Bo Pelini Is A Free Man

Freedom!

To quote William Wallace, "Freeeedom!"   It’s taken three seasons to get out of what must have felt like coaching prison.   Today the handcuffs are officially taken off has he finally has a staff that is 100% his.

We should say best of luck to Shawn Watson and Ted Gilmore both  are good men and good coaches, but let’s be honest their departure should have happened when Bill Callahan was shown the door.

Shawn Watson

Luckily or unluckily for both Watson and Gilmore, Athletic Director Tom Osborne believes a lot in stability and when he fired Billy C Osborne believed the offense was in good hands with Watson.  So he handcuffed his new head coach with two guys that were doomed from the beginning of the relationship. 

For the life of me I still can’t figure out why Gilmore stayed around, he didn’t add anything when he worked for Callahan and his presence was even weaker under new leadership.

Watson was given every chance to succeed; at times it looked like he would.   But in the day and age of spread offenses, creative thinking, and scoring points he failed to live up the challenge.  In the end Watson was vanilla when everyone else was looking for a different flavor. 

Now that Pelini is a free man, the pressure will be different.   With Watson in charge of the offense everyone knew that he was handpicked by Osborne and Bo could wash his hands of it.   Promoting Tim Beck to the OC position now falls on Pelini and his ability to make decisions.    Husker fans have huge expectations and with the coaches changes announced today the Big Red faithful fully expect those expectations to be me.   For Bo, that’s the price of freedom.