Why did Bo fail at NU

[davecisar]

Bo "failed" because of Bo

He didnt get that the fans were a selling point to the kids- not the bogey man that the players and coaches should unite and hate against. Football in Nebraska is a statewide treasure that is important to many- few states have one college football team as the focal point of state interest and pride.

He didn't get the importance of maintaining a positive image locally and nationally. He need not be mother Teresa, but when people identify you first by your tirades and foul mouth than your coaching ability, that's a problem. That especially goes for recruiting.

Attracting solid assistant coaches. He mainly hired some fairly young and unproven coaches- some with dubious recruiting abilities.

Recruiting. He actually had some pretty good classes early on, the last 2 years, not so much. Didnt embrace the process or do anything unique.

Had Bo embraced the fans, been a better representative of the University and hired a few better assistant coaches- he would probably still be here.

 

[inWV]

Both Tru and Corn gave very fair assessments. Had Pelini maintained the talent level on D in the range of 09-10, we likely win the B1G with Tmart in 2012. And Tommy’s years would have been different. He’d still be coaching here if would have had a better approach to recruiting.

 

[ridge22]

Now why are we talking about Bo again?

 

[jimbosc]

His teams were tough minded - but that did not work against teams that were just as tough - as soon as Bo had the mandatory sideline melt down you could expect the team to fail. Almost every time.

He blew recruiting.....roster management, talent, development. All not good enough. His inability to hire a staff that could help him was part of it - wanted yes men.

He was hard headed - the Wisky 400 yard game for Gordon. ADJUST Bo. No...too stubborn. He would rather get his way then change the defense to stop the run (in that game). Got badly outcoached in a few games - but overall he actually coached OK - especially D. Again - I don't think he could accept/adjust when he was getting snookered by other coaches. Ego.

 

[CatColumbia]

Now why are we talking about Bo again?

Because the news about Carl landing a job yesterday broke out. Carl and BoBo are inseparable. It's interesting to see everybody's perspective on our former coaches.

 

[30BringsTheHurt]

Where's the "He's a colossal POS" choice?

 

[HuskerO58]

You defined Riley with your first paragraph, not Bo.

No, he was defining both.

 

[NikkiSixx_rivals269993]

6. Bo Pelini alienated many of the people who could've supported him. The man was very emotionally immature with a brutal temper. This led to meltdowns on TV and behind closed doors. This persona helped shape a negative image to recruits and outsiders. But he never attempted to manage his behavior, and instead of trying to cultivate relationships he damaged them beyond repair. He certainly had some support when he was fired, but for the most part, he had cut his support by roughly 65% among the money folks who matter to Nebraska.

Pretty accurate, but I think Bo repeatedly had help and was absolutely trying to manage his behavior, especially in years 3, 4, & 5. It was the last two years that he kind of said to heck with it & that is where things really imploded. The point is, I think he did give an honest attempt at behavior management, even if it wasn't enough.

 

[gw2kpro]

I'm not voting until

"Drove a car with Ohio plates on it"

is added as a poll option

 

[CatColumbia]

I'm not voting until

"Drove a car with Ohio plates on it"

is added as a poll option

Has been added, you can vote now. GBR

 

[JohnRossEwing]

I kind of look at his career like that of a salesperson.

You have a goal and you can hit that goal and keep your job...he sort of always hit his/the goal.

Problem is...after awhile the sales manager (usually huge dooshers) start to want to raise the goal and say things like "Here, we are going to HELP you by putting you on this PLAN...now you have to make 150 calls a day and have 3.5 hours of talk time...and you will magically get more sales) but it really is to just manage the guy out of a job.

Like most sales guys...they blow up and leave for another sales job.

 

[gw2kpro]

Has been added, you can vote now. GBR

Now that's service! Laughing

 

[steelclaw_rivals321686]

His first 3-4 years looked promising but then the product on the field started to drop off a bit. What was it that caused the wheels to fall off?

Callahan’s recruits graduating. Bo also never learned how to play defense in the B1G. Couldn’t stop the run. Also his failure to parlay Suh’s Heisman level season into any DL recruits worth a damn really hurt.

 

[HuskerO58]

Why is Bo the only coach that is expected to win games with crappy players but also gets put on the cross for recruiting crappy players?

He isn't the only coach expected to recruit well and to win championships with his players (and to not be an *******).

 

[Buicklife]

He wasn't prepared to do what it takes at NU. He got overwhelmed when the talent dried up....Frankly, had he been able to pull off a CCG win in 09/10/12 he would have left for another job.

I'll never understand his attitude over being fried from a job he didn't even want at the end. He'll never be a P5 HC again. But he is rich...so, he's got that going for him.

 

[bigboxes]

Rich, happy and at home? Shoot...sign me up for that.

