I want to comment today on Bo Pelini's headlined, quickly discredited cheap shot at University of Nebraska-Lincoln Athletic Director Steve Pederson.
But first, an explanation of why I believe we now have persuasive evidence that Pederson made the right decisions in firing Husker head football coach Frank Solich after the 2003 season and not replacing him with Pelini, Nebraska's defensive coordinator that year.
The evidence is found in a series of coaching changes during and after the 2004 season that left 22 openings for head coaches at Division I universities.
Solich was hired as head coach at Ohio University. Pelini, now co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma, sought the head-coaching jobs at Pittsburgh and Syracuse, but neither school hired him.
So Solich and Pelini wound up without new major-university coaching jobs at a time that saw an unusual number of head-coaching vacancies.
Incidentally but importantly, I believe that Solich goes to his new job with the best wishes not only of those who thought he should not be fired but also of the Nebraska fans - a strong majority, I believe - who felt that it was time for him to depart.
As to Pelini: The head-coaching aspirant told a reporter that Pederson tried to damage his candidacy for the Pittsburgh job.
When I described that cheap shot as "quickly discredited," I had in mind that the same news story included flat denials by Pederson and E.G. Borghetti, assistant athletic director at Pittsburgh, that there was any communication between Pederson and Pittsburgh Athletic Director Jeff Long during Pittsburgh's coaching search.
"Steve Pederson had absolutely no influence whatsoever on the viability of Bo Pelini's candidacy," Borghetti said.
Unfortunately, Pelini's cheap shot made the headline and the lead paragraph in the news account. The decisive rebuttals appeared at the end of the story, on an inside page.