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Did Nebraska make a mistake firing Bo Pelini?

Looking back, not the best decision
Yes the guy had coaching skills but could not control his anger. Hard time getting along with anyone. Cost us games due to his penalties. Hated to recruit. He probably belongs in the NFL if someone would take him. So far no offers so that tells you what you need to know.
 
Apparently, you weren't in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship Game with Wisconsin.
 
Yes, especially up to the 2006 defense. Fabian, Carriker, Moore, Bullocks brothers, and Ruud brothers were all original Solich recruits I believe. Nobody ever mentions that though. The truth is every new coach has to rely primarily on the previous coach's recruited players for the first few years.
Bingo. The vast majority of them aren’t knuckle-draggers who come in and spout lies, and run down players in the program. It’s called being a professional, but the Frosturbators were blinded by their own idiocy
 
Yes the guy had coaching skills but could not control his anger. Hard time getting along with anyone. Cost us games due to his penalties. Hated to recruit. He probably belongs in the NFL if someone would take him. So far no offers so that tells you what you need to know.
Yes!! I never understood why Blo insisted on coaching in college. He’d be a lifelong D-backs or D-coordinator in the NFL… but he has that “I need to be offended” personality, that clouds rational judgement
 
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Not every big game.

I contest that:

2008 Clemson
2009 Missouri
2009 Oklahoma
2009 Texas
2010 Washington (the first one)
2010 Missouri
2011 Michigan State
2011 Ohio State
2012 Michigan State
2012 Iowa
2013 Georgia

And some others were all big games where we showed up very nicely.

Also, for being a lazy recruiter, he sure brought in some really good players who won for him. Since we fired Pelini, I don't see any players like Dennard, Compton, R. Henry, Steinkuhler, Gomes, Sirles, TM, Bell, Burkhead, David, Enunwa, Abdullah, Valentine, Anderson, Armstrong, Westerkamp, Carter, Collins, Gregory, Long, Gerry, Gates, Kalu, Lewis, or DPE running around in Nebraska uniforms now.

In 2015, Pelini left:

Alex Lewis
Zach Sterup
Nick Gates
Cethan Carter
Jordan Westerkamp
DPE
Brandon Rilley
Tommy Armstrong
Andy Janovich
Vince Valentine
Greg McMullen
Makiek Collins
Nathan Gerry
Josh Kalu
Josh Banderas
Michael Rose

16 players who are better than any of the starting 22 for the Huskers now. He also had committed the Davis twins and Stanley Morgan, as well as some others.
It’s been awhile, but I have same feelings about Henrich now as I did about banderas then.
 
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Yes, especially up to the 2006 defense. Fabian, Carriker, Moore, Bullocks brothers, and Ruud brothers were all original Solich recruits I believe. Nobody ever mentions that though. The truth is every new coach has to rely primarily on the previous coach's recruited players for the first few years.
Fabian Washington and the Bullocks bros were long gone by '06. Callahan (or maybe more to the point John Blake) pulled in Barry Turner, Zackary Bowman, Ola Dagunduro and, oh yeah, Ndamukong Suh RollingLaugh
 
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The is no way to spin it. Wisconsin was the 3rd place team. in its division. And although playing someone twice is always tough, it’s certainly not “a recipe for disaster.” 70-31? Please.

Wow, I forgot about so many of those guys...

Bo, here comes a compliment so that one weird dude will show up and reply about how I want to make love to Bo, but he seemed really good at getting stud JC players.
It's common knowledge around the B10 that Bo was a lot better recruiter than he got credit for.

Name one player that Frost or Riley recruited that gets to the level of Gregory, David, Burkhead, Abdullah, Long, Collins, Carter, or Lewis.
 
Fabian Washington and the Bullocks bros were long gone by '06. Callahan (or maybe more to the point John Blake) pulled in Barry Turner, Zackary Bowman, Ola Dagunduro and, oh yeah, Ndamukong Suh RollingLaugh
Bowman was average in college. Asante was terrible the year before Bo got ahold of him. The fact is Callahan's best defensive players over his tenure were Solich recruits and the only reason those 2005 and 2006 defenses were any good.
 
The Pelini era was becoming too toxic at the end to keep him. No question in my mind he had to go.

No, the big mistake was hiring Shawn Eichorst. A competent AD never would have consulted with an another AD about who to hire (especially in your own division smh). A competent AD would have conducted an actual coaching search after firing Pelini.

We have wasted almost a decade on two terrible coaching hires! Trev absolutely has to get the next one right!
 
