1. The biggest day in my five years as Youngstown State's beat writer started with a nap.

My dog, a boxer named Rocco, decided he wanted to eat breakfast at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday and when I wasn't able to fall back asleep right away, I decided to take a nap around 10:30.

I'd been asleep for about 15 minutes when I got a call from a source telling me that the Cafaro family's private plane was headed to Lincoln, Neb., to pick up Bo Pelini. As soon as I got off the phone with that source, another called to relay similar news.

I tweeted the news and it's been kind of a blur from there.

From the minute YSU decided to fire Eric Wolford, there was pressure for the Penguins to make a splash.

Obviously, they did.

2. Pelini's hiring was the biggest story I've covered since Kelly Pavlik won the middleweight title in 2007.

In three weeks, Youngstown State football went from being a complete afterthought to national news. I got multiple interview requests on Tuesday from radio stations in Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. My Twitter account exploded.

It's been a lot of fun for the city, but all I could think was, "By Wednesday afternoon, this will all be over and I can finally take some vacation days." It's no fun when your buzzing phone is waking up your pregnant wife.

3. For the record, I didn't think Pelini would come here and I wrote as much. Obviously, I was wrong, but I wasn't the only one. I talked to quite a few people from Mooney over the last two weeks and none of them (at least initially) thought he would take the YSU job. And when I first asked YSU athletic director Ron Strollo about Pelini, he laughed and said, "Why not Bob Stoops or Mark Dantonio too?"

In hindsight, YSU was clearly trying to manage expectations during this process, not wanting a repeat of what happened in 2009 when Mark Stoops agreed to take the job, only to change his mind when Florida State offered him the chance to be a defensive coordinator. While YSU was pleased with the overall interest in the job, especially compared to five years ago, it didn't want the next coach to have to deal with a disappointed fan base.

But once Football Scoop's report came out last week, it was Bo or Bust for YSU.

4. Football Scoop deserves credit for being first with the news, although the site obviously got the timeline wrong. (The original report called for an announcement last Thursday.) So, kudos.

That said, on Tuesday afternoon, Football Scoop's Scout Roussel released a video explaining the delay and added that "we only do this to help coaches."

That, dear readers, is unadultered poppycock. Football Scoop does what they do for the same reason I do what I do: it beats cleaning toilets for a living.

If the site only exists to help coaches, it obviously failed Bo Pelini. Because he was furious about the original report.

5. This is a picture of YSU's crowd for the final home game against Indiana State.

By the end of the Wolford era, all anyone wanted me to write about was, "Will Wolford be fired?" That's not a whole lot of fun to write about, particularly when you're covering games with crowds like those.

While I think Wolford would have eventually made the playoffs at YSU — maybe as early as next year — it's pretty clear that he no longer had the community's support. And it was also pretty clear that Wolford and his staff weren't going to suddenly challenge for a national title.

As former YSU standout Jeff Wilkins told me on Tuesday, "I liked Eric but sometimes you just need a change."

6. I don't have the details of Pelini's YSU contract and I probably won't get more than the basics at Wednesday's press conference. (Wolford was hired in December and I got a copy of his contract the following July.) Still, I'm interested to see what kind of escape clause it has.

While no one expects this to be Pelini's last job — he's only 47 after all — I would hope YSU got some assurances that he's not going to leave after one or two years. It's something we'll ask about on Wednesday.

Colorado State just got $7 million from Florida after its head coach, Jim McElwain, left to coach the Gators. You would think YSU is smart enough to get write something similar into Pelini's contract, albeit for far less than $7 million.

7. In the spirit of the motto "Save a journalist, buy a newspaper," please pick up a copy of Wednesday's paper. We'll have a lot of great stuff about Pelini in there. Thursday, too.

Heck, pick up a subscription if you don't already have one. I don't want to have to clean toilets for a living.