not only make catches vs. double coverage, but draw attention for the Huskers to develop a second option - like Brandon Kinnie.

*Cody Green looks like a lock to play in the Holiday Bowl. Good. Now give him some plays that shows off his athleticism.

Sorry, but the kid’s been caged within a funny structure of playaction passes and slow-moving speed options. When you recruit a quarterback, presumably you do it understanding the attendant risks - which, in Green’s case, includes a shotgun-only, zone-read-heavy high school system. Green without his bread-and-butter running plays is Almodovar without Penelope Cruz. What’s the point? Before Bo goes off into the land of the double tight ends, he may want to make sure he doesn’t have a Robert Griffin on his hands. Right?

Or is that dynamic athlete now Taylor Martinez?

*Missouri sure is courting the Big Ten. Won’t the Tigers look dumb if the Big Ten invites Rutgers, Syracuse or Pittsburgh instead?

If Mizzou wants to bolt, here’s to the Big 12 making a bold choice: BYU. Great, albeit unique, football program. Ask Doc Sadler about the basketball team. The Cougars have a national following, a recognizable name brand, good women’s teams and a committed athletic department. And let’s just address the elephant in the room right now, because the whispers surely would exist behind closed doors in Dallas: Any talk of religion, in terms of an athletic conference, is completely inappropriate. It’s not an issue with Baylor. It shouldn’t be one with the Cougars.

*A recent Sports Illustrated profile reveals Urban Meyer to be a fairly anguished, dramatic persona. So I guess I’m not stunned by the last 48 hours, in which he resigned - telling a rather heartfelt story about his 18-year-old daughter getting her “daddy” back on Christmas Eve - then changed his mind. He’ll take an extended vacation instead.

I’m sure much be will said about this reversal - expect ESPN and other national outlets to hold the guy in deep, abiding reverence - so I’ll just say this: I really, really want Cincinnati to beat the Gators in the Sugar Bowl.

*If Nebraska basketball coach Doc Sadler could just get a healthy team, for one month, who knows what the Huskers might do. But such a reality remains just beyond Doc’s reach. Do the Huskers practice too hard? Not exactly. But nobody practices harder. It bears worth watching in future years.

Good to see Eshaunte Jones getting hot as a three-point shooter - he lit it up in Las Vegas, where the Huskers finished 1-1 - because NU needs his range to help free up Jorge Brian Diaz and Quincy Hankins-Cole on the blocks.

Could the Big 12 be any harder? Nah. But if NU can manage a 7-9 league record, it’ll be in excellent position for a NCAA Tournament berth. That 51-48 road win at USC (now 8-4) looks better every day.

*Count me interested to see how Nebraska’s women’s team handles, well, being really good. We’re talking, Final Four-contending, 25-30 wins good. Of course you’d hate to see Kelsey Griffin and Co. look ahead - or would you? There’s something to be said for seizing the moment. It doesn’t come around often, and head coach Connie Yori officially has lightning in the Bob Devaney Sports Center bottle. The Huskers will draw great crowds for the rest of the year following that huge win vs. LSU last Sunday, and they should be in a race with Baylor for the Big 12 crown.

You can bet the Bears are aiming for a Final Four. Is Nebraska? If you win the Big 12 - the nation’s best conference, three years running - what’s to stop you?

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Bo Pelini is happy to talk shop at length on two topics: The "process" and evolution of his defense.

On matters offensive, even with production that recalls the opening scenes of "The Road," Nebraska's head coach tends to morph into a reasonably inartful dodger, using buzz words and catchphrases to dance around just how NU evolves into a championship-contending offense.

On Saturday, before you sopped up that egg yolk with a corner of toast, Pelini offered his most revealing comments to date. It signaled his ownership of that side of the ball, and a shift - the extent isn't yet clear - from the spread/West Coast principles established midway through last year.

Run/pass balance? Sure, Pelini said.

"I want to be 50/50," he said.

But how NU goes about running the ball in the future - at least from Pelini's perspective - is more like what Cornhusker fans have seen in the last six games - and less like the back-to-the-future look offensive coordinator Shawn Watson seems to have preferred in recent conversations.

"I know in this football program, I want to be able to run a physical football team and I want to be able to run the football," Pelini said as Nebraska's team dispersed for its holiday break until Dec. 24. "Believe me, I understand the need to throw the ball. I mean, everybody has to be able to throw the football. But that's the No. 1 priority going forward. We're going to have a way - we're going to be committed to - running the football when we want to. To me that's the key to a good football team."

And so - if you need a thesis statement on Nebraska's identity to tack up on the basement wall - there you go.

How NU plans on establishing that running presence, Pelini wasn't as specific. At end of the 2009 season, preparing for a Holiday bowl game in which little is likely to change in terms of scheme, may not be the time to unveil it anyway.

But Pelini did add this nugget: "Are we going to be limited to running the zone read going forward? No. I promise you that. It ain't gonna be limited to that."

Watson is fully on board, Pelini said.

"We've been on the same page and we always will be on the same page, because we communicate real well," Pelini said. "And I have a tremendous amount of confidence in him. I like the direction of where we're headed."

Prior to the Big 12 Championship game, Watson said he wanted the offense to return to its roots in 2008, when quarterback Joe Ganz threw the ball 30-40 times per game and most running plays were executed out of a shotgun spread formation. That was the case early in 2009, as well - until the final drive of the Missouri game, when Nebraska unveiled a quadruple-tight formation.

In games vs. the Tigers, Kansas and Colorado, NU scored crucial fourth-quarter touchdowns using super-heavy sets and blocking fullbacks.

What do think of the West Coast Offense? Talk about it here!

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Shawn Watson, owner of a lonely offense, is usually good for a line or two, and he didn't disappoint Wednesday.

Asked if having the nation's 102nd-ranked offense puts his job as Nebraska's offensive coordinator in jeopardy, Watson smiled and fired this one-liner: “Bo knows. He's been totally on the same page with us all the way through everything.”

Well, yeah. Bo Pelini darn near wrote the book for the last half of NU's season. It's not like Watson would draw the shell of a hermit crab on greaseboard and proclaim to his quarterbacks “Boys – the new attack!” Pelini gambled, placed all of his chips on the equivalent of the pass line at the craps table, and watched opposing offenses try – and miserably fail - to break the house defense.

The Blackshirts pulled a smash-n-grab. They destroyed Texas' beautiful offense, scrambled Colt's eggs. They're on too much of a roll to stop, collaborate and relearn techniques they've come close to mastering.

That's why, when asked whether NU was using much of this Holiday Bowl prep to run the scout team pups through the basics of the Brothers Pelini, Bo shrugged a little, dismissed the notion, and said “We're trying to win a football game.”

As in – who else is going to win it?

Watson, meanwhile, had his troops going through a three-day crash course that mirrored, “ an install, like a fall camp or spring ball.” Quarterbacks worked on drops and read recognition. Offensive line coach Barney Cotton rolled out the chute a couple times for a lesson in getting and staying low. Receivers shifted back to ball skills.

“We had to give ourselves an opportunity to get our wind back in our sails,” Watson said. Nebraska needed that after gaining just 106 yards in the Big 12 Championship, and being “humbled,” Watson said, by the paltry performance.

Zac Lee appears to be the guy again, if Pelini's endorsement on Tuesday means anything, even though he, Cody Green and LaTravis Washington have been getting equal reps during the “back to basics” days. Nor did Watson close off the potential of still recruiting a quarterback for the 2010 class.

What about a JUCO guy, he was asked. You don't typically recruiting junior college transfers, after all, unless the intent is for them to compete, quite strongly, for the starting job. There are a few still out there in the ether for NU to consider: Blinn's Cameron Newton, LA Harbor's Dominique Blackmon, and Fort Scott's Dominique Davis – who is currently committed to East Carolina, but now has three former teammates headed to Nebraska.

“I wouldn't say we wouldn't look at a junior college player,” Watson said. “But I'm not saying that's what we need, either. Don't misunderstand my statement: We'll take the best guy...it's not a must. I don't feel like anybody thinks it's a must. But we would like to bring competition into the room. An extra dimension. Elements we need.”

Read that however you wish, but couple those comments, at the very least, with Watson's answer to the Taylor Martinez question.

“We need to give him a chance to see what he can do,” Watson said. “We haven't had a chance to coach him in the full way. We won't exhaust that until we see what he can do.”

Martinez, of the lauded LA prep pedigree and the funny throwing motion, has been on scout team this fall. Outside of simulating Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor, he hasn't been used much at QB – most of those duties fell to the surprisingly capable, if you talk to NU defenders, walk-on Ron Kellogg – and was often lined up as a slot receiver.

