How did Bo manage to get so much right during his tenure here?

[Chi7397]

I don’t know why we can’t say he did a good job for a large portion of his time in Lincoln, while also saying he was trending down and likely headed out the door regardless of Eichorst’s meddling. Though I didn’t support his firing at the time, he wasn’t keeping up with changes to the college football landscape and didn’t care to. I can also separate his Nebraska tenure with his YSU tenure and his DC performance in Baton Rouge.

By the time Riley’s first team took their first kickoff (and subsequent loss) Bo was gonzo and not ever coming back. I give him credit for being our last winning coach, regardless of whatever bell curve or sliding scale folks want to apply to his 67-27 record in Lincoln. He was and is flawed, but his replacements are now a less than inspiring 35-68, and no I don’t think he’d have had the same record of futility had we let him stay that long.

I think Bo was fine for a lot of his tenure - the nostalgia for him is really dumb and old.

 

[TampaBaySkers]

I think the OP was at least a bit tongue in cheek, and I don’t think the consensus is ‘He got away’. After that ass kicking yesterday, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more ‘Frank Solich’ threads.

I do think it’s dumb to dismiss the fact that Pelini was the last winning coach we had, warts and all. That said, I don’t want him back and don’t think anyone really does. More complaining about what we’ve endured since shit canning him.

Exactly. I am seeing into the major cope of Nebraska fans though. Some don’t give Bo any credit for his wins for first four seasons so they probably don’t blame Rhule for his first four years at Nebraska. All Rhule’s losses will be Frost’s fault

 

[wildcat_husker]

Bo wasn’t a bad coach but the floor was about to fall out from under him. I can hear out an argument that the Nebraska administration should’ve let that happen before firing him. They probably had a hand in driving him insane.

The B1G was definitely considered one of the weaker conferences back then. I remember the constant arguments that it was the worst power 5 conference. It was much deeper from 2015-2025 than it was when Bo was here.

Legends division during Bo’s time:
- Michigan State (best team during this time)
- Michigan
- Nebraska
- Cockeye
- NW
- Minnesota

Records during Bo’s time at Nebraska:
- MSU: 11-3, 7-6, 13-1, 11-2
- UM: 11-2, 8-5, 7-6, 5-7
- Cockeye: 7-6, 4-8, 8-5, 7-6
- NW: 6-7, 10-3, 5-7, 5-7

For crossover games, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue were all hot garbage.

Bo beat OSU once at their worst — they finished 6-7. He beat Wisconsin once, but then that same year lost to them 70-31.

Penn State’s record during that time was 9-4, 8-4, 7-5, 7-6.

Edit to add: Pretty decent coach while here but just look at his career post-Nebraska if you need a more objective view on Bo Pelini.

 

[TampaBaySkers]

Bo wasn’t a bad coach but the floor was about to fall out from under him. I can hear out an argument that the Nebraska administration should’ve let that happen before firing him. They probably had a hand in driving him insane.

The B1G was definitely considered one of the weaker conferences back then. I remember the constant arguments that it was the worst power 5 conference. It was much deeper from 2015-2025 than it was when Bo was here.

Legends division during Bo’s time:
- Michigan State (best team during this time)
- Michigan
- Nebraska
- Cockeye
- NW
- Minnesota

Records during Bo’s time at Nebraska:
- MSU: 11-3, 7-6, 13-1, 11-2
- UM: 11-2, 8-5, 7-6, 5-7
- Cockeye: 7-6, 4-8, 8-5, 7-6
- NW: 6-7, 10-3, 5-7, 5-7

For crossover games, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue were all hot garbage.

Bo beat OSU on year at their worst — they finished 6-7. He beat Wisconsin once, but then that same year lost to them 70-31.

Penn State’s record during that time was 9-4, 8-4, 7-5, 7-6.

When data points don’t align with your false reality, then hypotheticals to the rescue !

 

[Quint]

I think Bo was fine for a lot of his tenure - the nostalgia for him is really dumb and old.

Agreed, but the folks looking back fondly on his tenure are only doing so because we’ve been such a shit team since he got gassed.

I was lucky (or unlucky) to spend the first 33 years as a Nebraska fan having the low water mark be the Solich’s 2002 team finished 7-7. Second worst was Solich’s ’98 team that went 9-4 and third was Osborne’s ’76 squad that finished 9-3-1. Callahan shit all over that in 2004 and it’s been mostly garbage other than the Pelini years.

People looking back fondly on periods of time in their life is common, especially when current or recent happenings aren’t so great.

 

[wildcat_husker]

When data points don’t align with your false reality, then hypotheticals to the rescue !

What hypotheticals did I throw out? That the floor was going to fall out from under him and then said we probably should’ve let that happen before firing him?

 

[Quint]

Exactly. I am seeing into the major cope of Nebraska fans though. Some don’t give Bo any credit for his wins for first four seasons so they probably don’t blame Rhule for his first four years at Nebraska. All Rhule’s losses will be Frost’s fault

I give Bo credit for Bo’s wins, while being able to recognize his best defenses definitely deserved an assist to Callahan’s recruiting staff.