It's common knowledge around the B10 that Bo was a lot better recruiter than he got credit for.

Name one player that Frost or Riley recruited that gets to the level of Gregory, David, Burkhead, Abdullah, Long, Collins, Carter, or Lewis.
You could probably make an argument that RG and LD are in the top 10 at their position in all of CFB over the last 15 years.
 
The Pelini era was becoming too toxic at the end to keep him. No question in my mind he had to go.

No, the big mistake was hiring Shawn Eichorst. A competent AD never would have consulted with an another AD about who to hire (especially in your own division smh). A competent AD would have conducted an actual coaching search after firing Pelini.

We have wasted almost a decade on two terrible coaching hires! Trev absolutely has to get the next one right!
Right...I think Shawn was the bad hire. Dude was worthless.
 
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Answer to the post is no. It should have happened the prior year. The problem is the ADs hired the wrong people or were pushed to hire certain people without a legitimate search.
 
If you fire a 9-3 coach, you better have a great replacement lined up. Georgia fired Mark Richt after going 9-3. Richt obviously had far more success at Georgia than Pelini did at Nebraska; won the SEC and BCS bowl games. Yet Georgia fired Richt and brought in Kirby Smart and have taken another step into elite status.

Nebraska on the other hand hired Mike Riley. A mediocre coach coming off a 5-7 season who was barely .500 in the Pac 12. For people saying "well it was Oregon State," yeah well Oregon State is just as good under Jonathan Smith and were better under Dennis Erickson. Firing Pelini wasn't a mistake, but it was a mistake when you didn't have a homerun hire lined up.
 
No, he shouldn't have been fired for going 10-3. He was always good for some sideline antics while channeling his inner Muhammad Ali by trying to rope-a-dope an official while holding his hat to lesson the blow. Also, yes there were blowouts sometimes in embarrassing fashion however, where are we now? I would much prefer Bo's tenure to what we just endured with Scotty-2-Arrogant. At least Bo would hand the ball to running backs 40 times per game and try to control the clock during the game if it meant winning a game. Currently, we are seeing how fast we can wear out our own defense proving that Scott really did make sure that the Big 10 modified their defense for us. Anyway, Back to Bo... anyone that can use the kind of language he used in his final meeting with the team is my kind of coach. We would have a better situation now had we kept Bo all this time than ever turning Nebraska Football into the present day dumpster fire Mike-pleated-pants-Riley and Scotty-2-Arrogant brought us down to presently. At least under Bo we had an identity left. Now, we have no identity at NU and get spread by mediocre teams that can't win the Sun Belt Conference. Welcome to the S-Show. To top off this convo, Bo shouldn't have been fired for winning 9-10 games a season. And lastly, I'm not blaming the players, it's not their fault that these coaches recruited them. What are they supposed to do? Turn down an offer to a power 5 school? Bo probably never would've gotten close to the CFP, and who knows how many times he would've made Big 10 title games. But it was a way better watch than this present day abysmal 7 on 7 air it out with no line play on either side of the football by NU. I say let him Rope-a-dope a few more officials and bring his cat to spring games. We never talked about a sellout streak ending with Bo as coach. Give me a break.
 
No, he shouldn't have been fired for going 10-3. He was always good for some sideline antics while channeling his inner Muhammad Ali by trying to rope-a-dope an official while holding his hat to lesson the blow. Also, yes there were blowouts sometimes in embarrassing fashion however, where are we now? I would much prefer Bo's tenure to what we just endured with Scotty-2-Arrogant. At least Bo would hand the ball to running backs 40 times per game and try to control the clock during the game if it meant winning a game. Currently, we are seeing how fast we can wear out our own defense proving that Scott really did make sure that the Big 10 modified their defense for us. Anyway, Back to Bo... anyone that can use the kind of language he used in his final meeting with the team is my kind of coach. We would have a better situation now had we kept Bo all this time than ever turning Nebraska Football into the present day dumpster fire Mike-pleated-pants-Riley and Scotty-2-Arrogant brought us down to presently. At least under Bo we had an identity left. Now, we have no identity at NU and get spread by mediocre teams that can't win the Sun Belt Conference. Welcome to the S-Show. To top off this convo, Bo shouldn't have been fired for winning 9-10 games a season. And lastly, I'm not blaming the players, it's not their fault that these coaches recruited them. What are they supposed to do? Turn down an offer to a power 5 school? Bo probably never would've gotten close to the CFP, and who knows how many times he would've made Big 10 title games. But it was a way better watch than this present day abysmal 7 on 7 air it out with no line play on either side of the football by NU. I say let him Rope-a-dope a few more officials and bring his cat to spring games. We never talked about a sellout streak ending with Bo as coach. Give me a break.
If Bo was still here he would be closing in on like 150 wins.
 
