HuskerNation1

I agree with you, but normally Sipple can hide some of his pro-Bo feelings a bit more, or at least make a point worth considering.

I read this Sipple editorial this morning, and he's acting like a member of the White House press corps before the Obamacare debacle, trying to suck up to Pelini and stay on good side in hopes of being rewarded with questions and access moving forward. Everyone knows Bo will shut out some members of the media he doesn't agree with (in terms of responding to their questions), and Sipple is doing some major sucking up. To say that there should be NO changes to the coaching staff is completely off base, and I've lost a good deal of respect for Sipple.

I think you hit the nail on the head as to why there is so much division in here regarding Pelini. NU could be a really good team (winning major bowl games again and/or conference championships), but it seems to be the 3-4 games a year of way too many self-inflicted wounds that prevents the Huskers from reaching that status.

Let me make something crystal clear. I'm not fine with 9 win seasons. I look forward to conference championships and national title hunts. What I am impressed with is that Pelini has come in and accomplished what he did....as in consistently winning 9 games and getting to bowls after Callahan had losing seasons in 50% of his tenure here. Pelini changed that immediately. Then, the learning curve started. Recruiting suffered, and I would be the first to say Pelini's inexperience was the primary factor in this. Our defense struggled the past couple of years because of a talent issue......then injuries made that talent gap even wider by late in the season. Most of us fully understand how important both sides of the LOS are. The depth and lack of drop-off on our offensive line is impressive right now. The way we ran the ball on Michigan State is impressive. Period. Our defensive line once again has NFL caliber talent at more than one position. So even while maintaining consistency at 9+ wins, Pelini has built depth and greatly improved our talent level. Pelini has his sights set on bigger things than 9 wins, but it's impressive that Nebraska hasn't had the erratic nature in the W/L column that over 115 of the other D1 programs have endured. I'm not disagreeing with many of your points, and have said many times before that Pelini turned around the program after the Callahan era. Bo was successful in that. BUT, and this is the key, he has shown no signs of taking that turnaround to the next level. He peaked with the 2009 team, in what should have been a victory over a top 2 team at the time, and since then has continued to underperform against top teams. If you are assessing the coaching performance results on a 10-point scale, and Callahan would have been a 4 or 5, Bo has raised the bar and is a 6.5 or 7 on a scale of 10. Some in here seem to be fine with that. Others don't believe he has what it takes to get back to a 8.5 or above out of 10, and hence the disagreement between the two sides.

with a lot less experience... I agree with this. If we are going to replace Pelini, let's not hire another guy who has no head coaching experience. This isn't a time for on the job training.

Since your post started out about Ohio State's schedule......and we are in the same conference as Ohio State......is this really a difficult "guess"? If we replace Pelini, then we do. I highly doubt that's the plan because recruits continue to commit to us even now. I find it unfortunate that some look for reasons to be critical of Pelini....even in his successes.....rather than have the optimism that he's working on correcting weaknesses and trying to get this program to the next level. Like EZ-E wrote elsewhere, 9 win seasons are meaningless......until they go away. I think the comment about 9 wins are meaningless...until they go away speaks to the divide regarding Bo. It really depends if you are a risk averse person, or a risk taker. Some know how bad things were under Callahan, and seem to be fine with 9 win seasons every year. Taking a chance on a new coach could return the program to the Callahan days. Others are more willing to take a risk, realizing that it could be a high reward situation. I fall into the latter camp, and would rather take a gamble and try to go from a top 40-ranked team to a top-10 ranked team.

And every intelligent fan knew this would be a rebuilding year with a totally new defense. The only way we would have made a run at the B1G Championship is if our offense carried us. Nobody expected our all-B1G QB to be hurt after the first game. So Im sorry you deceived yourself into thinking this defense would be championship caliber with most starters having absolutely no D1 experience. That's on you bud Many top programs lose good players each year, or have to suffer through a QB loss, yet still find a way to beat tough teams. You are deceiving yourself into thinking another year with Bo will produce a different result. He runs a sloppy program with way too many penalties, turnovers, and missed tackles. and that occurred with Martinez at the helm, and with Armstrong too.

While I wouldn't be complaining if I were an Ohio State fan, I do agree about the quality wins. It doesn't mean much if we have a schedule with a bunch of teams that are not that good, and rack up the W's. We've got to go head to head with the best and show we can win. What is our biggest win this season? Perhaps Michigan, whose offense has gone downhill and has no quality wins themselves (unless you count Minnesota as a quality win). How is USC suddenly winning the close games? How has Baylor become a powerhouse? It all starts at the top, and when you've got it, you've got it. Bo just doesn't have it.

I really don't see Pelini surviving this season as he'll be 0 for 6 when it comes to winning a championship. When you look at this year's team, they have won games against easy competition. They were fortunate to beat Northwestern, and barely beat Wyoming. If they would have had the Big Ten opponents from 2011 and 2012 and played OSU and Wisconsin, they would be lucky to be 5-5 right now. I also don't agree that Bo needs another chance to hire new coordinators...he already did that and got it wrong. Why would we trust his judgment this time?