“He can do it all,” said senior safety Larry Asante, who added Martinez is among NU's “top five” in terms of speed. “It doesn't matter. You can never be comfortable when he lines up. He challenges you. He's given us great looks all year.”

The Martinez-at-QB experiment wasn't supposed to last, mostly because he'd be too useful at other positions, especially as a nickel corner or safety. That Watson wants to give the kid a full shake in spring practice – and that he didn't entirely close down talk of a JUCO signal-caller – should suggest this: Mobility is in.

Comfort in one's place on the depth chart? Forget about it.

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Five changes Nebraska's offensive staff should consider for 2010:

Establish firm depth along the offensive line: Because of injuries and inexperience, offensive line coach Barney Cotton was forced to move around some of his proteges to different positions, which reduced some guys, like Derek Meyer (a natural tackle) to jack of all trades, master of none. With an influx of redshirt freshmen and JUCO tackle Jermarcus Hardrick, Cotton can finally begin to create a two-deep roster at each offensive line position, rather than trying out combinations up and down the line.

Find out if Cody Green has the passing skills to be the quarterback of the future: If he does, build the offense around his talents – not the other way around. Green looked like a fish out of water this year; he needs to be put in a system where he's reacting first, thinking second. Green's plenty smart, so if Shawn Watson's approach is too complicated for him, it's too complicated – period.

Set your starting wide receiver corps in spring ball if at all possible: Ted Gilmore dragged out the process until the last week of fall camp. Other than Niles Paul, you saw the result. NU needs more leadership at that position – not more uncertainty. And, yes – if that means Khiry Cooper falls behind because of his baseball career, well, so be it. That's the road he chooses to take. Cooper is more naturally gifted, from this vantage point, than any other pass-catcher on the team. But it doesn't mean much without quarterback chemistry.

Tell Roy Helu “It's time:” He's the best offensive player, when healthy, that Nebraska has. Helu needs to be a spokesman, along with Paul, for that side of the ball. That means the media, asking for the ball when necessary, and shooting straight with coaches when hurt. Helu's earned the right to take ownership. He needs to take it.

Put some speed on the field – and use it dynamically: That is, in sweeps and Wildcat formations and reverses. You can still be creative within the structure of a power offense.

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At nearly every postmodern, faux-hip Christmas party not worth a damn, there is tinsel, mistletoe, a fine array of “strengthened” cordials, three idiots in Santa caps, the guy who likes to dance to “White Christmas” as he sloshes the highballs being held in each hand, the minx who revs up to Eartha Kitt, the beleaguered hosts who spend most of the night tidying the trash can, the kids who tracked in snow, the amateur showman blowing the dust off his guitar case from last Christmas, the depressive contemplating Chet Baker out the window and drawing flirtatious looks from nerdy cute girls, and, of course, the platter.

The platter is often some holiday dish, with cursive writing or festive designs, your mom bought. Or you did, in the post-Christmas after-sale extravanganza at the local Big Box. Sometimes it's just a long, oval paper plate with a snowman and some kids, on it. The platter contains every Christmas treat known to the western world – and a few the Thais don't mind either. Sugar cookies. Frosted cookies. Chocolate cookies. Chocolate-frosted sugar cookies. Peanut brittle. Candy canes. Bark-covered pretzels. Fudge with nuts, fudge without nuts. A hard clump of dough with craisins in it. Corn Flakes glued together with almost-primordial sugar and dipped in a green acid bath. Twigs and sticks, drenched in chocolate. Peanut butter balls laced with marshmallows that sprout from the orb like poisonous mushrooms. Some vegan bar made without eggs or butter that looks like a divot your pitching wedge might take in early spring.

There is always one treat on this platter – much like there is one Girl Scouts cookie – that you wait the entire year to eat. Maybe you even filch two or three for the road, wrapping them in cocktail napkins and shoving them in the pocket of your coat lying on the bed in the spare room. For me, this is a simple ginger cookie - not much bigger than the participation medal you get on field day in grade school - with a mint Chocolate kiss pressed gently into the middle of it.

On the opposite end of the spectrum: The rum ball. It makes fruit cake taste, by comparison, like the work of culinary genius.

For one thing, I don't really get booze candy. Does anyone want a Seagram's Sucker? A Keystone Kit-Kat? Zima Licorice?

For another – the rest of rum ball is comprised of crushed-up vanilla wafers, chopped nuts, powdered sugar and dried fruits. Sweet Santa! About the only thing missing in Icelandic hakarl.

And yet, inevitably, you find yourself, once a year, subjecting yourself to a single bite of the rum ball. You try to chew it. You know it's sour and pointlessly crunchy, yet chewy to the point where you can't just swallow it. Eventually, you either spit it out and rinse your mouth with water, or you drink some actual rum for a little company.

Shawn Watson likes to say he went on an “ego diet” as Nebraska's offensive coordinator this year.

I prefer to think - he drank the rum.

Only, for Watson, it was worse than that. You see, for the first two games of the 2009 season – he thought he was eating a ginger cookie. We all did. NU slammed Florida Atlantic 49-3, and Arkansas State 38-9. Remember that? Seems ages ago, doesn't it, when head coach Bo Pelini was picking at the toughness and tackling of his defense, and quarterback Zac Lee started so well (42 of 59 for 553 yards, six touchdowns and one interception) pundits (this one included) were thumbing through the “records” portion of the football media guide.

Lee threw to all parts of the field. Menelik Holt and Curenski Gilleylen were living up to their preseason billing as improved players. Niles Paul showed off his big play skills. Roy Helu was busy hitting home runs. Mike McNeill already had eight catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns. The offensive line, though light on depth, seemed to be holding up.

Even after red flags were raised in a 16-15 loss to Virginia Tech – red zone issues, dumb penalties, Lee looking shaky and uncertain – NU seemed, well, still OK. The Huskers gashed the Hokies for almost 200 rushing yards. Helu looked tougher than ever. Lee would recover.

But, after a 27-12 win over Missouri - “the moment we've been waiting for!” Watson exclaimed - the Huskers lost something.

First, Helu hurt his shoulder, badly, on the second-to-last play. Second, rex Burkhead got hurt two days later in practice. Third, NU receivers coach benched Holt and Gilleylen in the Mizzou game for not playing with courage. Fourth, Watson and Pelini at least toyed with benching Lee against the Tigers although, let's face it, the conditions in which he was being asked to complete 15-yard deep outs were just awful. Fifth, near the end of the game, with NU leading 20-12, Watson shifted to a archaic-albeit-effective four-tight end offense and jammed it down the discouraged Tigers' throats.

You see? Columnists exclaimed. It worked! POW-er football. Hey, me too here. I was a big ol peanut in the gallery. (Still am, I suppose, because power football can and does work.)

Thanks, really, to Ndamukong Suh and The Blackshirts, NU had the key victory season in its pocket by early October. But the seeds had been planted for change. And when Nebraska got a nasty wake-up call one week later vs. Texas Tech, Watson's vision and personnel got a final chance vs. Iowa State. To paraphrase McCroskey from Airplane!, the Huskers picked the wrong time to commit eight turnovers.

***

I've seen enough of Pelini to know, by now, that one his best strengths – and his biggest potential weakness – is an adherence to his gut feeling. As much as Bo talks about the consistency of his process – about never getting too high or too low – you are not likely to see more drastic change in the history of Nebraska's offense than the charted course from the beginning of this season until the end. Few head coaches would be daring enough to even attempt it, and fewer offensive coordinators would submit to that kind of direction. We poked a lot of fun at Watson this year, but, seriously, the man has an admirable dose of humility.

Bo shut this thing down, folks. After Cody Green threw that Pick Six in the Baylor game, and had ants in his pants to start the Oklahoma game, the Brothers Pelini went back to what they knew: Defense, and an offense that won't screw it up. Thanks, again, to the Blackshirts and Alex Henery, it worked. But, in the process, NU didn't change identities so much as it lobotomized itself. Within the rigid structure of NU's new offense, Watson had only three speeds:

1. Plunge into the line and hope for the best.
2. Deep ball to Niles Paul
3. Speed option, at the physical peril of Lee

The problem with that plan:

1. NU's o-line injuries made a power game hard to execute.
2. Watson forgot about every other receiver in the process.
3. Lee can't run the option.

You already know the result.

The question now becomes: What scars does it leave for 2010?

More than a few. The offensive line will have literal scars after offseason surgeries. The rest of the unit has trust and leadership issues to resolve. Especially NU's receivers, who watched Holt, Gilleylen and Chris Brooks never catch another pass after the Iowa State game. That's pretty stunning.

Bo invoked the bunker mode in 2009. He can't do it again in 2010 expect to get any kind of difference-makers in recruiting. He's already lost Curtis Carter and Tyler Gabbert because of it.

