The Nebraska football players and coaches continued to put on the same face Tuesday that they’ve held all season.
Even with the chance to clinch the Big 12 North title this weekend in College Station, Texas, the Huskers stuck to their philosophy of taking things game-by-game, week-by-week.
A win against Texas A&M on Saturday would give Nebraska a 6-1 conference record and the appropriate cushion between itself and Missouri, even with a game yet to play against Colorado to close out the regular season schedule.
NU coach Bo Pelini ignored the potential magnitude of this weekend’s game at Nebraska’s weekly press conference Tuesday.
“We don’t even talk about that,” he said. “That all takes care of itself in time. All I’m concerned with is playing the best football we can on Saturday. That’s just part of it. I haven’t talked about it with the team, and I won’t. I’m sure they understand it’s out there, but we’ve got plenty to be motivated by beyond that.”
Nebraska clinched the North title on the second to last regular season game last season with a 17-3 victory against Kansas State at home. The Huskers went on to lose in the Big 12 title game to Texas, 13-12.
NU receiver Brandon Kinnie said last year’s loss hurt and it was a team goal this season to get back to Dallas.
“We can’t skip games,” he said. “We can’t jump games. If we get this, we’ll be there.
Pelini said long-term goals come when a team executes the little things week after week.
“The No. 1 motivation we try to put on our football team is to get better each week and get better as a football team each and every day, and living in the moment,” Pelini said. “I believe all those other things, everything else that comes with it, it comes in time. It comes if you put your work in and you play the way you’ve been coached, you keep improving as a football team, you win football games, and the other aspect of it comes with it. You can’t jump ahead.”
Nebraska is currently predicted by ESPN.com and Sportsillustrated.com experts to win the Big 12 title and go on to play in the Fiesta Bowl. The Huskers are ranked eighth in the BCS standings and ninth in the Associated Press poll, making them one of the top one-loss teams in the nation.
But one begins to wonder where Nebraska could have been without the increasingly head-scratching loss to Texas. The Longhorns have dropped four straight since their win in Lincoln, including losses to three teams Nebraska has beaten this season.
“I really don’t look back,” Pelini said. “It’s about looking forward. I look back for like one day and then it’s time to move on and continue to move forward and keep getting better. That’s the furthest thing from my mind right now is what happened a month ago, or however long that was.
“You look back when the season’s over to learn from what happened, and hopefully we’ve already done that and be able to progress and move forward.”
Texas A&M and Nebraska both carry four game winning streaks into the game this weekend, but the possibility of clinching the North title won’t add any extra weight on a focused Nebraska team.
When asked at Tuesday’s press conference if clinching the Big 12 North title would be better sooner rather than later, NU defensive coordinator Carl Pelini was only concerned with one thing.
“Does that mean winning?” he said. “(Then) that’s very important. That’s all we care about is winning each week and being the best team on the field on Saturday. The rest will take care of itself.”