The Bunkbeds Just Aren't The Same WIthout Carl | By Bo Pelini

Story by Alex Wunrow 

| Published Jan 17, 2012

So this is loneliness.

I used to think being lonely was a feeling only known by place kickers, but I was wrong. My big brother is gone. What comes next?

Well, I slept next to my wife for the first time since leaving LSU, and let me tell you, she doesn’t handle my night wrestling nearly as well as Carl did. She doesn’t even move. It’s like wrestling with a punching bag--zero fun.

Some people are saying Carl leaving is a good thing; they’re saying that Tom Osborne desperately wanted him gone, that the defense is better off with me in charge... but you know what? I AM SCARED TO DEATH.

People in Nebraska have incredibly high expectations of this football team. In the past 24 months they’ve driven my offensive and defensive coordinators out the door. What happens when there aren’t any scapegoats left? THEY ARE GOING TO COME AFTER ME.

This isn’t what Doctor Osborne said would happen. He said we’d win championships. Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six... he didn’t mention that the actual number would be ZERO.

But all of that is moot. Carl being a part of the staff is the reason I took this job. And what’s a guy supposed to do when he can’t go to his big brother with all his problems? Carl won’t even return my Skype calls.

They say Florida changes people, but I always thought that meant they turned people into Prunes, not neglectful brothers. This is almost as bad as when Carl left Youngstown to go play football at Columbia in New York. I always told him, “Carl, please don’t go there, the big city will change you.” But he DIDN’T LISTEN.

And after finally winning him back at Nebraska, I never thought I’d have to say goodbye again. But I was wrong. I’m always wrong in his eyes. He told me he’d never leave, but now I don’t know what to believe.

We’re gonna be fine. Everything is gonna be fine. Fine. It’s all gonna be fine. BO, IT IS ALL GOING TO BE FINE. WHERE ARE MY PANTS?