My suggestions? Click here.

Otherwise, here's the offensive ginger cookies and rum balls from 2009.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Roy Helu. An early-season injury – and the flu – slowed a terrific, instinctive runner. He's still the best back NU's had in nearly a decade, but he has one more year to become a complete player – block, catch and run – and emerge as a team leader. Helu was practically a ghost during the last half of this season. And playing when he shouldn't have in the Iowa State game was a mistake.

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: Ricky Henry. The junior guard committed his share of penalties, but Henry led the team in pancake blocks, and set himself up for a big 2010. And, oh yeah – please dismiss the comparisons to Richie Incognito. Henry keeps a lid on his temper much better than that, and is a more positive influence on teammates.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Rex Burkhead. He'll share the backfield even more with Helu next year than he did in 2009. Big things are expected from this smiling, humble workhorse.

BEST GAME: Lafayette. A 55-0 win, Lee was sharp, so was Green, and all the receivers, tight ends and running backs got in on the fun.

WORST GAME: Texas. NU's defense gave the Huskers so many good chances. And UT's defense, while good – isn't that good. A failure of imagination and execution, among other things.

BEST SINGLE PERFORMANCE: Roy Helu, Virginia Tech. Helu established a career-high 169 yards rushing against a salty, physical defense. He busted some big runs, yes, but he did it by breaking tackles and evading defenders. That game revealed a lot about Helu's skill as a runner.

BIGGEST PLUS IN 2010: We think it'll be depth along the offensive line. With JUCO transfer Jermarcus Hardrick and redshirt freshmen Brent Qvale, Jeremiah Sirles, Nick Ash and Jesse Coffey ready to contribute – plus the possible return of tackle Jaivorio Burkes – you should see Barney Cotton's unit return to, at least, its 2008 form.

BIGGEST QUESTION MARK: Before even the quarterback, it has to be scheme and coaching personnel. Let's see how the next month shakes out. Let's just see.

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It's a minor pastime in this sunny room I call my office to gently rag on Gary Pinkel. Round here, he goes, generally, by Pinkel Factor. Although Pinkel has proven himself to be a good coach – one who has gored Nebraska four times since 2003 – that squinty, often-unchanging mug of his suggests a man potentially too deep in thought.

Who else runs shotgun zone reads at the goal line, anyway? Not even Mike Leach bothers to do that.

But, one must admit – the Pinkel Factor could reap some bountiful recruiting rewards come February at the hands of Nebraska's nouveau ineptiche offense.

While NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson was on his Apollo 13 mission/ego diet/Woody Hayes trip over the last six games, quarterback Tyler Gabbert and wide receiver Curtis Carter, two much ballyhooed commits for the 2010 recruiting class, didn't like what they saw. Both, in the days after the Cornhuskers' stirring effort vs. Texas, decommitted, essentially, from an offense they could no longer believe in.

At the top of their lists? Missouri. Natch for Gabbert, whose brother Blaine starts for the Tigers. Carter, meanwhile, forged a relationship with Gabbert during mutual visits to Nebraska, and obviously can't help noticing the kind of season Danario Alexander had for Mizzou.

This development is getting spun every which way on the recruiting message boards. They're like health care reform town halls anyway; this week, they resemble a Pig & Whistle on double coupon Tuesday.

They're a wonderful place, in a sense, yet a face carved up and scarred, as if by a mugger, by the Callahan era, when every other day came a breathless report of some exotic recruit like the boxes of cordials and fruit that went into Jay Gatsby's mansion every Friday. The lurkers and lingerers were like, collectively, Nick Carraway, peering out the window into the great Callahan machine. It was a heady thing for them, I tell you. Seared ribeyes every Monday morning. Bacchanals of stars, power ratings and position rankings every Friday. I guess I'm Nick Carraway to their reverie and lingering addiction to the chase. So it goes.

The initial reaction from any of them, however, is the same: What a blow, so late in the game to NU's 2010 offensive class. And that hunch is correct. Not so much because Carter and Gabbert were immediate impact players next year – although Carter could have been. Rather, the time poured into recruiting both of them, one could argue, has only been equaled, this year, by the pursuit of defensive end Owamagbe Odigizuhwa, who still hasn't committed anywhere.

In Carter's case, NU defensive ends coach John Papuchis cultivated the best relationship – Nebraska offered the kid before anyone else did – over the course of seven months. Mizzou swooped in much later.

Gabbert camped at Nebraska in 2008. He became the Huskers' top target in April when Wichita product Blake Bell committed to Oklahoma. He committed in June. He visited the campus several more times after that. And then, six nights before Nebraska beat Missouri, Pinkel arrived in a helicopter at Gabbert's game. And from that point forward, it was game on. One night after NU beat the Tigers, Watson and head coach Bo Pelini attended one of Gabbert's games. One month later, Gabbert took his official visit to NU.

Do not kid yourself here.Gabbert was Watson's guy. Period. You don't waste all that time, then suddenly decide, four days after a grease fire in Dallas, you don't want the kid.

There were other quarterbacks – including Sean Robinson, who committed to Purdue instead – who were willing to give Nebraska a firmer “yes.” There's in-state prospects like Bronson Marsh that NU doesn't want to pursue. But Watson wanted Gabbert, the 6-foot, 190-pounder with below-average statistics but a big-league arm. He spent 18 months pursuing the kid - putting him through drills at camp, having him talk to other uncommitted recruits – all while ignoring the *MY BROTHER PLAYS AT MISSOURI* sign, in bright neon, flashing above Gabbert's head. Blood is usually thicker pigskin, folks – especially when you're playing the same position.

And when Nebraska's offense begun to resemble Big Ten football on a muddy field, Gabbert had a convenient out clause. Carter, did, too, although his decommitment seems to be more practical, considering NU has not used a 5-10, skinny slot receiver since Watson has been in Lincoln.

Now look. It's still Nebraska, and there's still kids a little down the list who'd love to don that uniform. It's not about coming up empty. If the Huskers really desire a quarterback for the sake of depth – they'll sign one. Or they'll enter another Paulus/Marve sweepstakes.

Instead, it's that Papuchis and Watson poured so much energy into specific guys, landed their verbal commitments, then lost them because Zac Lee and Co. couldn't play its way out of a paper bag, and Watson wasn't creative enough inside the box he drew for himself.

On Oct. 22, NU Director of Football Operations Jeff Jamrog swiftly rebuked a commentary from the Omaha World-Herald's Mitch Sherman that said, in part, the Huskers' offensive struggles could impact the 2010 class.

“Success in recruiting, in my opinion,” Jamrog said then, “is directly related to our coaches' ability to relate and communicate to these young men and give them the feel that Nebraska is the place for them to play.”

I sided, at the time, with Jamrog. Generally, he's right.

Not in this case.

Sherman was right. Sheer lack of performance – and NU's shift to an offense that appeals to almost no one who likes yards and points and stuff – can override the efforts of a recruiter as skilled as Papuchis, who's been responsible for some of Nebraska's biggest coups, including Jason Ankrah, Rex Burkhead and potentially Odigizuhwa. Watson's pretty good, too. After all, he got Gabbert to consider and commit to a rival school, didn't he?

In mid-October, Watson said NU wanted a QB, a running back, two WRs and four offensive linemen in its 2010 class.

Right now, less than two months from signing day, the Huskers have 0,0,1 and 3, thanks to the sudden commitment of Yoshi Hardrick.

Good thing Nebraska's built around its defense, huh?

These developments should be a splash of cold water in Bo Pelini's face, although, I suspect, Pelini doesn't need the wake up call anymore. The Huskers should be reaping the recruiting rewards of a spectacular effort in Dallas, not clinging to its best prospects as they walk out the door.

Yes, coaching counts. Talent isn't everything. And if you simply throw talent at a problem, which Callahan tried to do with his variety of blue chippers and JUCO ringers, only some of it will stick, while the rest peels from the wall and collects in a moldy clump on the tile.

But good recruiting classes are built around certain players. They're the anchors. Whether you or I believe in those players doesn't matter. The coaches believe in them, and show it through their sheer effort.

Last year, that was Green and Burkhead.

This year – don't kid yourself – it was Gabbert and Carter, and two years' worth of recruiting to go along with them.

The criticism for Watson was already rising above the din.

With 0,0,1 and 3 staring back at him, I don't see it getting any quieter now.

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Of course you're sick this morning. Drained. Ticked off. Shaking your fist at the lords of football, who like to pit Texas' Lucy to Nebraska's Charlie Brown.

UT 13 NU 12. Feels like a thump to the gut, doesn't it? Stinkin' Texas.

