Why the Bo Pelini Recording Should Disgust Nebraska Cornhusker Fans
Tap, tap, tap...
Hear that?
That's the sound of some Nebraska football fans building the coffin of head coach Bo Pelini.
It's been going on for a while, but things really kicked into high gear after last season's Big 10 Championship game loss to Wisconsin, when the Nebraska defense gave up 640 yards of total offense.
Final score: Badgers 70, Huskers 31
Tap, tap, tap...
One month later, at the Capital One Bowl, Georgia rolled up 589 yards on the Nebraska 'D'.
Final score: Bulldogs 45, Huskers 31
Tap, tap, tap...
Fast forward to August - new season, new expectations, same vitriol - only this time after a Nebraska WIN, when the Cornhuskers allowed 602 yards in a 37-34 victory over Wyoming.
Tap, tap, tap...
That hammering grew to a crescendo last Saturday, when Nebraska blew a 21-3 lead at home to UCLA, giving up 38 unanswered points in one of the worst home losses in decades.
Final score: Bruins 41, Huskers 21
TAP, TAP, TAP...
Monday afternoon those smug builders finally thought they had found a lid for their newly constructed coffin, when the website Deadspin released an audio of Pelini raging (WARNING: mature content) after a 2011 game against Ohio State (ironically another Nebraska WIN).
The clip is classic Bo - angry, crude, defiant, raw - and he apologized for it late Monday.
But why should he apologize? It was supposed to be a private conversation - that's the key thing to remember. As tough as it is to listen to that meltdown, we weren't supposed to hear it.
All of us, at one point in our lives, have vented about something or someone, and while we might not have used the same language, we were confident our rant would go no farther than that place, at that moment.
You know who should be apologizing today? The person who surreptitiously recorded a private conversation and then hung on to it for two years.
You know who else should be apologizing today? The person (or people) who decided that the Nebraska fan base was so disillusioned after the UCLA game, that this little 'grenade' would provide those last, precious nails to finally seal that coffin they've been building for Pelini.
But in their rush to bury Bo they forgot one thing: the vast majority of Nebraska football fans operate on brain waves, not just blinding emotion.
There is no way this audio has anything to do with the UCLA loss, or the current state of Cornhusker football. If they wanted to get Pelini, they might have had their chance, two years ago when these comments were made, but not now.
Trust me, if things on the field don't get much better for Nebraska the rest of this season, there will be plenty of legitimate reasons to consider a coaching change.
In the meantime, someone in Lincoln has a newly constructed coffin that I'm sure you can take off their hands cheap...