Nebraska's Bo Pelini isn't changing soon

[zoogs]

Meh, by and large Endo knows his stuff. There's no agenda and I can speak for that. He has nothing but admiration for Bo's unmatched, almost magical ability to run a defense. But outside of DC abilities, other aspects of Bo have always been open to a wide range of opinion. He may take a hard line on this and find himself in disagreement with most, but that's a matter of opinion.

Think about this though. Fans once praised our coach for sticking up for his players and calling OU fans something that rhymes with "chucking till-millies". Now the episode is used as evidence against Callahan, somehow, despite the fact that coaching failures aside, the man was a class act in how he represented the program to the media.

Bo's fiery-ness can be spun as either a positive or a negative. He's currently a hero to Husker fans mostly, and that's why it is spun as a positive. A guy who isn't a hero any longer can be a lot milder than Bo, and have the same thing spun negatively.

I do love Bo's fire as a coach, but there are times when in my opinion, it's put us in jeopardy of losing games. The officials screwed us at A&M for sure, but there's nothing we can do about that, is there? How many more officiating crews have to have the same reaction to Bo before it is seen as a problem on Bo's end in handling the officials? I also found Bo getting into our QBs' faces last year at times counter-productive. It seems to work for the defense, but neither Cody or Taylor seem to respond well to it. Bo blew up at Cody one time and if I remember, he threw a pick or near pick almost right after. You can tell he was rattled.

Basically though, Bo's treatment of officials is kinda concerning. That is something that he will have to change, but no media rhetoric will ever be like that ("Bo admits he has to treat some guys more nicely") and it shouldn't be, of course.

 

[Malth]

No but if all you are doing is being negative with an obvious agenda against the head coach (disguised as self proclaimed objectivity), with absolutely no proof and no reputation to back you up on a board you just joined... Well, you're not going to be taken very seriously at the least and will likely be considered a troll.

I don't know who this bro is, but his first post in this thread is quite reasonable. And it's that exact reasonable stance that draws knee jerk reactions from several posters here who automatically assume you're taking the extreme opposite stance and want Bo's balls cut off.

 

[tschu]

Bo is the frickin man.

 

[NUance]

No but if all you are doing is being negative with an obvious agenda against the head coach (disguised as self proclaimed objectivity), with absolutely no proof and no reputation to back you up on a board you just joined... Well, you're not going to be taken very seriously at the least and will likely be considered a troll.

I don't know who this bro is, but his first post in this thread is quite reasonable. And it's that exact reasonable stance that draws knee jerk reactions from several posters here who automatically assume you're taking the extreme opposite stance and want Bo's balls cut off.

 

[knapplc]

I don't know who this bro is, but his first post in this thread is quite reasonable. And it's that exact reasonable stance that draws knee jerk reactions from several posters here who automatically assume you're taking the extreme opposite stance and want Bo's balls cut off.

Opinions on Bo's behavior at College Station last year vary, but if you look at the "body of work" of this poster, including his subsequent posts in this thread, you'll get a clearer picture of why people have reacted to him the way they have.

I don't agree with the name-calling, but I find the reaction to this person's several posts quite reasonable.

I also would be concerned with Endo's apparent misinformation about this softball game, as well as name-dropping the fact that he was invited to join by a Mod. Being buddies with a Moderator of this board does not give a person license to behave however they wish.

I would remind anyone that this is a Nebraska message board. It should come as no surprise that Nebraska fans would take it poorly that someone is cracking on their team, coach or players.

 

[EndoQuan]

I don't know who this bro is, but his first post in this thread is quite reasonable. And it's that exact reasonable stance that draws knee jerk reactions from several posters here who automatically assume you're taking the extreme opposite stance and want Bo's balls cut off.

Opinions on Bo's behavior at College Station last year vary, but if you look at the "body of work" of this poster, including his subsequent posts in this thread, you'll get a clearer picture of why people have reacted to him the way they have.

I don't agree with the name-calling, but I find the reaction to this person's several posts quite reasonable.

I also would be concerned with Endo's apparent misinformation about this softball game, as well as name-dropping the fact that he was invited to join by a Mod. Being buddies with a Moderator of this board does not give a person license to behave however they wish.