Well, savor the punch. Enjoy the pain. It's been awhile since it's hurt this much. The loss Saturday night dampens spirits in the short-term - and robs NU of some extra BCS cash – but it'll sharpen the Cornhuskers in the offseason.

You might as well put the 00:01 on all the Memorial Stadium clocks.

The Huskers have their ax to grind for 2010. Nearly 16 years after the eerily-similar 1994 Orange Bowl – NU as the underdog, the controversial calls, the dominating defense, the boneheaded penalties – there is, once again, the very definition of unfinished business.

No matter what happens in the bowl game – think Holiday, think the younger Stoops' scrappy Arizona bunch – Nebraska defined its 2009 season with 60 minute of physical, emotion football inside Cowboys Stadium. It's one thing to preach “us against the world.” It's another to actually play like it, drawing admiration and respect, I'm sure, from a giant television audience who expected to watch two quarters of UT's coronation pageant to Pasadena and instead were treated to four hours gladiatorial defense.

The Brothers Pelini had Texas' offense – and its dazed, shattered quarterback, Colt McCoy – dead to rights. Schemed perfectly. The blitzes -except for one, on 3rd-and-16 in the fourth quarter - were smart. Dejon Gomes was spectacular. Barry Turner went into Beast Mode. Prince Amukamara and Eric Hagg mostly held up under withering pressure.

“They proved tonight: They can line up across from anyone in the country and whip their tails,” defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said. “That's what we did: 200 total yards.”

And Ndamukong Suh? Well – you saw him, didn't you? It's Heisman time.

“If Suh didn't win the Heisman tonight, it's a disgrace to college football,” Pelini said.

McCoy was reduced, mostly, to throwing jump balls to Jordan Shipley and Malcolm Williams. A few worked. A few drew costly NU penalties. Most of them were quails thrown into the bleachers. Nebraska beat up him up – physically and mentally. (If Texas doesn't luck out, and Hunter Lawrence doesn't nail that kick, McCoy maybe doesn't recover. For years. You saw it on his panic-stricken face. He needed that win like a liver transplant.)

NU's special teams, aside from one wayward kickoff from Adi Kunalic, were superb. Alex Henery pounded out four field goals – second team All Big 12, eh? - and punted so Shipley couldn't make a big return. Niles Paul had two clutch returns. Eric Martin blocked a punt.

In two phases of the game, the Huskers did practically everything right. And those are the two phases into which head coach Bo Pelini has poured the bulk of his authority and trust.

The utter failure of Nebraska's offense is why a loss, painful as it is now, is ultimately beneficial to Bo.

Saturday night, there was no “winning formula” to hide behind. Nebraska, after all, didn't win. Bo didn't make many excuses for his offense after the loss, and he shouldn't. The Huskers gained 106 total yards. They were awful.

The offensive line, slow and injured, had no answer for Texas' speed and blind commitment to the stop the run. Nebraska's receivers couldn't shake UT's cornerbacks downfield. Roy Helu ran without balance or ballast. Rex Burkhead did, but never had a decent hole in which to apply it.

Zac Lee ran the option like a high school freshman. He lacks a ounce of wiggle in his running style, and he is bound, in the bowl game or next year, to separate a shoulder or sustain a concussion if he keeps it up. Many of his passes were hopeful balloons tossed into coverage. Lee cannot throw a competent fade route near the end zone. His short passes are darts. Sometimes catchable, sometimes not.

Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson's playbook has been reduced to a shell of its former self. He didn't call a single trick play. Not a single toss play. Not a single option pass. No bubble or tunnel screens. No empty sets. No throws to Mike McNeill. No deep shots to anyone but Paul. It was a ridiculous plan relying on an otherworldly performance from the defense.

“We have to develop our quarterback and develop our receivers and keep working,” Watson said afterward. He then said, on four separate occasions in five minutes, that NU's offense had “a lot of growing up to do.” And not by getting taller.

Well, it shouldn't take two years for that to happen. Lee's been in Lincoln nearly three years. Aside from Brandon Kinnie and Khiry Cooper, all of Nebraska's receivers had spent ample time in the program. Why haven't they been developed already? How can Gomes step into a much more difficult role as a hybrid running back/linebacker and become a stud, while Lee and his receivers – aside from Paul – have regressed?

And what gave the coaches such jitters about Cody Green? What – he couldn't have thrown for 39 yards and three interceptions Saturday night?

Watson doesn't have to answer to the media. He does have to answer to Bo. And this pitiful showing allows Bo to open the door to change. Whatever it is – NU should take the bowl game, and all practices leading up to it, to start, to at least begin addressing what this offense became during the last half of the season, and whether Lee can be reasonably salvaged as a big-time college quarterback. If not – work like mad to get Green ready and rehab Kody Spano, whom, by the sound of it, was the most mature guy on the bunch before he twice tore up his knee.

Scheme, personnel, coaching staff – all of it should be up for grabs. Especially if Turner Gill goes to Kansas, and happens to be looking for some offensive help.

Bo has to be bold here. Nebraska showed Saturday – it's close. Actually, it's even closer than that. Add a heavy dose of angst, and NU is the Big 12 show pony in 2010.

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Bo Pelini stood near midfield of the Hawks Center on Wednesday night, stretching his left arm dramatically, as if a gull working out some feathery kinks. Somebody pitched him a ball. A southpaw, Nebraska's head coach cocked and threw – not gorgeous, but efficient – aiming to hit the makeshift south goalpost hanging from the rafters.

Bong! Right on the crossbar. Pelini nodded his head and engaged in a bit of strut. If you want to know why Bo's players would bum rush a barbed-wire fence on his command, this is one of those moments. Half of the team is laughing, watching. They want a shot.

But they're not the starting quarterback. Zac Lee, smiling – and meaning it – wraps his fingers around the laces. His turn.

***

He's a manager now. That guy in the tie at the grocery store who fixes all the little messes, locates the tapioca in aisle five and occasionally works register. That's Lee, the junior quarterback from San Francisco charged with leading NU's offense into the Big 12 Championship vs. Texas.

I don't mean it is as a knock. The Pig and Whistle needs a tie guy. The Cornhuskers' offense - flush with creaky linemen, mercurial running backs and an offensive coordinator on the Woody Hayes ego diet - needed Lee to be just who he was for the last month, starting with his first touchdown pass vs. Oklahoma. Safe. Smart. In bed by ten.

Aside from a brief lapse vs. Kansas State, Lee's been just that: 40-of-63 for 470 yards, three touchdowns, a single interception.

“The stats may not be pretty, the game may not be pretty – but really the only thing that matters is that we've been winning,” Lee said. “Doesn't matter how that may look.”

Has someone ever told you “don't blow it, OK?” Reassuring like a Denver boot, right? Shawn Watson's gameplan has been a month of measured expectations. An ego diet for him. Even moreso for Lee, who had to harness a quarterback's instinct to be the solution, rather than merely another integer in the equation.

“The quarterback has opportunity to make something happen, but sometimes the best thing a quarterback can do is take off and run or make a good decision with it,” Lee said.
That's one of the things I've learned this year. There's a bunch of plays in a game where a quarterback can make a decision that will swing momentum one way or another.”

The risk aversion worked. Nebraska's defense kept delivering one miraculous play after another. The Oklahoma masterpiece was just the beginning. Strip-n-recovers inside the five-yard line vs. Kansas and Kansas State helped seal those wins. Colorado shot itself in the foot. Baylor did, too, although Lee didn't play a down in that game.

“We won five games because we played conservative,” Watson said. “We've played field position, used our special teams, set up field position and we've rushed the football. We're doing three things really well.”

But 12-0 Texas is not a comedy of errors like the Buffs and Bears. Colt McCoy's 44 wins is more than than the five opposing quarterbacks had combined during NU's five-game winning streak. McCoy's averaging almost 400 yards of total offense per game in the last month. He won't react to pressure like OU's Landry Jones did a month ago. UT's kicker, Hunter Lawrence, is among the best in the league. He's not likely to shank a 30-yarder.

As good as Nebraska's defense has become – 3rd nationally in points per game and 11th nationally in total yards – Texas' offense is, stunningly, a mirror image: 3rd and 11th. The very definition of a stalemate.

It's just wishful thinking to presume NU can average seven punts per game – as it has for the last month – and expect the Blackshirts to produce the same results on a neutral-to-hostile field against arguably the nation's best quarterback in a game the Longhorns want just as badly as the Huskers.

And equally wishful to think that Texas A&M's successful running game on Thanksgiving paved the way for Nebraska to do the same. If anything, Texas learned its lesson last week. Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp hasn't spent the last seven years manning the sour cream gun at a Taco Bell. He'll fix it.

Cue Plan B. Cue the kid at midfield, with the ball, trying to hit a goalpost.

