YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The amateur comedian inside Bo Pelini trickled out Saturday when a reporter asked about Youngstown State’s game against South Dakota State being his 100th as a head football coach.
Pelini stared at the man, paused for effect and kept a straight face before mumbling a dry reply.
“It feels like my 500th,” he said, drawing laughter.
A year ago at this time, everyone would have believed every word because Pelini was weeks away from a noisy, angst-ridden firing by Nebraska.
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Pelini was one of six major-college coaches to have won at least nine games in each of his first seven seasons, but athletic director Shawn Eichorst said the Cornhuskers “weren’t good enough in the games that mattered, and I don’t see that changing.