Guy Chamberlin

As the commentators noted, Kenny Bell also does a lot of good stuff away from the ball to help the team. That's to go along with four years of highlight reel catches. Full of himself, but hardly selfish. The dude looked like he was having himself some fun playing football. I had fun watching him. Can we try not to smear bitter hindsight over everything that happened in the last seven years? There was some good football mixed in there.

I saw players playing for themselves, for their teammates, for the coaching staff that remained, and for the integrity of the game. They played hard against an incredibly athletic team, avoided the meltdown we all feared was coming, and made it an entertaining bowl game down to the final second. I'd even say they were more focused and disciplined than most Bo-coached teams. Your point can't possibly hold true since it's wildly self-serving speculation, contradicted by the available evidence. I really wish Husker fans could have enjoyed yesterday's game more.

Glad Bo is gone. No problem with the player gesture. Because it was a gesture. Nobody seemed to be in denial. The fact is, Bo Pelini got them to this game, for better or worse. Kinda weird to pretend otherwise. Question is: was Bo watching the game? Or was that seat empty, too?

Jesus H. Christ. 42 points. 525 yards. A record 32 completions and 64% completion for Tommy Armstrong. And still 33 touches for Ameer Abdullah, finding other ways to get him in the game. A trick play that scored a touchdown (refs blew the call). A trick play that didn't. A strong fourth quarter, utilizing both running and passing. No fumbles. A hurry-up offense without all the sideline gazing, generally executed with urgency and discipline despite a chaotic three weeks of post-Bo distraction. Pretty much all I could ask for. Except we lost. In a close game. Where the defense gave up 45 points. The play that didn't get called will always win the game because Ameer Abdullah will always run wild and free in our imagination. That doesn't mean you can ignore all the plays that brought us back from a 17 point deficit. We are a 9 - 4 team, with all the good and bad that implies. Or maybe I'm the only guy who thought that was an exciting and encouraging game last night.

You keep saying this over and over and over, but it makes no sense to anyone who actually watches the games. Help me out: is Beck's tragic flaw that he runs a complicated offense and never sticks with what works, or that he sticks with a predictible run-first offense straight out of the 1950s? You can't have it both ways. Well I guess you can if you're really determined.

Ameer had 32 touches. Armstrong had his best game. Bell, Westerkamp and DPE alll had highlight plays. The tight end got involved. The offense put up 42 points and had a strong Fourth quarter. The Defense gave up 45 points. That can affect the outcome, too. But never for a moment did I doubt Huskerboard would be throwing its traditional Beck excrement-fit. That's one thing I won't miss. Like Shawn Watson, Tim Beck will do just fine at another major college program.

We have Ameer Abdullah. I hope we use him. We also have Kenny Bell, Jordan Westerkamp and Demornay Peirson-El. I hope we use them, too. The running game is crucial. The passing game is vital. Some call it "multiple." I just call it "offense."

I'm gonna go all touchy-feely and say this team needs to go out there and have some fun.

I wish you could package Henery's field goal and Suh's Pick Six into a single play, because it felt that way. For a fairly meaningless contest, that Colorado game was a lot of fun.

He was the second-coming of Bobby Newcombe.

Bo isn't a cowboy. Actually, Bo is the big pu&&y. There are coaches who can swear, holler, motivate and coach circles around Bo Pelini without being thin-skinned finger-pointers. If a "real man" were to say goodbye to his team after being fired, the speech would look a lot different than Bo Pelinis. I guess I didn't disagree with anything he said. The yekking is wrong movement is being pushed by the same crowd that promotes the first place for every kid bullsh#t. Just my opinion. And on the block I grew up on, yes, pelini would be the man and eichorst the pu&&y in this scenario. Just my own experience. Not saying it was the same on yours. In my neighborhood there was a big difference between talking tough and being tough, although it sometimes takes awhile to figure that out. It's not really a Man vs. pu&&y scenario, anyway. It's more Adult vs. Child.

Westerkamp, Pierson-El and a highly motivated Jamal Turner running routes for a better coached quarterback? Sounds pretty good to me.

I'm curious as hell, actually.

Bo isn't a cowboy. Actually, Bo is the big pu&&y. There are coaches who can swear, holler, motivate and coach circles around Bo Pelini without being thin-skinned finger-pointers. If a "real man" were to say goodbye to his team after being fired, the speech would look a lot different than Bo Pelinis.

