• Video Below: See NU's Bo Pelini, Rick Kaczenski and the Huskers' trip to Disney World
• Photo Showcase: Huskers in Orlando, Dec. 30

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ORLANDO, Fla. — When the time comes for John Papuchis to make his Hall of Fame speech, they better give the man some extra time. He'll have a lot of folks to thank.

He'll need to acknowledge Dave Crist, the football coach at Blacksburg (Va.) High School, for giving a college kid a coaching job. Then he'll want to thank to Tom Hayes, the former defensive coordinator at Kansas, for picking Papuchis' name out of a haystack.

The Eastern Illinois defensive coordinator for not returning his call. The defensive line coach at KU for taking Papuchis along to LSU in 2003. Les Miles for not asking who that mysterious dark-haired guy in the back of the meeting room was every day. And Bo Pelini for putting up with a young graduate assistant who wanted to be a sponge.

You may know Papuchis as the defensive coordinator at Nebraska, the guy Pelini handed a big job. But Papuchis hasn't been handed anything his entire life.

He's been more like Forrest Gump, a well-meaning chap trying to make his way up and finding himself in the right place at the right time, on the right side of fate. His story is as good a thrill ride as anything at Disney.

I met with Papuchis on Thursday afternoon at the Nebraska team hotel. We sat in the lobby and he laid out some fascinating tales. The one where he cleaned out an LSU coach's garage and the time he recruited a kid while his wife was in labor with their second child.

Enjoy meeting Mr. Papuchis:

TS: You've been around a lot of great coaches. Nick Saban. Pelini. Les Miles. Will Muschamp. Was that always the plan?

JP: "No, no way. I never had a plan. I grew up in the Washington, D.C., area. I played all three sports. I chose baseball. But in the back of my mind, I wanted to get into college coaching. I didn't know how that was going to work out.

"I went to Virginia Tech. My junior year, I walked on at Virginia Tech. I was a quarterback, but I wasn't that good. I wanted to be around the team, see if I could get into coaching.

"I didn't get invited to fall camp. I decided that, at that point, I wanted to see what options were available to me. I ended up at Blacksburg High School. The coach there ended up impacting my life as much as anyone. Dave Crist. Took a chance on this 21-year-old kid who wanted to coach."

TS: How did you end up at Kansas, with Mark Mangino, a couple years later, in 2001?

JP: "Check out this weird dynamic. The assistant baseball coach at Blacksburg, his dad was Tom Hayes, the defensive coordinator at Kansas.

"Kansas had an opening for a defensive graduate assistant. Tom Hayes said that 1,000 people applied to be his GA that year. He got résumés from all over the country. He had asked the operations director to go through them and give them the top 10 qualified people. There were former NFL guys, college coaches, you name it. I was obviously not on that list.

"He (Hayes) said, 'No, I want a young guy, someone who's green and I can teach and mold and will work hard. Go pick out the least qualified 10 people.' I made that list. He saw that list and saw that I coached at Blacksburg High School and he said 'Oh my gosh, my son coaches at Blacksburg High School.'

"That's how I got on at Kansas."

TS: In 2004, you end up with Nick Saban at LSU.

JP: "I almost didn't get there. When I was at Kansas, the defensive line coach left to go to LSU. It was interesting how things worked out.

"I was actually 10 minutes from accepting a secondary job at Eastern Illinois. I called the defensive coordinator at Eastern Illinois to accept the job. He didn't answer so I left a message to call me back. I had interviewed with Eastern Illinois and LSU to be a GA and I hadn't heard back from LSU.

"Within 10 minutes of leaving a message for Eastern Illinois, I got a call from LSU offering me the job. If the (Eastern Illinois) guy had answered, I probably would have accepted the job."

TS: Why do you take a GA position over a full-time position coach job?

JP: "There was a mentality that having your own office and position group would be better. But a lot of times in this business it's about being around people who can help you, too. And that was an all-star staff at LSU. Jimbo Fisher was on that staff, Derek Dooley, Muschamp, Kirby Smart and of course Saban.

"Being a graduate assistant is a humbling thing. You do what you're asked to do, for the most part. Whether that's draw cards or organize copies or get coffee. Basically, we ran the gamut of tasks we did. Bo (Pelini) changed the culture of that when he came in. He was more interested in helping young guys learn to coach so the tasks became different. That kind of re-energized me in a lot of ways. I was getting beat down after four years as a GA."

TS: What's the strangest thing you ever had to do as a GA?

JP: "I won't even mention who it was, but one time one of them (LSU coaches) asked me to clean out his garage for his little boy's birthday party. I have a master's degree (from Kansas) and I'm sitting here cleaning out people's garages for a birthday party. I was thinking about taking a different career track."

TS: How in the world did you get to stay at LSU when Saban left for the Miami Dolphins?

JP: "That was as lucky as getting there in the first place. I had asked (Saban) after the bowl game if I could go with him. He said he didn't know yet how the whole staff was going to shake out. I was in limbo.

"When coach (Les) Miles got there, I just showed up. I went to staff meetings. For about a month or so, he never addressed me in any way. I think he kind of looked at me like, who is this guy sitting in the corner of my staff meetings? I think he thought I came along with the job.

