Nebraska Players Are Upset Over Search

Amid reports that Nebraska players are considering a boycott of the Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl against Michigan State, interim coach Bo Pelini on Tuesday banned players from talking to the media.

“There is one voice,” Pelini told the Omaha World Herald. “I am in charge of this football team. I’m running this football program, period. There doesn’t need to be 170 voices. There needs to be one.”

Players reportedly are frustrated with the school’s search to replace Frank Solich, who was fired on Nov. 29, a day after the Cornhuskers’ 31-22 victory over Colorado.

On Sunday, the World Herald reported that Pelini had been offered a job as an assistant at Oklahoma, possibly to replace Mike Stoops, who recently left to become coach at Arizona.

The news apparently sparked a 70-minute players-only meeting that took place on Monday afternoon, with players expressing their displeasure that Pelini had yet to be named coach.

Two players, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Lincoln Journal Star that the team discussed ways of voicing its frustration over Pelini’s status, including a boycott of practices or the bowl game. Also discussed were staging a news conference or writing an open letter to media outlets to voice concerns over the search.

But the meeting ended with no resolution, and players “stormed out of the room amid a flurry of expletives,” according to one player interviewed by the Journal Star.

Pelini has ties to Sooner Coach Bob Stoops. They grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, where Stoops’ father, Ron, coached Pelini at Cardinal Mooney High. Pelini was asked by the World Herald if he had an offer from Oklahoma. “I wouldn’t even say if there was,” he said.

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The death of former Michigan State center Brian Ottney in September has been ruled a suicide. Ottney died after ingesting a combination of medication and alcohol, according to a report released by the L.A. County Department of Coroners on Friday. Ottney, 23, died on Sept. 1 in Long Beach.... Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said that doctors will not clear offensive tackle Shawn Andrews, suffering from a sinus infection, to play in the Independence Bowl against Missouri on Dec. 31.