Well yes, by all accounts he was getting the coaching and guidance to be a great player. I mean, you can tell from listening to Tim Beck and Bo Pelini that they clearly had a way of motivating and developing, really bringing out the best from everyone they came in contact with......... Guy, I like most of what you have to say, but Jamal Turner is an athletic freak, much like Charles Jackson and now Pierson-El. One of these guys is gonna live up to the expectations and it's only because we will finally have a coach who finds a way to utilize his most talented players. The sporting world is full of athletic freaks who can never quite translate it to the game being played. And of course, the less talented guys who have to work twice as hard to get noticed over a hyped teammate. That work ethic counts, and Jamal was rumored to have less of it than others. "Utilizing his most talented players" may have meant going with Quincy Enunwa, Kenny Bell, and Jordan Westerkamp. Hard to argue against that. My position on Bo Pelini is pretty clear, but let's not jump to the assumption that Turner and others would have thrived under another coach. It's entirely possible that other receivers simply out-played him.

As I recall, when he was healthy and starting, he still wasn't able to distinguish himself as the player we hoped he'd be.

It's a reasonable question, but I'll throw it back to you: what were those core set of principles? Are any of them unique to Nebraska, or are they relevant to any successful organization? I don't think they have to be unique to Nebraska to be valuable. Just curious. The closest I can come to a unique "Nebraska Way" is acknowledgement that our college football team means more to an entire state than any other team in the NCAA. But that can be a double-edged sword.

I agree about liking Bo more from this, I know that's not popular...and I am glad he's gone, but still nice to see someone who doesn't just do the "company" good-bye and act like everything was fine. Why do we have to be so "PC" all the time, it's like everyone freaks out when someone speaks their mind. If he was working at McDonalds and left that job with a rant like this, we would all say "good job" but when it's a university position and comes with a million dollar salary everyone thinks he has to act a certain way...I like his passion.Big difference between passion and being a childish jerk off who had the support of one of the most loyal fan bases in the country even after he crapped on us by calling us fair weather and telling us to f ourselves.Had the support of one of the most loyal fan base? You must be joking. There was a clear divide. (and for the last time, he wasn't refering to all fans in the quote you mention). How bad of a coach are you if you can't win unless 100% of the fan base supports you? And which came first: The poor performances (on and off the field) or the erosion of fan support? Again, what you Bolievers don't get is that it that your theory rests on the ridiculous proposition that half the fan base and the media and the administration arbitrarily and coincidentally all woke up one morning and decided to hate on Bo for no good reason, and that this spontaneous, widespread disdain for Bo manifested as poor results on the field that would not have otherwise occurred. It's truly insane. Except that's not what I believe (and i doubt anyone believes). I just dont think it's easy to consistently win national championships, and that going 9-3 isn't the end of the world. Most fan bases would be good with having no less then 9 wins in each of the past 7 years. Look at Michigan, Florida, Texas, Usc, miami, etc. and compare how they have performed over that same period. Do you think they don't want to win? The point is its hard. Yes, a lot of those loses hurt. Hurt bad (especially the ones against Wisconsin). But each of those teams also had tough losses. Look at Wisconsin on the championship game this year vs a third string QB with no real prior experience. 59-0. You don't think that hurt the fans of Wisconsin? That's the point. I'm glad you brought up Wisconsin. How many CCGs has that program won over the past few years? How many Rose Bowl appearances? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Michigan play in the Sugar Bowl during Hoke's tenure? Did Mack Brown play for a couple national titles and win one on the way? Sure the blowout losses happen. But for most coaches, they are offset by championships or other tangible barometers of success. For Bo, there was nothing to offset those games. And the blowouts kept coming. Wisconsin's had one epic Pelini-style meltdown in the how long? Pelini was good for at least one a year. Literally the only thing you could say about him is 9 wins. But at what cost? I would gladly take 10 straight 8-4 seasons if it meant no more than a rare blowout and, more importantly, a head coach that doesn't act like a complete asshat. You are selectively pointing out things to highlight your point. I could easily do the same and show you substantially more heart ache for the teams I mentioned above. I'll wait. Also, I'm not sure what point you think you're making (going to make?) with Michigan and Florida, both of whom just fired their coach. I will say that the one thing you do have going for you is the way Bo was snatched up by an elite Division 1, "Power 5" program that couldn't believe Nebraska turned him loose so they could snatch him up. I'll admit that is a sticking point for my argument. I will address the sticking point, as I find it hard to believe (and frankly don't have the time) to not see the tough losses and hard times the notable programs I mentioned before have encountered. With regard to the sticking point, I am quite confident that Bo could have easily gotten a coordinator position at a prominent school if he had chosen that. I also believe he could have gotten a head coach position at a less prominent D1 school as well. I remember when people on this board would get quite concerned that another program would steal him away (Ohio state, miami, etc.). I think he wanted a change, and living in his hometown with an administrator he trusted felt like the right choice to him. I'm surprised he didn't take time off and/or join the espn crew for a while (this is a joke, but it would have been hilarious to have him on there show regularly), but I guess he felt this was the right choice for him and his family at this time. (Oh, and yes, he got a job pretty quick. Quicker then most.) Look....I feel for you man. I've been there. I have supported and argued for Bo to have more time for the last 7 years. But, events from the last 12-18 months have proven to me that change was needed. It's time to move on and just because a guy you liked got fired, doesn't mean that everyone above him is a dirt ball that can't be trusted. It's a business decision that needed to be made. Bo has major issues that, unless he figures them out, it will keep him from being a HC at a major school again. It's not just a matter of disrespecting your bosses. It prevents him from effectively leading a team and relating with people outside the program like the fans. It prevents him from being an effective leader in the heat of battle in the biggest games on the biggest stage. Point taken. I salute your reasonable discourse on the subject. Truly. If Bo Pelini were more like you, Dag, none of this would have happened.

