Pelini staying the course with Blackshirts

On Saturday night, Nebraska's defenders shook hands with an unfamiliar opponent and then walked out of an unfamiliar stadium with an unfamiliar feeling.

They had surrendered 48 points, 486 yards and 27 first downs. Not counting a kneel-down at the end of the first half, Wisconsin reached the end zone on its final five offensive possessions.

Although Nebraska's defensive performances against Fresno State and Washington raised a few red flags, the alarms didn't truly go off in Lincoln until Saturday night. It marked the Blackshirts' worst performance since Oklahoma slapped 62 points on them in November 2008, Bo Pelini's first season as Huskers coach.

[+] Enlarge Brace Hemmelgarn/US PresswireNebraska could do little to slow down Montee Ball and the Badgers as Wisconsin put up 486 yards of total offense and scored 7 touchdowns.Pelini's first Huskers defense was a rebuilding project, a unit still reeling from the Callahan years. This year's D, despite losing several standouts, including first-round draft pick Prince Amukamara, still had star power and high hopes of being a championship-level unit.

What's going on with the Blackshirts?

"Youth, maturity," Pelini said Monday. "We had a number of guys we had to replace. It is one things to do it in practice and another when the bullets are flying. You have to do it. At the end of the day, we were in position [at Wisconsin], we just didn't make a play.

"It's not magical."

Neither is the solution. You might see some different faces in different places Saturday night against reeling Ohio State, but Pelini has a proven formula on defense, and he doesn't plan to deviate from it.

Despite pedestrian numbers -- Nebraska ranks 64th or worse nationally in total defense, scoring defense, rush defense or pass defense -- Pelini thinks the unit is "not real far off."

"You make subtle changes," he said. "You don't overhaul. ... It's about execution, technique and fundamentals. You stay the course. Does that mean you don't make adjustments? That's asinine. You just keep working to get better."

The Blackshirts were a supremely confident group when I visited with them this spring in Lincoln. Little changed even after they allowed 67 points combined to Fresno State and Washington.

But the defense seemed to let up in the second half in Madison. Wisconsin RB Montee Ball told ESPN.com that he saw Nebraska's defenders wearing down.

"I could see that in some people," Huskers cornerback Alfonzo Dennard told ESPN.com on Monday. "Myself, I knew the game wasn't over, but I was kind of down on our secondary because I knew we could play better than that. No doubt Wisconsin is a great team, but we really bet ourselves really, in not competing like we should."

Nebraska might not see an offense like Wisconsin's for the rest of the season -- both from a schematic standpoint and a production standpoint -- but the Huskers' move to the Big Ten will prompt some adjustments on defense. Pelini acknowledges that he recruited more safety-linebacker hybrid players in the spread-heavy Big 12, while the power football played by Wisconsin and other Big Ten teams (Iowa, Michigan State) requires a different mix.

"We need to get more linebackers in here for depth reasons," he said. "You can't fix that so soon. Our blueprint will change, but it's nothing drastic."

Dennard called the loss "a wake-up call." The unit has a great opportunity to revive itself this week against Ohio State, which ranks last in the Big Ten and 108th nationally in total offense (308.2).

Buckeyes freshman quarterback Braxton Miller will make his first career road start in a hostile setting in Lincoln. Ohio State on Saturday came 10 seconds away from suffering its first home shutout since 1982.

"It's very important," Dennard said. "We don't want to have people thinking because we had a bad game at Wisconsin that we've got a bad defense. I just hope we go into Ohio State and have fun and compete more, get our hands on balls and play our game.

"I don't think they've got a bad offense. They're pretty average. And they want to win just as much as we do."

Dennard remains hopeful about the defense's potential but admits he's "not sure yet" how good the Blackshirts can be. He knows the group isn't far away from breaking through.

"We're right at the edge," he said. "We just have to fix a few things and we'll be right there."

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Alabama's Mark Barron staying in school

Alabama got its quarterback in the secondary back on Saturday when safety Mark Barron announced he would return for his senior season.

