• Video: Nebraska coach Bo Pelini speaks at Tuesday's press conference:

SAN DIEGO — Nebraska's Bo Pelini and Arizona's Mike Stoops turned toward each other and grinned, because they knew it was coming.

The head coaches were making their final Holiday Bowl pregame statements at a tandem press conference, yet despite the close proximity to kickoff, the game they came to play seemed, for a moment, irrelevant.

They share the same hometown, and they've been friends since they can remember.

And they don't hide it either. (How often do you see two college head football coaches voluntarily walking and talking side by side down a public street?)

So naturally, with both coaches in front of cameras Tuesday, competition sort of took a back seat. And curious reporters inquired about the happenings at Iowa in 1991, when Pelini and Stoops served as graduate assistants.

But they were ready for those questions. They smiled when the topic came up, and Stoops spoke up with a polite form of a no-comment.

“We made a pact that we wouldn't talk about it,” Stoops said, laughing.

They wouldn't budge. Said Pelini: “What goes on in Iowa stays in Iowa.”

Most everything else about the Stoops-Pelini relationship has been well-documented, though.

The head coaches grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, where both of their families developed strong relationships. They might as well be brothers.

“I laughed when I found out we were going to be playing Arizona,” Pelini said. “There's 100-some teams in the country, and you've got to find a way to put us together.”

But usually, come kickoff, the two coaches can block out the relationships. Usually.

Pelini remembers their meeting in 2006, when his LSU Tigers blew out Stoops' Wildcats 45-3. Stoops was in his third year, working to turn around a down program.

But that day, Pelini said everything went LSU's way. And he just wanted it to end.

“I really felt for Mike that day,” Pelini said. “When you see a friend going through that and knowing all the hard work he put in up to that point, it was hard to watch.”

Stoops and the Wildcats have recovered. Today's Holiday Bowl is expected to be an evenly matched game.

Some thanks goes to Pelini for that, Stoops said. He and Pelini talk regularly about defensive schemes, philosophies, progressive plans. They always have, though.

“I don't think people realize how intertwined our families were for such a long time,” Pelini said.

Mike Stoops' father, Ron, was a second father figure for Pelini, he said. Ron Stoops coached defense at Cardinal Mooney High School, where both head coaches played their high school football.

Ron Stoops died of a heart attack while coaching football, devastating news that Pelini learned on an Ohio State road trip as a Buckeye player. Pelini said one of his coaches woke him up the morning of a game against Indiana and told him that Ron Stoops had died.

“One of those deals, you know, it sticks with you,” Pelini said.

Pelini credits his some of success to time spent with Ron Stoops. He picked up certain philosophies about the sport of football and even about life in general.

Mike Stoops did, too. Youngstown is why the coaches have so many similarities.

“I think we're similar in what we like to do, how we like to hang out, family,” Stoops said. “We're just similar in a lot of our characteristics and the traits that we developed through our early years being in Youngstown, and being with our family.”

It's no surprise, then, that their programs seem to be on track for improvement.

“The similarities go all the way back to our childhood, and I think that's why you see so many similarities in what we're doing,” Pelini said. “And I believe because they're the right things, that's why you see two programs on the rise.”

Contact the writer:

402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com

• Video: Arizona coach Mike Stoops speaks at Tuesday's press conference:

« Sports - Big Red Today

Share