Rhule gets a bogey for me year 1. No question. The roster was a big problem. He gets a partial bogey for me in year 2 because I don’t think the dumpster fire was completely out. I’ll stop short of calling his year 3 here a complete failure, but at best it’s ‘Holding serve’. Yesterday’s loss is a collective failure in upgrading spots on the roster to compete with Cockeye, and that is all on Rhule and Co. I’ve said it before, but I do like a lot of the youth we have all over the place. They’re not ready to compete and win in the B1G. I’m not so sure another off season gets them there.

 

[KidsSeeGhosts]

Oh look - the frost apologist now turned Rhule apologist is back. Listen, when we have a question about birds and the laws surrounding them we’ll reach out to you - the expert.

You might want to re-up your estradiol. If getting

• worked by a mediocre Wisconsin team 71-30,
• Melvin Gordon 408’r,
• Abdullah putting on what was one of the greatest individual effort plays in NU history to barely edge out a feisty McNeese St team, or
• Insert other fond memories here,

feels materially different to you, all good my dude. We do not kink shame. You do you!

 

[KidsSeeGhosts]

I think the OP was at least a bit tongue in cheek, and I don’t think the consensus is ‘He got away’. After that ass kicking yesterday, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more ‘Frank Solich’ threads.

I do think it’s dumb to dismiss the fact that Pelini was the last winning coach we had, warts and all. That said, I don’t want him back and don’t think anyone really does. More complaining about what we’ve endured since shit canning him.

That 2016 Mike Riley team would’ve been viewed pretty differently with better injury luck and correct calls in the 4th quarter and OT.

CFB is a low sample size sport played predominantly by teenagers. Of course we’re all overly emotionally invested in it all the same, but I’m more bummed about Devin Vassell dropping 35

 

[wildcat_husker]

You might want to re-up your estradiol. If getting

• worked by a mediocre Wisconsin team 71-30,
• Melvin Gordon 408’r,
• Abdullah putting on what was one of the greatest individual effort plays in NU history to barely edge out a feisty McNeese St team, or
• Insert other fond memories here,

feels materially different to you, all good my dude. We do not kink shame. You do you!

Never forget, after coming back to beat Ohio State in 2011, Bo thought it was the perfect time to not celebrate the awesome comeback, but shit on the fanbase for leaving when it was pouring rain and we were down 27-6 in the third quarter to a bad OSU team.

 

[Quint]

That 2016 Mike Riley team would’ve been viewed pretty differently with better injury luck and correct calls in the 4th quarter and OT.

CFB is a low sample size sport played predominantly by teenagers. Of course we’re all overly emotionally invested in it all the same, but I’m more bummed about Devin Vassell dropping 35

I’m not gonna lie. Had to Google ‘Devin Vassell’.

 

[KidsSeeGhosts]

Never forget, after coming back to beat Ohio State in 2011, Bo thought it was the perfect time to not celebrate the awesome comeback, but shit on the fanbase for leaving when it was pouring rain and we were down 27-6 in the third quarter to a bad OSU team.

I did leave at halftime (to get a bit more liquored up) and that was an absurdly fun second half. It felt fun to ignore the Bauserman of it all, just like I ignored my ex girlfriend at the time’s crazy b/c she had really great tits.

 

[Quint]

Never forget, after coming back to beat Ohio State in 2011, Bo thought it was the perfect time to not celebrate the awesome comeback, but shit on the fanbase for leaving when it was pouring rain and we were down 27-6 in the third quarter to a bad OSU team.

He could have handled that much differently.

Praised the team and thanked the fans who toughed it out. Would have been a much different look ‘At the end of the day’.

 

[Quint]

I did leave at halftime (to get a bit more liquored up) and that was an absurdly fun second half. It felt fun to ignore the Bauserman of it all, just like I ignored my ex girlfriend at the time’s crazy b/c she had really great tits.

Oh the things we ignore to gain or retain access to outstanding portions of female anatomy.

 

[Quint]

Guys, this has been inspirational.

I’m headed to the gym and I’ll let ya’ll know if I see either Pelini there.

 

[gtlacey]

We all know the regularly-scheduled blowouts were awful, and his relationships with the bigwigs and, well, everyone around him, were unsustainable. But it's time to reassess with rose colored glasses. The guy managed to win 9-10 games for seven straight seasons as our coach, his W/L record seems untouchable now compared to his 3 successors, his offenses seem downright electric compared to what we've gotten accustomed to since, he turned more 3-stars into beloved star playmakers than seemingly all of our 4-stars combined in the time since, all while being a certifiable rageaholic with deep paranoia issues and a hatred of playing the recruiting game or doing anything to even attempt to improve NU's public image off the field.

I don't get it. How was Bo Pelini of all people the clear high water mark of the past 20+ years, what did he do so differently that allowed us to be a 9-10 win team year in and year out? All while dealing with his myriad personality issues as well as what is now CLEARLY some sort of mystical curse plaguing our program? Was he somehow a coaching savant to be able to pull off so many wins? I know the Big Ten was weaker then, but it was still Power 5 football.