"I just kept showing up and eventually the other GAs stopped showing up because they didn't like the feeling of being in limbo. Eventually he hired Bo and I figured I had to grab onto a life line. My life line was Bo. I had to get to know him.

"We hit it off pretty quickly. Went to dinner a couple times. His family hadn't come down yet. I was single, I didn't have anything to do, so we watched a lot of film together."

TS: Why did you two hit it off?

JP: "I wanted to learn as much as I could from a guy like Bo. I think Bo liked the passion and fire he saw in me. He's one of the few guys I've seen in this profession that takes the time to help young coaches and mentor them. He does that now on our staff. This can be a really selfish profession. Bo has always gone out of his way to do that."

TS: Compare Bo with Saban.

JP: "They're similar in their intensity. They both hate to lose, more than anyone I've ever come across, whether it's a pick-up basketball game at lunch or Saturday afternoon."

TS: Saban is regarded as the guy atop his profession now. Is he as intense as they say?

JP: "Coach Saban was amazing. He had his finger on every aspect of the program. The ultimate, ultimate organized, task-oriented head coach. It was only seven months when I worked for him but I learned a lot.

"He knows exactly what he wants. From the time he shows up in the morning until the minute he leaves at night, he's all business. I appreciated a guy that had that much drive and passion. He was very disciplined. We started every morning at 7:30 a.m. But by 10 p.m., he went home. But what he got accomplished in his 15 hours there was more than most people could do in two days.

"Working on that staff, with Will and Kirby, was intense. Everything in that program was set up to be efficient. Everything we did was on a time crunch. You learned a lot. That, to me, was worth the experience. There were a lot of things in that job that weren't very glamorous, but if you took it for what it was, took it as a learning experience, you get out of it what you want."

TS: With all of the great defensive minds you worked for, including Bill Young, did they have anything in common?

JP: "They're all good communicators. Tom Hayes was very intense. And Bill Young was a guy that would embrace the players more. I always thought to be a good coach you had to yell at players, get in their face. Bill showed me that you could put your arm around them and get them to play for you that way.

"At the end of the day, it boils down to how they teach their defense. You can know a lot about defense and scheme, but if you can't communicate it, it doesn't do you much good."

TS: There's a perception that you aren't ready for this, that Bo could have gotten someone more experienced to be coordinator. Does that bother you?

JP: "It doesn't bother me. People are entitled to that opinion. What I always find is people outside the program have no idea what happens inside. For the most part, the perception of who you think is qualified and who isn't is based on real short snapshots of what you think you know about someone. People inside know what's going on. I was excited and honored that Bo felt I was ready for it.

"Bo is a great defensive coach. More than anything, he needs someone who can teach his defense, knows it inside and out, how he works, what he wants, what he's looking for. It's hard to be head coach and still administer all aspects of the defense."

TS: Was it a case of if he hadn't picked you, you might have left and he wanted to keep you?

JP: "That wasn't in any of my thought. I'm glad Bo thought of me that way. I'm honored. But if he hadn't picked me, I would have been happy to keep coaching the special teams and doing the best job I could for him."

TS: Because Bo is a defensive guy, does he make the calls during games or will you? What about game plans?

JP: "Bo is a guy who wants input from everybody on the staff. He's a very, very good defensive coach but he's willing to listen to what everyone has to say. He calls most of the game, but sometimes it's collaborative. I always thought that's a gift that he has. We do the game plans as a staff, and he'll make the final decisions, just like any organization where the CEO makes the final call."

TS: That would go against the perception that he's hired young guys he can boss around.

JP: "I know for a fact that Bo would want input. Any perception of Bo being domineering is wrong. He wants input, whether you're a GA or a defensive coordinator. I don't think he would want people on his staff that wouldn't stand up to him. He's very open to ideas and different ways to approach things."

TS: You have a reputation as an ace recruiter. Got any good stories?

JP: I'll give you a couple, one from a good guy we got and one from one we didn't get.

"I was proud of being part of the process with Rex Burkhead. I consider his family friends. One of the last days we were recruiting him, I was at his basketball practice with Tim Beck, and a coach from Texas A&M. After his practice, I was joking to him, "OK, Rex, if I make this half-court shot, you have to commit to Nebraska.'

"And it's not like I had a great background of making half-court shots. But I threw it up there and it went down. I don't know, maybe some things are meant to be.

"There was a high profile kid who ended up going to UCLA. During the summer time, we're not permitted to call the kids. So you hope through your letters and emails that they call you.

"So my wife was in labor with our son on Aug. 5, 2009. The recruit happened to call during the labor. And I had been waiting for his call for weeks. And I had a decision to make at that point. Do I risk the wrath of my wife and answer the phone? I took the gamble and answered. She was screaming in the background, "You better come to Nebraska!" I explained to him that she was in labor and I would name our son after him. He ended up not coming."

TS: Do you ever feel like your career track is on some magical path to something great — a head coaching job?

JP: "I do feel very fortunate to be here. And I do feel that things often happen for reasons, whether good or bad. If that (head coach) happens, that would be great. That would also mean we won a lot here."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com

twitter.com/tomshatelOWH

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• Video: NU coach Bo Pelini talks after practice:



• Video: New NU defensive line coach Rick Kaczenski talks after practice:



• Video: Huskers head to Disney World:

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