Lee didn't, by the way. He threw too long once. Then too short. It's like the longest, toughest game of horseshoes, and Pelini hit the ringer on the first try. That wasn't the point, I suspect. Rather, Pelini's trying to loosen up his QB, who may be faced with a touchdown-or-more deficit right away, in the first quarter.

“We have to be ready to respond no matter what happens,” Pelini said. “If that means managing the game, great. If that means we need him to throw four touchdown passes, let's go.”

When Lee was challenged at KU, he rose to it, playing his best game. Earlier in the year vs. Texas Tech, he gave in to the pressure.

On Saturday, Texas will force Lee to find out how far he's really come. Instead of wasting it on a after-practice game with Bo, maybe he kept that ringer up his sleeve for Dallas.

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“Every game here is a one-season game. That's part of the process. It permeates through all of us. Bo sets that table for all of us and sets that tone. To a man, to a coach - we're similar. We've adopted that same philosophy.”

--- Shawn Watson, offensive coordinator for the Nebraska Football Team.

Read the entire story on "BIG 12 TITLE GAME: Commentary: The Triumph of Bo's Will."

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The day began, in my memory, with two images: A picture of that beefy-faced Chase Daniel, just imagining that Heisman Trophy he never won, and the visage of a grim Kirk Herbstreit, his eyebrow cocked like a “serious journalist” imparting the scoop of the day: That LSU coach Les Miles, whose team still possessed an outside shot at the national title, was about to head to alma mater Michigan.

We're talking championship week 2007 here, and that Saturday afternoon when the Tigers knocked on the back door of the BCS after getting tossed out the front. What you may recall is Miles' impromptu press conference to debunk Herbstreit's news, the “have a nice day” signature line, and LSU having to start a backup quarterback so irrepressible -Ryan Perrilloux – that Miles booted him before the 2008 season even began.

And – oh yeah - Bo Pelini, then the LSU defensive coordinator, was about to be named as Nebraska's head coach the following afternoon. Bo was smack dab in the middle of distraction. And he pushed it out to the edges of his mind. And his defense secured a 21-14 win over Tennessee, and a berth in the BCS national title game.

Just. Like. That.

“That day – somebody told me there was a press conference,” he said. “I was in the locker room reading a book. Kind of what I do every game.”

***

Question: Where is Bo's sentimentality, his grasp for this moment – what it means to the fans, to the Big 12, hell, even to the media, which is ready to get back on the stage, to cover a game of this magnitude?

Answer: Not where reporters can get at it.

Bo locked down in Tuesday's press conference. He's getting friendlier about it as time goes on, but it was his shortest Tuesday session of the year, and less insightful than six-pence pulp fiction. It's fun to watch, in a sense. He didn't cop to anything in regards to Saturday's Big 12 Championship. He conspicuously donned a black hooded sweatshirt for the first time this year – don't read a thing into it – and brushed off any notion of the intangible, as it pertains to Nebraska v. Texas.

Is NU an underdog?

“I don't even know what that means,” Bo said. “That's for the bookies in Vegas.”

The spoiler role?

“That's up to you guys,” he said. “Say what you want to say. Build it up how you want to build it up.”

And so it goes. We're used to this now. Or at least we should be. In moments of high pressure – and NU has plenty at stake, as does the Big 12 North, if not in the immediate sense – the Cornhuskers' coach dials in, talks tough, and tips his hand only far enough to see the white of a card's corner.

The bigger the stage, the quieter and grimmer Bo seems to get. He's been through plenty of career-altering situations by now – the 2003 Alamo Bowl, Hurricane Katrina – to know he wants to approach it. And, as always, he returns back to a word. Process. It's his catchphrase. No fewer than four players and coaches I've talked to this week refer to it.

“There are certain things you have to do to keep your team on task,” Pelini said. “There’s a certain approach we take. If you do that and you stay with it, and they feel you staying with it, then they stay with it. They are going to follow the lead. There are certain ways you direct their mindset and you direct their focus.”

Said offensive coordinator Shawn Watson: “Every game here is a one-season game. That's part of the process. It permeates through all of us. Bo sets that table for all of us and sets that tone. To a man, to a coach - we're similar. We've adopted that same philosophy.”

It goes beyond brassy speeches, although Bo gives them. It is about guts, and it is not about guts. Individual plays – fourth-down on the goal line – define backbone, sure. The larger structure is more corporate in nature, and by that, we don't necessarily mean, as most football pundits do, business.

Modern football is written by men who are architects as much as generals, working from elaborate blueprints – housed in notebooks or folders or Blackberries, enriched by personal experience - that they tinker with only in fractions, as if to distinguish Bauhaus from Louis Kahn. Kahn, the modernist who left one of the great architectural wonders of the world - the Jatiyo Sangsha Bhaban - partially unfinished at his death, used to offer a cryptic lecture to his Yale students that began and ended with “Light - is!” Match those two words to the building itself, and you won't see the connection. Walk though the building and peer inside-out, and my sense is, you will.

Not so different from Bo's vagaries, which mask a much deeper plan and ideology from our perspective, but need few words from his own.

The blueprint – the process – isn't going to change this week despite the surroundings.

It's the biggest game of Bo's career, really. A chance to stride over to the Big 12's giant landowner, Texas - which lords over fertile recruiting fields that Big 12 North teams have to beg just to sharecrop – and say “I'm a rich 'un, Mack.”

Most years, it's just a game, for sure, with ordinary, linear benefits and consequences, all that. But these are the Big 12's two principals (and two principles), you see.

Yes, of course, Oklahoma has its camp, pleasurable as it is. But Texas is to speak Latin to Nebraska's French. One is a grand gesture that leaps its way onto dollar bills and t-shirts. Hook Unum! The other is carefully-manicured cultural artifact, wrapped in a rich bacon of pride that doesn't allow an inch of light into its economy without meticulous inspection.

If, on Monday, we laid out the programs' commonalities, what's at stake for each underlines their differences.

For UT, another accumulated crown, a title to stick somewhere inside its luxurious campus for todas las mujeres bonitas to walk by on their way to Sixth Street, ignorance of its existence.

For NU, a kind of a confirmation that vibrates like a signal of warmth, Ponca to McCook, Chadron to Superior.

Each is a vision – of success amidst glamor, of home seen through the poetry of a red balloon, lifting in a night sky – crucial to the development of the program.

In words and action without allegory, Bo is peppered with the stakes constantly. Just to get to this game, Nebraska had to lurch to the finish, and, amidst plenty of (warranted) criticism, he cut off the hand of his offense to stop its theft of a Big 12 North. He's put his defense in a weekly position to break, only to watch the Blackshirts rebuff its opponents, again and again, inside the red zone.

There is a will there, you see. Almost Luddite in nature.

“The message has gotten across to our players,” Watson said. “They understand: They have heart, and they have some fiber in them. They have something they're made of.”

This will is a room in the Bo's blueprint. Nebraska's best-laid plan is for it to be the difference on Saturday.

Bo is no more or less driven, per se, than his coaching peers, but he brings a zeal to transforming daily drudgery. The “compete” ethos is broken down into mini-games with practice, test within tests, mental or otherwise. Each day after practice there is at least one player – and often many more - doing wind sprints, rollovers, up-and-downs or some other penance. It was uncommon-to-rare during the Callahan era to see anyone serving that kind of punishment. And no Husker has been spared.

This blend of accountability and, frankly, works-based righteousness has NU on a five-game winning streak. The blueprint may have a tear or two in it, but the vision remains intact. It seems wishful that such a formula could work Saturday night, but, then, it was wishful thinking for LSU back in 2007. Bo didn't bother measuring the possibilities then, and he won't now.

The process reigns.

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In Carrollton, Irving and Euless. Flower Mound, Allen, Wylie and DeSoto. All the way down in Duncanville, out to Keller and of course, in Plano.

Rex Burkhead was a known property. The Metroplex version of a made man.

Wherever Nebraska running backs coach Tim Beck traveled in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, the high school football coaches – many of them Beck's former peers - loved this kid they used to call Superman on the field, in part for his Clark Kent persona he possessed off of it.

“It was unique,” Beck says now. “Anywhere you went, people would talk about him and what a great football player he was...when he played, he played hard. And people saw it.”

Varsity as a freshman. Starting quarterback as a sophomore. The kid with Barry Sanders on the wall and Walter Payton on the ceiling above his bed. Sweetness before bed every night.

“I'd rather run over somebody,” Burkhead said Tuesday.

