Big 12 Sports Blog by Big 12 Fans

I wonder how it feels to be Bo Pelini right now.

Not because his defense gave up 50 points in Friday’s loss to Arkansas and looked far from its dominant self down the stretch, but because of the current coaching situation at Nebraska.

Four years ago, after Frank Solich was fired, Pelini was the interim coach for the bowl game, but was passed over for the head coaching job in favor of Bill Callahan, despite the lobbying of many players for him to be named head coach.

It may not have been that bad of a choice at that time, as Callahan led the Raiders to a Super Bowl in his first season as coach, and was the right fit at the time, when Nebraska’s offense needed a lift, and a bit of a modernization.

That part was taken care of, but it just so happens that Pelini’s specialty is the area where Nebraska struggled mightily (understatement ) this season.

Now, Pelini is one of the leading candidates for the vacancy created by Callahan’s firing, along with former Nebraska QB Turner Gill, who’s currently the head coach at Buffalo.

Tom Osborne has said he wants to bring in someone who knows the tradition and will be able to bring back the passion into the program. Because of that, Gill could be a great hire, because if anyone knows those things, it’s the guy who was a part of much of their success in the past 25 years, as a player in the early 80s and a coach in each of the last three decades. His head coaching experience, and the job that he has done in helping turn around one of the nation’s biggest doormats in only two seasons is also big in his corner.

No offense to Gill, but Pelini would be the better choice this time around, because if your issues are mainly on defense, then it might not be a bad idea to go after someone who’s considered as one of the best defensive coaches around. The talent is there on D, with more coming, and Pelini would no doubt attract more, but he’d also be the right person to coach that talent up and bring back pride to the Blackshirts, who are currently the Black and Blue Shirts. .

And, Pelini fits Osborne’s criteria, because he knows first-hand the tradition at Nebraska, and what it takes at the highest level, both in college and in the NFL, and despite his lack of head coaching experience, being a defensive coordinator at the likes of Oklahoma, LSU, and Nebraska and an NFL assistant is nothing to shake a stick at.

As nice as it would be for him to have a little laugh and say, ‘I told you so,’ but if he does get offered the job, it would be his chance to prove that he should have gotten the job the first time around. And frankly, Nebraska shouldn’t even be flirting with the possibility of hiring him, unless they plan on giving him the job.

Regardless of what transpires within the next few days, Pelini’s time will be coming soon, somewhere, even if it’s not in Lincoln. If Les Miles goes to Michigan as many expect him to, he’ll no doubt be on the list of candidates, though the Tigers might aim for a bigger name.

If Osborne and the administration want to snap the right man up before someone else does, they better hurry. And, if for some reason they overlook him again, there won’t be any reason to feel bad for them if it backfires.

Things hasn’t been this good for the Big 12 North since 2001, when Nebraska (controversially) played for the national championship, and Colorado won the Big 12 title.

It’s a lot less controversial this year, though there’ll be a tad bit of resentment between Missouri fans if the Tigers fall in the Big 12 title game and Kansas winds up in a BCS bowl game with Oklahoma.

But, it’s a resurgent year for the division, which hasn’t been much of a force in the last several years, nationally or in conference, where the South has been superior, with Oklahoma and Texas perennially national championship contenders and taking four of the last five conference titles, with 2003 being the lone exception (Kansas State over the #1 Sooners).

Strangely enough, it’s coming in a year where Nebraska experiences a defensive implosion of massive proportions, goes 5-7, and fires its head coach after an embarrassing end to a promising season.

Instead of the South having the title contenders, as it was expected to, it’s the North, as Missouri and Kansas moved towards the top as many big names fell nationally.

And now, after #4 Missouri made Kansas the latest victim of the ‘#2 Curse,’ the Tigers are #1 and on the brink of playing for a national championship, if they get past the Sooners in the Big 12 title game on Saturday.

