You know… Somebody can actually be both of the things that we all think he is not just one or the other. I don’t think anybody would argue that the guy absolutely knows how to COACH football and motivate student athletes. He was beloved by most of his players. He wasn’t fired because he couldn’t get over the hump and win a conference championship he was fired because he just wasn’t ready to be the CEO of a program like Nebraska and endure the pressure cooker that all the obligations outside of just coaching football bring. Being the head coach at Nebraska is about a lot more than just coaching a football team. You are the face and the ambassador and that’s just part of the deal. I actually moved from Nebraska to Youngstown roughly about the same time that Bo took over as head coach there. My wife works in media so I actually got to go to a mixer at Jim Tressel’s place. I talked to Jim a little bit just about my Nebraska ties especially with everything kind of coinciding with Bo at that time. I was remarking a little bit about his fiery personality and Jim said that he thought that Bo was as good a football coach as he knew and that the obligations of being the face of a big program are hard. Nothing none of us didn’t already know LOL. I absolutely think that he can be a successful head coach and really he’s probably in a perfect spot going back to LSU and serving under Ed Orgeron. Ed is the perfect case study for that long time coordinator with a salty, fiery attitude and figured out the things that you have to do to run/represent a program. He was the same guy at USC who ripped his shirt off and challenged to fight any of his players who wanted a piece of him. Before anybody wants to tell me that “winning fixes all” For the most part that is true, but Ed definitely had changed his tune before he won the national championship.
So in conclusion, yes Bo was both a really good coach and a poor ceo. I have a hard time not wanting people to get second chances. I hope Bo gets his.
