Posted on 11/30/2014 8:47:34 AM PST by FlJoePa
The Bo Pelini chapter at Nebraska has come to its last page. The Husker head coach of seven years was fired on Sunday morning in a scenario reminding of 11 years ago, when Frank Solich was let go after a 9-3 season.
“Earlier this morning, I informed Coach Bo Pelini of our decision to move forward in a new direction," Husker athletic director Shawn Eichorst said in a statement. "Coach Pelini served our University admirably for seven years and led our football program’s transition to the Big Ten Conference. We wish Coach Pelini and his wonderful family all the best and thank him for his dedicated service to the University.”
A press conference is scheduled for 1 p.m.
A member of Pelini's staff said an associate athletic director called assistants around 9 and informed them of a meeting at 11 a.m.
"It went bang-bang," the staff member said.
Efforts to reach Pelini were not immediately successful.
Players were clearly in shock by the announcement.
"Unreal. Bo believed in me and I 100% believed in him. Can't believe this..." tweeted sophomore wide receiver Jordan Westerkamp.
"Bo was the best coach I have ever had the pleasure to play under. Highest character, loyal, I could make a freakin list....." tweeted senior offensive guard Mike Moudy.
"Speechless..." tweeted former Husker Rex Burkhead.
Per Pelini's last contract, NU is on the hook to pay him $7.65 million, owing him $150,000 monthly for the next 51 months, though that total would lessen if he takes another job. All assistants coaches, and football strength coach James Dobson, were on contract until January 2016. They would be owed a total of just over $3.1 million combined. Including Dobson's salary, NU will owe its coaches more than $11 million total.
Pelini will exit the program with a 67-27 record, having won at least nine games every year, and 10 games three years, but without claiming a conference championship so craved by a hungry fan base.
While Pelini’s number of losses stacks up favorably to most of his peers, detractors would point to the way those games were lost, with Nebraska losing seven games in the last four years by at least 20 points, including a 59-24 meltdown at Wisconsin in November.
Pelini was 9-16 against ranked teams, with this year’s Wisconsin game joining a 2013 loss to UCLA (41-21), a 2012 loss to Ohio State (63-38), and 2011 losses to Wisconsin (48-17) and Michigan (45-17) as recent losses to Top 25 teams in which the game got out of hand. The 2012 Big Ten Championship Game still registers as damning as any game, when the Huskers were routed 70-31 by a 7-5 Badger team, denying NU a trip to the Rose Bowl.
That game was one of three conference championship game opportunities Nebraska had under Pelini, but the Huskers also fell short in Big 12 title games against Texas in 2009 (last-second 13-12 loss) and Oklahoma in 2010 (23-20 loss after NU raced to a 17-0 lead).
“I fully support Shawn’s decision to make a change in the leadership of our football program, and wish Bo and his family all of the best," UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman said. "I am confident that Shawn will find the best coach, teacher and fit for this University and for our football program.”
Who's next? Hoke?
He’s the ultimate hotheaded jerk.
The last time NU fired a 9-3 coach they hired Callahan and had 5 really bad years. Sometimes that new direction thing does not go in the direction they expect.
yeah, when you’re a jerk, you need to win 10-12 a year, like Saban.
And no, Nebraska does not seem ready to embrace that recruiting to the cold plains and industrial rust belt is just not as easy as recruiting to the south and the west.
Players see everything now, they see weather, they see crowds, they go where they want to go for reasons beyond just football, and none of them are old enough to have lived through the glory years of Osborne.
Heh, knew it was coming. I’m a long ago UNL alum, living in NE who has never given a rat’s ass about football. Big Red Rooters repeat the same sorry pattern over and over. Winning big in the early 70s when I went back to school there has never left their stupid spot in their brains. They think that every season has to be perfect or the coach is not worth a crap and they continue to throw more money at finding the perfect coach who will bring them the perfect season. Now local talk radio around here will be nothing but Yak Yak Yak about firing right or wrong and what kind of coach will be better and how much more money they should pay for a “winning” coach, a better recruiter. In the end, it won’t make a bit of difference. He’s no more of a jerk than any of the previous and I’ve met some of them close up.
Cornhusker fans can’t forget the years of Devaney and Osborne.
It is not about education it is about winning and money. this is why there is problems in the NFL. They don’t care about the athletes or the quality of education that they get. Just winning and money.
Probably. Hoke's Michigan winning percentage is significantly worse than Pellini's at Nebraska (about 61% vs. 72%), and what makes it worse for Michigan fans is that Michigan's decline (a putrid 5-7 this year and no bowl game) is coming at the same time arch-rivals OSU and MSU are dominant.
But Hoke scores better than Pellini in intangibles: personality, media relations, high graduation rates of players, low off-the-field problems with players.
Nebraska does it best recruiting in south central LA.
Pelini's prolific use of the F bomb didn't sit well with many Nebraskan's either. When he stated if they didn't like it they could fire him, I think that was then beginning of the end.
To some people 9 wins is OK. To others, include me as an alum, wins against losing programs & getting blown out in the most important games does not get it. Does anyone think that a coach stays in assumed top schools if you can’t make the top 25? What does it convey to recruits & their families when Bo goes ballistic on the sidelines yelling profusely instead of coaching. I look at this as an end of a mediocre reign & a bright new beginning. I look at a new coach that brings in experienced coordinators & can adjust during a game. Best to Bo & his family wherever he lands.
The players seem to think he cares about them.
My dad was a hot-headed man all my qrowinq up years but I never had a moment’s doubt that he cared deeply about me. The one thinq that DOESN’T speak care to me is “Meh.” And people with that response come a dime a dozen.
I’m not the huqe Biq Red fan I used to be, and it’s mostly because way too many Nebraska fans are jerks.
But hey, what’s not to love about rewardinq an overtime win over a very qood team by firinq the coach? The same fans that booed our own quys shouldn’t even think twice about slappinq our players in the face like that.
Meh.
Nebraska would not be alone in their recruitment locales....
- Roll Tide -
Is it just me or does this seem like a horrendous amount of money for UNL to flush down the toilet? If they do a clean sweep, it’s $11 MILLION and if it’s “just” Pelini, $7.65 million.
How do you justify that to people that are paying to send their kids to school there?
So Bama plays Indiana now for the SEC? Heh...
I’m sure UNL’s athletic department (unlike most) doesn’t need to funnel cash from student activity fees. This is ticket money, booster money. Not really State or University money.
Good to know, thanks. It just seems incredible to me.
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