As a junior and senior at Plano High School, he amassed 3,530 yards rushing and more than 60 touchdowns. Ole Miss wanted him as a Wildcat quarterback. Rich Rod wanted him a scatback and -

Well, hell – if you're in the DFW, you already know all this. Most Nebraska fans who count recruiting stars as they go to sleep know it, too. The Huskers got the loot, nabbed one of the biggest names out of the Lone Star State, and needed a bevy of position coaches – Beck and Mike Ekeler and John Papuchis to do it.

“I felt most comfortable here,” Burkhead says of NU. “Felt like this was the place.”

Head coach Bo Pelini tested him straight away in fall camp. Gave him the “rookie ball” for 24 hours. First day. First guy. Burkhead wasn't supposed to fumble it, and every member of Nebraska's top-shelf defense tried to pry it away.

“Who better than him?” Bo said of Rex's selection.

Indeed. Because Burkhead didn't fumble.

And he didn't blink an eye when, after the dismissal of Quentin Castille, he shot up to No. 2 on the depth chart. When he played well in the first five games of the season. When he converted a crucial third down at Missouri, taking a poorly-thrown swing pass from Zac Lee, planting hard with his right foot, and jutting back to the middle of the field for a first down. Decisive. Quick.

“He hits the hole downhill,” offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. “He doesn't waste time. He doesn't over-analyze or read. He gets north and south and gets skinny.”

Three plays after Burkhead's clutch play, Lee hit Niles Paul for a NU's first touchdown. The Cornhuskers won, but starter Roy Helu jammed his shoulder something awful on his second-to-last carry. Burkhead would likely have been the guy for Texas Tech. And Iowa State. And possibly Baylor.

Then – pop! A simple little cut in practice four days after the Mizzou game. Gone awry.

“It wasn't a extreme pain, but I knew something wasn't right,” Burkhead said.

Foot fracture.

Sit down, Superman. Time to take a lesson you haven't yet learned – how to lose time to an injury.

Understand the difficulty here for Burkhead. After high school football, he would transition directly to basketball. He didn't slow down. When he arrived at NU, coaches and teammates noticed quickly: He's way ahead of the game here. How hard has this kid been working?

And Burkhead had learned so much, he said, in his short time in college football. The mental game, blitz pick-up, setting up defenders, using your blockers. It was close, you sensed. Burkhead seemed small on tape but bigger in person. And he runs even bigger than that.

“He's explosive,” Watson said. “It is surprising.”

For five weeks, NU lost its spark plug. Helu wasn't right for at least half of that time. Still isn't 100 percent, frankly. The Huskers had to burn Traye Robinson's redshirt in the process, and endure that awful 9-7 loss to Iowa State, in which Robinson and Helu combined for three fumbles.

Would Burkhead, who held on tight in the toughest of conditions during fall camp, have been so careless?

Often in a black puffy coat on crutches, Burkhead would sit back from practice and watch from afar. It got to him a little, he admitted. It took teammates – especially Helu, who doesn't let on much but is a kind of joyful mentor to Burkhead – to bring him around. Also, for a broken foot, the doctor's prognosis was good: Back for the Colorado game.

Of course, Rex being Rex, he was back a week early, for Kansas State.

“I was little hesitant at first,” Burkhead said. “I didn't feel it at all, but just knowing it's down there and the possibility of re-aggravating it.”

That changed once Burkhead got into the flow vs. the Wildcats.

“It was a nice bonus,” Pelini said.

Losing that trepidation was crucial, as it turned out, in the following week, when he rushed 100 yards on 18 carries in a 28-20 win over Colorado. Nine times for 55 yards and a touchdown on NU's penultimate drive, the one that made Husker fans party like it's 1979, all power sets and inside counters and Burkhead's churning legs.

It wasn't so much that Burkhead gained the yards as how he did it. One cut – and go. He bounced off some tackles and crawled past others. In all, 67 yards of the century were after contact. It's one thing to see a guy like Castille bull moose his way through a defense. Another to see a man of Burkhead's size even try, much less succeed, when NU made no secret on that drive of who was getting the ball, and where he was going to go with it.

“Whether he made the right decisions or not, he made them and ran with them,” Beck said. “He ran down his pads and kept his feet moving and accelerated through contact. He wasn't dancing around trying to make the big plays.”

Most backs – like Helu – are trying to “make every cut,” Beck said. They see three guys on two levels of the defense, and want to create a path around all of them. Helu, possessing rare peripheral vision, often makes sudden, almost inexplicable cuts parallel to the line of scrimmage. Where's he going? Helu doesn't always know. He just feels the pressure, and turns away from it. Sometimes, it works beautifully. Sometimes, Roy's just running around.

“That's not Rex,” Beck said. Burkhead makes the one cut and then - well, come what may.

In this case, a homecoming in Arlington, Burkhead's old stomping grounds, against Texas, the home state team. He played at least ten games inside the old Dallas Cowboys Stadium, and he'll have a hefty fan club for his first game in the new one, including some friends who are UT fans, and lobbied him to stay in-state.

Burkhead doesn't have much of an ax to grind with the Longhorns, mind you. He grew up in Kentucky, not Texas, so he wasn't wearing burnt orange out of the womb.

Texas did put forth a mild recruiting push for his services. Burkhead made a few visits, saw a game. But UT had already had two running backs – Vondrell McGee and Tre' Newton – with Burkhead's build and skillset, so there was some question as to what position he'd play for Mack Brown – and whether he'd even stay on offense.

“It was back and forth deal,” Burkhead said. “They really kind of left it up to me.”

UT was the wrong fit. No hard feelings. NU is the right one.

Burkhead, Pelini said, meshes with the new attitude of Nebraska football perfectly. As a bunch, the Huskers are humble – but Burkhead is unusually so, even for a high school star in a state where being one really means something.

“You can't let everything get to you,” Burkhead said. “You have to stay down to earth.”

That's what caught their eye in the DFW.

It's certainly grabbed Pelini's attention.

“He’s just a football player,” he said. “He’s tough. He’s a leader. He exemplifies all the characteristics that I want in football players that come into this program.”

The invaluable ranch hand, to borrow an image from Burkhead's adopted state. Knows the land like the laces of a football, does his job with a little fuss, and occasionally makes your jaw drop.

Or, Superman, when the shoe fits. Right Rex?

“Aw, it's all right,” Burkhead said. “I guess.”

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Apollo 13. Ego diet. And now - three yards and a cloud of those little rubber pellets.

Offensive coordinator Shawn Watson has a new analogy to describe his playcalling.

"Trust me - I feel like Woody Hayes," Watson said after his offense produced 217 total yards in a 28-20 win over Colorado.

Watson was referring to Nebraska's power-heavy design and play selection of 40 runs and 14 passes.

Nebraska did put together touchdown drives of 56 and 80 yards. In between; NU punted six times, fumbled once, missed a field goal and let time run out of the first half.

It's not pretty, Watson said, but it is "managing a win." He used another Ohio State coach as a comparison in Jim Tressel, whose Buckeye teams consistently win the Big Ten crown, often with offenses that are less-than-dynamic. OSU is 69th in total offense this year, and 105th in passing offense.

"It's such a fine line," Watson said. "It's a hard situation. We're young. You don't want to put the game in a quarterback's hands or the receivers' hands right yet."

Just a true freshman named Rex Burkhead, who rushed 18 times for a career-high 100 yards vs. the Buffaloes. Burkhead was particularly crucial on NU's final touchdown drive, a 13-play, 80-yard march in which Burkhead carried the ball nine times for 55 yards and consistently fought for extra yards.

"We determined to get it in," Burkhead said. "We needed it. It felt great. When the offensive line's doing a tremendous job up front, you're seeing the holes better. It feels good. Everyone was upbeat. The offensive line - they were focused. You could see the fire in their eyes."

This, from a kid who broke his foot Oct. 12 and missed five games. Experience? Not much. Certainly less than most of NU's receivers or quarterback Zac Lee. Burkhead just delivered.

"He's running really well," Watson said. "He's giving us a lot more thump. He's such an explosive runner. He finds holes. He finds seams."

Burkhead's specialty on Friday was an inside zone run, a power play where the running back squeezes through a hole between the the guard and tackle, or cuts back into hole between the center and guard, or center and backside guard. Burkhead planted confidently on his previously broken foot, often choosing the cutback lane. Until his seven-yard touchdown run, that is, where he had a giant hole through which to blast.

"It's a confidence booster," Burkhead said.

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Since we're still in Thanksgiving mode, go fetch that leftover gravy from the fridge, grab a juice glass, and pour the gravy to the halfway point.

You already know the question, don't you?

Do you view Nebraska's 9-3 season as a story of warts and imperfections on offense, amidst a Big 12 North bereft of consistency?

Do you view it for its defensive triumphs, timely big plays on special teams, and the sudden emergence of Niles Paul as a clutch player?