I would remind anyone that this is a Nebraska message board. It should come as no surprise that Nebraska fans would take it poorly that someone is cracking on their team, coach or players.

I'm completely aware that challenging the status quo upsets people. I don't participate in the name calling, and I find it funny that troll is so quick to be thrown out there. I do not give a damn about reputation and whether or not someone has a million posts or is in the teens, I can see a reason or two why someone would feel that way, but in the end it is a non-starter.

Bo is a fantastic defensive coach. His ability to be a step ahead of an offensive coordinator is something you just can't teach. There have been a ton of coaches who have learned his system but haven't been able to see the chess pieces like he does. It is a gift, and it is the reason that he is an excellent defensive coordinator. He has a system, he knows the ins and outs of it, he knows the adjustments, and he has surrounded himself with folks who by-in large are great teachers of technically sound football. In 2009, we had Suh, but the other guys around him, the way they played, was great. A few fellow coaches in the Big XII were saying that we had the most technically sound DL in the country that year, and another program in the conference singled Matt O'Hanlon out as our best defensive player on their scouting report, not ol' #93. That is high praise for a kid who earlier in 2009 was the scapegoat of many a Husker fan for his perceived gaffe in Blacksburg. Hell in 2008, I remember a text during a game about how lost #33 was and what a worthless player he was (kneejerk reaction sure). The point is he came a long long way under this defensive staff.

I am a Husker fan, and I was encouraged to join by a moderator. I wasn't coerced or anything of that nature. I was simply told that I might enjoy the group and to take a look. I dove in head first, I'm not about sugar coating anything, but nor do I have an agenda against Bo. It is the opposite, I'm actually very much pro-Bo, but I'm not blinded to his faults or problems. Like anything, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, that same analogy applies to coaches. A coach is only as good as his weakest qualities. As a head coach, there are times where you have to go out in public and do a sell job for the program. Like it or not, that is part of the job of a head coach, to schmooze with some boosters and in return, they scratch the checks it takes to keep you employed. You conduct yourself professionally and not embarrass the program, and those checks keep rolling in. Whether you like that reality or not is another discussion altogether, but that is how big time college athletics works. The other side of the token is true, you piss off enough people who scratch those checks and you find yourself without a job. At the end of the day, nothing good comes from alienating yourself from the very people who can potentially save your program and some of the same people who are partially responsible for you having a job in the first place.

 

[knapplc]

I must have missed your detailed description of what you saw at the softball game that day in June, Endo. Would you be so kind as to point that out, or, if you forgot, to please provide the details that you're only hinting at?

 

[In the Deed the Glory]

Sometimes I feel many of us watch The Program and immediately assume it is how things work in Lincoln...

 

[tschu]

I must have missed your detailed description of what you saw at the softball game that day in June, Endo. Would you be so kind as to point that out, or, if you forgot, to please provide the details that you're only hinting at?

Yes please do this Endo, since you've been asked several times in this thread. Until you do, nobody is going to listen to you, no matter how much you play the "i was invited by a moderator" card.

 

[Hercules]

I am a Husker fan, and I was encouraged to join by a moderator. I wasn't coerced or anything of that nature. I was simply told that I might enjoy the group and to take a look. I dove in head first, I'm not about sugar coating anything, but nor do I have an agenda against Bo. It is the opposite, I'm actually very much pro-Bo, but I'm not blinded to his faults or problems. Like anything, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, that same analogy applies to coaches. A coach is only as good as his weakest qualities. As a head coach, there are times where you have to go out in public and do a sell job for the program. Like it or not, that is part of the job of a head coach, to schmooze with some boosters and in return, they scratch the checks it takes to keep you employed. You conduct yourself professionally and not embarrass the program, and those checks keep rolling in. Whether you like that reality or not is another discussion altogether, but that is how big time college athletics works. The other side of the token is true, you piss off enough people who scratch those checks and you find yourself without a job. At the end of the day, nothing good comes from alienating yourself from the very people who can potentially save your program and some of the same people who are partially responsible for you having a job in the first place.

