Nebraska Football: Huskers’ coaching search power rankings Week 8

The Nebraska football program has been searching for a new head coach for over a month. Scott Frost’s replacement, Mickey Joseph, is now entering his second bye week of the season with a 2-2 record as a head coach.

Joseph has two nice wins, one bad loss, and a loss to Purdue that most people are chalking up as an improvement on the Frost regime despite it being quite similar to every single game Husker fans saw a year ago.

So has Mickey made a better case for himself in these head coaching power rankings? Has another name gained some steam this week? Where are the guys who were at the top of the list last week sitting? Read on.

Nebraska football names that are hot, hot, hot

There’s a big shakeup when it comes to the top of the power rankings, thanks to the fact that Illinois proved that it is a team that is absolutely for real. Since opening the season with a loss to a bad Indiana team, the Illini have been doing nothing but getting better every week.

This past weekend, Bielema’s squad dominated a Minnesota squad that two weeks ago, looked like the class of the Big Ten West.

Bielema tops the list because he seems to have really built Illinois up from the rubble, and he’s likely available for the kind of contract that Nebraska football is willing to pay and Illinois might not.

I was very, very tempted to put the interim Nebraska football coach at the top of the list based on the number of “stick with Mick” comments I saw online. However, I don’t think a loss to Purdue should actually move him up on these particular power rankings.

Still, it’s hard to argue he isn’t one of the hottest names as the buy-in from the players continues to look solid. The support of the fan base could be something that AD Trev Alberts simply can’t ignore when the time comes to make the call.