Questioning the coaching search timeline

[Husker John]

Common sense and evidence indicate Riley was the first and only choice.

 

[Hold Fast Arms]

Again, I don't think Riley is a terrible hire. But when we knew this was coming for at least one year and probably several, were certain that's what we were doing for about a month then settle on a guy who's main selling point is other schools wanted him 12 years ago, he had some good seasons 8-10 years ago, he SHOULD do better at a bigger school and he's a nice guy, I'm not sure why we had to go for that four days after we fired our previous coach.

Solid take on the situation, Mav.
I'd say the four days was simply due diligence on our Administration's part.

I agree that hiring a 61-year-old coach is odd, and there were seemingly better candidates out there. Perhaps hiring a man in the waning years of his career is part of a long-term plan?Af

Yeah, I've been thinking about the timing also. But really, even with everything lined up ahead of time I don't think SE would've wanted to make an announcement much faster than four days. Remember the initial outbursts on Sunday? The team was in shock, and fans were bewildered and grumbling. It took a couple of days of twisting in the wind to get everyone on board with wanting a name to be announced. The timing of yesterday's announcement was almost perfect. Was it by design, or dumb luck? It's likely that no one will know for sure. I think the NU admin has said about all they're going to say on the search topic.

I actually intended to convey that I thought four days was pretty short to end up with a coach who basically no one was expecting to get a job somewhere else. Again, I'm not saying it was a bad choice or that it won't work out. But we were in no danger of him taking a job somewhere else and us losing out. He wasn't high on many people's list. In fact, he wasn't on anyone's list at all. There was no reason to hire him that fast other than to make things look to go smoothly. Unless he was absolutely the only guy we were looking at and I think that would be unfortunate.

Well I would agree with you, no we were not going to lose Riley if we dont sign him in 4 day's time BUT it must be done that quickly to calm down huskerboard. All joking aside doing this quickly is of extreme importance to 1. Start building his assistant coaching staff 2. Hit recruiting trail while there is still time..recruits and current players don't wany to wait 40 days to find an answer 3. Allows current staff who won't be kept on to find work on other teams. And my two cents on Bert-there is NO way he was offered! that rumor totally came out for him to get a raise.

 

[Hold Fast Arms]

Common sense and evidence indicate Riley was the first and only choice.

It's Science

 

[Hayseed]

I really doubt a hothead who is on Barry Alvarez bad side was ever considered a candidate........like Perlman said, it's absurd considering why Bo was fired.......complete insanity.

 

[Kernal]

Again, I don't think Riley is a terrible hire. But when we knew this was coming for at least one year and probably several, were certain that's what we were doing for about a month then settle on a guy who's main selling point is other schools wanted him 12 years ago, he had some good seasons 8-10 years ago, he SHOULD do better at a bigger school and he's a nice guy, I'm not sure why we had to go for that four days after we fired our previous coach.

Solid take on the situation, Mav.
I'd say the four days was simply due diligence on our Administration's part.

I agree that hiring a 61-year-old coach is odd, and there were seemingly better candidates out there. Perhaps hiring a man in the waning years of his career is part of a long-term plan?Af

Yeah, I've been thinking about the timing also. But really, even with everything lined up ahead of time I don't think SE would've wanted to make an announcement much faster than four days. Remember the initial outbursts on Sunday? The team was in shock, and fans were bewildered and grumbling. It took a couple of days of twisting in the wind to get everyone on board with wanting a name to be announced. The timing of yesterday's announcement was almost perfect. Was it by design, or dumb luck? It's likely that no one will know for sure. I think the NU admin has said about all they're going to say on the search topic.

I actually intended to convey that I thought four days was pretty short to end up with a coach who basically no one was expecting to get a job somewhere else. Again, I'm not saying it was a bad choice or that it won't work out. But we were in no danger of him taking a job somewhere else and us losing out. He wasn't high on many people's list. In fact, he wasn't on anyone's list at all. There was no reason to hire him that fast other than to make things look to go smoothly. Unless he was absolutely the only guy we were looking at and I think that would be unfortunate.

Well I would agree with you, no we were not going to lose Riley if we dont sign him in 4 day's time BUT it must be done that quickly to calm down huskerboard. All joking aside doing this quickly is of extreme importance to 1. Start building his assistant coaching staff 2. Hit recruiting trail while there is still time..recruits and current players don't wany to wait 40 days to find an answer 3. Allows current staff who won't be kept on to find work on other teams. And my two cents on Bert-there is NO way he was offered! that rumor totally came out for him to get a raise.