As long as he's not embarrassing NU any longer. On and off the field.

 

[Redscarlet]

Callahan’s recruits graduating. Bo also never learned how to play defense in the B1G. Couldn’t stop the run. Also his failure to parlay Suh’s Heisman level season into any DL recruits worth a damn really hurt.

You're right seems his defensive scheme was more suited for the Big12, you would think that playing in the B1G he would have had better idea how to stop the run but he didn't have the quality line he had earlier..

Had to recruit LBers for the physical B1G when we entered the conference and that never transformed.

He was given the chance to be a Head Coach and he ended up not having the right pedigree for the job handling interviews and sideline behavior..

 

[steelclaw_rivals321686]

You're right seems his defensive scheme was more suited for the Big12, you would think that playing in the B1G he would have had better idea how to stop the run but he didn't have the quality line he had earlier..

Had to recruit LBers for the physical B1G when we entered the conference and that never transformed.

He was given the chance to be a Head Coach and he ended up not having the right pedigree for the job handling interviews and sideline behavior..

Bo was a solid coach overall but the problem is you can’t act like he did when you aren’t winning titles. You don’t get that luxury. He really couldn’t handle the pressure here and was looking to get out as early as 2010.

 

[TruHusker]

I may be in the minority here but I would not call Bo a failure at Nebraska. Given his overall record compared to other schools it looks good if that is your standard. I realize it is much higher at Nebraska. He played for some championships and some players went to the league under him. They graduated and we're generally good citizens.

The margin from winning 9-10 to all of them is very small and Bo couldn't seem to get to that next level. Maybe he never will or will not even try again at a higher level. I don't buy the argument that because he isn't talked about for top jobs is because no one wants him. Carl got a job for crying out loud
He may be happy coaching at his current level. I had lots of opportunities to go to big schools and turned them down, liked smaller schools. Not every coach finds being the top dog to their liking. I would guess that Bo has learned a lot about himself as well since his time at Nebraska.

 

[Solana Beach Husker]

Lets be honest the only thing that sunk him was his emotional intelligence. If he was better put together mentally his teams would have played better in big games instead of melting down like their coach. He would have won a few more big games and lost by less points. He would still be our coach because people were fine with the 9 wins, it was the face mask grabbing, ref hitting, secret tape berating, and ultimately the fact we never got to see us compete in the 2nd half of a truly big game after 2011. The team played like him, lots of bluster when they were better than an opponent, lots of swagger when they were more talented, but when talent was equal and pressure increased they choked and freaked out.

 

[jashley4]

Bo has a decent mind when it comes to football. But he lacks a certain amount of common sense, I mean look at his recent problems at Youngstown where he went out of his way to get a rapist on his team. The school then has an outcry about a rapist being on the team and Bo's boss tells him not to play him. What does bo do at the first opportunity he gets... Plays him. That entire situation ended up being another Bo giving the middle finger to his bosses. But... I'd take another year of bo over another year of Mike Riley... Thankfully we get frost instead!

 

[RedRhino]

Too Many YES men on staff. He would listen to Carl and Marvin but once they left there was no one left to tell him he was full of it or that it wouldn't work as he had planned... Then his pride also got in the way ( See any Wisconsin Blowout and his failure to adjust out of his normal scheme allowing the same mistakes to decimate us over and over.)

 

[redwine65]

bo maybe the missing link

 

[Can o' corn]

His failure was multifaceted. Obviously his personality was an issue. Eventually what seemed to be passion showed that it was just boorishness. When you tell your fan base to f___ themselves there's going to be a backlash.

Recruiting was a problem. First he didn't seem to want to do it. Secondly, his personality probably turned off a lot of parents. Just like I wouldn't want my kid to play for Bobby Knight I wouldn't want my son to play for Pelini.

Then there was the coaching itself. Too many players mimiced their coach on game day. Way too many disciplinary penalties. Leadership begins or ends at the top. Pelini was a loose cannon.

 

[Ewooc]

His first 3-4 years looked promising but then the product on the field started to drop off a bit. What was it that caused the wheels to fall off?

Honestly I think he is lazy. He was lazy when it came to recruiting, was lazy when it came to the media and public relations, was lazy when it cam to game day adjustments, was lazy when it came to assistants. Bo did the bare min he had to, to get that 8 9 win mark. Which he was and players were more than happy with.

 

[jimbosc]

Bo was a solid coach overall but the problem is you can’t act like he did when you aren’t winning titles. You don’t get that luxury. He really couldn’t handle the pressure here and was looking to get out as early as 2010.

Certainly he wanted the Miami and Ohio State jobs when it looked like there was a chance to go there. I think his anger about being shut out of those jobs was part of why things went off the tracks more the last 3 seasons. Immature.