On top of your as-of-right-now ridiculous softball game claim, this is where I take issue with your posts. The tone of your post sounds very calm and reasoned and un-troll like. But whether you meant it to or not, the entire post I quoted above is implying that Pelini is incapable of selling the program in public, incapable of schmoozing the boosters, incapable of conducting himself professionally and not embarassing the program, and that he is in danger of losing his job because of his lack of ability in these areas.

I disagree that Pelini doesn't represent himself well in front of the media or that he is incapable of selling the program - see the overwhelmingly positive reviews he got from Big Ten media days. He does have an edge sometimes - usually it's just after a game where his offense managed to only score 7 points, fumbled the ball 5 times, took 5 unnecessary sacks, was penalized 12 times and a reporter asks hims something like, "How did the offense do today, coach?"

I have no idea how Pelini treats the boosters. My uneducated guess is that he's perfectly friendly to anybody willing to write a check to his program until they start thinking that check means they should have some input into how that program is run. If that's when Bo decides to tell a booster to get out of his office, I'm 100% behind Bo on that. Besides that, I honestly believe that what keeps the boosters writing checks has a lot less to do with Bo schmoozing them, and a lot more to do with Bo winning or losing. If he's losing he can schmooze all he wants - he'll still be fired. If he wins, he can tell them to piss off all he wants - he's not going anywhere unless he wants to.

His most egregious public behavior, the Texas A&M game, did not embarrass me as a fan of the program. When Harvey Perlman came out and threw his own employee under the bus, that embarrassed me. That's what made it a national issue. If something like that Texas A&M catastrophe happens again, I'll be at least a little upset if Pelini isn't on the refs just as hard as he was that night. If you're going to argue that Bo can hurt his team with his sideline demeanor, I'd point to the end of the 2008 VT game - there you'd have a point. But nothing like that incident has happened since then.

Furthermore, you're nuts if you think Pelini's edge and demeanor are only "weaknesses." Those "weaknesses" are characteristics of the head coach that were instrumental in helping Nebraska go from having one of the worst defenses and least competitive teams since the 60's (Bill Callahan in 2007) to having the #1 defense in 2009, and competing for two straight conference championships in '09-'10. Furthermore, the program seems to be as clean as any you'll find in the NCAA right now - infractions over the past few years have been minor and off the field problems have been relatively limited since Pelini took over - AND Pelini's team has the best average GPA of any squad going all the way back to 1987.

If you want Pelini to be the "perfect" coach - that isn't going to happen. There is no perfect coach. If you could combine Tom Osborne, Bear Bryant, Mack Brown, Urban Meyer, Chip Kelly, Bo Pelini, Bob Stoops, and Joe Paterno all into one coach, you still wouldn't have a perfect coach. That guy would still have flaws. And he'd still have a rough end to a season sometime where he dropped 3/4 games or something, and then fans would come down on him for not winning like he was supposed to do. Of course instead of just saying, "Man, I wish he had won those 3 games," they'll say something like, "Well, he better stop yelling like that, he looks like a jerk! If he doesn't stop yelling like that, I bet he gets fired! That's not how you act at Nebraska! I heard he even yelled like that at an U12 softball game!"

 

[The Dude]

Successful troll is successful.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I don't know who this bro is, but his first post in this thread is quite reasonable. And it's that exact reasonable stance that draws knee jerk reactions from several posters here who automatically assume you're taking the extreme opposite stance and want Bo's balls cut off.

Opinions on Bo's behavior at College Station last year vary, but if you look at the "body of work" of this poster, including his subsequent posts in this thread, you'll get a clearer picture of why people have reacted to him the way they have.

I don't agree with the name-calling, but I find the reaction to this person's several posts quite reasonable.

I also would be concerned with Endo's apparent misinformation about this softball game, as well as name-dropping the fact that he was invited to join by a Mod. Being buddies with a Moderator of this board does not give a person license to behave however they wish.

I would remind anyone that this is a Nebraska message board. It should come as no surprise that Nebraska fans would take it poorly that someone is cracking on their team, coach or players.

I'm completely aware that challenging the status quo upsets people. I don't participate in the name calling, and I find it funny that troll is so quick to be thrown out there. I do not give a damn about reputation and whether or not someone has a million posts or is in the teens, I can see a reason or two why someone would feel that way, but in the end it is a non-starter.

