Since I Intend To Have A Vote in Five Years...

Filling out this year's Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot while learning that somehow, Mike Wallace and Roger Clemens have been friends for years...

1. Rich "Goose" Gossage: Perhaps the biggest oversight in the Hall's rich history this side of Buck O'Neil. Not to mention how emotional and fun the Goose will be at the podium, he was easily the most dominant reliever (never mind closer) in baseball for 11 years. He's going to get in this year because the class of wannabes is so slim. He should have been in 10 years ago. There's no riding the fence with Goose. I only wish he would go in as a Padre instead of a Yankee. Plus think of all the Pine Tar Highlights we'll get to see over the next 7 months(Baseball-Reference HOF Monitor: 126 -- anything higher than 100 means they should be in).
2. Jim Rice: I don't know how I never thought of him as a no brainer. The only excuse for him not being in is that he hated the media. Christ, he played in Boston on some very good Boston teams. And Curt Schilling, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and company are going to get votes just because they played in Boston (although Manny would be a shoe-in if he played in Tampa Bay). Rice had an incredible run, was on two Sox teams that were thisclose to winning the World Series, and surly bastard or not, he deserves a plaque (Baseball-Reference HOF Monitor: 146.5).
3. Mark McGwire: He doesn't have a prayer because of the media's witch hunt on steroids. But it's called the Hall of FAME people, and for a good period of time, there was no player more famous than McGwire. Neither the A's or Cardinals have given out his #25 to another player since he left those teams, even though neither has officially retired the number -- yet. The more likely story is that McGwire will actually lose votes this year and fall completely off the ballot (Baseball-Reference HOF Monitor: 169.5).
4. Dale Murphy: For all of those years when the only baseball you could watch on cable were Braves or Cubs games, we forget that Dale Murphy was really fucking good, and an argument can be made that he was the best player of the 1980's. Turned into a Gold Glove Center Fielder after starting out as a CATCHER. If he played in New York there'd be an annual outcry as to why he never gets voted in (Baseball-Reference HOF Monitor: 115.5).
5. Andre Dawson: Another guy who, when you go back and look at the numbers, was incredible for his time. I remember when he went to the Cubs how Harry Carey and Steve Stone would always brag about how we were watching a Hall of Famer in action. I get why some people hold a grudge against McGwire because of that grease fire he made in front of Congress a few years ago. But to forget about the Hawk is just silly (Baseball-Reference HOF Monitor: 118).

By the way, poor old Chuck Finley's HOF Monitor is only 53.5. He did get to engage in sexual congress with Tawny Kitaen though.

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Dazed and Confused Over A Former State Employee's Next Move

Now that we officially know that Mike Ekeler is being paid $120,000 annually to be the next Linebacker's coach for Nebraska, we also finally got the first news regarding the Departed, one Billy C. Not what he's doing now, but that he certainly doesn't have a huge worry financially, being the University's highest paid employee. Oh, and there is that little business of a $3 million kicker to get the hell out of Dodge. Out of all of the despised people in sports from the past year, Billy C managed to be included in The Sporting News' list of most hated people in sports from 2007, a list that includes famed dog killer Michael Vick.

If Billy C is trying to get work, he's either keeping things very hush-hush, or he can't even get arrested. The Bobby Petrino situation isn't doing him any favors, as word is that the NFL is completely closing it's doors to anyone resembling a college football coach, at least for now. Billy C's going to have do the hard sell on how he was never a college guy, just a pro coach looking for a job back in 2004. And we all know how that shit turned out.

The day TO popped a cap in Billy C's ass and all of Nebraska popped more champagne bottles than the 1972 Miami Dolphins team after the final undefeated team loses, the thinking beyond "Good Riddance" was that Callahan would surely land in the NFL as an offensive coordinator. That's still possible, but do a Google News Search on Bill Callahan, and the most recent articles that come up date back to November 25th (when TO officially fired him) or the most recent articles that listed the highest paid state employees. In other words, the state of Nebraska cut the cord extremely fast, pushed Callahan out of the airplane without a parachute with no concern on where he'd land, and opened their arms to all things Bo Pelini.

