Bo Pelini, new Husker head football coach and wearer of purple for a few more days, has arrived in New Orleans.

Four days before Monday’s national championship game, Pelini came before the national media,  answering questions for one of the final times as LSU’s defensive coordinator.

Aiming to win a national title against Ohio State, the school he once played for, Pelini called the game “a business trip.”

“My emotions are going to be flying high to win a football game for these guys,” said Pelini, named Nebraska’s football coach on Dec. 2. “I’ll be bleeding purple and gold on Monday night.”

LSU safety Craig Steltz said the defense has rallied behind Pelini in his last days as a Tiger.

Last month, Pelini spent two weeks in Nebraska finalizing his coaching staff and recruiting for the Huskers. Soon after his hiring, NU athletic director Tom Osborne and Pelini agreed he should coach LSU one last time since the team would be playing for a national championship.

Pelini has been the defensive coordinator at LSU the past three seasons.

“You know, I was happy that we had an opportunity to play one more ballgame with Coach Bo,” Steltz said. “When we heard he had the opportunity to come back and coach for us, we were excited as can be. It’s a dream come true for him to have a head coaching job in Nebraska, but as a coach, you coach to play in the national championship, and as a player you play to play in the national championship.”

Despite his tasks at Nebraska, Pelini said he thinks his defense is well-prepared for Ohio State.

He said he’s watched film of every Ohio State game this year, and about every Buckeyes bowl game since Jim Tressel became the team’s head coach.

“We’ve done our homework,” Pelini said. “I believe our guys are confident and ready to go fly around and play their best football.”

Earlier in the week, during a Sugar Bowl news conference, Georgia coach Mark Richt gave his advice on the matter of someone coaching two places at once.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Richt said.

Richt has been in the same situation as Pelini. Before the 2001 Orange Bowl, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden requested that Richt stay on as his offensive coordinator after taking the head coaching job at Georgia in late December.

Richt did. FSU lost 13-2 to Oklahoma in the national title game.

“My plan was to concentrate solely on Florida State until about maybe 5 o’clock,” Richt said. “We would practice in the morning, watch film in the afternoon and do as much planning as possible. Then after dinner, I tried to do some Georgia work. There wasn’t any recruiting because of the dead period. But there were things. You get a couple calls that you have to start dealing with all of a sudden. Maybe a discipline issue of a kid you’ve never met before.

“All of a sudden, you’ve got to figure out what to do. But the thing I learned more than anything else was I wasn’t very good at multi-tasking. I don’t think I did a very good job. It was evident in the score.”

Pelini has repeatedly said there was no hesitation on his part to coach in the game, given the stakes    and that a recruiting dead period runs through bowl season.

“There’s too much — we’ve been through too much together,” Pelini said Thursday. “Myself, these gentlemen sitting next to me, and the whole room, the whole team. And I’m committed to them and we’re committed to getting this thing finished and doing it the right way.”

His players are appreciative of the loyalty, evidenced by the words of LSU’s star defensive tackle, Glenn Dorsey.

Pelini’s ability to motivate is what Dorsey will miss most, he said.

“That’s the biggest thing. Just the way he approaches it, practice and the meeting room, his intensity. Second to none, you know what I mean?” Dorsey said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 5 in the morning, he's ready to roll.

“That’s the biggest thing that I like about him. He’s always trying to motivate you and making sure you’re doing the right thing. You can talk to him about anything. And he’s our general. He’s our head guy. We just rally around him.”

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.