Anyone remember Fowler and Corso appearing on Nebraska's Legacy Video, calling Nebraska fans the best in college football, and Lincoln the best gameday experience? Or ESPN's college football panel voting two Nebraska teams in the top three of their all-time greatest college teams? Or voting Jack Hoffman's run in the Nebraska Spring Game the single best event of the entire sporting year at last year's ESPY Awards? Or voting Jordan Westerkamp's behind the back catch the 2014 play-of-the-year just last week? Didn't think so. They did, unfortunately, have to report Nebraska's annual freefall out of relevance, and they generally used kinder language than most Husker fans here on HuskerBoard.

So let's call it for what it is. In his farewell speech, Bo attempted to turn his entire team against the administration and athletic department. He led a chorus of sniggers as he called his boss, the NU athletic director, every name in the book. (Real cowardice, by the way) He told players that this place is a (redacted), in part because of "a lot of the former players", among just about everything else. After all the talk about what a miserable place it was, he suggested Nebraska players take a long hard look at if they'll be happy here and to transfer if they won't. All of this is beyond horrifying. And plainly it was not the first time he's talked about this, or like this, to his team. That's the man the University of Nebraska employed for seven years to lead a group of over a hundred of its student-athletes, and to represent UNL in the homes of countless high school students around the country. There's a lot of good things about Bo, too, but there's no getting around that this is who he is, and this is how he's treated this place and the charge he was given. I wish it weren't the case, but it is, and Bo alone is responsible for who he is. So I'm just wondering, why is Bo telling his players to do what is best for them a bad thing? I still can't figure that one out. Bo had his players first, not the university. Actually, that's the controversy right there. Seven years into the Bo Pelini era and Nebraska was not even contending for its division, one of the weakest in college football. Brought in as a defensive specialist, Nebraska under Pelini racked up 7 of the 10 worst defensive performances in Husker history. Fans and media had a problem with this. At which point THEY became the problem. At least that's how it was presented to Husker players. Yes, he had the players backs. Nobody else believed in them the way Bo Pelini did. If you want to know what we did wrong in our latest big game meltdown, don't look in the mirror, and for godsakes don't blame the coaches who love you so much. Blame unreasonable fan expectation and the AD who actively wants you to lose. And the World-Herald. By his own admission, Bo had bunkered in at a place he openly hated and couldn't wait to leave. His best revenge would have been success, but he couldn't pull it off. All he could do was poison the well. The irony, Dagerow, is that in this final rant Bo Pelini put Bo Pelini first. And that wasn't in the best interest of either the players or the fans, who loved this team long before Bo Pelini got here and will love them long after he's gone. Oh that's right. He's gone. Nevermind.

Honestly, when I was reading the real Bo transcript with my jaw-open* I kept thinking he should have gone with Knapp's speech. * To those who say "what did you expect?" I genuinely did not expect Bo to flame out so spectacularly. If someone had posted those exact words the week before as a parody, it would have reeked of exaggeration.