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Remember all the Bo haters saying things like "A blind monkey could win 9 games a year at NU" and "9 wins are built into the schedule"

Morons.

100% correct sir. Bo also had 10 win seasons and had zero LOSING seasons. But the genius crowd wants losing machines like Clownahan. God help us.
 
If you fire a 9-3 coach, you better have a great replacement lined up. Georgia fired Mark Richt after going 9-3. Richt obviously had far more success at Georgia than Pelini did at Nebraska; won the SEC and BCS bowl games. Yet Georgia fired Richt and brought in Kirby Smart and have taken another step into elite status.

Nebraska on the other hand hired Mike Riley. A mediocre coach coming off a 5-7 season who was barely .500 in the Pac 12. For people saying "well it was Oregon State," yeah well Oregon State is just as good under Jonathan Smith and were better under Dennis Erickson. Firing Pelini wasn't a mistake, but it was a mistake when you didn't have a homerun hire lined up.
More often than not, if you fire a coach for only winning 9-10 games a season, more often than not, you won't end up with someone like Kirby Smart. Most likely, you will go to shit show status. Simply the odds of gambling which is what hiring a new coach is.
 
If you fire a 9-3 coach, you better have a great replacement lined up. Georgia fired Mark Richt after going 9-3. Richt obviously had far more success at Georgia than Pelini did at Nebraska; won the SEC and BCS bowl games. Yet Georgia fired Richt and brought in Kirby Smart and have taken another step into elite status.

Nebraska on the other hand hired Mike Riley. A mediocre coach coming off a 5-7 season who was barely .500 in the Pac 12. For people saying "well it was Oregon State," yeah well Oregon State is just as good under Jonathan Smith and were better under Dennis Erickson. Firing Pelini wasn't a mistake, but it was a mistake when you didn't have a homerun hire lined up.
Hmmm what’s Richt up to these days?
 
More often than not, if you fire a coach for only winning 9-10 games a season, more often than not, you won't end up with someone like Kirby Smart. Most likely, you will go to shit show status. Simply the odds of gambling which is what hiring a new coach is.
Sure, that is my point. The bottom line is it is hard to win anywhere. There are no programs where the floor is 9 wins like some people believe. Texas has struggled the last decade, USC has struggled the last decade, Miami, Florida State and Florida have all had struggles the last decade. The only program that seems to truly be consistent is Ohio State and if Ryan Day goes to the NFL and they make the wrong hire, they'll fall back to. I remember Tennessee fans during the last few years of Phil Fulmer's tenure wanting a replacement because they thought any coach could come in and go 9-3 there. Well, Tennessee has been a mess since they fired Fulmer until this season. Fulmer at least went 5-7 his final year to make the call to fire him easier.

Pelini had a long list of problems that we all know about. Also the loss to Wisconsin in the Big 10 title game was arguably the worst coached game in college football history. With that said, it wasn't easy to win as Pelini did. I'll put it this way. Since we joined the Big 10, we have 22 Big 10 wins with Pelini and 22 wins without Pelini. Pelini was 22-10, without Pelini we are 22-40.
 
Sure, that is my point. The bottom line is it is hard to win anywhere. There are no programs where the floor is 9 wins like some people believe. Texas has struggled the last decade, USC has struggled the last decade, Miami, Florida State and Florida have all had struggles the last decade. The only program that seems to truly be consistent is Ohio State and if Ryan Day goes to the NFL and they make the wrong hire, they'll fall back to. I remember Tennessee fans during the last few years of Phil Fulmer's tenure wanting a replacement because they thought any coach could come in and go 9-3 there. Well, Tennessee has been a mess since they fired Fulmer until this season. Fulmer at least went 5-7 his final year to make the call to fire him easier.

Pelini had a long list of problems that we all know about. Also the loss to Wisconsin in the Big 10 title game was arguably the worst coached game in college football history. With that said, it wasn't easy to win as Pelini did. I'll put it this way. Since we joined the Big 10, we have 22 Big 10 wins with Pelini and 22 wins without Pelini. Pelini was 22-10, without Pelini we are 22-40.

That's just an excellent post sir and a good read. So many people just can't grasp how hard it is winning and just love bringing in "anybody" like Riley, Clownahan & so on. You betcha. Fire guys like Solich & BO and lose games every where.
 
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