Former Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini is the new interim head coach at Bowling Green, after BGSU fired Mike Jinks on Sunday.
Ex-Nebraska coaches are slowly taking over Ohio’s college football teams
A third of Ohio’s scholarship programs are now under the control of guys who used to work for the Huskers.
Pelini, who later became the head coach at FAU and was fired less than two seasons in after he was accused of using cocaine, is only the latest high-profile former Nebraska coach to find himself running a program in Ohio in 2018. Consider:
- Bo Pelini, Carl’s little brother and former boss in Lincoln, is now the head coach at Youngstown State, where he reached the FCS national title game after 2016.
- Frank Solich, who won 75 percent of his games at NU between 1998 and 2003, is now running things at Ohio, where he’s now trying to get the Bobcats to their ninth bowl in 10 years. Solich has now spent more than twice as much time (14 seasons) in Athens as he did in Lincoln, which I swear isn’t a line I’m just putting in here to make you feel really old.
The Pelinis are from Youngstown, and Carl previously worked at Ohio, so it’s not like it’s some stunning coincidence that he’s found himself back in the Buckeye State.
High-profile former Nebraska coaches are thus in charge of three of Ohio’s nine biggest programs.
Ohio has 10 Division I teams, eight of them playing at the FBS level. The FCS squads are Youngstown State and Dayton, and Dayton’s in the non-scholarship Pioneer league.
So, yeah, one-third of Ohio’s scholarship college football teams are now under the thumb of former Nebraska coaches. Ohio is like a satellite state for Nebraska football now.
To further the Nebraska takeover of Ohio’s mid-major and FCS teams, Mike Riley must now leave the new Alliance of American Football team he’s just agreed to take over in San Antonio.
And later, Scott Frost can just take over the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks.
To keep the tradition alive.
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