Local media criticism of Bo Pelini was cautious by college football standards, laughably meek by professional sports standards. Being paid 3 million dollars to coach the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers football team comes with expectations and scrutinty. A competitor wouldn't want it any other way. The stakes are similar at probably 20 other universities and the vast majority of professional sports franchises. Imagine a coach in Philadelphia telling the fans to go f#*k themselves. I honestly think Bo Pelini got more support, more forgiveness and more apologists at Nebraska than he would have at many other programs. If Nebraska fans no longer want to run with the big dogs, then perhaps we were a bit harsh on Mr. Pelini. I honestly thought most of us simply demanded signs of improvement.

Do people on this board really believe that Nebraska fans are no more demanding than other "tradition rich" schools? YES. Also, I'm already tired of hearing Bo Pelini being equated to a cult leader. SOUNDS HARSH, I KNOW, BUT THE PSYCHOLOGY IS VALID, UNFORTUNATELY. It confuses me that people will shrink at the words Bo used and admonish him for not being "classy" and "professional" but have no compunction when calling him trashy, or a cult leader, or evil, or whatever else thing you can think to say. IT'S TRUE THAT I TAKE A FEW LIBERTIES AS AN ANONYMOUS FAN ON AN INTERNET MESSAGE BOARD, BUT NOT ANY MORE THAN THE HIGHEST PAID STATE EMPLOYEE IN NEBRASKA, HIRED TO REPRESENT THAT STATE TO THE WORLD. AMONG THE WORDS PELINI-BASHERS AREN'T USING IS THE WORD "c**t." Sorry, dressing it up with nicer words doesn't actually make it nicer. The expectation you set for him versus yourself makes your opinion hard to swallow. SEE ABOVE. At the time of this recording he was an unemployed guy talking to a group of his former employees in a "semi private" setting since even that is now being debated. IN LIEU OF A FORMAL STATEMENT TO NEBRASKA FANS THAT DOES NOT APPEAR FORTHCOMING, WE HAVE TO TAKE THIS RECORDING AS BO PELINI'S LAST WORD ON THE SUBJECT. IN ANY SETTING, IN ANY CONTEXT, THEY ARE THE WORDS OF A 15 YEAR OLD. NOT A GROWN MAN, MUCH LESS A LEADER OF YOUNG MEN.

Here is where my Venn diagram overlaps with Bo: I don't mind fire and passion in a coach. Sometimes profanity IS the most appropriate word. Reporters ask some really stupid questions. Coaching at Nebraska would be stressful. It's irritating to answer to lawyers in suits on matters of football. It would be nice to have some privacy left in the world. But that still leaves my "f#*k you, Bo" circle much, much bigger. There are so many things to parse in his petty, self-pitying and grenade-throwing exit speech. Connect the dots and he basically admits not wanting to be at Nebraska for the past two seasons. On the one hand he's sucking it up because he loves the players so much. On the other hand, he says he'd rather work at McDonald's. But he didn't go work at McDonald's, nor did he really suck it up. He took the millions of dollars in an extended contract that UNL didn't need to make, and accepted the private planes and extra staff granted him in a generous new recruiting budget. Shawn Eichorst may not have given him the warmest support after last year's Iowa debacle, but it was more than Bo Pelini had earned at that point. The fans at Nebraska are no more demanding than fans at schools with winning traditions. That $3 million salary, that 90,000 seat stadium, that shiny new training facility and that NCAA record sellout streak were not built on third-place divisional finishes. Blame the fans? Who filled the seats and cheered wildly? Only to grumble when Nebraska lost in embarrassing fashion? Yet largely supported giving Bo another year? Even after the 2011 tape where he told the entire state to go f#*k itself because he was out of here? Except there wasn't anywhere to go, because every other major football program now saw the questionable coaching and personal liabilities of Bo Pelini. Meaning Eichorst and the pencil-pushers were right. We now have two tapes of Bo Pelini behaving like a nightmare employee and there's no reason to assume these were rare bursts of passion or candor. As mentioned, this wasn't venting at home to your wife. This was a man who had the chance to sleep on it, and when given the chance to say goodbye to his team, he chose to burn the house down around him. I have no doubt he wanted the worst invectives to reach the ears of people outside that room. That "loyalty first" approach works for cult leaders, shrinking the world down to a single room and making your followers believe you are the only person who understands them. The only person who has their back. Anything that goes wrong (second half Wisconsin) can be blamed on outside agitators (those demanding fans!). f#*k you, Bo. No idea how a Mike Riley Nebraska team will play, but the air tastes so much fresher than two weeks ago. Addition by subtraction. Works for me.