You can't drive anywhere in the state without seeing signs that say, "Welcome Home Coach Pelini" or "Bo Knows Football." Before Pelini could even assemble a staff -- and he still has to go out and find a running backs coach, a very big hire -- he was anointed savior of a falling program.

Then he hired his staff, and some are calling it a mixed bag. Let's look:

• The Stars In The Making: Keeping Shawn Watson as Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks coach was a brilliant move. This doesn't mean Pelini's going to keep the WCO and that 800 pound playbook, it just shows that Pelini recognizes that when the offense worked, as it did sporadically with Sam Keller and often times brilliantly with Joe Ganz, it can really be something. I also like the addition of the young kids to the staff, including the aforementioned Ekeler, who was born to coach linebackers (that group will be a wild, unruly, fly-to-the-football bunch and Memorial Stadium is going to love them), and John Papuchis to look over the defensive ends. Both Papuchis and Ekeler are coming with Pelini from LSU. You know these two can win on the defensive side of things.
• The "OK, After Looking At This, Makes All the Sense in the World": Pelini also kept Ted Gilmore as Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator (and even gave him an increase in pay). In other words, Pelini is keeping the few really good things Callahan did during his 4-year term. Remember, under Billy C's watch, he did expand the recruiting base in a huge way, and brought in Wide Receivers (we're looking at you, Maurice Purify) who would never even think of visiting Nebraska on a recruiting trip. Older brother Carl Pelini is officially the defensive coordinator, and where's old Carl been spending his Saturdays for the past 3 years? Well, with Frank Solich and the Ohio Bobacats of course. Hmmm, it's like 2003 all over again...
• The Blues Brothers Hires ("We're Putting the Band Back Together"/"We're On A Mission From God"): Bo went back to 2003 to find old buddies from his only year as a Nebraska assistant. Pelini was just a LITTLE to quick to open the doors back to Ron Brown, who's been away from coaching altogether the past four years. Brown famously likes to preach religion down everyone's throat, including going on television and talking about what a great football player Jesus would be, how he'd "tackle hard, run through defenses, he'd do it all." (Actually Ron, if Jesus were a football player, he'd probably be that good and decide to go to USC, then play in the NFL where he'd set all sorts of rushing records. In other words, he'd be O. J. Simpson.) Brown was formerly the receivers coach under Osborne's watch, and now he'll be in charge of the...Tight Ends??? Also coming back from that 2003 team is Barney Cotton, now in charge of the offensive line. I can't quite figure Cotton out. He did do wonders during his two years running the offense at Iowa State. But it's not like Iowa State ever won anything big during that time. Then there's Marvin Sanders, the one guy from the 2003 staff who it made perfect sense to bring back. Sanders' is again in charge of the defensive backs, and if you look back to 2003, the Nebraska secondary was perhaps the best part of that entire squad. Sanders found a way for Sophomore Josh Bullocks to be named All-American. Marvin will be expected to do wonders again, and the thinking is he'll do just that.

It's a mix of the old, the new and the Callahan. All that matters to anyone in Nebraska is that The Invisible Billy C is nowhere to be found, now or anywhere in the future.

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Best of Television 2007

A list put together while wondering if a former Blair High School teacher knocked up Jamie-Lynn Spears...

