ESPN Knows it's Bo?

The Worldwide Leader is reporting that Bo Pelini will be the next head coach at Nebraska.

According to their source "close to the situation," Pelini could be in Lincoln on Monday for an announcement.

Interesting timing considering it's the eve of the SEC title game but this does seem to jibe with both the timeline of the past week and everything we've been hearing thus far.

Personally, I've vacillated on Pelini. During this past season he represented the antithesis of Callahan, I would've loved to have had him then but once the coaching search was officially on, I wondered if he was "the best available".

Now I think Pelini's biggest knock--no head coaching experience--might be his biggest asset. Bo will have a lot to prove and a lot of support. Nothing bad about that. Somebody was going to take a shot with the guy and now that somebody is reportedly going to be Nebraska. Whenever I daydreamed about Callahan's successor the one thing I kept coming back to was the desire for a passionate individual who was looking to make a splash.

That description fits Pelini and let's face it, nobody knows how any coach will pan out two or three years down the road. There's only faith.

I can have faith in Pelini.

More to come as there's more the be said...

How Good is the Nebraska Job?

Part of the beauty of a national coaching search is the opportunity to see what the rest of the country thinks about your football program. The national columnists all chime in and one point or another and who your school is able to talk to is essentially credibility currency.

As we've seen, Nebraska can get a sit-down with just about any coach in the country. While the purse strings aren't nearly as loose as they are in the SEC, if money is an issue Nebraska always seems to get it. In terms of the current coaching carousel, I'd classify Nebraska as a retired mob boss. There's a history of dominance and respect and, while the knees are a little week at the time and eyesight ain't so good, there's still enough there to strike a little fear into the younger and flashier usurpers.

But that's my view as a Nebraska fan. What do the others think? If you read ESPN.com yesterday, there were two different front page stories that tackled the topic and they seem to hold a slightly dimmer view.

Gene Wojciechowski explored the "myth" that Nebraska is an elite coaching job. Quoth Wojo, "now Pederson and Callahan are gone, and so is Nebraska's one longtime advantage: an identity," and later, "Elite high school recruits...don't remember much, if anything, about Mike Rozier." Both fair and accurate points.

Pat Forde was even more direct in this week's Dash when answering the titular question:

Not as good as Nebraska thinks it is. Fan support is unrivaled, but the recruiting base is unreliable and the days of raiding New Jersey for talent might be a thing of the past. Unless the Cornhuskers do some work in Texas and California, this probably won't get turned around very fast.

OK, these are the typical negatives we've been hearing tossed at Nebraska since before Callahan was hired. I'm not going to refute them point by point because there's some truth there but, silly reality blind fan that I am, I'm still going to maintain that Nebraska's a great job for the right guy for one simple reasons: it is ideally located.

Now, I'm not talking about from a recruiting standpoint. (God, no, Nebraska is totally barren! We all know that, but if Callahan accomplished anything during his tenure it was a slight rebuke to the notion that national players aren't interested.) I'm talking about from a winning standpoint, and that's the one thing that has changed very little from the Osborne era. Nebraska still has a relatively easy path to the top of the polls.

Let's face it, even at its best, Nebraska was a perennial preseason Top 5 team due in large part to the Big 8. There were two schools spending national championship money back in the day, OU and NU, and Nebraska racked up a lot of wins against overmatched conference foes.

Even in an era that's seen a record number of teams claim the top spot in the polls this year and a season that featured Missouri-Kansas as the biggest game of the year, Nebraska still has that advantageous position when it comes to contending for BCS bowl games.

When Stewart Mandel got down to ranking each and every football program in terms on national cache, he awarded "King" status to three Big 12 programs--NU, OU and Texas. Of course, the Red River rivals will always cancel each other out when it comes to the Big 12 Championship, leaving Nebraska as the lone Northern heavyweight. Keep in mind, this ranking was based largely on resources and expectations. Sure the Big 12 North has improved rapidly almost across the board this year with Nebraska being the lone exception, but we've spent an entire season attributing that to leadership rather than a talent deficiency.

The very expectations that make Nebraska a "tough job" are probably more of an asset than detriment overall. Whoever ends up with the job will be expected, but also put in a position, to win football games. No other school in the North can claim that on a year to year basis with the certainty that Nebraska can.

Nebraska probably trails behind at least Missouri and Kansas at the moment, but unless the Florida State or Miami jobs open up any time soon, there isn't another King school out there with a history of national title expectations year in and year out, that has an easier path to immediate national relevance.

