I don't dwell on Coach Pelini. However, no one I know was upset that Nebraska won those games they shouldn't have. What was maddening was that Coach Pelini won enough to NOT get fired. Year after year. Just enough to NOT get fired. Hell, I felt better about last year than just about every year under Coach Pelini. Why? Because we were competitive in almost every game.
Sure, wins are important. Very. But if our overall goal is conference championships and beyond then it was clear after Year 4 or Year 5 that a Pelini led Husker squad was not going to achieve that goal. There's the whole he didn't want to be here attitude, the douchebag persona, the "Us against Them" mentality and other behavioral issues that contributed towards his demise.
Recruiting was sub par for a school like NU. Nine wins was good, but that wasn't (and should never be) the goal. Above it all, I think that NU needs to be competitive against all competition. Last year I felt we were competitive in all our games. Throw in our injury issues and lack of depth and I'm amazed at how well we did despite that.
Yeah, Turnover Tommy was awful against Iowa (my first home game in 26 years). You never got the feeling that NU would ever be able to compete against the better teams under Coach Pelini. Being an asshat on top of it makes his dismissal easy, IMHO.