1. The Sopranos: Nothing even comes close. The most memorable moments of the year come from the series final nine episodes: Tony & Bobby fighting in the cabin; Johnny Sack dying of cancer in the can; Junior totally losing it; Paulie laughing a little too hard at "Three's Company"; Christopher beating up and then killing his poor TV writer friend; Tony having to plug Chrissy's nose and then fuck his old girlfriend and trip out on peyote with her for good measure; AJ trying (and failing) to drown himself in the family pool; and that ending that everyone has some sort of opinion on. It'll be a long time before we see something like this again.
2. Mad Men: AMC stepped up to the table in a big way, and with reason. The great first episode was written by former Sopranos scribe Matthew Weiner, who, it turns out, wrote that very episode on spec, somehow got it in the hands of Sopranos creator David Chase, and got hired on The Sopranos on that script alone. In the first scene of the series, we meet main character Don Draper, who's trying to convince a waiter in a restaurant to switch from Old Gold cigarettes, to his ad agency's brand, Lucky Strikes. Like Tony Soprano, Don finds comfort in other women than his wife, good booze and work buddies. Everybody smokes in the office, and orders double martinis over lunch without a second thought. Sure it's set in the early 1960's. The final episode of this series first season gives promise to be as rich and satisfying as the series that Weiner used to write for.
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm: "Maybe we should convert to Judaism," Mackenzie says, "Because Larry David, Jeff Garlin and Marty Funkhouser seem to have all the fun." They sure do. This past season, David let his personal life spill over to the series, as Cheryl finally gets fed up with Larry's antics and leaves his Jewish ass, only to find Larry take comfort in arms of that little hottie Vivaca A. Fox and her homeless family in the series finale. On the way, we got to see Jeff admit to jerking off in the guest bedroom, a book on freaks that Larry gets John McEnroe to fall in love with, and the best retard-imitation we've seen this side of Mackenzie's dad's infamous one.
4. Tell Me You Love Me: Some people found it hard to watch because of the gratuitous sex scenes and fights. It was hard NOT to watch this shit. Sonya Walger, who's on Lost and was on the old HBO Show "Mind of The Married Man", is the break-out cast member of an ensemble that shows four couples going through different stages of their relationships. Yes, you get shots you'd ordinarily see in pornos. All the more reason to watch.
5. The Sarah Silverman Show: We got two "seasons" of this show this year. Yes, heavy doses of Sarah can start to annoy, which is why she wisely surrounds herself with a funny cast of folks who get equal screen time. For some reason, this show constantly reminds me of Chris Elliot's "Get A Life" show. Maybe it's how she summarizes every episode to her dog. Just watch a few shows and tell me you don't laugh out loud.
6. Iconoclasts: A great idea on the Sundance Channel only gets better as they get two people who have seemingly have no business together (like, I don't know, Mike Myers and Deepak Chopra) and makes it look like they were separated at birth. Also proof that Ashley Judd is still alive -- she just likes to hang out with Madeleine Albright.
7. Late Show With David Letterman: Still the only late night show that matters. Dave still gets the only guests that matter -- including the musical ones. Sure, the writer's strike is on, everyone's mind, and Dave's even got a website devoted to them. Even if Late Night TV isn't the water cooler stuff it used to be, Dave's is still the first place to go to for anything relevant. Plus, he's almost been doing this as long as Carson now.
8. Countdwon With Keith Olbermann: Keith really started to get nuts last year, with his Murrow-esque monologues about the state of the union. His "Worst Person In The World" segment is still must-see stuff, as is story number 1, which is usually the last story a news show would want to run but the first one you want to see.
9. Flight of the Conchords: I'm not as into this one as the folks in the growing cult following are. ESPN's Scott Van Pelt started referencing this show during Sportscenter. A small click at offices everywhere started quoting funny lines. For my money, the best parts are the insane music video moments these two whacky bastards jump into during each episode. Very dry stuff, this show has potential to just explode in a big way in the next two years.
10. The Coach Callahan Show: This weekly segment went through a change in hosts during the season, and was cancelled before the final show was to air. It was never compelling television, it was just controlled spin from all ends. The best part was during the now infamous Husker Football losing streak, how one Billy C would make everything seem so glorious, while the rest of the state acted like the town of Rockridge after seeing Cleavon Little ride into town as their new sheriff. The difference is that Cleavon would have had the wherewithal to fire Kevin Cosgrove before it was too late.
    

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Dan Fogelberg: 1951-2007

You know that song you only hear around this exact time of year about a guy who meets up with an old love interest on Christmas Eve, laughs and cries with her, helps out with her groceries, can't find an open bar, so they drink a six-pack in the car, and then go back to their old, boring lives? The guy who wrote and sings that song died this morning. He might also be responsible for a famous wedding song that, ahem, some of us might have had in a wedding or two, that little holiday diddy will live on. If the spirit should move you, like it does Ricky Gervais...

