Riley, Staff Begin Building Trust

Mavric · February 28, 2015

When taking over a head football coaching job in December, getting to know your recruiting targets sort of has to be Job No. 1. The downside is lack of time to spend with players already on the roster.

"It's almost a bad feeling," Husker coach Mike Riley said Friday. "You know your recruits almost better than you know your own team. It's just a strange feeling. It's almost unavoidable. Our coaches know (guys) better than me, because they've been around a little bit more. And they know their positions. I've got 121 guys to know."

That's why February and March, and the passing of Signing Day, are welcome. It gives a coach time to learn the personalities (and names) on his players.

"It's definitely a good time to take care of that sort of thing," Riley said. "It won't happen overnight. But it's part of the process right now."

Riley smiled while recalling when he returned to Oregon State in 2003 and attempted to learn the roster.

"There was one guy I was never quite sure of, he and this other receiver looked a lot alike, because I never called either one of them by their name, because I was going to be 50-50, right?" Riley said. "And this guy had a very nondescript spring practice but he ended up showing up in the fall. It ended up being Mike Hass. He won the Biletnikoff (Award). He was a walk-on."