An Open Letter to Bo Pelini

Dear Bo,

After what was probably the toughest season in your tenure at the helm of
the Huskers, you have been granted a reprieve.  It is now up to you to take
advantage of the chance you have in front of you.  You’ve done a lot of
good things here, but you’ve also had a lot of missteps.  You have brought
much of the criticism leveled at you upon yourself.  There are some easy
things you can do to not only begin repairing your relationship with the
fans and the media, but also get the program over the hump.

1) Quit being a douche:  This one is easy.  You make $3 million dollars a
year.  Why are you so pissed all the time?  I’m pretty sure if someone gave
me $3 million dollars a year, I could learn to deal with media and fans
putting my shortcomings under a microscope in a professional manner.  Why
do you feel the need to belittle everyone and act like an asshole 90% of the
time?  Part of your job is media obligations and you are compensated very
well to answer even the stupid questions and put up with the pressure of
the fan base.  Have a little class and quit acting like a you have a vagina
when you get criticized.

2) Don’t be standoff-ish with the fans:  We WANT to like you.  You came in
as the conquering hero after Bill Callahan destroyed what Nebraska was and
turned us into an unrecognizable heap of a mess.  Everyone loved you simply
because you weren’t Bill.  You turned the program around and got us back on
the right track.  The whole state was at your feet.  So what happened to foster
so much resentment towards fans?  Do you honestly think it would be
different somewhere else?  I’m not sure if you saw the awful things Alabama
fans have been saying to their kicker, Cade Foster, for missing a couple of field goals
this past Saturday, or the venom pointed toward Will Muschamp, and his
Florida team for their performance this year, but as sad as it is, this
kind of stuff is part of college football EVERYWHERE.  You can’t let the
vocal minority get your ear and think they speak for the majority.   Most
Nebraska fans, although somewhat spoiled, just want to see a good product
out on the field and a coach that doesn’t blast the fans who have sold out
every home game for 50+ years.  You would be well-served to start taking
steps to repair the rift YOU created with the fan base.

3) Calm down:  You almost gave yourself a heart-attack last year on the
sidelines, and every year you cost your team yards, flags, and probably
some games with your treatment of the refs.  How can you expect your team
to show composure under pressure when you lose yours constantly?  Your
blow-ups lose their effectiveness when you are ALWAYS losing your temper.
If you are trying to make your point or fire up your team, there are
alternative methods.  Referees get tired of hats flying at them and spit
spraying everywhere.  A ref who is sick of your shenanigans is less likely
to give you the benefit of the doubt.  There is room for blowing your top
on occasion and launching F-bombs, but it cannot be your default.  Take a
page from 11-time World Champion coach Phil Jackson and go Zen. Woo-sah
brother!

4) Run the football:  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we have this
awesome running back named Ameer Abdullah.  He leads the Big 10 in rushing
and he is a stud.  We even had this one guy named Rex Burkhead, before
that, who was also a beast.  Why are we throwing the ball so much when we
have quarterbacks like Taylor Martinez and Tommy Armstrong and running
backs like that?  Running is clearly the strength of both quarterbacks,
yet we drop back to pass way too often and bad things happen.  I’m not
asking for a return to the triple-option days where we would pass the ball
5-10 times all game, but we aren’t the New England Patriots and I don't see a Tom Brady on the squad.  A little bit of ball control would go a long way in helping
the defense catch their breath and not be on the field the whole game.

You have the chance now to make amends for some of the mistakes you’ve made
along the way.  I implore you to do these things.  I’m sure if I thought
about it harder I could come up with more things you need to do, but I
think if you do these few things, it will go a long way in making the team
and program better.  The majority of us still support you, despite you
making it really hard on us.  Suck it up and give us a reason to love you
again.

Sincerely,

Mark Saldivar