<table> </table> LINCOLN, Neb. | Turnovers are critical in a football game.</p><p>File that pearl of wisdom under obvious football observations, right next to playing at home is preferable and controlling the clock is helpful.</p><p>But Nebraska will look beyond the obvious this season as Bo Pelini takes over. He&#8217;s been the turnover doctor, healing mistake-prone programs.</p><p>Few piled up more mistakes than the Cornhuskers last season. They gave it away 28 times and collected a mere 11 turnovers. That&#8217;s minus-17, or minus-1.42 turnovers per game as the NCAA measures the statistic, which ranked 117th in the nation.</p><p>It defined the 2007 season. Nebraska got pushed around, saw its possessions taken and proved powerless to fight back. The result: a 5-7 overall record and 2-6 Big 12 mark that landed the program in the division basement and got coach Bill Callahan fired.</p><p>Pelini, who specializes in defense, will trust his offensive staff to solve the giveaway issue.</p><p>The takeaway total figures to improve because Pelini will demand it.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve always had success in that aspect because we emphasize it,&#8221; Pelini said. &#8220;You get what you ask for.&#8221;</p><p>Ask may not be the right word here.</p><p>&#8220;Oh, we&#8217;ll get it,&#8221; safety Larry Asante said. &#8220;Things are different now.&#8221;</p><p>As a defensive coordinator throughout his five-year college career, Pelini must have cringed when watching Nebraska film. But on Monday &#8212; the first day of preseason camp &#8212; he didn&#8217;t disparage the previous regime&#8217;s failure in this department. Rather, he shared a basic blueprint.</p><p>&#8220;A lot of getting turnovers is getting the right people to the right place at the right time and get there with an attitude,&#8221; Pelini said.</p><p>That kind of organization and effort was lost last year. Take the final three games. Nebraska opponents ran 243 plays, and the defense did not produce one turnover.</p><p>Meanwhile, the Huskers committed eight.</p><p>&#8220;The one game we did win we didn&#8217;t have any turnovers,&#8221; quarterback Joe Ganz said.</p><p>In the other games, Nebraska committed eight turnovers and forced none, losing to Kansas and Colorado by a remarkable combined score of 141-90.</p><p>Nothing like that had happened at Pelini&#8217;s other stops. At LSU, where he served for three years, the Tigers improved from near the bottom of turnover margin in Pelini&#8217;s first year to second nationally behind Kansas in last year&#8217;s national-championship season. LSU gained 20 more turnovers than it lost.</p><p>His 2004 Oklahoma defense finished with a plus-four margin. The next year, the Sooners dropped to minus-one.</p><p>But his greatest success story rings familiar to Nebraska fans. In 2003, he joined a Cornhuskers program after nine seasons in the NFL. The Huskers were coming off a 7-7 record, their worst in four decades, and were nothing special on defense.</p><p>Pelini forged that unit into one of the nation&#8217;s best. It led college football in turnover margin at plus-23, and Pelini himself coached Nebraska&#8217;s 10th victory that year, the Alamo Bowl conquest of Michigan State, standing in for fired Frank Solich.</p><p>&#8220;Numberswise, that was the best,&#8221; Pelini said.</p><p>There hasn&#8217;t been a better record or defense since then. Wistful Nebraska followers remember the defense of linebacker Demorrio Williams and defensive backs Josh Bullocks and Fabian Washington. None of the current Huskers were around that season, but they knew of that team, of that effort.</p><p>&#8220;We knew what he did,&#8221; defensive end Zach Potter said. &#8220;I think we can be that kind of defense.&#8221;</p><p>If so, Nebraska could be the most improved team in the Big 12 this season.