• Same Old Lang Syne
• Leader of the Band
• Part of the Plan
• Here Comes The Sun (Live)
• Hard to Say
  

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How The Rocket Really Launched After 38

I've always maintained that I could really give two shits as to who did what drugs in any sport. Amphetamines have been rampant in baseball for many, many decades (although some will maintain truthfully that they had something called a PRESCRIPTION for those things). And I also wouldn't be -- and wasn't -- surprised about any name that came up on that now infamous Mitchell List. (OK, I giggled and was a bit took back about seeing poor little Chuck Knoblauch's name on there, but doesn't this now make all the sense in the world about why he was always over-throwing the first baseman and nearly killed Keith Olbermann's old mother while she was sitting in the stands with one of his overthrows?)

Then Deadspin went through the million page pdf and posted the now classic 9-pages of what was in there regarding Roger Clemens. Titled "Roger Clemens Gets A Shot in The Ass", I started to read from page one, and couldn't stop. I had to print the entire 9-pages and have something entertaining to read on the shitter. What I had was the most entertaining thing I've read since I was handed the Grandmother's Restaurant Employee Handbook in 1992. The happiest I've been reading anything since the first time I read The Catcher in The Rye.

The Clemens piece has everything. Jose Canseco's book gets footnoted. Who the hell would have ever thought that would ever happen in ANY report? An article Peter Gammons was footnoted, the one where Gammons studied Clemens training past the age of forty, and naively stated, "I can't believe the energy this guy has." But it's just so in-depth as to what Clemens actually did.

Admittedly, I've always hated Roger Clemens with every drop of blood I have. I hated him in Boston. Thought him in Toronto was always weird, but somewhat admired at the time, as a friend of mine who I KNOW was an avid steroid user, would always point out how incredible of a pitcher he had rebuilt himself to be. And then going to the Yankees just proved Clemens was the devil to me. The day Clemens went to New York, all of the Yankee Haters got their groove back on. Oh sure, before Clemens donned pinstripes, even we Yankee Haters were somewhat pleased with the 1996 and 1998 teams because of Joe Torre, because Derek Jeter was this up-and-coming energy guy who you wanted to be the next Mickey Mantle. We were even OK with Paul O'Neill's intensity. And we loved David Wells because he pitched a perfect game hungover, and David Cone because he was a former Royal. Hell, at the time Royals fans weren't that upset with the Yankees because it seemed as if the Royals didn't even want to win.

Then Rocket and his "new" trainer and his needles came to the Bronx. All of a sudden Jeter's fist-pumping became annoying. Wells had been traded to the Blue Jays for Clemens himself. The Yankees went back to being the Hated Yankees, sure because they always won, but mainly because of Clemens. So reading these 9-pages is, in a way, like reading about your worst enemy getting gang raped by prison thugs.

I'm still OK that Phil Hiatt was involved with this mess. That poor chap needed all the edge he could get. But you have to wonder how many champagne bottles Brady Anderson popped yesterday when he repeatedly looked over that list and couldn't find his name anywhere. He had to be like a kid first hearing that school was closed, and then went to every radio, TV station and internet site just to see it over and over again. CLICK TO READ ENTIRE POST!

The End Of The World Herald

I'd like to link to the Omaha World Herald's website, but I'm not sure you'll get directed to any sort of website. Or at least not something that's continuously updated like you think it should be.

