Huskers Meet Media for Southern MissHuskers Meet Media for Southern Miss
Football

Huskers Meet Media for Southern Miss

Lincoln - Nebraska Coach Bo Pelini and the Huskers met with members of the media on Monday at Memorial Stadium to discuss Saturday's season opener with Southern Miss.

Pelini, who enters his fifth season as Nebraska's head coach, will lead the Huskers against a Southern Miss squad that won the 2011 Conference USA title and finished with a 12-2 record. The Golden Eagles finished No. 20 in the final AP poll, while the Huskers closed 2011 at No. 24 in the media rankings after a 9-4 season in their first year in the Big Ten.

In a kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. (central) with live television coverage by ABC, Nebraska will be challenged by a dominant Southern Miss defense that returns several key players from last year's group. That defense will be under the control of first-year head coach Ellis Johnson, who has spent the past four seasons as the defensive coordinator at South Carolina. In his last game at South Carolina, Johnson's defense held the Huskers to 13 points to help the Gamecocks to a 30-13 win in the 2012 Capital One Bowl.

Although the Huskers will face a talented defense, Pelini praised Nebraska's offense for its improvement during the offseason and throughout fall camp.

"They're way ahead of where they've been. It's not even close. And this is in every area we're asking them to do," Pelini said. "Now comes the task. How's it going to look on Saturday? Up to this point, I like where we are. Now it's time to put it to the test. I think Saturday provides us with that first look at a benchmark that we'll start from and you work from there."

While Nebraska returns experienced players at nearly every position on offense, Southern Miss will provide the challenges of the unfamiliar for the Huskers on the offensive side of the ball.

With a new coaching staff, an unknown system and a new starter at quarterback, Southern Miss has posed Nebraska challenges in preparing for the opener.

"We've been looking at a lot of different film, and there's some guess work involved," Pelini said. "Obviously you look at their personnel that they played last year. There's a lot of guess work, so that's a little bit of a concern. We watched everything from high school film to a few different college films. We watched a variety of different things to try and piece it together and gret ready for a multitude of things we could see."

A complete transcript of Coach Pelini's session with the media is available below, along with quotes from several Husker players.