BOARDMAN, Ohio — Bo Pelini says he's coached against his old school before. But it will be different next time, he says, when his Nebraska football team plays Ohio State in a Big Ten game.
“Especially when eventually we walk into Ohio Stadium,” he said.
Pelini, Tuesday's headline speaker for the Youngstown United Way banquet, attended Ohio State from 1986 to 1990, playing safety for the Buckeyes.
“It's a special place and a great university,” he said. “Obviously, Coach (Jim) Tressel has done a phenomenal job, so it will be a really big challenge for us.”
Three weeks ago, Nebraska headlined a tumultuous week for college football when it accepted an invitation to join the Big Ten.
“We were in a great conference,” Pelini said, “and we're just moving to another great conference.
“I'm familiar with the Big Ten. I'm familiar with everything that comes along with coming back to the area here from playing in the Big Ten. But I'm not as familiar with the teams we're going to be playing, so I have a lot of work to do next offseason.”
As for this fall, Pelini said the Huskers “are deeper than we have been.”
“I really think we have a chance to be a good football team,” he said. “What we do with that opportunity, it's going to come down to day in and day out hard work.
“And if we can stay on the same track we're on, I think we can win a lot of football games.
“Right now, we're just looking to concentrate on this fall and finishing out the Big 12 the right way. Then we will turn our attention to the Big Ten.”
Pelini said he was proud of the way his players responded to last December's 13-12 loss to Texas in the Big 12 Championship game on a walk-off 46-yard field goal.
“We had a really tough loss in the Big 12 championship game. I'm sure a lot of you remember the Texas game, where they put a second back on the clock,” Pelini said in his speech. “And that was hard to recover from, but the young men in our program did not blink an eye.
“They stayed together, and they decided they were going to go out and make a statement against a heckuva football team.”
Nebraska went on to defeat Mike Stoops' Arizona team 33-0 in the Holiday Bowl to finish 10-4.
Pelini said he felt the win showed that “we were finally at that point in our program when the young men really understood what really was important.”
He didn't feel that way, he said, when he arrived as head coach after the 2007 season.
“I always tell the players in our program, ‘You're playing for the N on the side of the helmet. That's what it's all about. It's a lot bigger than you,'” Pelini said.
“When I first said that when I got to Nebraska, they looked at me like I had three heads — because in this day and age, it's always ... about the I generation — what can I get, how can I get mine? It is a lot bigger than that. It's about the guy next to him and the guy next to him and people who played before you.”
Pelini's speech capped a three-day reunion of Pelini's high school alma mater, Youngstown Cardinal Mooney, that included his brother Carl, the Huskers' defensive coordinator, and four Stoops brothers: Ron, who coaches at Youngstown State; Bob, who coaches at Oklahoma; Mike, who is at Arizona; and Mark, who is at Florida.
“I am so proud of not only growing up here, but of the people that I know, so many great friends,” Pelini said. “I try to work day in and day out to make you guys all proud of what we're doing at Nebraska.”
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