The burial of the World Herald, and in particular omaha.com, has been a long time coming. Consider:

• The domain omaha.com has increasingly gotten WORSE over the past decade, not better. It's almost like somebody buying the domain name of a famous person or place just to own the rights to the domain name and not doing anything with it. It's gotten that bad.
• You can't even read the OWH's most well-known sports columnist (Tom Shatel) or regular columnist (Mike Kelly) on-line. But feel free to go now and read not only award-winning journalists Joe Posnanski and Jason Whitlock at kansascity.com, or for Husker coverage, head for Lincoln Jouranal Star columnists like Steve Sipple anytime you want. In fact, and here's something original, you can go back and read their OLD stories if you'd like. The OWH probably doesn't want you doing that with Shatel, especially during the whole flip-flop during the Frank Solich firing.
• For whatever reason, The Omaha World Herald has maintained the attitude that they simply control the state. They've maintained that attitude through the advent of blogs like this, and even while their neighbor down the street, The Lincoln Journal Star, beat them in overall coverage on the biggest story to hit Nebraska in ten years. Bigger than Osborne stepping down. Bigger than Callahan/Pelini. Bigger than Alexander Payne doing movies here. Bigger than Presidents Clinton and Bush visiting Omaha. Bigger than anything Warren Buffet's done. And for the record, the Journal-Star outdid the World Herald on all of those stories too.
  

This great piece really takes omaha.com, and in particular the World Herald, to task. Alan Mutter now knows what we've all been saying for decades: "The Omaha World-Herald was caught completely flat-footed today when a gunman killed eight people in a local mall, producing the worst online coverage in memory by a newspaper with a major story breaking in its own backyard."

That's being a bit kind. Not only could you not go to omaha.com to get constant updates on what was happening, the website was reportedly down for OVER three hours. Yet journalstar.com was fully functional with updated news, all of the Omaha radio and television stations had complete coverage, but the ten-foot tall and supposedly bullet-proof news kind was nowhere to be found.

Mutter continues: "But Omaha.Com readers weren’t missing much. Once the outage was overcome, readers got a single lead story and roundup of predictable harrumphing from local politicians. There were no splash graphics like those at Fox News; none of the hundreds of reader comments like those at USA Today; nothing like the eyewitness photos and elaborate aerial map at CNN, and no sign of the extensive live video aired and webcast throughout the day by KETV and other local outlets."

It should also be noted that omaha.com went down on October 15th, the day that Nebraska fired Athletic Director Steve Pederson. It went down again the following day for an even longer period of time when Tom Osborne was named interim-AD. And of course, on November 24th, you couldn't go to omaha.com to find anything out about Bill Callahan's firing. Or Pelini coming to town a week later.

This blog has beat omaha.com to posts on Husker Football games this year. That's just fucking sad. Every Saturday, we'd scour the web for recent articles and photos on another Husker Loss. Sipple would have his column at the Lincoln Journal Star up and running, and frankly we'd get most of our material from the Journal Star, because omaha.com had nothing up yet.

The comments at Mutter's blog tell more. One person says, "Reporters at the newspaper didn't even have personal e-mails until about 2 years ago." Another goes on about how "World Herald management views access to information as a means of social control, and always has. It has been clear in recent weeks with the big sports stories that crashed their site that management deliberately maintains low capacity on omaha.com to drive local readers to the print edition of the paper."

RIGHT. Because nobody's heard of the fucking internet. If omaha.com would have their shit together, then maybe Wolff Blitzer and CNN wouldn't fuck up and refer to omaha as Obama, Nebraska in the above picture? But the OWH's biggest problem is that they still think people legitimately read a newspaper from cover to cover. That sort of shit hasn't been happening anywhere since 1996.

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The Departed Husker Conference

Since we had non-stop quotes from The Departed on an earlier Bo Pelini post, we figured the best way to decipher Pelini's first press conference as Husker Football Coach would be to put everything in lines from the movie, so here goes:

