Gil Brandt: Bret Bielema turned down Nebraska job

This has been debunked by Perlman already. Very little chance this is true.

LINK

"Mike Riley was the first choice - we never talked to Bielema," Perlman said. "It seems odd that you even think that we would. Here's a coach who - not saying anything about Bret - but he left Wisconsin last year for Arkansas. If he came here, do you think we'd have much confidence that he would stay? He didn't obviously, so I'm not being critical of him. To think we would go after a coach who'd just moved -- if he is going to move, it's not the character we want."
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knapplc said:
This has been debunked by Perlman already. Very little chance this is true.
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Consider the source. One is like the National Enquirer of college football. I'll just ignore this, not dwell on it, and look forward to Mike Riley getting something done here at UNL.

 
As brought up in the comments, I find this hard to believe. So basically we offered the dbag the NU job that would have infuriated many many fans, he turns it down and less than 24 hours we announce the hiring of Riley. Yeah Brett is looking for a payday and does not deserve one.

 
I think knowing our struggles against Wisconsin bielema would of jumped at the bit for the job to stiff it at Alvarez

Also SE wanting th Wisconsin job wouldn't do anything to upset the powers that be in cheeseland by bringing him back to the big 10

 
I am not sure if anyone has any insight to the relationship between Eichorst and Bielema but isn't the prevailing rumor that the relationship between Alvarez and Bielema had started to sour?

 
You know it's not true because if the slime ball was offered a thick paycheck he would leave that inbred state for nebraska in a second. Nice try Bret.

 
StPaulHusker said:
I am not sure if anyone has any insight to the relationship between Eichorst and Bielema but isn't the prevailing rumor that the relationship between Alvarez and Bielema had started to sour?
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Bielema was supposedly mad that they wouldn't pay more for assistant coaches.

 
knapplc said:
This has been debunked by Perlman already. Very little chance this is true.

LINK

"Mike Riley was the first choice - we never talked to Bielema," Perlman said. "It seems odd that you even think that we would. Here's a coach who - not saying anything about Bret - but he left Wisconsin last year for Arkansas. If he came here, do you think we'd have much confidence that he would stay? He didn't obviously, so I'm not being critical of him. To think we would go after a coach who'd just moved -- if he is going to move, it's not the character we want."
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Given the choice to believe a story from someone who has plenty to gain from lying/misleading/deceiving and some people who have nothing to gain and possibly something to lose from making up a story, I'm going to lean toward the latter.

 
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I believe we offered him. He declined. It happens.

We'll see how it works out. It could easily be for the better. We just don't know it yet. I do know this, I liked everything he had to say this morning. Entirely different type of coach than the ones who just got asked to exit.

 
As long as Mike Riley was the 1st choice over Bo and Lane Kiffin, I'm fine with it. Anything else is just gravy.
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If you look at the acerbic history between Eichorst mentor Alvarez and Bielema in Wisconsin, as well as Bielema's personality compared with Eichorst's clearly preferred mold, as well as the extremely successful secrecy surrounding this search, I think you'll see it's extremely unlikely this is true.

Does that mean Riley was necessarily the #1 choice? No, and I'd still like to think Tressel would have been if he were still interested. But Bielema did not turn down the opportunity. Although clearly it's beneficial for him to have people think he did.

If it wasn't a total goof on FootballScoop's part, and if it wasn't Bielema's people either, it's probably the leftover anti-Harvey-in-service-of-Bo crowd, what with these snide "advised against because of the current climate in Lincoln" lines. That'll play well with anyone who wants to believe it.

 
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Funny stuff. My son came home and told me that Bielema turned down $7.5 mill a year to stay at Arkansas. I laughed and asked him who he heard that from. He told me a good friend who owns several bars in Omaha found out and the kickers was, the guys a Hawkeye fan.

 
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