Not only that, but the two have produced a couple of unlikely Heisman contenders, and if Chase Daniel can have another big game and lead his team to a historic win, possibly the Heisman winner.

This isn’t going to be a one-year thing, either. Both Kansas and Missouri should be near the top again next season, and you’d have to think that it’s only a matter of time (and a good coaching hire) before the Huskers are contenders again. Also, Colorado should improve even more in 2008, and Kansas St., despite the disappointing end to its season, should contend for postseason play. Iowa State made strides towards the end of the year as well, and won’t be a pushover in Gene Chizik’s second season.

The North’s resurgence is not only good for the division, but for the conference as well. With both divisions strong again, things will be a lot more competitive in the North vs. South matchups.

So, regardless of where your allegiances lie, you should be beaming as a Big 12 fan right now, because the future is very, very bright.

With only a couple of weeks left in the regular season, the bowl picture is beginning to take shape.

The conference may have as many as ten bowl opportunities (seven direct tie-ins, three other potential opportunities) - an assured BCS bowl berth for the conference champion, then the Cotton, Independence, Insight, Alamo, Holiday, and Texas bowls for direct tie-ins, and then the Sun and Gator bowls, which will choose between a Big 12 and a Big East team for one of their spots, and a BCS at-large berth.

And, as it stands, nine conference teams may be able to hit the magic six-win mark needed to qualify for bowl participation.

In the North, Kansas and Missouri are locks, and in the South, Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech are locked in. Texas A&M is already bowl-eligible at 6-5 with a rivalry game against Texas left, but the Aggies will be sputtering towards the postseason (but that’s another story entirely).

The only teams actually eliminated from postseason contention are Baylor, who is 3-7, and Iowa St., who has knocked off two potential bowl teams in a row, but is still only 3-8.

That leaves four teams - Kansas St. (5-5), Nebraska (5-6), Colorado (5-6), and Oklahoma St. (5-5).

Ron Prince’s Wildcats looked all set to wrap up a bowl bid a couple of weeks ago, as they were 5-3 with Iowa St. and Nebraska looming.

But, they lost 31-20 on the road to the 1-8 Cyclones, and this past Saturday, were on the short end of a 73-31 beatdown against Nebraska.

Oklahoma St. was 5-3 two weeks ago as well, with two tough, but very winnable home games upcoming. And they were a quarter away from that all-important sixth win, taking a 35-14 lead into the fourth quarter against Texas. But, the Cowboys wound up losing 38-35, and on Saturday, couldn’t make any early lead stand up in a 43-28 loss to the Jayhawks.

The Nebraska-Colorado game will decide if the conference winds up with nine bowl-eligible teams.

But, will all of those teams be suiting up for the postseason?

Whether or not that happens depends on a few things - if the Big 12 gets two teams in the BCS, if the Sun and/or Gator bowls go with Big East teams, and if the first two don’t work in the conference’s favor, if another bowl in need would want to take a chance on a 6-6 Big 12 team, or perhaps a 7-5 or better team from another conference (like the Big 12, Big 10, ACC, SEC, or one of the non-BCS conference that might have more bowl-eligible teams than tie-ins).

CBS Sports currently has the Big 12 getting two BCS bids (Oklahoma and Kansas) and eight bids overall, with Kansas St. being the lone bowl-eligible team left out (and Nebraska getting in over Colorado).

In Stewart Mandel’s projections on SI.com, he has nine conference teams getting in (Oklahoma and Texas in the BCS), including Kansas St.

Kansas St.‘s fate rests on beating either Missouri at home this week or win at Fresno St. in two weeks to be bowl-eligible, which isn‘t an enviable position to be in.

In the end, the Big 12 should be more than well-represented in the postseason, no matter who gets in and where they go.

Where will they go? Well, we’ll know after these next few exciting weeks of action.

When you get humiliated, you can do one of two things - you can either go hang your head, feel sorry for yourself, and go into the next game with zero confidence, or you can learn from it, get fired up, and dish it out the next time around.

