Should Nebraska's Bo Pelini Be on the Hot Seat After Loss to Minnesota?

Bo Pelini has been here before. In fact, this November feels eerily similar to last November for the Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach. As a result, Pelini is now being placed firmly back on the hot seat.

Should he be there, though? That's the million-dollar question.

The easy answer would be yes. After all, the head coach is now 66-27 overall and 9-17 against ranked opponents (he was 9-14 to start the season, per The Wall Street Journal) with Nebraska after Saturday's loss to the No. 25 Minnesota Golden Gophers. Then there is his recent performance against the Wisconsin Badgers, where the Huskers lost a significant early lead to ultimately lose 59-24.

Pelini wasn't worried at that point.

"I don't get into the big picture thing," he said, per The Associated Press' Eric Olson (via NCAA.com). "It's one football game. This program has won a lot of football games."

Except against Minnesota, one football game became two. After heading into the half with a 21-7 lead, the Gophers immediately answered to make it 21-14 to start the second half. For some reason, it never felt quite right after. The Gophers ultimately won 28-24.

"We lost because we didn't deserve to win," Pelini said during his postgame press conference.

Talk about a punch to the gut. However, looking at the numbers, he wasn't wrong.

Stat	Minnesota	Nebraska
Total Yds	416	397
Rush Yds	281	174
Pass Yds	135	223
Penalties	1-15	3-25
Time of Poss	35:03	24:57
Turnovers	0	2
Fumbles - Lost	2-0	3-2
Sacks	5	4

Does it mean Pelini is back on the hot seat? There are plenty of folks who believe so:

Matt Hayes of Sporting News felt he was after the game against Wisconsin.

"This is different than any other current Power Five job in jeopardy, if only because Nebraska would be firing a coach who averages nine wins a season—even though none of those wins are of significance," Hayes noted after the loss in Madison.

Hayes went on to question how long Nebraska finds eight- or nine-win seasons acceptable. If the goal is championships and Pelini isn't winning them, it feels like time might be running out.

Firing Pelini still seems premature, though. The regular-season finale against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Nov. 28 will tell a lot about how this team can recover. It will also say a lot about Pelini as a coach and his future with the Huskers.

Pelini knows that.

"We have to make some changes because we didn't play very well," he said.

What exactly do those changes look like? That's the catch. Does it potentially mean a change in staff? Pelini has always been extremely loyal to his assistants, so it's hard to say what he's willing to do. However, if he's saying changes need to be made, there needs to be some clarity to that.

Sitting on the hot seat has to be getting old for Pelini. It's become sort of a trademark of his time as head coach for Nebraska. By November, things start to get warmer for Pelini. Does he deserve for it to be that way, though? Is a coach that wins eight or nine games a season truly deserving of the hot seat?

There is no denying that time is running out for Pelini. More questions are being created than answers. If he wants fans to know he doesn't deserve to be on the hot seat, he needs to be willing to make changes. Will he make them?

That's the other million-dollar question.

All quotes obtained firsthand via the Huskers' postgame press conference, unless otherwise noted.