No doubt we would coronate Rhule if he delivered a 9 win season this year. Or next year. Don't even need to be in the Big 10 mix. Just a bowl game. Expectations have certainly cratered. In the most literal way, we have been worse without Bo.
But if you went back to 2014 and told Nebraska fans that Bo Pelini would never get over that next hump, and we should be content with 9 wins, a couple embarrassing beatdowns, a mid-tier bowl game, and either barely cracking the Top 25 or finishing out of it entirely, I don't think you'd get many takers. Understandably so.
If you're suggesting that Nebraska made a mistake, Youngstown State made the same mistake three seasons faster, and LSU made the same mistake in one season, and not a single team stepped in to take advantage of all these programs mistakenly letting Bo Pelini go.