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College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Awakening From a Lost Decade, Nebraska’s Pelini Firing Wounds are Nearly Healed

With Mike Riley and Scott Frost in the distance, Nebraska finally nears the competitiveness of the Bo Pelini era

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Sep 17
Sep 17

By Rock Westfall  

Fortunately, Matt Rhule has Nebraska poised for closure from numerous self-inflicted wounds. The firing of head coach Bo Pelini was arguably the biggest mistake of all. Since showing Pelini the door, Nebraska has been an abysmal program. 

A Bad and Ill-Timed Joke  

On November 28, 2014, the Nebraska Cornhuskers rallied from a 24-7 deficit to defeat the host Iowa Hawkeyes in a spectacular 37-34 comeback overtime win. They finished the regular season 9-3 overall, including 5-3 in the Big Ten Conference. It was the seventh consecutive season that Pelini won at least nine games as head coach while clinching a bowl bid.

The win was inspiring in many ways, but none more so than being indicative of a team that loved and respected its head coach and refused to quit. In its Black Friday regular-season finale at Iowa, the Huskers could have packed it in. Instead, they valiantly fought back to validate Pelini’s leadership and Nebraska’s character.

Two days later, athletic director Sean Eichorst fired Pelini, one year after Pelini defiantly challenged him to do so in a post-game press conference. Ironically, Pelini’s 2013 challenge to Nebraska’s administration came after a 38-17 home loss to Iowa. Pelini was sick of the constant rumors about his job status and wanted a decision. Eichorst blinked and gave Pelini one more year.

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Finally, Eichorst had enough after that last campaign. He wanted a coach who would be pleasant at the water cooler and with the administration. Thus, he went to the opposite extreme and hired Oregon State coach Mike Riley, known as the nicest guy of all. Riley had a respectable but unspectacular record, making his bones in the Pac-12, and had no connection to Nebraska.

I vividly recall listening to the Sirius XM College Sports channel in my car while running an errand when the hire was announced. I literally burst out laughing loud and long. I soon called my dad, who laughed even louder after saying, “You have got to be kidding me!” Next, I immediately imagined that somewhere, Bo Pelini laughed, too. 

A Frank Statement of Impatience and Stupidity  

In a similar way to Frank Solich, who Pelini served as defensive coordinator for in 2003, Pelini won consistently with a career win percentage of .713 compared to Solich’s .753. But like Solich, Pelini’s teams were unable to break through to a national championship. Pelini ranks third for all-time wins by a Nebraska coach, with Solich fourth.

In the end, Solich was not able to consistently keep pace with the Big 12 elite. Pelini had the same problem, especially during Nebraska’s transition to the Big Ten. A Nebraska fan base used to the dominance of the Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne years felt more was possible and immediately demanded it.

However, Husker Nation was quick to find out things could get considerably worse. In fact, they were about to get unimaginably bad. Nebraska was about to become a lower-ranked program than such mediocre Big Ten entries as Purdue, Minnesota, Indiana, and Northwestern. Once upon a time, that was unfathomable in Nebraska. Yet, it quickly became a nightmare reality.

Just as former AD Steve Pederson had no answer for who would replace Solich, Eichorst had no plan either after whacking Pelini. But while Pederson’s search was a lengthy humiliation of several rejections, Eichorst hired the first man he saw by chance at an airport. Incredibly enough, he struck up a conversation with Riley and ended his search before it began. With no due diligence or the sounding out of other potentially better prospects, Eichorst rushed and hired Riley on the spot.

Nebraska sold fans the theory that Riley was a competent and respected coach who would thrive with the resources he never previously enjoyed at Nebraska. Also, Riley would be Nebraska Nice, a pleasant change for many after the explosive Pelini years. 

A Hail Mary Hire and Omen  

In Riley’s first game as Nebraska head coach, the Huskers lost at home to BYU 33-28 on the final play of the game when BYU QB Tanner Mangum hit Mitch Matthews on a 42-yard Hail Mary TD pass with one second remaining.

The loss was a gut punch from the start that the program never recovered from. And while it may have been a bit harsh, a few of us said that fateful day that “Mike Riley is gonna Mike Riley.” History has since vindicated us.

Nebraska finished Riley’s first season with a record of 6-7 and did rally to go 9-4 in 2016 with a brief early season rank of 7h in the AP poll. But the ranking and record proved a mirage. Still, there was hope for a breakthrough in Riley’s third season. Instead, a 4-8 campaign followed, including a previously inconceivable home loss to Northern Illinois. The last straw was a 56-14 home loss to Ohio State that caused a fire drill of fans heading to the exits, a rare occurrence at Memorial Stadium. At that point, everyone knew what was coming.

Nebraska’s favorite son, Scott Frost, soon returned home to save the program. The hire was hailed as the best of the coaching carousel cycle. Instead, Frost was an even bigger disappointment than Riley. 

Time Gives Imperfect Pelini His Justifiable Place in Nebraska History 

While Bo Pelini won nine games per season like a clock, he also had his share of embarrassments and failures.

For example, an audio tape was leaked in which Pelini trashed Nebraska fans, considered the best in the sport, while using profanity. During the rant, Pelini called Husker Nation fair-weather fans. He was forced to apologize, and he came off as an outsider who did not fully understand Nebraska’s history and the important role of its fans. Nebraska was nationally embarrassed by the episode.

Previously, Pelini made his name and career climb as a highly successful defensive coordinator in the NFL and college football. Yet far too often, as Nebraska’s head coach, his defenses were rendered helpless. Consider a 59-24 loss at Wisconsin during his final season. Perhaps the worst of all was a 70-31 loss to Wisconsin in the 2012 Big Ten championship game. Earlier that season, there was a 63-38 loss at Ohio State. There were other similar debacles in Pelini’s tenure.

Too often, Pelini’s Nebraska teams were not up to championship par and were exposed as second-rate with weak defenses. Thus, memorable wins such as the 41-31 prime-time triumph over Miami-FL in 2014 with 91,000 fans at Memorial Stadium were not enough to balance the books.

At the time, frustration with Pelini was understandable. But as he warned during his tirade tape, “We’ll see what they can do when I’m f***ing gone.”

In that, Pelini was quite prescient.

Bo Pelini has never been a D1 head coach since he left Nebraska. His one year as defensive coordinator for Ed Orgeron at LSU was a catastrophe, though not entirely his fault.

For many Nebraska fans, there is ambivalence about Pelini’s place in history. And there are questions about what would have happened had he stayed. It’s safe to say it would have turned out better than it did without him. But after seven years, Pelini’s body of work shows no indication of a potential breakthrough to national prominence for the Big Red under his leadership.

Perhaps firing Pelini was necessary, but the amateur hour hiring of his replacement was utter malpractice. Eichorst eventually paid with his own well-deserved firing. He ranks with Pederson as the most reviled Nebraska AD in history. Say what you want about recently departed AD Trev Alberts; but by all accounts, his hiring of Matt Rhule was a masterstroke.

Nebraska football is on the cusp of healing from 20 years of mismanagement. In 2024, closure beckons for all concerned, and a new era of success is eagerly anticipated. The time has mercifully arrived for permanent healing. 

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