Staff Continuity Key Part of Nebraska Football Success

Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini has called upon numerous Cornhusker traditions during his first two seasons in charge of the program. One of those is the importance of maintaining continuity in the coaching staff.

Nebraska will enter the 2010 season as one of just 12 schools in the country with the same 10 full-time coaches for a third straight year. The list includes only three Big 12 Conference schools including Nebraska, Baylor and Texas. Others on the list include Indiana, Iowa, Navy, North Carolina State, Penn State, UAB, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

Nebraska's third-year head coach is happy to be able to keep his staff intact for the upcoming season.

"There is no doubt about the importance of keeping our staff intact for another season," Pelini said. "First off, I'm fortunate to have a great staff and pleased we'll be together for another year. We have a good camaraderie among the group, and I would like nothing more than to keep this group at Nebraska as long as possible."

Pelini said the benefits of keeping the staff intact are felt on the field, and also in many other aspects of the football program.

"No question it makes a big difference on the field and in the meeting room," Pelini said. "We have a good feel for each other, how we want to manage practice, in-game adjustments, you name it. Keeping this staff together also has a great benefit in recruiting and for the kids in our program. It is important for our players to see the same face when they walk into their meeting rooms from year to year."

Keeping a coaching staff together has been a key component to success at Nebraska over the past several decades. Under Tom Osborne, Nebraska was nationally known for keeping assistant coaches in place for a large number of years, and Osborne has always been quick to point out that was vitally important to the Cornhuskers' success.

In 25 seasons as head coach, Osborne had 12 assistant coaches who spent at least 10 years on his Nebraska staff-a statistic that is unheard in college football then and now. In fact, in his quarter-century as the Husker head man, Osborne had just 27 different assistant coaches.

Pelini appears to be on his way to the same sort of loyalty and consistency at Nebraska.