Kenny Bell may have revealed more about the state of Husker football than he could ever have imagined last week in the aftermath of Nebraska's 59-24 collapse at the hands of Wisconsin in Madison,
Bell, a very talented senior wide receiver from Boulder, Colorado, was sticking up for his head coach and his team's record (as he has many times) when he said (and I'm paraphrasing), "I grew up around Colorado football and the Buffaloes would give anything to have an 8-2 record. Talk of firing Bo Pelini is just crazy."
I'll come back to that in a bit.
A former Husker great said to me before the season began about the current state of Nebraska football.
"I could never play for Nebraska now," he said.
I was thinking he might be trying to be humble.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"The losing. The players seem to take losing so easily -- that's it's no big deal. When I played, even if we won but didn't play well, we were furious. We vowed to never accept anything but our best."
And getting back to Bell's comment. It seems to speak volumes about Bo Pelini's teams. Having three or four losses each year seems to be the acceptable norm under Pelini. Just look at all the other teams that would die to have NU's record etc., they point out.
Think of this. Citing teams that have worse records than Nebraska's as a way of justifying losing is stunning. And therein lies the rub.
I sought the opinions of several other big-time former Husker greats, from several generations of Husker football. The one thing they have in common?
All think Bo should go.
One from the '70s says, "First he insults Husker fans, then he berates his players on the sideline and then he's rude to the media. I don't care if he wins all his games. He's an embarrassment to the program and should go."
Another from the Solich era says, "Bo is a players' coach. Which is good. But he's not a program coach. He doesn't get it that he represents the State of Nebraska, the University, the football program and the Husker fans. He needs to go."
I'm not suggesting anything, but it's becoming more obvious with each day that the college football elite train has left the station and Nebraska isn't on it.
You need to be a member of Huskerspot3 to add comments!
Replies