Spring football is about evaluation, about getting better, about trying new things and about getting the ball rolling so your team can hit the ground running in early August. First and foremost, that's what spring football will always be about.
But it's also about having fun. Football should always be fun, and spring football especially so since the crucible of game day is still more than four months away.
Bo Pelini isn't anyone's depiction of fun during a fall Saturday, but the man knows how to make spring football fun for his players. By now you're surely aware of his move Saturday, for which he won the highly mythical FootballScoop Spring Game National Championship for a second straight year.
Pelini's public image has taken a sharp turn since November, when he dared the Huskers' administration for fire him following a loss to Iowa in the regular-season finale. The Gator Bowl defeat of Georgia was the turning point, and now Operation Turnaround has Nebraska's arrow pointed upward heading into the 2014 season.
A happy player is a productive player and an invested player, and Pelini - with a little help from that darn cat - now has a locker room full of them.