Look at where Oklahoma is at this year. The Sooners have two losses to unranked teams and they won't play for a national title, but beat Missouri on Saturday and win their BCS bowl game and the Sooners finish up in the Top 5. Given the failures of the past four years how much time would a BCS bowl buy you at Nebraska right now?

In the end, the Nebraska job breaks down like this: it's marginally more difficult to recruit there but it's marginally easier to win there. That's it.

How are coaches ultimately assessed? Wins and losses. For a coach who is fully cognizant of that, I'd call it a dream job.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

Are we having fun yet? Planes are in the sky and in the South. Rumors are rampant. The updates are endless.

From what I hear, here's how it breaks down: Monte Kiffin will be the honorary Head Coach, Bo Pelini will be the acting Head Coach, Turner Gill will be the Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator and Ed Orgeron will be the Defensive Coordinator but really he'll just coach the defensive line, find the next Reggie Bush and be endlessly entertaining.

I kid but in all honesty I'm riveted by the fact that there doesn't seem to be one slam dunk candidate. There's no Steve Spurrier out there, every candidate has his plusses and minuses: Pelini can't recruit, Gill's too green, Grobe lost to the worst Nebraska team in years.

None of it really matters in the end because the point is Nebraska is getting a new coach and no matter who it is there will be excitement. That's a pretty good spot to be and with the massive beheadings yesterday, you have to give Dr. Tom credit for waking up early Saturday morning and getting the job done. There are a lot of BCS schools now in the market and while two days may not seem like much it could be the difference between getting our first choice and getting the next Callahan. (Oh, wait, A&M already locked that up.)

The boys are back in Nebraska now, and there's speculation that we could know later today who has ultimately gotten the job. Pelini was the early front runner but Grobe's come on strong of late. I could roll the dice with either of them and feel really good about it. Four years ago I was full steam ahead on Pelini. Now I may shade to the Grobe side, but here's the tiebreaker: give me the guy who will get Coach O.

He'd probably turn A Boy Named Suh into a Top 5 draftpick and he'd be the most lovably outrageous person associated with Nebraska football since Broderick Thomas.

I know it's not really a reality at this point but that's what coaching searches are all about: being irrational. Let's enjoy it while we can because it should be over before the week is out.

Well Played, Tom

Well, if Bill Callahan's not going to talk to the media, Tom Osborne sure will.

The man inside the scarlet blazer answered at least one important question for Cornhusker fans yesterday, saying he will not wait until after a bowl game--should there be one--to fire (I mean evaluate) the current coaching staff. That's good for all involved.

Even after last week's win, you still get the sense that Nebraska fans are just ready to turn the page on this whole BC era. The next season starts the day Bill walks out of the football offices carrying a cardboard box, and that day could be as few as 10 days away.

And then there's the recruits. The earlier you can get a coach in with a vested interest in reeling some kids in, the better off you are. Gabbert's joined Mizzou (verbally) this week and quickly became the worst QB many Nebraskans had (n)ever seen, but as quickly as Blaine's excitement for Nebraska ended with the firing of Bill's boss, the fervor could come back with a good hire.

So essentially what Tom said yesterday was, "we know what we're doing." I'll take it.

Three Big Fish? Maybe if Carr calls it quits.

MGoBlog is reporting that Lloyd Carr has decided to retire and may announce that decision sometime after this Saturday's Ohio State game.

As with everything else at this point, it's simply a rumor but it's not as if people haven't been speculating about this ever since Appalachian State ruined the Wolverines season in week one. And if were willing to assume this Carr news to be true, it's even easier to accept the foregone firings of Bill Callahan and Dennis Franchione which means that in two or three weeks we could be looking at three teams with 2338 wins between them all looking for new head coaches.

That's not going to make things any easier for Tom Osborne. A lot of people remain high on Bo Pelini and most think that if Nebraska wants him they can have him, unless, of course, Les Miles returns to the Big Blue. Should LSU win the national title this year, that scenario becomes even more likely.

Now Nebraska isn't afraid to throw some money around when it comes to football, but it don't have the alumni base to compete with A&M or Michigan if it comes down to a monetary pissing match, and, with Osborne at the helm, I'm not sure they'll even try that hard to keep up with the other two.

Why? Because Turner Gill is out there. He'd come much cheaper than most of the potential candidates and Nebraska wouldn't have to beat anyone out for his services.

Maybe Turner is the best guy for the job, maybe not, my only hope is that the coaching search truly works to find just that person but with Michigan potentially on the hunt along with A&M it's becoming a lot easier to simply go with the Nebraska guy.