Nebraska fired coach Bo Pelini on Sunday morning, despite the Huskers finishing with a 9-3 record this season.
The Huskers dropped two of their final three games -- to Big Ten West contenders Wisconsin and Minnesota -- and subsequently fell out contention for a berth in the conference title game opposite Ohio State.
Pelini went 67-27 in seven seasons (plus the 2003 Alamo Bowl) at Nebraska. He took over for Bill Callahan in 2008 and never failed to post fewer than nine wins in any season with the Cornhuskers. Pelini's team won 10 games in 2012 but was never able to capture a conference title during his tenure in Lincoln.
"We weren't good enough in the games that mattered against championship quality opponents," Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst said in a news conference on Sunday. "We won a bunch of games but didn't win the games that mattered most. I think we gave [Pelini] ample time to get that done."
Eichorst also announced Sunday that offensive line coach Barney Cotton will be the team's interim coach for the bowl game, and Nebraska does not plan on using a search committee to identify its next head coach.
Through three seasons in the Big 12 and four in the Big Ten, Nebraska won its division four times (only once since moving to the Big Ten), but the Huskers went 0-4 combined in conference championship appearances. Pelini's Nebraska team fell to Wisconsin 70-31 in the 2012 Big Ten championship.
In the end, winning nine games a season simply isn't good enough for a program that has claimed five national titles and won 43 conference titles in its history.
