Pelini braces for uncertainty

BOCA RATON — The first game of any season brings uncertainty for coaches. Even the nation’s best can’t be exactly sure what their team or their opponent is going to do when the game finally kicks off.

Even the best preparations can go wrong after the first tackle is made, but coaches prepare anyway, and FAU coach Carl Pelini said he’s felt he’s had an unfair string of luck when it comes to developing Week 1 game plans.

Pelini said that since 2009 he’s squared off against a first-year offensive coordinator, which gives him little game film to analyze in his defensive preparation. It started when Pelini’s Nebraska defense took on FAU’s first-year offensive coordinator Darryl Jackson in 2009. In 2010, Willie Taggart took over at Western Kentucky as the Hilltoppers’ head coach and offensive coordinator. Pelini’s streak took a one-year break in 2011 when Nebraska faced second-year offensive coordinator Marcus

Satterfield at Tennessee-Chattanooga. Last season, FAU started the season against Wagner’s first-year offensive coordinator Tom Masella.

“It seems like for me lately, the last four or five years, that’s been the deal,” Pelini said.

Pelini and defensive coordinator Pete Rekstis will face the same conundrum on Friday, when they face Miami’s first-year offensive coordinator James Coley, who came to Al Golden’s staff from Florida State.

Next game: vs. Miami, Friday at 8 p.m., ESPNU