Bo is a fantastic defensive coach. His ability to be a step ahead of an offensive coordinator is something you just can't teach. There have been a ton of coaches who have learned his system but haven't been able to see the chess pieces like he does. It is a gift, and it is the reason that he is an excellent defensive coordinator. He has a system, he knows the ins and outs of it, he knows the adjustments, and he has surrounded himself with folks who by-in large are great teachers of technically sound football. In 2009, we had Suh, but the other guys around him, the way they played, was great. A few fellow coaches in the Big XII were saying that we had the most technically sound DL in the country that year, and another program in the conference singled Matt O'Hanlon out as our best defensive player on their scouting report, not ol' #93. That is high praise for a kid who earlier in 2009 was the scapegoat of many a Husker fan for his perceived gaffe in Blacksburg. Hell in 2008, I remember a text during a game about how lost #33 was and what a worthless player he was (kneejerk reaction sure). The point is he came a long long way under this defensive staff.

I am a Husker fan, and I was encouraged to join by a moderator. I wasn't coerced or anything of that nature. I was simply told that I might enjoy the group and to take a look. I dove in head first, I'm not about sugar coating anything, but nor do I have an agenda against Bo. It is the opposite, I'm actually very much pro-Bo, but I'm not blinded to his faults or problems. Like anything, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, that same analogy applies to coaches. A coach is only as good as his weakest qualities. As a head coach, there are times where you have to go out in public and do a sell job for the program. Like it or not, that is part of the job of a head coach, to schmooze with some boosters and in return, they scratch the checks it takes to keep you employed. You conduct yourself professionally and not embarrass the program, and those checks keep rolling in. Whether you like that reality or not is another discussion altogether, but that is how big time college athletics works. The other side of the token is true, you piss off enough people who scratch those checks and you find yourself without a job. At the end of the day, nothing good comes from alienating yourself from the very people who can potentially save your program and some of the same people who are partially responsible for you having a job in the first place.

Okay anyone else check out huskeronline.com and think that this is Jawbreakingsafetyplay? Same drawn out long answers that say nothing and pathetic "I am a Bo fan, but..." sentences. Only difference, he doesnt have his two or three boyfriends over here to protect him.

 

[Saunders]

my gut feeling is Perlman would have no problem reminding Bo once again as to what constitutes proper sideline behavior for his HC.

unfortunately the whole world, sports, business, politics and otherwise is ate up with being and acting PC.......its bullsh#t.

And the minute Perlman does that is the same minute we'll hear about other programs (like the University of Miami) trying to woo Bo away from Nebraska. And Bo will say no comment, and then Huskerboard will crash from all the people checking here to see where Pelini might be headed next. Perlman would be an idiot to make the same PR mistake he made after the Texas A&M game. Perlman was the reason that became a big deal - people weren't talking about it nationally until Perlman made his press release.

The next time that Harvey has to intervene in the business of the football program it will be to issue a pink slip.

Bo forced his hand, and an action had to be taken, because previous attempts to get through to Pelini obviously hadn't sunk in.

The same Harvey Perlman who cost the university millions of dollars by giving Steve Pederson and Bill Callahan extensions less than 6 months before they were canned?

Yeah, he's batting 1.000.

 

[Saunders]

Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Bob Stoops, Les Miles, Bo Pelini.

I've seen every one of these coaches go apesh#t on the sidelines. Urban "Cryer" whines to the officials all game long. I've seen Nick Saban smack his players on the sideline. Stoops, well that's Stoops. Les Miles will totally get on a refs a$$. Bo will be Bo.

The difference? All the other guys have rings. If Bo had won the last 2 Big 12 Titles, nobody would give two sh#ts.

/EOT

 

[Stumpy1]

The softball thing did happen and it had to do with an umpire. Bo got in a heated arguement with an umpire about a call made. Bo was asked to go to the head table to talk with the main guy in charge about it. He did and that conversation got heated and Bo kind of blew up and was asked to leave. This is what was told to me by a guy I work with that was there because his daughter was playing.

He said people were blowing it way out of proportion before Bo even left the field. He said it wouldn't be any different then any other parent getting pissed at a game except it was BO.