by While Nebraska is off to a half-decent start this season with a 5-4 record and nearly winning four in-a-row for the first time since 2016, let’s take some time to reminisce on one of the most boneheaded coaching moves in recent memory.
Of course, I’m talking about when Nebraska Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst fired former head coach Bo Pelini in 2014.
Not only are most Nebraska fans still scratching their heads over this decision to this very day, but it essentially marked the beginning of this program’s long string of underperforming play.
It’s a move that even shocked me when I was in middle school, especially since he got booted before Brady Hoke did at Michigan! I mean, Pelini was a solid football coach who kept Nebraska in the thick of conference title races each and every year, plus his players always loved him.
To further put things into perspective, here’s what Bo did at Nebraska for seven seasons at the helm:
-67-27 overall record
-Won at least nine games each season (went 9-4 in final year)
-Two conference title game appearances (2008 and 2012)
-Finished the season ranked in the AP Top-25 Poll four times
To be fair, Pelini inherited a talented roster following Bill Callahan’s tenure in Lincoln, but the guy was still a lightning rod for consistency. In fact, Nebraska had a 71% winning percentage under Pelini and have only won 42% of their games, including just one season above .500 (9-4 in 2016 under Mike Riley), ever since. Pelini was a disciplinary throwback coach who always got his teams to buy in and play their tail off. He was also ONE SECOND from winning a Big 12 title in an instant classic against Colt McCoy and Texas in 2009.
Of course, Texas ended up nailing a field goal with :01 left to win it and punch a ticket to the national title game against #1 Alabama.
Yet, despite his consistency, Nebraska got Pelini out because he couldn’t win a title or any big-time game, nor was he a good PR guy. And when considering that program’s standards at the time following decades of sheer dominance under the great Tom Osbourne, I get it.
Even still, the Cornhuskers lost their regular success since that firing and it truly sheds light on the restlessness of that fanbase/football culture. It’s also one of the rare cases a program fired its head coach for being “good, not great.”
Flash forward to today and Matt Rhule is another good coach who, while I think he will most likely turn Nebraska into a solid program over the next few years, is already facing pressure and will be competing in an even more challenging conference when USC and UCLA roll into the Big Ten next season.
To me, it feels like the Cornhusker football program has been cursed for quite some time now. What really is the big change that they need? Firing Pelini certainly wasn’t the best one.
There is one point that I do not agree with.. Pelini did not inherit a talented team from Calihan. The team went 5-7 the previous year and Pelini had to beg borrow and steal to build a team to a 9-4 finish. Sure there were some individual talent on the roster but they would have continued giving up 40 plus per game if it had not been for Pelini and his relentless push for wins.
I understand where you’re coming from. Pelini still had to build a struggling program from the ground up, but Callahan was still a good recruiter. Now, much of it can be accredited to Nebraska being a big brand, but, according to Rivals.com, he still had the fifth-ranked recruiting class in 2005. That was their best recruiting year since 1996 when Osbourne was in the tail end of his career. Callahan also reeled in the 10th-best class in 2007, one year before Pelini came to Lincoln. Callahan obviously was a below-average coach, but to say Pelini “did not inherit a talented team” from him is a little far-fetched in my opinion.