FanHouse FrankSolich

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In terms of rivalries, Missouri-Nebraska still doesn't quite measure up to Ohio State-Michigan, Texas-Oklahoma or USC-Notre Dame.

That isn't to suggest this rivalry hasn't had its moments during the 102 previous meetings that date back to 1892.

But in recent years, especially since the Gary Pinkel-era began at Missouri nine years ago, this Big 12 North matchup has produced quite a few fireworks. There was last year's 52-17 spanking the Cornhuskers took from Missouri in their own Memorial Stadium, marking the first time since 1978 that Mizzou had won in Lincoln. In 1997, an unranked Missouri team came within a miracle catch of upsetting the No.1 Cornhuskers in a co-national championship year.

Blame it on Bob Stoops. If you don't want to blame it on Stoops, blame it on Jim Tressel. If not Tressel, then Urban Meyer. All three of those guys took over high-profile programs. All three won national titles in their second seasons. Now any school thinks it can do the same thing. If you're a coach and you can't get your program turned around by the middle of the third season, there will be a fire(yournamehere).com website. And you can look forward to a variety of stock arguments as to why you should be unemployed.

The problem, of course, is that most of these arguments are completely worthless. Don't believe me? Let's investigate.

"We can't let this program sink any further into mediocrity!" Yeah, that's what Steve Pedersen said when he fired Frank Solich and brought in Bill Callahan. I suppose you could argue that Pedersen was correct; instead of sliding into mediocrity, he let the program degenerate into irrelevance. Unless your team just went 0-12, "up" isn't the only possible direction a new coach can take your program.