There was no Harlem Shake for Nebraska on Saturday. Huskers coach Bo Pelini was unhappy, to put it lightly, with just about everyone and everything during spring drills.
“You could have put a grade-school offense out there against our defense and they would have done well,” Pelini said in a short post-practice presser. “It’s mental weakness. It’s guys giving in when they’re tired. It starts with coaching. The coaching’s not near where it needs to be and the execution’s nowhere near where it needs to be. That pretty much sums it all up.”
Pelini didn’t spare the defense, either.
“I’m ashamed of what I just watched on that practice field.”
There is indeed a long way to go between today and the first game of the season -- Nebraska opens on Aug. 31 against Wyoming -- so what happened today isn’t necessarily indicative of how things will go in 2013, or even the rest of spring.
Nebraska has been solid in five seasons under Pelini, winning at least nine games each of those years and appearing in three conference championships dating back to the program’s Big 12 days.
But there is a growing edge. The Huskers have yet to win any of those conference championships under Pelini. Last season, Pelini’s team gave up 70 points to a 7-5 Wisconsin team that struggled with an offensive identity for most of the season.
Can they get over the hump in 2013?
“Call it what it is,” Pelini said. “We’ve got a long, long, long way to go.”