Holy cow, can you imagine the pressure on the next coach at Nebby? They just fired a guy who won 9 games per season. With as much balance as there is now in college football it will be hard for the new coach to exceed 9 wins on a regular basis.
I was not a fan of Bo but I thought he did a decent enough job. I was talking to a guy at work who is from Nebraska and he said the problem with the school is the old school mentality at the top and some of those leaders and administrators are old school and still think they should be dominating like they did in the old days. But that they are also hesitant to change some of the things that younger kids are not into (I.e. Flashy uniforms). And also that the old school mentality is keeping some top recruits away because they find the program to be too old school from the top down. No idea to the validity of his comments but just an interesting perspective.
I think that this a a common misconception. From what I have heard and seen from fellow Husker fans, most want:
1) Not to get embarrassed ala Wisconsin 2012 and 2014
2) Not to consistently get beat by less talented (but better coached) teams, see NW in 2011 and MN in 2013/2014
3) Winning a conference title or playing in a BCS bowl game in 7 years isn't unreasonable. Most insist that they'd be okay with a 7-5 season here or there if it meant 11-1 and BCS bowl the next.
Hunter I had a rare opportunity to listen to The Herd this morning. I thought he was very fair in his assessment of northern football and particular Nebraska. I'm sure it's a topic on Nebby message boards. If you get a chance listen to it.
From what I heard about it, he pretty much said that we need to know our place in the landscape of college football. Where is that place, lucky to win 9/10 games per year, or the program that has the most wins (including 5 MNCs) since 1970? I'm not putting any weight on what that moose knuckle says, personally.
Is the balance of power shifting South and West? Obviously. Does that make it harder to be nationally relevant at a place like Lincoln or Iowa City? Of course. Is it impossible and should we give up all hope? No.
If we land The Vest (which again, I'm doubtful we will), I'd bet that you'll find Nebraska is again finishing in the Top 15 consistently.