In other words: Should Nebraska be 7-5? Or 11-1?

Or are you waiting to decide until after NU play Texas in the Big 12 Championship?

I have a hunch that, during Nebraska's 28-20 win over Colorado, the first view prevailed. After all, that was Bo Pelini's point of view.

“I thought we took a step back today,” he said.

Bo's prone to fits of displeasure, though. (After all, NU played worse – and Bo coached a lemon – against CU last year.)

But sometime Saturday afternoon, when you see ABC/ESPN pimping the Big 12 title game to death and you've seen the NU score scroll across the screen for the 100th time, the second emotion will kick in.

And right about the time Mack Brown starts flapping his gums in a kindly-but-slightly-patronizing way toward NU, and Jordan Shipley's strumming his guitar, that third instinct will kick in.

That's the life of a Nebraska fan. Frustration. Optimism. Motivation. Followed by visualization; that is, of NU somehow hoisting that trophy next Saturday night, right next to the lovely mug of TCU coach Gary Patterson, lobbying for a spot in the BCS National Championship game.

Cornhusker fans typically find themselves above playing the spoiler. But, considering all the pain Texas has inflicted on this fan base since 1996, and considering the stranglehold the Longhorns hold on the league – wouldn't it be sweet rum?

Yeah, thought so.

Until then - seriously – which are you?

The CU game – which never fails to irritatingly drag on into the night, often with the Buffaloes scrambling points – served as an excellent microcosm of the whole season. Sweet, sour, sweet and an ohjustgetitoverwith as a topper.

Sweet: When it comes to field position, Nebraska has the best kicking duo in the country. Kicker/punter Alex Henery lives down the road in Moneyville. Kickoff specialist Adi Kunalic has shut down one good kickoff returner after another during the Big 12 season.

Sour: Great teams don't typically count “kicker” as one of the team's MVPs. Henery is a terrific weapon; you simply wish Nebraska didn't have to use him so much.

Sweet: NU's coverage schemes and techniques genuinely frustrate opposing quarterbacks. The Brothers Pelini force them to make excellent decisions on the fly. Most of them can't do it consistently.

Sour: Colt McCoy, of course can. And he's mobile. And there's still too many penalties by the back seven. Larry Asante needs to watch it.

Sweet: Ndamukong Suh battled double teams all day, played hard, and made several nice stops in the run game. Also had a sack. Can't argue with the play of the whole front four on Friday, really. A couple holding calls were missed.

Sour: As run defenders, the Huskers pursue too aggressively, getting gashed as a result. In back-to-back weeks. Nebraska's linebackers, especially Sean Fisher, need to break down better when tackling.

Sweet: When Nebraska needed a scoring drive, the offense delivered. NU put away Missouri, Kansas, KSU and CU in just this fashion.

Sour: Watson has become stubbornly uncreative. The guy will not run a trick play. No reverses. No halfback passes. No wide receiver sweeps. He's stopped splitting out Roy Helu on pass patterns. He's stopped throwing screens to Helu or Rex Burkhead. No waggles. No rolling the pocket. No Wildcat. Zip. Bubkis. And no – it is not creative to line up in a “toss” look and then pull Ben Cotton toward the backside defensive tackle for a trap block.

Hey - if you want Ron Brown to call the offense, then hand him the headset. At the very least, he'll dust off a few of TO's gadgets. Otherwise, design an offensive attack for the Texas game that does more than take up time. NU will need it. Texas is not Oklahoma.

Ohgetitoverwith: Nebraska's defense, excellent as it is, tends to lose a little focus with a double-digit lead. To the Blackshirts' credit, they generally regain it around the goal line, but Colorado benefited from too many busts, too many easy yards, and poor discipline on blitzes and quarterback containment. The second half was a mess of mistakes.

So – should Nebraska fans be satisfied with suitable progress? Or should they be like Pelini, grim and unhappy with anything less than perfection?

Just be careful putting too many eggs in the Texas basket.

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"When I came to Colorado there were a lot of guys going, 'Don't go there, man, are you kidding me? Don't go there.' But you know what? I believe in this place. I still believe in this place, and I believe in me."

-Dan Hawkins, Colorado football coach

In the March 2009 issue of Vanity Fair, there is the story of a supermodel, Carmen, older – much - but still beautiful, graceful, artificially worthy of whatever 3000-thread-count blanket she sleeps under at night. This is Carmen in early 1994, before everything, practically, that you even care about: Britney, W., iPods, Erin Andrews, The Sopranos, the mass production of Famous Dave's, reality TV, David Beckham, Fight Club, the dot.com boom/bust/boom, Monica, Osama, three Nebraska national titles.

Carmen has been summoned to an office in New York, that of a financial analyst, a wizard, a genius, a Gatsby, really – but no Daisy to derail him! - who can guarantee the kind of annual returns that buys a refined life, the one an educated man would mortgage all of his ordinary pursuits and possessions to procure: Naps in white cotton button-down shirts, a beach run at dawn, golf at Shinnecock, a glistening black car slipping through the night toward the Met, a dinner of $100 tapas, at the appropriate Spanish hour to eat them.

Carmen's suitor, even older than she, is precisely such a man. He bought and sold a lot of real estate for a living – the kinds of buildings behind which the sun rises and sets - and, in this moment, he'd like to buy Carmen. And his manner of doing it is to sneak $100,000 into her bank account so she can write a check to this wizard, who has a personal investment fund, a financial cask of amontillado. The fund guarantees a certain unreasonable return. And, inconceivably, it delivers.

Fifteen years later, the suitor is dead, Carmen is penniless and the wizard no longer has his curtain. He's Bernie Madoff, architect of a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. And seemingly half of Aspen, Colo., stop their collective spoons of soup halfway between the bowl and their mouth. They haven't invested some of their money with Madoff. They've invested almost all of it. At that moment, about 70 Coloradan magnates, trusts, foundations or charities lose most of their collective fortune to Madoff's pyramid – a bunch in Aspen alone, and 22 in the “front range” of the state, many of those folks living in Boulder.

It's December 11, 2008.

Four days after that, Dan Hawkins, defiant to the image of NU kicker Alex Henery – a mild-mannered, almost sheepish soccer player from Omaha – beating the Buffaloes with a 57-yard field goal on national television – picks up where Madoff ended, declaring at the annual CU team banquet: “Ten wins. No excuses.”

“It's been kind of overwhelming,” said Henery of reaction to the kick.

Alex – you ain't kiddin.

By New Year's, a local Aspen resident - remembered as a good skier - has gift-wrapped four gasoline bombs, sent two of them to nearby banks, scrawled out a suicide note and shot himself in the head. His note promises a "horrible price paid in blood." Three months after that, it's revealed that a quarter of Aspen's residents have suffered from some kind of "psychiatric illness" and the suicide rate is nearly triple that of the rest of the state. Colorado's richest band together for a "Crisis in Paradise" workshop.

A few months later, Josh Smith, the best playmaker for CU's football team, leaves, he says, to become a rapper. Quarterback Matt Ballenger just leaves.

The Hawk opens up spring ball to the public for a week, and changes haircuts - from the hippie bowl to junior executive. And then the losses, all debacles on national television, the bizarre short weeks. Hawkins conducts 90-second press conferences with the weekly Big 12 media, trying to keep his word count somewhere below 50. One week, after several minutes of silence, reporters are told, simply, Hawkins isn't showing up at all.

It's been one hell of a year for Colorado.

***

Money? You think CU's football boosters, however many exist, should pony up the $3.5 million it would take to buy out Hawkins?

After all, he's had four losing seasons in Boulder and officially regretted, well, pretty much everything in his press conference Monday. The bold “10 wins” proclamation. Recruiting his son, Cody, to play quarterback. His admitted “pie-in-the-sky” optimism. He sounded like a dead Hawk walkin.

He finished 53-11 at Boise State, and left that program on the verge of stardom. He arrived in the Big 12, where he's endured some brutal non-conference schedules and some BCS-conference brand of nasty, and failed to draw enough of the top-shelf talent it takes to win even seven games. The top-shelf talent he was able to draw either belonged on a lower shelf (Darrell Scott), took the last train for the coast (Scott and Smith) or simply hasn't been developed by a less-than-elite coaching staff. As of two weeks ago, the students were wearing powder blue – the preferred Buffs' color prior to Bill McCartney's reign - in protest to Hawkins' tenure.

But here's the truth: CU already paid Gary Barnett – who dragged the program and university through considerable mud - $3 million when he was fired. Higher public education in the state faces a $150 million budget hit in 2011, when the federal stimulus money runs dry. That's a lot blood in Boulder's streets.

