Shatel: Bo taking the offensive

If it’s Saturday morning, then I’m tooling down Interstate 35 from Dallas to Waco, looking for breakfast at a Chick-fil-A and wondering:

• Is this the most important game left on Nebraska’s schedule?

It feels like it, in many ways. Sure, there are five games left. But considering the mental state of this team, and the specter of Oklahoma’s defense lurking next week, a loss today might put Bo Pelini’s bunch in the rubber room for the rest of the season.

Call it the start of a new season. Last year the Huskers were 4-3 after winning at Iowa State and played their best football in November, winning four of their last five. Can they do it again?

It starts Saturday. The Huskers need a win. Doesn’t matter how it comes or how they dress it up. There is a sense of urgency now around this team, which is why I expect a change at quarterback and more involvement from Pelini in the offense.

• What could Pelini possibly add to the offensive side?

It’s not like he’s going to start imitating Don Coryell. His role would be more as an attitude adjuster (foot in backside included). Pelini has spent the better part of his tenure trying to shore up the defense; that’s what he was hired to do. But a lot of that heavy lifting has been done. Pelini is the head coach, the CEO, the big kahuna, etc. He’s in charge of the entire team’s performance. A lot of the things tying down NU’s offense — dropped passes, failing to fall on a fumble, false starts, even missing receivers — are signs of a soft group. The head coach has started to turn his attention to those things.

• Can Pelini impose his will on the offense? Can he get Shawn Watson to stress that physical run game he says he wants?

Understand this: flipping the culture on offense will take some time. It might take another year or two, or until some Bill Callahan-era players are gone.

I spoke to some NU coaches this week. They expressed frustration in some offensive players (Callahan holdovers), saying they’re not mentally tough and don’t have the mentality to go smashmouth. I thought Pelini strongly hinted at it at his Tuesday press conference when he said being mentally tough “is a process and not something that happens overnight’’ and that the team is not even close to his vision of mental toughness.

Joe Ganz, Nate Swift and Todd Peterson weren’t soft. But they covered up some nasty habits on this offense. Call the West Coast offense the prime culprit, but those habits don’t get changed overnight. Now that the defense is tilted in the right direction, Pelini acts eager to start the brain transplant on offense.

• What could possibly happen next in the wild, wild Big 12 North? The possibilities are endless (check my blog on omaha.com). All six teams are still in it. K-State has the edge. But anything can happen and probably will. Nebraska has to win at least three more, if not four, to have a shot. Win today or this will be the closest the Huskers get to Dallas this year.

• Will Cody Green start?

Just a hunch, but yes, I think so. Earlier this week Pelini said he was “considering a lot of things’’ with regard to personnel changes. The time is right. And I think this is part of Pelini’s stamp on the offense. It might seem a little gutsy to have a freshman quarterback make his first start on the road (remember Tommie Frazier at Mizzou in 1992?). But NU needed an attention-grabbing move in 1992, and it needs it now.

I have another hunch: Saturday will be a very interesting day in north central Texas.

Contact the writer: 444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

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