Judging by today’s performance against Kansas St., it appears Nebraska decided to go the latter route.

After getting one of their worst beatings in school history, the Huskers obviously decided they’d had enough of taking it on the chin, and dished out like the Huskers of old did (well, minus the fact that they threw the ball all over the field), blowing the helpless Wildcats out of Memorial Stadium in a 73-31 rout.

They did exactly what Kansas did to them last Saturday, blowing open a close game with a big second quarter, and then, after the game was well in hand, kept the starters in to put a few more scores on the board.

This is the performance Nebraska fans have been waiting for all season long, and for that matter, for the last several years. But, is it too little, too late though?

Bill Callahan’s fate hasn’t been sealed yet, but even with today’s impressive win, the Huskers still have to beat Colorado to be bowl-eligible.

Even if they do win that game, they’ll only be 6-6 and 3-5 in conference play, and that means, at best, a trip to the Insight or Independence Bowl.

After last year’s trip to the Cotton Bowl and all of the expectations coming into the season, a holiday trip to Shreveport is a letdown, to say the least.

And, it still appears that Nebraska is going to need some defense if they’re want to be more than a .500 team, or at least not make Joe Ganz have to throw the ball 40+ times every game. Even in today’s win, they gave up 31 points and more than 400 yards, and who can forget that game against Ball State, where they had to eke out a 41-40 win?

But, the last couple of weeks have shown that Ganz (school-record 510 yards, 7 TD today) - has the ability to succeed in Lincoln, especially if Marlon Lucky (181 yards rushing/receiving, three total TD) decides to stick around for his senior year, and also, defense has been addressed thus far in their 2008 recruiting class, getting several talented high school and junior ocllege players who can come in and contribute immediately.

If Nebraska can beat Colorado and then make and win a bowl game, it may well provide enough to give Bill Callahan one more year to make things work.

But, if they’ve waited until now to wake up, it might still be too late to save Callahan, because the entire body of work looks shaky, no matter what.

However, today’s win was a definite step in the right direction, and it shows, if anything, that the team is going to fight for their pride, for their season, and for their coach. Desperation certainly brings the best out of some people, doesn’t it?

Before Kansas and Missouri can tangle for the Big 12 North title in two weeks, they each have two more obstacles to climb.

Neither team can underestimate their opponent this weekend, as 9-0 and #4 Kansas has a daunting trip to Stillwater to face an Oklahoma St. team that can score points in a flourish - but has to work on their finishing skills. 8-1 and new #7 Missouri, meanwhile, welcomes Texas A&M to town. It could go two ways for A&M, given the recent development with their coach maybe, possibly, maybe not getting push out of the door - either the Aggies will go out and play fired up, in the hopes that they can somehow save Coach Fran’s job, or they’ll go in with little confidence and get beaten up and down the field.

Oklahoma St. is one of three conference teams looking to become bowl eligible this weekend. Colorado (5-5, 3-3) goes to Iowa St. in search of their sixth win, but as Kansas St. learned last week, the Cyclones aren’t going to give them anything. The Wildcats will take their second crack at getting win #6 when they go to Lincoln to take on the hapless Huskers, who, believe it or not, could still make a bowl, if they win their last two games.

The matchup of the weekend might be Texas-Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon in Austin. Last season, the Red Raiders led 21-0 after a quarter, but Texas battled back for a 35-31 win in Lubbock. Texas Tech will be looking for a little revenge, and they might be able to pull it off, given Graham Harrell’s success against the Longhorns last year (519 yards, three touchdowns) and the fact that Texas’ defense has had its share of issues this season. But, Tech’s going to have to get a lot more than -1 yard rushing, like they did in last year’s heartbreaker.

In the other game on the schedule, Oklahoma hosts Baylor, looking to improve to 9-1 and keep themselves in the national championship hunt.