eightlaces

With 21 new signatures, it's time to look over National Signing Day's tea leaves and into Nebraska's future. 5 Things We Learned About Nebraska after National Signing Day 2016

A parent chimes in on the difference between Mike Riley and Michigan's Man. Riley vs. Harbaugh Recruiting: A Parent Chimes In

Perhaps my most personal piece to date. Lawrence Phillips: The Villain, the Victim and the Questions He Left Us With

Big Vince makes one mistake in declaring early and it's a big one. Nebraska's Vincent Valentine Makes Critical Mistake in Declaring for NFL

Time for some Real Talk®. Nebraska's Nate Gerry Penalty Proves It's Time to Tackle the Lawlessness of Targeting Calls

1.) Pelini hated recruiting enough to hurt himself and always has, but that's beside the point. No one called for his firing until maybe four or five years into his tenure not four or five games into it 2.) Riley actually understands how to recruit much like Callahan did. You have to keep your recruiters responsible and he has some excellent young recruiters such as Bray and Williams. Regarding #1, at the risk of derailing the thread, the reason for the discrepancy between the five years for Pelini and five games for Riley is that (1) most people were pleased with Pelini was hired whereas people either said "Who?" or "Oh no, not the career .500 coach from Oregon State" when Riley was announced, and (2) Pelini took a 5-7 team and went 8-5, whereas Riley took a 9-3 team and went 5-7. Regarding #2, what do you make of Hank Hughes, Bruce Read, and Mark Banker, three coaches who, if the reports are to be believed, do jack you-know-what on the recruiting trail? There is no doubt that Bray and Williams are the bright spots of an otherwise very "Meh" coaching staff, but having two guys who recruit their tails off while several others sit on their ass does not constitute "keeping one's recruiters responsible," IMO. Good questions. 1.) You're correct and again, his status wasn't remotely in doubt until 2011 at the earliest. 2.) Hughes and Read are not guys I look to as stud recruiters. I'm not sure where you're hearing this stuff about Banker because the guy shows up just as much as anyone else. Is he THE closer? No, but he'll get his. Riley, Langs, Williams, Bray and Stewart are all good for quality recruits. You're not going to have an entire staff of stud recruiters. Fortunately, not only does Nebraska have assistants who can close, it has a support staff second to none.

1.) Pelini hated recruiting enough to hurt himself and always has, but that's beside the point. No one called for his firing until maybe four or five years into his tenure not four or five games into it 2.) Riley actually understands how to recruit much like Callahan did. You have to keep your recruiters responsible and he has some excellent young recruiters such as Bray and Williams. Point 1 is pure fabrication both in terms of his view on recruiting and when people started bitching. Many didn't like to see Callahan go (some still post here) and never wanted pelini. As far as Riley goes, if any other coach had started like he did, people would have been upset too. As it stands, the timing is immaterial to my question about negative fans impacting recruiting. Re: point 2, The argument that Callahan was a good recruiter is pure delusion. He landed some good players, like all NU coaches have, but mainly on the back of the shadiest recruiter at Nebraska in decades. Every NU staff has had great recruiting coaches. Bray and Williams are on par, but hardly exceed others. Where do you put Hughes, banker and the ST coach as pure recruiters? If you were honest, they would be behind every assistant at NU during at least the past 8 years. Point one isn't fabrication. Happened at LSU, happened at Nebraska and is currently happening at Youngstown. He hates dealing with recruiting and what's worse, the proof is in the pudding. Point two is not delusion, you just don't like Bill.

What you say starts to ring hollow if it isn't matching up to what you do. Hard to do it when you don't have the personnel who can execute it properly. We're talking about the understanding of principles and familiarity. The team's confidence and knowledge of what they were looking to do versus Miami is obviously different than it was versus UCLA. That's a ten game difference. It's also hard to do it when you give the ball to our backs 18 times and call 45+ pass plays. Newby averaged 5.9 yards per carry against Miami this year. Ameer averaged 6.5 yards per carry vs. Miami last year. 6.5 is better than 5.9 but not so much that one of those games resulted in 229 rushing yards while the other resulted in 82. If the coaches are telling you can run it against certain teams but you can't run it against other teams, that's pretty much where that confidence is coming from. When it comes to Riley's offense, yes there is. However, you are correct when it comes to the effectiveness of the pass. You'll see passes that Tommy failed to make again only if he can't make them, someone else will. Armstrong won the game because he was put in position not to do much damage and stay on the ground where he was more of a threat to UCLA than putting the ball in the air where he was actually a threat to his own team's success. Also, Purdue? Ryker Fyfe. Knock Fyfe, but then admit that having a pass heavy first half and a disastrous 70% passing 3rd quarter after trailing only 21-9 at half was all on the coaches and their awful game planning. Riley's offense has been traditionally much more than 22 passes a game. I think in his own idea world, attempts would be between 35 and 40 a game. At least based on his history. M The absolutely most Riley'd want to see the ball passed is likely 35 and that's only in a situation where you have a passing game that can gash a defense like Nebraska's run did against the UCLA D. There's no reason to cross 30.

1.) Pelini hated recruiting enough to hurt himself and always has, but that's beside the point. No one called for his firing until maybe four or five years into his tenure not four or five games into it 2.) Riley actually understands how to recruit much like Callahan did. You have to keep your recruiters responsible and he has some excellent young recruiters such as Bray and Williams.

1.) We're viewing Riley's hiring to now as the year. 2.) Nebraska's current rank is 32.

When it comes to Riley's offense, yes there is. However, you are correct when it comes to the effectiveness of the pass. You'll see passes that Tommy failed to make again only if he can't make them, someone else will. Armstrong won the game because he was put in position not to do much damage and stay on the ground where he was more of a threat to UCLA than putting the ball in the air where he was actually a threat to his own team's success. Also, Purdue? Ryker Fyfe.

What you say starts to ring hollow if it isn't matching up to what you do. Hard to do it when you don't have the personnel who can execute it properly. We're talking about the understanding of principles and familiarity. The team's confidence and knowledge of what they were looking to do versus Miami is obviously different than it was versus UCLA. That's a ten game difference.

Thanks guys. Get ready for when the 13th of January comes (dead period ends). These guys are going to come out of the gate hot.

The idea that Riley and Langs wanted to do things "their way" a.k.a. The Callahan Effect isn't true at all. Coming into the job, he was asked about being pass-happy and he said no, I want people on the ground with the ball. He said the same thing following the win versus UCLA, so at this point I'm curious if people are just hearing what they want to. Fans see 40-plus passes and think that's the game plan. 22-25's roughly the sweet spot and you need the talent available to run the ball if you're going to stick to that. That means all 11 on the offensive side of the ball and Terrell Newby did no one any favors by dancing back and forth behind five yard holes and getting dropped for two. As of right now, Zig's your back of the future. The plan versus UCLA was fantastic for Tommy because it didn't give him much of a chance to put the win in jeopardy. The run/pass ratio was going to be heavy and when you've got a QB with legs like Armstrong, you make a team that can't cover everyone pay, especially once they cheat up just in case he takes off.

Giving a grade to Nebraska's head man for what he's done and sneaking a peek to the future. Mike Riley's Recruiting Adventures and What Nebraska Fans Should Expect Moving Forward