The starting point for all of this: Cardinal Mooney High in barbed wire-tough Youngstown, Ohio. Pelini grew up in a modest house, one of eight kids banging their knives and forks on the table. His father was a pharmaceutical salesman. His mother stayed at home to tend to the brood.

"Everything revolved around the kids," says Pelini. "We all did everything together. A vacation? We all packed in the car. And we almost never had a baby sitter. My parents never went out."

One place they always went was church. The Catholic-to-the-core Pelinis never missed Mass — Bo still doesn't — piling into a pew to praise the Lord and count their blessings. And it was Catholic education all the way. That led Pelini to Cardinal Mooney, where his football fascination was forged. "My parents and many others had to scrimp to afford tuition," he says. "But they did it. I appreciate that. My coaches were hard on me. They were tough. Football was important there."

Pelini lapped it up. He played in the blast furnace of a program led by coach Ron Stoops — the father of the coaching Stoops boys, Bob (Oklahoma), Mike (Arizona) and Mark (defensive coordinator at Arizona).

"Bob and Mike are older, so me and Mark ran together," says Pelini. "We'd go to the games at Cardinal Mooney High. We had a blast. And in high school, we would practice in the dark. We only ran about 10 plays, but we ran them well."

Pelini learned about discipline, hard work and commitment. Those are some of the principles he's using as bricks in the foundation he is laying in Lincoln. Before he arrived? There was finger pointing. There was a lack of effort. There was dissension. In the first team meeting Pelini called, players slouched in their seats and had headphones on.

"I think there was a lack of confidence," says a program insider. "These guys have been beaten down by what has gone on here. They need some confidence. They need to feel good about themselves."

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If only ... well, what if Nebraska had hired Pelini after he led the Huskers to an Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State in 2003? He was the interim coach then, stepping in after Frank Solich was fired, and had done a great job as defensive coordinator that season. Didn't happen, though. Steve Pederson, then the athletic director, thought the school needed to go outside the family for some fresh ideas; he tabbed Callahan after several candidates turned down the job.

So Pelini polished his resume as co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma for a season and as defensive coordinator at LSU for three years. His defenses ranked in the top 20 overall those three years, and his sophisticated and varied schemes were the backbone of the Tigers' national title last season. Pelini's defensive acumen played a big part in his getting the Nebraska job last December. The storied and revered Blackshirts label, first affixed to the team's marauding defense in 1964, was tattered -- the Huskers ranked 112th in total defense last season, allowing an average of 476.8 yards.

"I had a guy come up to me on the beach when I was in Florida over spring break, saying he wanted the Blackshirts to be strong again," says Pelini. "That's great, but I'm not worried about that right now. I'm worried about the little things, stuff like making players accountable. If that's done, the other things will take care of themselves."

Like winning big again. Which can't come fast enough in Lincoln.