“People are going to be pretty upset if they see the Boulder campus claiming poverty down at the state legislature and in turn, turn around and invest seven figures to buy Hawk out,” Colorado Regent Tom Lucero told the Boulder Daily Cameraon Saturday.

And CU's athletic department isn't operating as 20th Century Hong Kong, like Nebraska's outfit does. Colorado doesn't just write its own athletic ticket. The struggling football program is the crown jewel out there. Colorado maintains one of the Big 12's weakest athletic profiles – no baseball, no wrestling, treading water in most sports, drowning in basketball, where games routinely start at 8 p.m. - and has to compete for fan dollars with the Broncos, Nuggets, Rockies, Avs and Colorado State.

Now – another $3.5 million to buy out a guy whose contract was extended after a 6-7 season? For a program that's quickly become the Stephanie Tanner of the Big 12, a step slow in facilities, academic support, fan excitement, etc? Baylor's stadium might be a ghost town on Saturdays, but you should see the fancy new digs on the outskirts of campus.

If Colorado wants to be bailed out of a problem it created, it's going to dive right back in, possibly doubling the $850,000 annual package it paid Hawkins, to attract some coach with meaningful BCS experience and solid recruiting ties to the south, where the rest of the league recruits. It can either dip into its pockets or maybe try Mark Mangino on for size. That'd be an intriguing – albeit controversial – coup.

What other coach, besides a disgraced one, wants to fight that apathy? I shudder at the words “Turner Gill.” And why should CU's richest boosters bankroll another foray into the wilderness?

“Coach McCartney proved that can be done,” NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson said. “After having been there and gone through seven years, it's a place that has a lot going for it. The beauty is unbelievable. So it's attractive to a lot of people...you have to be strong-willed person (out there). (McCartney) just persistently pursued his vision and found it.”

What is beauty, really, awash in plain red ink?

For a brief moment, 2001 and a few years after, Watson was part of a second Camelot before the crap hit the propeller. But the renaissance under Barnett – truly the best fit for CU, if only, you know, his whole enterprise hadn't been besotted with scandal and Freudian slips of misogyny – only created a faint echo of what McCartney was able to erect in a decade.

The shadow of “Coach Mac” is a problem. He left right before the dawn of the Big 12 while the Buffaloes were loaded with Southern California riches. His final 1994 team had 10 players drafted into the NFL. Colorado's only had ten players drafted over the last five years.

CU ignores the entrenched issues surrounding its program – namely, that few people really want it or need it, while Utah, BYU and Boise just keep getting better and better – to look for a “visionary” - Mac, Rick Neuheisel, Barnett, the Hawk – who combats relative disdain with positivity and golden hope. A lot of college football programs do this, in fact, although the motives are different.

There's no such thing as a guaranteed return. And no such thing as a football wizard. Boosters, who like to gamble, can keep throwing money at the problem, hoping the equation eventually spits back wins and they kind of life they dream of: Private planes hopping around to important road games, steak dinners, buckets of the best beer, parties thrown in front two twin 52-inch televisions showing the game, a tan, hours by the pool at the bowl site.

But it's a little like the Shangri-La hiring a new doorman every few years in the hopes that his warm words and friendly smile entices wayward travelers to step inside.

People either want to stay in the hotel, or they don't.

At any rate, you're beginning to see these institutions of higher learning buckle and crack under the pressure of keeping up with Texas, USC, Florida, et al.

So many of them have flown too close to the sun, purchased too many shares in the same dream, and kept their hands out to the rich boosters, who, like Paulie in “Goodfellas” demand a return on their ever-increasing investment.

Colorado could be paying $6.5 million over the last four years for 16 wins, two coaching changes and the potential yet more turnover within the roster. Or it could keep The Hawk, pray that he hopes turns it around with road games at Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and California (plus home games vs. Georgia and Texas Tech!). Either way, CU inches closer to become its little brother, Colorado State. A Mountain West team trapped in a Big 12 Conference.

Those rich Buffaloes might as well be Carmen.

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Maybe it's useful, sometimes, to close our eyes and imagine offensive coordinators as philosophers. Instead of the dismal tide of civilization and all that, the subject is, you know, how to use a fullback. Or the value of the wildcat formation.

You could not have divorced John Locke from the idea of tabula rasa, even if you don't agree with it, any more than Eleanor Rigby could throw away her face in a jar. It's what Locke believed. It's the rock upon which he built his worldview. Sages in some circles, fools in others – most folks stick to their philosophical principles.

So it's little surprise, really, when NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, asked for his vision of the future, said, simply: “It would be a team like we were last year.”

Shotgun spread. Zone running game. Controlled passing game. With some power formations mixed in near the goal line. The stuff that didn't work for the first half of this year. The offense never quite reached “diseased yak” stage, but it was taking on the hoof rot, and beginning to look incongruous with, you know, victory.

To Watson's credit, Tom Osborne's help and head coach Bo Pelini's leadership, Nebraska's offensive braintrust enacted an “Apollo 13” scenario, Watson said, hatching a plan to rescue the Cornhuskers from an overrated Pink Floyd album.

WatsOzBo dialed first Cody Green's number. To no avail, apparently – the kid's jersey hasn't been street-side in nearly three games. Now it's the option, the occasional (and successful) house call from Dr. Niles Paul, a rejuvenated Roy Helu and Zac Lee eating his fruits, vegetables and cheap shots from opposing linebackers. A steady diet of big, burly power football, replete with tight ends, fullbacks and all the stuff that makes us think of Osborne, Lassie, homemade deer sausage, and afghans knitted in the parlor and draped over couches in the sun room.

It's also a winning formula, playing to what Watson calls the “best defense in the United States of America.” If not Zanzibar.

“We've all had to diet our egos, and we've all had to put the stats behind us,” Watson said. “The most important stat we all care about is winning. We've done what it's taken to win football game.”

Just know: Watson doesn't intend it to last.

Oh, he'll keep some of the power tools in the shed.

“Some of the problems we encountered last year as our season wore on on was red zone football, red zone running game, and you have to have a lead running game down there,” Watson said.

But Watson will return the Great American West Coast Novel.

“We're going to have to grow into that at quarterback, to be honest with you,” Watson said. “We're going to have to grow into that at receiver. And that's going to be a process.”

Ah, the “p” word again. The single, seven-letter, two-syllable utterance used to explain the countless hours and unknowable effort that goes into the elaborate chess match that is football. It also describes how Velveeta is made.

How long does Watson's “process” take? I find the word equally vague when Pelini uses it, but his revamped defense is a Brazilian tarantula preying on baby toucans. He can call it Parker Posey for Nebraska fans care.

For Watson, the journey may be tougher. Lee knows the words, but not yet the music. Green's on-field development is pretty much over for 2009. The bowl practices and spring football will be an extended audition to see if Green can become a consistent passer and wrestle the job away from Lee. As for Kody Spano and Taylor Martinez – who knows?

At receiver, Nebraska faces a dicier proposition. Paul will be a senior. The guy is who he is. I actually like who he's become in the last month. It suits him. NU's power offense suits him, for that matter. Paul can block, and he can catch the deep ball. This version of DosQuatro seems more helpful than running ten-yard stick routes.

Menelik Holt and Chris Brooks graduate as unfulfilled (underdeveloped?) talent. Khiry Cooper will spend this spring playing baseball. Antonio Bell probably won't be allowed on the field until he can block. Will Henry probably won't be allowed on the field, period. That leaves Curenski Gilleylen, who hasn't caught a pass in a month, and unpolished-but-talented Brandon Kinnie.

Do you see Joe Ganz or Todd Peterson or Nate Swift – three guys who were so discounted that they honed their craft to precise detail – walking back through that door? That trio was so prolific because they shared a desire to prove their coaches and critics wrong. They had no choice but to be precise. They weren't going to play otherwise.

Does Watson appreciate the dynamic those three had? After all, when he talks about “growing” into the quarterback and receiver positions, he's talking about replacing what Ganz, Swift and Peterson brought to the table. It wasn't raw athleticism – it was canniness, mixed with smarts and sheer effort.

But how do you replace motivational lightning caught in a bottle?

You can't, really. So you either alter the scheme – a temporary fix, in Watson's eyes - recruit new guys to learn the scheme, or hire new coaches to teach it. And the last of those three options is never pleasant. But Boss Bo, at the very least, has to put it on the table.

If “Apollo 13” is really the soup du jour, and Watson wants his offense a certain way, then hard questions need to be asked. Why did Holt, Brooks and Henry slide by the boards? Recruiting? Development? How do you handle the quarterback competition between Lee and Green? Can you afford to keep around certain scholarship guys at the bottom of depth charts for the sake of kindness? Why were they recruited in the first place?

We know the questions sound like a broken record - but as Watson said Monday - he intends to return the scene of scratch.

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