Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman is still taking shots at Bo Pelini
The worst-kept secret at Nebraska was the often combative relationship between former coach Bo Pelini and chancellor Harvey Perlman.
When Pelini was fired from Nebraska in 2014, an infamous rant in his final players-only meeting was made public. During that meeting, Pelini blasted athletic director Shawn Eichorst and said that he’d “rather work at McDonalds” than work for the people that he surrounded himself with.
One of those people, of course, was Perlman. And when Pelini was introduced as the next coach at Youngstown State, he said he would “have a tremendous athletic director, have a president who understands football, who’s going to support me, something that I don’t know if I’ve ever had.”
So when Perlman gave his final address as chancellor on Friday, the only question was, what kind of a shot would he take at Pelini?
Well, he took a direct one.
“I’m not going to do a Bo Pelini. Do you know what a Bo Pelini is?” Perlman asked the audience. “It is defined in the urban dictionary as an expletive-laced rant expressing outrage on leaving a position you didn’t want anyway.
“Not going to do it.”
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Fittingly, Perlman’s parting shot was about Pelini’s parting shot. Omaha World-Herald columnist Tom Shatel detailed the account about the remarks.
It’s interesting that Perlman said that Pelini didn’t want the job. There was speculation that following his postgame tirade in 2013 after losing at home to Iowa that he didn’t want the job anymore. Still, Pelini was kept on board for the 2014 season.
It’s an odd move for a chancellor to make, especially since Nebraska hasn’t exactly moved on to greener pastures yet. Pelini’s replacement, Mike Riley, led the Huskers to their lowest win total since Bill Callahan’s first season in 2004. On the flip side, Pelini had a losing record in his first season in Youngstown.
In the end, it’s obvious that Pelini and Perlman were never a match. Now that both have moved on, maybe Perlman got the last word after all.
Or maybe Faux Pelini will.