Nebraska coach Bo Pelini speaks during the Huskers' weekly press conference Tuesday.

LINCOLN — The line of questioning Tuesday for Nebraska coach Bo Pelini headed in directions that would not have been easily forecast two weeks ago when the Huskers were 4-1 and ranked Nos. 15 and 17.

Questions tend to change, though, when a team seemingly on the rise drops back-to-back home games to unranked opponents.

The questions focus on confidence. Leadership. Mental toughness. Even fire and any potential division within the team.

Division?

“It's not something I worry about,'' Pelini said. “I think we have a lot of character. We have a lot of great kids in the locker room. They want to be good. Obviously there's no one in there that doesn't want to win.

“That has not been a problem. There have not been issues like that on our football team. If there was, I understand how to address that.''

Fire?

“If somebody says that our team doesn't have fire, I disagree,'' Pelini said. “There's some guys, in some individual basis, I'd like to use a cattle prod on at times. You better believe it. But that's something that's part of the deal. You can say that about any football team.''

As for the other questions, Pelini didn't completely dispel every notion regarding the state of his team heading to Baylor on Saturday.

Consistently, he said, the Huskers aren't mentally tough enough, explaining that “mental toughness'' covers a lot of areas. A big part of it is focus, which Pelini called the hardest thing for a player to maintain over 60 minutes of football.

“When you drift — when your mind drifts or whatever, you lose your concentration for a second — that's when the things that really get you beat really creep up and get you,'' Pelini said. “That's probably what's hurt us the most.''

He called it “natural'' to monitor or wonder about the confidence of a team hearing its share of negativity.

“Yeah, you got to address it,'' Pelini said. “You gain confidence by having success, and that starts in practice. That starts in their level of preparation.''

The biggest test of confidence faces the Husker offense, which has produced just 17 points in the two losses. It played three scoreless quarters at Missouri before rallying for 27 in the fourth.

Pelini's message: You've got to work through it.

“You just hope, as a head coach, that they're confident,'' he said. “You got to tell them, ‘You can't buy into everything that's going on outside of here. You've got to be confident. We've done it before, you can do it again.'

“At times we've been very good on offense. We've been moving the football, doing some very good things. But then we become our own worst enemy. That's just inconsistency of execution.''

Regarding leadership, Pelini said work ethic, want-to and attitude have been good. But he said part of leadership is doing rather than talking, stepping up and making plays when plays need to be made.

“We just need to do it more consistently, obviously,'' Pelini said. “You're going to see some more guys, some different guys out there, and give them the opportunity to be that guy.''

Junior tight end Mike McNeill said confidence isn't an issue as Nebraska tries to repair the damage done by the two losses. No sulking by the Huskers, no feeling sorry for themselves.

“The last two weeks have been tough, but at the same time we know we're a good football team,'' McNeill said. “People can doubt us or whatever, but we have our own thing in our mind, and we know that we'll be all right and we just need to come out and practice hard.''

Senior defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said there might be a confidence issue if the Huskers were getting overmatched or overpowered on the field. Suh said it's different when some of the wounds have been self-inflicted.

“We realize that we've caused a lot of this to ourselves,'' he said. “We need to tighten up and take care of business.''

Pelini said he's a strong believer in culture. Establishing that remains a process for the Huskers (4-3, 1-2 Big 12).

That's not an excuse, Pelini said, just a reality.

“I believe we're good enough and we have the tools right now to win right now,'' he said. “I believe that in my heart. I know that. But are we even close to what my vision is for this program? I've never proclaimed that to be the case.''

OU, NU await pick for TV coverage

DALLAS — The Nebraska-Oklahoma game is one of three Big 12 football contests under consideration for ABC's 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. time slots on Nov. 7, the conference has announced.

The others are Oklahoma State at Iowa State and Kansas at Kansas State. After ABC chooses its two games, cable network Versus will take the other game for its 11:30 a.m. telecast that day.

Game times and TV information are expected to be announced Saturday night or Sunday morning.

In addition to the two ABC games and Versus contest, Fox Sports Net Midwest will televise Central Florida's game at Texas at 11 a.m.

Contact the writer:

444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com

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