The guy was nuts and his career absolutely fell of a cliff after leaving NU, but clearly he did a whole lot right to get those results and have so many players who loved him like family. I don't know that we will ever see heights like that again. It's just bizarre to think about.

So anyway:

College football fans may need to get used to losing more often. Is anyone ready?

It's getting harder to win big in college football at the same time that patience for perceived underperformance is as thin as ever.

www.nytimes.com

I think a lot of metrics point to there being a lot more parity in today’s college football. It was much easier to win 9 games the than it is today.

 

[ChocaEgg]

@huskerj12

 

[TampaBaySkers]

You might want to re-up your estradiol. If getting

• worked by a mediocre Wisconsin team 71-30,
• Melvin Gordon 408’r,
• Abdullah putting on what was one of the greatest individual effort plays in NU history to barely edge out a feisty McNeese St team, or
• Insert other fond memories here,

feels materially different to you, all good my dude. We do not kink shame. You do you!

What’s estradiol ? Probably something you’re projecting again

How about Rhule getting blown out by three unranked teams this year. You seem have infinite excuses for him. If you think Bo deserved to get fired (he did) then you must think Rhule deserves to also, correct?

 

[BorWhiskey]

I’d say these are the things you need to evaluate the health of a program on:

• Culture - Is the team together and fighting for each other.
• Talent - do we have good players but also do we have the ability to acquire and retain talent
• Scheme - do we know how to attack our opponent.
• Alignment - 1) does our talent match our scheme and culture. 2) do we have support from the top down or do we feel like we’re out on an island. 3) Are the fans/boosters bought in.

I’m sure there are more things, and sub categories to this but those are my Saturday morning thoughts.

For Bo, I think he always had good culture within the walls of the program, but he was never able to acquire talent, so as the talent he was gifted dried up, his results suffered. I also think his scheme was wishy washy over the years. Couldn’t get the good offenses and defenses playing at the same time except for 2010. And the program certainly lacked alignment. The tenure report card for Bo would have been something like

Culture - A-
Talent - B (started at an A and dropped to a C+)
Scheme - B
Alignment - D (he was an adversary of the fans and the university)

Take that to Frost, I’m not sure what he actually did well here.
Culture - D
Talent - C- (couldn’t hold onto anyone)
Scheme - C+
Alignment - D+ (he was gifted support)

Riley
Culture - C+ (the players liked him but they got away with everything and had no accountability to the team)
Talent - B
Scheme - B-
Alignment - D+

Third year check-in with Rhule
Culture - B- (I felt that he’s building good culture however the past two games are telling me something else is going on the team is dealing with. Letting both games get out of hand is worrisome.)
Talent - B (very comparable to Riley in acquisition to date. reason to be optimistic here, though.)
Scheme - C+ (White was a good hire. Holgo seemed like it would be. But there are a lot of things to question in our ability to game plan)
Alignment - B+ (It feels like this is where he’s spent a lot of time. It would be an A if not for the fans having turned on him already.).

 

[TampaBaySkers]

I’d say these are the things you need to evaluate the health of a program on:

• Culture - Is the team together and fighting for each other.
• Talent - do we have good players but also do we have the ability to acquire and retain talent
• Scheme - do we know how to attack our opponent.
• Alignment - 1) does our talent match our scheme and culture. 2) do we have support from the top down or do we feel like we’re out on an island. 3) Are the fans/boosters bought in.

I’m sure there are more things, and sub categories to this but those are my Saturday morning thoughts.

For Bo, I think he always had good culture within the walls of the program, but he was never able to acquire talent, so as the talent he was gifted dried up, his results suffered. I also think his scheme was wishy washy over the years. Couldn’t get the good offenses and defenses playing at the same time except for 2010. And the program certainly lacked alignment. The tenure report card for Bo would have been something like

Culture - A-
Talent - B (started at an A and dropped to a C+)
Scheme - B
Alignment - D (he was an adversary of the fans and the university)

Take that to Frost, I’m not sure what he actually did well here.
Culture - D
Talent - C- (couldn’t hold onto anyone)
Scheme - C+
Alignment - D+ (he was gifted support)

Riley
Culture - C+ (the players liked him but they got away with everything and had no accountability to the team)
Talent - B
Scheme - B-
Alignment - D+

Third year check-in with Rhule
Culture - B- (I felt that he’s building good culture however the past two games are telling me something else is going on the team is dealing with. Letting both games get out of hand is worrisome.)
Talent - B (very comparable to Riley in acquisition to date. reason to be optimistic here, though.)
Scheme - C+ (White was a good hire. Holgo seemed like it would be. But there are a lot of things to question in our ability to game plan)
Alignment - B+ (It feels like this is where he’s spent a lot of time. It would be an A if not for the fans having turned on him already.).

lol what? You’re handing out Bs to Riley and Cs to Frost and Bs to Rhule. They all suck - Fs across the board