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Faux Pelini lives. The popular Twitter parody account of former Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini will remain active in the wake of Pelini’s hiring this week at FCS-level Youngstown State, the man behind Faux Pelini said Friday. “It seems there’s still some life left to this thing,” said the Chicago attorney and Nebraska fan who operates the account. “Faux can live on as the Youngstown State coach and still will remain very interested in events back in Lincoln. “He’ll have some things to say about that.” Faux Pelini has grown in fame since 2010, gaining 175,000 followers on Twitter, for his comedic musings about football and other topics, including world events, Pelini’s brother Carl and ex-Nebraska star Ndamukong Suh. The man behind Faux Pelini, who has requested anonymity, said he leaned toward shuttering the account after Pelini was fired by Nebraska on Nov. 30. But the shift to Youngstown, Pelini’s hometown, helped affirm the decision to preserve Faux Pelini. If Pelini had moved to a more high-profile job as a head coach or stayed at a Power 5 school as a coordinator, Faux Pelini likely would have ceased to exist. The challenge of commenting on Nebraska as Pelini’s new team attracted attention would have proven too confusing, said the account operator. The coach this week went out with a fury in Lincoln as the audio from Dec. 2 of his final meeting with the Nebraska players was released by the Omaha World-Herald. In the meeting, Pelini insulted Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst in a vulgar manner and spoke to the players about the stresses of his job as their coach. In fact, it played right into the persona of Faux Pelini. “For Faux, it’s great,” the man behind the account said. “It’s great material. It’s more of the same. As a fan, it struck me that [Pelini] may have finally found a way to unite the fan base -- maybe by accident. The opinions on Bo seem to be closer now to the same across the board.” On Twitter, Faux will take great interest in Nebraska’s Dec. 27 meeting with USC in the National University Holiday Bowl. He’ll comment on the normal offseason nonsense and likely learn about Youngstown State, though he won’t follow the Penguins with the same fervor as Nebraska. “We could have some fun it,” said the Faux mastermind. “But I hope this doesn’t shock anyone to hear that I will not be watching their games and tweeting along.” He emphasized that Faux will not resort to bashing Nebraska or Eichorst, even after the release of Pelini’s angry words. “I’m a Husker fan,” he said, “so the purpose of this account is never going to be make Nebraska look bad. But it just became obvious over the past couple days that there’s still more to do.”
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