Joe Rexrode, Michigan.com

'Tis the firing season in college football, and Nebraska got things rolling Sunday by dismissing Bo Pelini.

(A moment of silence, everyone, for the finest fake Twitter account in the land, @FauxPelini. Don't leave us, Faux.)

The first question around East Lansing, of course, is whether Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi will be a candidate to replace Pelini. As one of the game's resident "hot coordinators," his name will be — actually, already has been — brought up.

But if the Nebraska job is as good as Nebraska must think it is by firing a guy who went 67-27 in seven years, why would another coordinator with no head coaching experience be seriously considered?

Here's a better question, with Pelini out and others on toasty seats: What if Michigan State's administration was vulnerable to the whims of panicking MSU fans five years ago?

By all accounts, Mark Dantonio was in absolutely zero trouble with the people who make decisions after a 6-7 season marked by off-the-field issues. It was just his third season and he had done much to rebuild a rotted infrastructure. A 22-17 record with three bowls, one on New Year's Day, was quite good for a program that went 38-41 with two bowls in the previous seven seasons.

All that said, a review of MSU message boards, talk-radio rants and e-mails to me and other reporters from early 2010 would be worth some laughs. Dantonio's the wrong guy, he has no control over his kids, he'll never get MSU to a championship level — and fergoshsakes, he needs to fire his defensive coordinator today!

Today, of course, Dantonio is on the statue plan. He might have one some day on the MSU campus (and I assume it will look just like James Brolin without a beard). He has a top-10 team and 10-2 record after Saturday's 34-10 win at Penn State, giving him four out of five seasons with 10-plus — MSU has six such seasons in its history — and a 74-31 record overall.

MSU is the Big Ten team with the best bet to restore conference pride during the bowl season, now that Ohio State's J.T. Barrett is lost with a broken ankle. Dantonio has a Rose Bowl win, two conference championships and two division championships to his name, and he's probably going to have another preseason top-10 team in 2015.

It all started in a 2010 season that cemented Dantonio with the MSU fan base. "Little Giants," his heart attack and recovery, and the best football played in years at Spartan Stadium aligned the outside feelings on Dantonio with the inside feelings.

At Michigan and Illinois, the head coaches have already been fired publicly. The case for Brady Hoke (fourth season) and Tim Beckman (third) — who will be retained at least through next season — is that they haven't had enough time to get things done. Very different situations, but both can argue that it's premature to judge them at this point.

Maybe they're right. Or maybe they're like John L. Smith, who could say the same thing in the disastrous fourth season at MSU that got him fired. His superiors correctly judged that he wasn't going to get the job done — and just imagine if they hadn't.

'Tis the season for firings, but also for giving thanks at places such as MSU, where the current head coach is likely to have a hand in picking his replacement some day.

Contact Joe Rexrode: jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.