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On a mission Nebraska coach calls No. 1 rating 'unexpected'
The Nebraska Cornhuskers are a consensus pre-season No. 1 pick in many polls for the upcoming college football season including Sports Illustrated. CNNSI.com's Paul Crane went one-on-one with 'Husker head coach Frank Solich to talk about Nebraska's chances of winning another national title. Paul Crane: Coach, a number of preseason polls have you ranked No. 1 including Sports Illustrated. How surprised, if at all, are you by that? Frank Solich Well I think we finished up [last] season very strongly coming down the stretch. The last third of the season we probably faced three or so top teams in the country and played well against those teams. And then of course the great tradition of Nebraska football enters into it. So it's not a complete surprise that we're ranked high. I guess coming into it, I did not expect to be ranked No. 1 because of the number of players that we lost on the defensive side of the ball. Crane: And how much more of a bullseye, if at all, does this put on you? You were probably already wearing a bullseye in the Big 12 and now nationally? Solich: Well we seem to get everybody's best shot no matter what. I think people really thrive on playing us in terms of knowing that a win against Nebraska will mean a great deal to them. So we get people's best shot. There's certainly no need for incentive. But if somebody lacks it, this certainly gives it to them. But our players are conditioned to playing against teams that they know are going to give their best shot. And so what we want to do is just make sure that they get ours. And then we'll just see how it plays out from there. Crane: Well last year your team went 12-1. But I can't help but get a feeling that is no longer "good enough" in Lincoln. It must be tough enough to replace a legend like Tom Osborne. But how much tougher is it that perhaps your "honeymoon" if you even got one, is starting to come to an end? Solich: (laughs) Well, whatever the reason I haven't felt like I have been on a honeymoon. The expectations were great here upon taking over the program, Paul. That comes from what Coach Osborne had been able to do over the 25 years that he was involved in head coaching at Nebraska. It comes back to the three national championships in the 1990's to where I think people just started to feel like Nebraska, just stepping on the field as far as our fans and the people that surround the program, that it was just going to happen. But of course it doesn't happen unless you have great players and unless they are motivated and play together as a team. And we hope that we can keep that same kind of tradition going that Nebraska has had in the past and that is to win an awful lot of games. This year's team is starting off on top and their intent is to take one game at a time and get it done in that fashion. But there are a lot of other teams out there that have that same idea in mind. That they have got great talent and they know if they play well and with their schedule, that there's a chance that they could be No. 1 team in the country at the end of the year. Crane: One thing you don't have this year that you did have last year is a question at quarterback. Eric Crouch is the quarterback, Bobby Newcombe is at wide receiver. How much of that was a test of your head coaching last year and the way that it played out, how much of it is also a credit to those two guys? Solich: I think much of it is a credit to those two guys. They've shown that they are team players really all the way through their time here at Nebraska. You know, Bobby came with the idea of wanting to be the quarterback and lead this team to a national championship. He's playing wide receiver for us. He's also returning punts and likely returning kickoffs for us and he still may be able to lead this team to a national championship. But we will see how that all plays out. But they have been great to work with and I appreciate what they are all about. Crane: Well looking in from the outside, that seemed to be a real test for you as a head coach. How much of it was that? Solich: Well, I think it was a test. I think as a head coach you continually have to deal with player issues and that comes when you are having good seasons as well as bad seasons. I think that one of the most important jobs of the head coach. Not only in drawing up the X's and O's with his staff, but there's no question if can develop the type of chemistry amongst your players and amongst your team that you want to be there. Then your chances of being able to be successful are a lot greater. A lot of time is spent dealing with individual players and individual issues, but that's all part of it. Certainly I have been tested in my first two years along those lines. But virtually every college coach at some point in time has to go through those type of tests. For the most part I thought it worked out really well. We have really team-oriented players here at Nebraska. You don't win as many games as Nebraska has won over the course of time as we have without there being great chemistry here. Crane: Well Eric Crouch is coming off a season where he became the first Nebraska quarterback to lead the team in rushing since 1955. But how concerned are you with the running game, especially with the way you rely on the option and had that fumble problem a year ago leading the nation losing 25 of 49 fumbles? Solich: We have the potential to have an excellent running game. We entered last season with a somewhat still inexperienced offensive line and a little bit of experience at the running back and fullback spot. And certainly if you look at Eric coming into last season, he had only played about half of a season and part of that was he played injured. So he was really not an experienced quarterback coming into last season. Now he's gained a tremendous amount of experience through last season and certainly that continued to show as we went along through the season. And he's full of confidence right now. We'll continue to try to bolster a good running game. It became very apparent to us that the running game was a big factor in how we moved the ball in the bowl game. And generally speaking it has played an important part in how Nebraska has been able to put points on the board. We like to think that we are a multiple-offensive football team. We'll take a multiple approach. I think we can spread the ball around a little bit more. We have experience everywhere that you need experience. Crane: A lot of people think the reason you start the season No. 1 is really your defense. Of course you lost six starters, but that doesn't seem to tell the whole story. How strong is your defense this year? Solich: Well normally you are right. When people think about a national championships or they think about a conference championships or having a great team, they usually start off by thinking, "Well if they have a great defense there's a chance for that to happen." We had a great defensive football team last year. They were exceptional right from game one right through the season and that helped us to overcome the turnover problems that we had and enabled us to win 12 football games. We'll not be that experienced this year. Our defense will need time probably to mature into the type of defense that we expect that they will be. We expect that they'll be an excellent team before it's all over. But we will not have that luxury of knowing that the defense is experienced and ready to play great football right from the word go. Crane: Of course last year's 12-1 team came so close, but was still so far away from participating in the national championship game. And I know coaches don't like to look too far ahead. But a year ago, Florida State went wire-to-wire as No. 1. Do you look to your players to try to make that two years in a row for a team or do you not look that far ahead yet? Solich: Well traditionally we've taken everything one game at a time. As boring as that sounds the only way that I think you are able to win with any consistency is to do it in that manner. Crane: Well congratulations on your No. 1 ranking and best of luck this season, Coach.
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