What does Kevin Wilson have against Bo Pelini?
That's what you should be asking yourself right now. This afternoon, Pelini was all set to announce the best recruiting class that Nebraska has seen in quite a while when Nebraska media persons caught wind that Indiana Head Coach Kevin Wilson (formerly Oklahoma's offensive coordinator) had announced during his signing day press conference that Indiana defensive secondary coach Corey Raymond was leaving to take the same position at Nebraska.
This lead to an awkward teleconference as Nebraska media members were chomping at the bit to ask him about staff changes. The conference starts off fine, with guys like Sean Callahan and Brian Christopherson asking questions about this year's recruiting class.
Then about 12:15, Curt McKeever comes in with a question trying to lead Pelini into saying something about his coordinators - what's he telling kids. The idea is clear - are Pelini's assistants and his offensive system staying the same?
At 14:00 - Dirk Chatelain of the Omaha World Herald comes in and asks about Wilson's statement. Pelini responds saying "No one's been hired here yet." Pelini also makes it clear he's not talking about staff changes, that any information on that will come at a later time.
Chatelain: "Is Marvin Sanders still on your staff?"
Pelini: "I've already said I'm not talking about anything but recruiting today. I'll address any staff questions at another time."
Chatelain: "Have you notified any recruits of staff changes..."
Pelini: "Have I notified any recruits? No, because we really haven't had any staff changes up to this point."
Then a few seconds of awkward silence and Max Olson of the Daily Nebraskan comes in to rescue Pelini.
I find this sequence of events pretty amazing. Not only did Nebraska get all of the players they were expected to get, but they picked up one of the best defensive tackle prospects in the nation when Todd Peat choose the Huskers over his home state Arizona State Sun Devils. The class ended up ranked 15th, second only to Ohio State in the Big Ten.
Granted, reporters have to do their jobs, but I'm torn between
WE MUST KNOW EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENING IN REAL-TIME DAMMIT, BECAUSE WE'RE FANS AND YOU OWE US BECAUSE WE BUILT THIS PROGRAM YOU'D BE NOTHING WITHOUT US WE PAY YOUR SALARY
and Bo Pelini having to respond to every rumor, every statement, every innuendo that's tossed his way.
A lot of Husker fans would love to see Shawn Watson leave the program... or worse.....
But, holy cow, man - the one day in which Husker fans should be full of delight and glee about the players that are coming in - we got Todd Peat, for crying out loud - we head right back into chaos and disorder and beating Pelini over the head because he won't come clean or he's hiding something or there's things going on we don't know.
My God, Kevin Wilson must hate Pelini's guts. It's too bad that Nebraska doesn't play them for a couple of years, otherwise we'd score 400 points on them next season and smash them into the ground, unless, of course, Shawn Watson is still on staff at which point, we'd only score 10 points but still beat them into the ground after allowing -123 yards rushing and no yards passing.
It leaves me with one huge question - is the WHOLE offseason going to be this angst-filled?