This question came up a few weeks ago, and in my opinion, Bo had to win in Indy to keep his job. Given that NU won't be going there, I don't see Bo keeping his job in any situation. My gut tells me that Perlman and the AD wanted to release him after the infamous videotape incident, but realized it would be too difficult for the team to do so mid-season.

Thanks all...I live in Central IL here as well, and it was rather scary here in Bloomington, but nothing like what Washington and other towns experienced.

Whether it is Bo or his coordinators matters not. Either way, Bo is responsible... he hired them. He is the boss. The buck stops with Bo. Totally agree here. While I don't believe our coaches were "outcoached" today as has been the case in other losses in recent years, it doesn't make sense to keep firing the coordinators when the HC simply isn't getting the job done.

You hit the nail on the head...bad division, bad conference, and with a soft schedule, this should have been the year to Pelini to accomplish something. What exactly is he going to accomplish this year? What major goal that the team set early in the year will be accomplished?

I'm in agreement here. While I certainly agree that the defense has improved as the season has gone along, the offense has honestly remained stagnant and disappointing. At the end of the day a head coach is judged by his results, and while Pelini has been good, he's not been great, and is zero for six when it comes to winning championships. We are fortunate to be 7-3 right now as you stated, and could easily be 6-4 or 5-5. We lost 75% of our offensive starters, played mostly underclass men and put up 28 on the #1 defense in college football. The fact that we're winning games at all is impressing the hell out of me. Stagnant and disappointing? Pfft. Wow, the fact that you are impressed if Nebraska wins any games is pretty telling and shows how far the standard has dropped at NU. Had we played OSU and Wiscy this year like the past 2 seasons, we would be lucky to be 5-5 right now (with the luck coming on that Hail Mary pass against NW).

Something hit me after today's loss as I was trying to assess how to judge this year's team. I recall entering our first year of the Big Ten, and realizing that our first two seasons were going to be tough as we had to face OSU, Wisconsin, as well as those strong powerhouses on the Legends side. However, 2013 was the year we didn't have to play OSU and Wisconsin, and instead got Purdue and Illinois. This was the year we had a chance to run the table, so I thought back in 2011, and would be the year we would finally make a BCS game under Bo. I think that's what makes this season so hard to swallow...the lost opportunity to have a magical season. And now the reality has set in that, had we played the same schedule in 2013 as we did in 2011 and 2012, we would be 5-5 right now, and in the bottom half of the Legends division.

I totally agree and have used the CEO analogy before. Bo is the CEO of this football team. He has a hand in every player and coach that makes up the team, and sets the culture by which the large team performs. As CEO, Bo definitely did a good job in turning the organization around, but peaked early and has since been stagnant or regressed with his team's performance.

Hey, when you are a Cub fan, you get used to playing for next year. With that said, Nebraska should not ever go through a drought like this. I think the only way they stop that drought is through changes to the entire coaching staff. Today's loss wasn't caused by bad coaching decisions, but the sloppiness (turnovers, missed tackles) is a part of what has become Nebraska football these past 6 seasons.

I'm in agreement here. While I certainly agree that the defense has improved as the season has gone along, the offense has honestly remained stagnant and disappointing. At the end of the day a head coach is judged by his results, and while Pelini has been good, he's not been great, and is zero for six when it comes to winning championships. We are fortunate to be 7-3 right now as you stated, and could easily be 6-4 or 5-5.

If we're going to fire him it'll be for UCLA and Minnesota. Not this game. I totally agree with that. And let's not forget we were a hail mary away from losing to NW at home too. This game was coached better than most, but the players truly didn't execute (as Bo would say). But I also think that, typically when an AD fires a head coach, they are looking at the overall resume of the coach, and the trend line. Bo peaked with the 2009 team, and his teams have gotten gradually worse since then. He's zero for six when it comes to winning a championship.

While I agree the defense played well today given the 5 turnovers, they didn't play great in my mind. They gave up way too many big plays on 3rd and long, and I don't believe they got a single turnover themselves. To win tough games, the D needs to come up with some big plays themselves.

I don't put this loss on the coaching staff (like so many other losses). The defense played well, and the offense simply turned the ball over too much (24 pts off turnovers). With that said, it will be yet another season that Bo does not win a championship, and because of all the other ugly losses in past seasons, I think it's time for him to start packing. We need some fresh coaching blood in Lincoln, from top to bottom.

I think the defense played well given the number of turnovers. This was the first loss in a long time where I truly felt the players lost the game (rather than the coaches being outcoached). With that said, Bo will not win another championship, and to me the only way he would be able to save his job this year was to get to Indy and win.

First, kudos to the players for hanging in there and pulling this one out. I think we are all still on cloud nine from the amazing end to the game, but soon reality will set in that we were one hail mary away from another big loss. I think Tommy is the future but still has a lot of work to do, and the defense played great in the 2nd half. As for Bo, I don't think this changed a thing regarding his future with the team. If he was likely to go coming into the game, he's still there now. I still believe that Bo will have to win in Indy to keep his job one more year.

I agree that this is a very accurate assessment of this head coach and program and found it offers some hope for Big Red to return to greatness again.

If Nebraska doesn't make the Big Ten Championship game, Bo should be let go immediately after the Iowa game to allow maximum time to find a new coach, and maximum time for the assistant to prepare for the bowl game.