Look closely at what you just saw, Nebraska. Your next coach was the guy standing on the other sideline.
If you’re not there yet, Big Red, if you’re not tired of being average and doing just enough to win games of zero significance, then you’ll settle again for another four-loss season and another year of all those championships and all of what’s so important to the proud tradition in Lincoln moving further away in the rearview.
By settling you’re admitting it can get no better, that a Nebraska program which once ruled college football has hit its ceiling under coach Bo Pelini and that’s OK.
Or you can look across the field at Jerry Kill and see where Minnesota was when he took over — and see where the Gophers are now.
The team that Nebraska holds itself above can win the Big Ten West Division next week by beating Wisconsin. The team that Nebraska should beat annually just beat the Huskers for the second straight season.
The team that has — maybe — a handful of players that were recruited by Nebraska, now has back-to-back eight-win seasons for only the second time since 1961. Meanwhile, at Nebraska, Pelini is closing in on his seventh straight season of at least four losses.
All it will take is a loss at Iowa in the season final, or a loss in the bowl game (if Pelini makes it to the postseason) to complete this strange — but clearly fitting — Huskers trend under Pelini.
This is Pelini in a nutshell: win just enough to make them wonder what it would be like with a few more breaks, and lose just enough to make them second-guess what it would be like if they let you go.
There can be no doubt now. This loss, a week after an absolute emasculation at the hands of Wisconsin, moves Pelini to 7-17 vs. ranked teams. Dress up Pelini’s 66-31 overall record all you want; the only thing that matters is how his teams perform in big games and where the trend line is headed.
If you’re Nebraska, and you haven’t won a conference championship in Pelini’s seven years; if you can’t win big games in your conference and can’t win big non-conference games, what’s left? You either admit that your program isn’t what it used to be and that’s not all that bad, or you rip off the bandage that has hidden the festering sore and do something about it.
You hire Jerry Kill from Minnesota and watch how quickly things turn around.