Bo Pelini Takes Multiple Shots at Nebraska, Insults Athletic Director

Bo Pelini was introduced Wednesday as the new head coach at Youngstown State, where he was hired by former Ohio State head coach and current YSU president Jim Tressel.

In his first public appearance since being fired as head coach at Nebraska, Pelini wasted no time taking a shot at his former chancellor, Harvey Perlman, per Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com:

But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Pelini's public comments might as well have been "I love you" compared with what he said behind closed doors. 

When Pelini left Nebraska, he called a players-only meeting to say goodbye to his team. Pictures from the meet-up surfaced quickly, but we didn't know until Wednesday what he said to his players.

On Wednesday, however, Dirk Chatelain of the Omaha World-Herald acquired an audio recording of Pelini's final speech. There was a lot—I mean, a lot—of NSFW language, which has been censored below.

Here is what Pelini said about athletic director Shawn Eichorst:

"

A guy like (Eichorst) who has no integrity, he doesn’t even understand what a core value is. And he hasn’t understood it from the day he got here. I saw it when I first met with the guy.

To have core values means you have to be about something, you have to represent something, you have to have something that is important to you. He is a [expletive] lawyer who makes policies. That’s all he’s done since he’s been here is hire people and make policies to cover his own [expletive].

…I didn't really have any relationship with the A.D.. The guy, you guys saw him (Sunday), the guy is a total [expletive]. I mean, he is, and he's a total [expletive].

"

But Pelini did not stop there.

According to Chatelain, he says he saw anger in administrators' faces after Nebraska beat Iowa in the regular season-finale. They didn't want the Huskers to win—the implication being that they knew Pelini was a goner and would have preferred to fire him after a loss.

This is how Pelini described his final exchange with Eichorst:

"

He goes, I disagree that I haven't supported you. I said, 'Hey bud, you can't support someone under a [expletive] rock.' I said, to do your job at this level, in a place like this, you gotta be a grown-[expletive] [expletive] man...to lead something. I said you can't lead anything under a [expletive] rock. I said you don't spend any time with us. Our players don't even know who you are. That isn't leadership.

And he said, 'Well I appreciate (your) advice.'

I said, 'I suggest you take it, but see you later.' And that's how it went down.

"

There's a lot more if you're inclined to keep reading. My personal favorite quote concerns Eichorst's "team of people," to which Pelini says: "I’d rather [expletive] work at McDonald’s than work with some of those guys.

"Not that there is anything bad about working at McDonald’s."

Nati Harnik/Associated Press

Pelini was fired in November after seven seasons with the Huskers, all of which were more or less the same.

An optimist would argue that he never won fewer than nine games. A pessimist would counter that he never lost fewer than four.

Regardless, the move was met with mixed reviews, especially once Nebraska hired former Oregon State head coach Mike Riley. Riley won nine or more games just four times in the past 11 seasons.

Nebraska released the following statement in response to the comments leaked Wednesday, per Brent Yarina of Big Ten Network:

Pelini is a divisive figure who at one point dared Nebraska to fire him. His playful, charming, cat-loving persona is contrasted with his sometimes-hot temper. He is not afraid to say what's on his mind, which in many cases makes him more endearing.

But it also sometimes lands him in trouble.

One has to wonder, then, if Thursday will play a role in Pelini's coaching future. Nothing he said at the presser is factually untrue—Tressel won a national title with OSU and almost certainly knows more about football than Perlman—but he still probably shouldn't have said it. And he definitely shouldn't have said that stuff to his players. 

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

Youngstown State is a not a destination coaching job, even for a Youngstown, Ohio native such as Pelini. One has to assume he plans on coaching at the FBS level again in the future.

The question is whether any FBS president will ever want to hire him. At this point, his chances look bleak. What school would hire a guy with a reputation for bashing administrators (and a nasty little habit of being recorded)? Why would they risk ending up on the wrong side of one of his diatribes? 

The only cure at this point might be winning.

Winning has a way of curing everything.

Follow Brian Leigh on Twitter: @BLeigh35