ESPN is reporting Bo Pelini will be in Lincoln on Monday wearing Husker red.

Barring any last-minute snags, LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini will be introduced as the new head coach at Nebraska early next week, multiple sources confirmed Friday.

Pelini will coach the Tigers defense Saturday in the SEC championship game against Tennessee and, according to a source close to the situation, will be in Lincoln for an announcement Monday.

Sporting News also confirms the hire and says, “The fiery Pelini, who turns 40 on Dec. 13, is cut from the same rugged Rust Belt cloth as the Stoops brothers.”

[UPDATE] Pelini denies the report, telling Lincoln Journal Star, “I honestly don’t know where they’re getting their information.”

From the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

The University of Pittsburgh hired Steve Pederson as athletic director for the second time today, a month-and-a-half after Pederson was fired by his alma mater, Nebraska.

“We are thrilled to be back in Pittsburgh,” Pederson said at a news conference. “Leaving here five years ago was the hardest professional decision we had ever made. Coming back was the easiest decision we had ever made.”

Good luck Steve… 

Coming Soon!  The Story of Frank the Fish.

Alecs Maric was nowhere to be found until Monday night when Doc Sadler pushed all the right buttons.  The result?  30 points on 13-18 shooting, 9 boards, and 4-7 from the charity stripe in 26 minutes.  Nebraska beat Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne 79-62 at the Devaney Center in one of the Husker’s best defensive efforts this year.   The Huskers shot 56% for the game while holding IPFW to 48%.  The defense gradually loosened up for the Husker’s as they held them to 37% shooting in the first half while building a 42-28 lead.  Nebraska forced 13 turnovers while turning the ball over 11 times themselves.  

The defense has no time to pat themselves on the back as Arizona State comes in on Sunday riding  a 4 game winning streak with hot shooting from McDonald’s All American Freshman James Harden.  Harden is averaging 20.6 points a game while connecting on 52% of his shots.  ASU also has an athletic forward, Jeff Pendergraph that can be just as explosive.  Asu is 4-1 with an impressive OT win over LSU.  There only setback was the first regular season game of the year to Illinois, 77-54.  ASU is coming off back to back 30 point victories for the first time since 1990 and is playing some high intensity ball on both sides right now. 

Nebraska has a chance at home, but must stop Harden and play some intense D.   A loud crowd ( weather permitting ) and this being ASU’s first road test has me feeling pretty good about this one.  I see it as a defensive battle with Nebraska winning a close one.   Nebraska 66   ASU  62

I mentioned in passing last week that we have added Husker Brad as a new writer to the HuskerZone.com family. But we didn’t stop there.

Ed, who has been behind many of the comment threads as of late is also joining the team.

Both are obviously big Husker fans and have some differing viewpoints which will make for some interesting conversation.

Please join Bugeater and myself in welcoming them.

ESPN says we’re obsessed.

“It’s absolutely crazy right now with people tracking airplanes and everybody having a source telling them exactly what’s happening,” Omaha radio show host Kevin Kugler said. “But unless you’re the 70-year-old former football coach who’s conducting this search, you really don’t know.”

After leaving a Tuesday afternoon meeting with the team, Osborne said he had not offered the job to anyone. Asked when he would name a coach, he said, “Hopefully sooner than later.”

He declined to say how many candidates he’s interviewed.

Osborne said he didn’t address the specifics of the coaching search with the players.

“I told them to go to class,” he said.

We live in a time when transparency and citizen media is on the rise, facts which radically increase a media organization’s need to know (so they can break a story and gain/sustain readership).

Turner Gill has been named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year following the Bulls’ record-breaking season. UB finished with a 5-3 conference record, including a 4-2 mark in the MAC East Division to claim a share of the regular season title. Prior to the 2007 campaign, UB had won eight MAC games total in the previous eight years.

Warde Manuel, UB’s Director of Athletics, said, “He is highly deserving of this recognition, a very dynamic and inspirational person, and a great coach who cares deeply about his student-athletes. I am thrilled that his peers recognized the outstanding work he has done to develop our football program.”

[via UB Athletics]

Gene Wojciechowski, the senior national columnist for ESPN.com typed up some sensational copy regarding the state of our football program.

Now Pederson and Callahan are gone, and so is Nebraska’s one longtime advantage: an identity.

Lincoln was once I-Back U. It was Walk-On Heaven. It was a national recruiting pipeline, stretching as far as Jersey, Florida and California.

Now it’s a seven-tractor pileup.

Tradition is nice, but elite high school recruits from outside of Nebraska’s state lines (and there aren’t many of them on an annual basis) don’t remember much, if anything, about Mike Rozier. They want to win. They want to be on TV. They want to play for someone who can get them a job in the NFL.

If interim AD Tom Osborne is going to seal the gaping holes in this program, he had better find someone who understands and appreciates Nebraska’s past, but more important, someone who understands the realities of its future. Nebraska needs its football identity back.

Personally, I don’t see that it’s all that dramatic. We put two like-minded guys in the wrong jobs, it blew up in our faces and now we’re fixing it. Nebraska is still Nebraska and will always be Nebraska. Come August, we’ll be playing our style of football again. Guaranteed.

[Thanks to Art S. for the pointer]

I have a feeling T.O. is going to hire Turner Gill for the head coaching job. And the papers say the decision could come as soon as Wednesday.

Here’s why I think it’s going to be Gill…he’s a former player under Dr. Tom, and the two remain close. Having a former player and long time Nebraska assistant take charge is crucial right now. Pelini only spent one year in Lincoln. Which means he doesn’t know all the high school coaches and boosters and everyone else like Gill does.

Gill is also available to start right away. His team isn’t going to a bowl game, due to non-conference losses early in the year (against storied football programs). Also, the A.D. at Buffalo has already said he’d hate to lose Gill, but that he’d make a great coach at Nebraksa and that he’s ready for the job. I like Pelini and Gill, but Gill’s two-year run as CEO of a team makes him that much more qualified.

Despite all the hoopla in Lincoln today, the Nebraska Basketball faced off against Creighton in the Qwest Center in Omaha with Tom Osborne in attendance.

Nebraska stubbed their toe in the first half with 17 turnovers and went into the half down 27. The Huskers rebounded in the second half, outscoring Creighton by 15, but in the end it wasn’t enough as the Huskers fell 74-62 giving Doc Sadler his first loss against their in-state rivals.

Breaking Announcement:
In other news, the HuskerZone.com staff is expanding as we welcome Husker Brad to the table as our official basketball correspondent. He’s been quite active in our comments and has a passion for the roundball. Look for his commentary beginning in the next few days (as soon as I can get him up to speed on the publishing system) and be sure to give him his props.

Welcome Husker Brad.

“We went 43 seasons without a losing season,” interim athletic director Tom Osborne said at a press conference this morning, just two hours after firing Bill Callahan. “In the last four years, we had two…At what point do you still have credibility with the public? At what point can you still have a powerful impact on your own players? There comes a point when it becomes dicey. I didn’t want to see Bill in that position. I didn’t want to see the University of Nebraska in that position.”

“I like Bill Callahan,” Osborne said. “I think he’s a professional. At the same time, there was something missing.”

Osborne said the meeting with Callahan lasted five minutes, although he had scheduled it for 30. Callahan asked if he was fired. Osborne said he was.

“He probably felt that there wasn’t much to talk about and I also felt the same to some degree,” Osborne said.

[via NE State Paper]