With Barron returning, Alabama will be one of the teams to beat both in the SEC and nationally next season. He's one of the most complete safeties in the country, but having his experience back there and the fact that he knows the defense so well will be as valuable as anything to the Crimson Tide.

Barron missed the Capital One Bowl after tearing his pectoral muscle in the regular-season finale against Auburn and undergoing surgery.

His return means Alabama will have eight starters back on defense next season, not to mention 18 of their top 21 tacklers.

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Butch Jones staying the course

Cincinnati coach Butch Jones will be returning to familiar territory when he takes his team into Morgantown this weekend. Jones was an assistant coach for West Virginia from 2005-06.

"It will be different," Jones said. "From the bus ride in, to the fans cheering against us to running out of the opposite tunnel."

That won't be the only thing that feels a bit off about the Bearcats' trip. Cincinnati has beaten West Virginia two years in a row on its way to consecutive Big East championships. But in Jones' first season as head coach, the team is just 3-5, already exceeding the number of losses it had the past two years combined. While few rational people expected Jones to match Brian Kelly's 12-0 regular season record of 2009, the Bearcats' 2010 definitely qualifies as a surprise setback.

[+] Enlarge Andy Lyons/Getty ImagesThe Bearcats are just 3-5 in Butch Jones' first season as head coach.Despite the poor record and increasing fan criticism, Jones isn't pushing any panic buttons.

"Nobody has wavered," he said. "Are we disappointed? Yes. But we still have a lot to play for. This program is very prideful. Nobody is going to blink."

After Cincinnati lost 31-7 at home to Syracuse last time out, Jones said there were things going on within the program that "Joe Public has no idea" about. He has also alluded to building a foundation. Those sentiments may seem odd to people who only see the two straight Big East trophies.

Jones hasn't delved into a lot of specifics publicly, and he's in a no-win situation in that regard. If he talks about problems in the program, most fans will simply consider it excuse-making. His only option is to win more games.

Many expected this team to compete for another league title because of the return of Zach Collaros, Isaiah Pead, Armon Binns and D.J. Woods. But the Bearcats also lost several key pieces off last year's Sugar Bowl squad, including electric playmaker Mardy Gilyard; all-Big East offensive linemen Jeff Linkenbach and Chris Jurek; and cornerstone defensive players in linemen Ricardo Matthews and Alex Daniels, linebackers Curtis Young and Andre Revels and defensive backs Brad Jones and Aaron Websters. In most cases, the Bearcats haven't been able to replace their production.

Add in some recruiting misses -- the 2009 signing class has accounted for only a handful of contributors, and many of those original signees are gone -- and you get a team starting seven sophomore on defense, with precious little experience behind them. Jones was very concerned about depth this summer, and injuries and other issues have further thinned the ranks.

"We lost Kembrell Thompkins, Vidal Hazelton and Travis Kelce, who are three bona fide potential NFL prospects," he said. "And then [cornerback] Dominique Battle, who's played a lot of football for us and has been a model of consistency and stability.

"It has been an issue, but you can never allow that to be a crutch. Usually, teams playing for championships in November stay healthy and have great competition at spots. We knew [depth] was going to be an issue going in. The only thing you can do is develop your younger players."

Despite all the challenges, Jones said he likes the way the young players have responded and how leaders have emerged. That gives him hope for the future.

"Every great program suffers adversity at some stage or another," he said. "When that happens, you really find out about the character of the people in your program and around our program. If anything, what this proves is that we have very high standards here. We expect to compete on a national stage and in the Big East conference year in and year out."

These Bearcats have to win three of their final four games just to have a shot at making a bowl. The buzz around Cincinnati may have dimmed considerably since last year's run at a BCS title berth, but Jones believes he's still got the program on the right path.

"I know the system we have in place here, I know the younger players we have in place here and I know the standards and expectations we're working toward here," he said. "We're upgrading our facilities, we have great expectations and great support around our football program. We won't lose momentum. I'll make sure we do not lose any momentum."

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