I'm not sure how to feel about Pelini at this point. I waver back and forth, because there are a lot of factors at play here.
First, he does win a lot of games. Not big games, but he still puts out a respectable product. The defense has shown signs of improvement, although we still allow far too many rushing yards and the opponents we showed the most improvement against are fairly miserable teams. But that is a big factor going into next year. Also, he does a lot of things the right way. Graduation rates, GPAs, players mostly staying out of trouble, etc. These are all very commendable things.
We're perpetually "close" with Pelini. Whatever "close" means. We are right there, waiting to break through... and then we fall flat on our faces on the biggest stages. I guess the problem I have, is with the systemic issues that never seem to be fixed. Stupid penalties, dropped passes, fumbles, interceptions, etc. I mean we had 2 or 3 illegal formation penalties yesterday. That is completely absurd for game 11. Game 1, fine. Game 11, unacceptable. Yet year after year, game after game, the same issues crop up and bite us. Special teams are a complete and utter joke at this point, aside from one awesome return. Jordan Westerkamp, bless his heart, averages 2.7 yards per return. 2.7. Take away one 19 yard return and he averages a nearly incomprehensible 1.7 yards per return. You'd get that by falling forward every time you caught a punt. Santino Panico averaged 3.1 in 2004 and became a standard joke, representative of the Callahan era.
I guess, at this point, whatever happens is fine. If he's fired, fine. Include the audio tape and his run of looking for other jobs, and he's done more than enough to warrant being fired. If he's kept, fine. He's done enough to warrant that too. But if he's kept, I would expect to see staff changes. At the very least, hire a competent special teams coach. But I would also like to see an experienced defensive coordinator hired. If no staff changes are made, he has one more year, in my book. One more year to win big. A 9-4 season next year won't be enough.