• "I just want to go on record saying I'm recommending Bill Costigan for the medal of honor." For the first time in the past four years, there was a Nebraska press conference where the words FRANK and SOLICH were mentioned. And in a positive light no less. We all get that Pelini is not a bullshitter, and he made special note that he wouldn't even have the hearts of Husker fans -- or be in this position -- if it weren't for Frankie Solich giving him that chance in late 2002. No Solich, No Pelini, and who knows who gets the head coaching job this time around.
• "This is unbelievable. Who put the fuckin' cameras in this place?" Tom Osborne is used to all of this after a week of literally everybody in the state of Nebraska tracking his every move, and every flight, to find clues as to who the next coach would be. According to media reports, the 6th floor of the media crew was filled with the largest contingent of cameras and reporters wanting to get a glimpse of Pelini in person. You could even see by the look on the faces of the Pelini family that they never got that sort of coverage at LSU.
• "The question is, and this is the only question, who thinks that they can do what you do better than you? " From the beginning of the conference, Osborne made it perfectly clear that the major thing that needed fix-up and fast was defense. After that, hiring Pelini was a no-brainer. There was nobody else out there, from Turner Gill to Jim Grobe, who could turn around a pathetic defense in the best way than Pelini.
• "The day you wouldn't take a promotion, let me know." It's widely documented that Pelini told his players BEFORE the SEC Championship game that being the Head Coach of Nebraska was his "dream" job. There's nowhere else to go from here, unless he gets an oversized ego and dreams of the NFL, or if the Head Coaching vacancy should someday open up at his Alma mater at The Ohio State University...
• "When you decide to be something, you can be it. That's what they don't tell you in the church." It's no secret Bo wanted this job after the 2003 Alamo Bowl. Hell, everyone in the STATE wanted Bo to get the job. Steve Pederson never even considered him. So in the first five minutes of his press conference yesterday, Pelini went out of his way, without naming any names, to diss the Callahan regime, explaining how "you can know all the x's and o's in the world, but if you can't teach them and get players to respond, you can't win." Ouch.
• "A man makes his own way. No one gives it to you. You have to take it." Another diss at Callahan and especially Kevin Cosgrove, from both Osborne and Pelini. Both made mention at how great Pelini's defenses were at taking the ball away from the opposition, and how much that was a problem especially with the 2007 Huskers. Callahan, of course, was famous for his "we take we we're given" approach. Or at least that's what he'd consistently tell the media.
• "I can't be someone else every fuckin' day." Pelini was asked about his hot-headed and emotional demeanor, to which he decided to answer like another famous Bo: in third person. "Bo Pelini isn't going to change." Good man.
• "I don't know what they are, you don't know what they are, who gives a fuck?" Pelini was asked a few times about what sort of offense he intended to run at Nebraska, and each time he answered, "That'll work itself out." In other words, he'll have somebody else to run the offense while he cleans up the mess that Grover left. Or Pelini will keep the other team from scoring, but somebody else has to mastermind ways to score on the other side of the ball.
• "Staff Sergeant Dignam has a style of his own. I'm afraid we all have to get used to it." Back to Bo being Bo. He's going to be a lot more like Devaney than he is Osborne. And he certainly isn't going to be anything like Callahan. The funny thing is, everyone seems to like this new, fresh approach of intensity and running out on the field. And if he has to bring out Bill Snyder at a Kansas State game and yell at him again, so be it.
• "Marriage is an important part of getting ahead: lets people know you're not a homo; married guy seems more stable; people see the ring, they think at least somebody can stand the son of a bitch; ladies see the ring, they know immediately you must have some cash or your cock must work." Osborne in particular wanted to make sure Pelini introduced his family to the masses, including his youngest daughter, the only member of his family to be born in Lincoln, so that's a good "omen." I don't even know if Callahan's kids knew their dad worked in Nebraska over the past four years.
• "The point I'm making with John Lennon is - a man could look at anything, and make something out of it." Pelini downplayed the importance of getting the five star recruits. Oh sure, he said he had a ton of work to do over the next two weeks as far as recruiting goes, and he recognizes that constant recruiting is a major part of being successful long term. But all Callahan ever talked about was recruiting, about how he had to get the right players in for his "system". Pelini is fine with what's in the cupboard right now, and every year he'll go get groceries to restock the fridge and cabinets. But I'll be damned if the biggest day of the year for Pellini is National Letter of Intent Day like it was with Billy C.
• "I think you are a cop my friend." Unlike Billy C, who spent his first press conference looking around in a daze just happy to have a job, Bo Pelini really looked the part of college football head coach. Maybe this truly is his dream job. He didn't wince words (which endeared him even more to Husker Nation), he didn't talk about bringing in the West Coast Offense (something Billy C did and caused confusion and chaos throughout the entire state). And more than anything, he left the impression that he was ready to hit the ground running, even if it means losing out on getting a National Championship ring with LSU (he still might get the chance to coach in that game, but at this point, does LSU want him back for a week or so?). Maybe he can truly be like the Alec Baldwin character in The Departed and remain the last man standing.