 

[jimbosc]

Carl leaving probably was not good for Bo - but my understanding is that was an ultimatum. Bo helped him get the FAU job. Rumors were swirling on some bad behavior stuff around Carl and Bo was forced to unload him. In retrospect - the D never played to the same level after that. Let's see what happens to YSU's D with Carl moving to DC at Bowling Green.

 

[Husker.Wed._rivals]

"The scrutiny, the taking shots at you, and everything else – when you aren't getting support from your boss, it can be stressful. It was stressful on me, it was stressful on my family. And Kaz is here, I said to Kaz at one point, I said, man, this is killing me. I said, I don't want to die doing this job. And I meant it. I was like, I don't want to have a heart attack doing this job."

I'm sure if Mark Pelini were your neighbor he would be a good guy to borrow a shovel from and shoot the breeze about politics or whatever. Unfortunately, he does not have the temperament and people skills to be coach and CEO of a major college football program. All the stuff on this thread are just symptoms of this fact.

 

[huskerhooligansdotcom]

Somewhere between 2010 and 2011, Bo got his feelings hurt. He didn't have his drive and his passion after that. He still had his outbursts, sure, but he didn't have the will to do whatever it took to succeed at the highest level. Once Tom left, he was a dead man walking and he knew it. By the time of the Iowa game in 2013, he was just about fully checked out.

 

[Ewooc]

Now why are we talking about Bo again?

The same reason we talk about the 90s. It is a part of our past and history.

 

[redfanusa]

He was a decent coach, not a great coach. The fact that he was a miserable prick meant his mouth was writing checks his record couldn't cash.

 

[HuskerNate79]

He was a decent coordinator that was ill-suited toward being a head coach and had the emotional restraint of a three-year-old. The same lack of restraint that leads a guy to, I don't know, go and ambush a guy running a message board downstairs at the Cornhusker Hotel instead of final preparations for what should be a very winnable game against Texas.

 

[oldjar07]

Agree. He was never going to be a great coach, but a good one. We’ll probably never get a top coach (with all due respect to SF) due to where we are. Parity hurt Neb more than any school in College. Top talent will never come here consistently. We’ll win the West every 5 years and Good a good run every decade only to be let down when we have to play a true top 15.

SF may very well become a top coach with the likes of Saban and Urban Meyer. And at Nebraska, we absolutely need an elite coach if we ever hope to win a national title this century.

 

[oldjar07]

He was a decent coordinator that was ill-suited toward being a head coach and had the emotional restraint of a three-year-old. The same lack of restraint that leads a guy to, I don't know, go and ambush a guy running a message board downstairs at the Cornhusker Hotel instead of final preparations for what should be a very winnable game against Texas.

That's a bunch of BS. Completely made-up. That guy made the story up because he felt he was shafted by the coaching staff somehow. Probably limited access to him and he had to get back at Bo.

 

[huskerhooligansdotcom]

That's a bunch of BS. Completely made-up. That guy made the story up because he felt he was shafted by the coaching staff somehow. Probably limited access to him and he had to get back at Bo.

but... but... i thought the "insiders" on the board confirmed this to be 100% fact!

 

[bshirt73]

And this is how we ended up with Riley...

Exactly!

 

[JohnRossEwing]

That's a bunch of BS. Completely made-up. That guy made the story up because he felt he was shafted by the coaching staff somehow. Probably limited access to him and he had to get back at Bo.

That lame story again, man does that fan fiction have legs.

 

[Blackshirt316]

Bo's Defense was fairly unique. His first few years he had a trio of coaches who all knew how to coach it as a unit (Marvin in the secondary, Carl at the line and Bo himself at Linebacker) and a couple good recruiters in Papuchis and Eckler.

Once Carl and Marvin (and a much lesser extent Eckler) left Bo contantly spent half the springs coaching a revolving door of assistants how to understand his sceme themselves - let alone how to teach it to players.

At the same time when he promoted Beck and Papuchis to coordinator roles he scaled back their travel, effectively taking his best two recruiters off the road. Plus Ross Els was possibly the worst recruiting coordinator in the P5.

It could easily be said that aside from maybe Gilmore to Fisher every single position coach vacancy Bo filled in his tenure was a downgrade from the guy being replaced.

As a result coaching suffered, recruiting and depth and suffered and Bo's mental fragility suffered.

 

[Sporty]

People are going to believe what they want to believe. However I know more than a few factual stories about Bo and his antics. None have been mentioned on here yet that are not factual. Argue all one wants I do not care. Truth is truth!

 

[GammaxuvirHusker]

- anger issues
- inability to recruit at a high level
- maybe ego problems; he only hired newer assistants because he didn't want his ideas/scheme challenged?

The anger issue was #1 of course. He'd likely still be the HC if not for his often blowups.