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A New Day Is Dawning

At this very moment, the guy in the above photo (the one in the sweatshirt, not the one in the helmet) is addressing the Nebraska Football team as it's new head football coach.

And we're going to show the Lewis and Clark in us by actually having the press conference fed on this site LIVE at 3:50pm CST. We can't get the actual video to show up on the site, but if you click here, you should be able to watch the entire thing in another window.

Oh, and for those of you who care about such things, coachcallahan.com is now officially a thing of the past. Stay tuned...

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Be Careful What You Wish For

It all started with a text message I received from somebody who's working with the ESPN Gameday Crew for this weekend's Big 12 Championship.

"Bo Pelini to Nebraska is a done deal."

This was on Thursday, the same day that Jason Peter, who now hosts a radio show on ESPN 1480 in Lincoln and is actually developing into a pretty decent broadcaster after a rough start, wanted to devote his entire program around one simple question: Why in the world is everyone so high on Bo Pelini?

It's a fair question, as Martin Sheen would say in The Departed. I've always wondered this myself, ever since Steve Pederson got fired and all of Husker Nation started banging the Pelini drum. Rumors already swirled that Bo and Carl Pelini were in Lincoln scoping out houses.

Everyone remembers the 2003 Alamo Bowl, where Pelini, acting as interim head coach, banded the troops together after the Solich firing and whooped up on Michigan State to allow the Huskers finish 10-3. Personally, I think Husker Nation still keeps a soft spot in their hearts for Bo, thinking Pederson never gave him a chance at getting the head coaching job. Which of course is completely true.

So after Pelini angrily left Memorial Stadium in Lincoln for the last time, he went off to other prominent college football programs and built up his resume. Oh sure, he had an impressive list before coming to Nebraska the first time, with stops in the NFL with the 49ers, Patriots and Packers. All indications are he's gotten the NFL out of his system. He's now been co-Defensive Coordinator at Oklahoma (during the "Fuckin' Hillbillies" Billy C game no less) and been DC at LSU since then.

And now it looks like an official announcement will come either tomorrow or Monday, introducing Bo Pelini as the next head football coach at the University of Nebraska. But let's take a look at some of the highlights of Jason Peter's show regarding Bo:

• He's never been a head coach. Anywhere.
• That loss to former Nebraska dance partner Houston Nutt and his Razorback's last weekend -- you know, the one that dropped LSU from the National Championship game -- did not help Pelini's claim at all.
• I actually like this one: He's one fiery bastard, not afraid to get in the face of of former KSU head coach Bill Snyder back in 2003. As one former Pelini player said about their coach, "Bo would tell us to run through a wall, and then we'd ask where the other wall is."
• He aint exactly the world's greatest public speaker. Personally, I think is one thing that bothered Pederson four years ago. Stevie P wanted a salesman more than anything, someone who could sell the program to the masses. To which Husker fans will say that Pelini chooses to do his talking with his defense on the field.
• What sort of offense is Bo going to support here? Does he keep Shawn Watson on staff to take care of calling the offensive play calling?

It sounds like Pelini is a stickler for detail, and the pressure on Bo to actually stay here for a long, long time is going to be unbearable. The smaller school of thought thinks that Pelini, who turns 40 years old on December 13th, could use this job as a spring board to something better, which would put us all back to this very same place in four or five years. We'll see. It looks like Husker Nation is about to get their wish. The defense will obviously improve immediately. But nobody better expect this guy to be the next Tom Osborne, because if anything, Bo Pelini sounds a lot more like Bob Devaney. And to me, that's the best thing you can ask for.

UPDATE: Looks like one of Pelini's way to inspire his players is to tell them before the SEC Championship game that Nebrask is his dream job. Oh, and TO is evidently done interviewing coaches.

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