I agree with you, and would add one other reason why the hire was done quickly: The Nebraska brand can't afford the bad publicity that comes from a bunch of middle-tier coaches publicly rejecting imaginary offers from NU. Every coach's agent "rejecting an NU offer" is an advertisement that NU is no longer a traditional power, desirable destination, fill-in-your-negative-adjective-here school. The other aspect is that the longer the hire drags on the more of a media vacuum that exists to be filled with negative speculation.

This firing and hiring was done very professionally, with an eye toward the reality of marketing and media perception. These concerns are all secondary, of course, if the hire turns into a bust, but purely from a process standpoint Eichorst managed this process very, very well.

 

[ladyhawke]

Again, I don't think Riley is a terrible hire. But when we knew this was coming for at least one year and probably several, were certain that's what we were doing for about a month then settle on a guy who's main selling point is other schools wanted him 12 years ago, he had some good seasons 8-10 years ago, he SHOULD do better at a bigger school and he's a nice guy, I'm not sure why we had to go for that four days after we fired our previous coach.

Solid take on the situation, Mav.

I'd say the four days was simply due diligence on our Administration's part.

I agree that hiring a 61-year-old coach is odd, and there were seemingly better candidates out there. Perhaps hiring a man in the waning years of his career is part of a long-term plan?

Couple of thoughts:

>My husband asked, 'If Bo was going to be fired in 2013 unless TO pulled money, why did Eichorst offer Bo an extension on his HC contract?

>I'm thinking that Riley is here to groom Scott Frost for the HC.

I prefer to give Mike Riley a try. GBR!

 

[zoogs]

The annual extension is a given if you keep the coach. Standard procedure to keep the contract at 5 years.

 

[True2tRA]

zoogies raises an excellent point. If Eichorst had an idea of the "type of guy" he wanted, it would be almost impossible to go from Bielema to Riley. The two couldn't be further apart in demeanor. If we lined everybody up on a graph with Osborne's personality at one end and Pelini's at the other, Bert & Riley would be on completely different ends of the spectrum.

I hadn't thought of it that way.

Makes sense. I really believed they probably did offer Beilema, but really, in the bigger picture, that offer would have made no sense.

 

[Mavric]

This from The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel newspaper (read into it what you want):

One potential replacement for Andersen who is sure to draw attention is former Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst (2005-'11), who is in his third season as head coach at Pittsburgh. Chryst was born and raised in Madison and played quarterback for the Badgers in the '80s.

“I thought Paul would surface here or Nebraska,” a source close to the UW program said. “What did you think when he didn’t take the Nebraska job?

“I think Paul knew this was in play.”

Riley and Chryst have coached together in the NFL and in college and are close friends.

Makes you wonder a lot of things, including: Was Chryst indeed offered the Nebraska job, as the Journal-Sentinel report suggests? Did he essentially have a choice between the two jobs? How much do you trust an anonymous source?

LJS

 

[Mavric]

Here's the full article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

 

[Count 'Bility]

That settles it then. And it confirms myfears since the day Eichorst was hired. Him and Alvarez have been conspiring to have wisconsin and nebraska to merge and join forces for not only big ten domination, but world domination. This is but a step on the staircase of deception.

 

[Kernal]

This from The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel newspaper (read into it what you want):

One potential replacement for Andersen who is sure to draw attention is former Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst (2005-'11), who is in his third season as head coach at Pittsburgh. Chryst was born and raised in Madison and played quarterback for the Badgers in the '80s.

“I thought Paul would surface here or Nebraska,” a source close to the UW program said. “What did you think when he didn’t take the Nebraska job?

“I think Paul knew this was in play.”

Riley and Chryst have coached together in the NFL and in college and are close friends.

Makes you wonder a lot of things, including: Was Chryst indeed offered the Nebraska job, as the Journal-Sentinel report suggests? Did he essentially have a choice between the two jobs? How much do you trust an anonymous source?

LJS

I've read speculation that some in Wisconsin were afraid Paul Chryst could come to NU as Riley's Offensive Coordinator, not head coach. I think that's what is meant by "surfacing" at Nebraska.

 

[bhamHusker]

I've read speculation that some in Wisconsin were afraid Paul Chryst could come to NU as Riley's Offensive Coordinator, not head coach. I think that's what is meant by "surfacing" at Nebraska.

Why would they be afraid he'd he leave his job as the HC at Pitt to be an OC here? I can see him upgrading to a better HC gig, but taking a step backwards and reducing his annual salary by more than half doesn't make any kind of sense.

 

[Danimal]

I don't believe that Riley was the only choice just because Perlmans says so, but I'm not buying the Chryst story. It sounds too contrived, and drama from Chryst's hire would make controversy over the Riley hire look like nothing. If Eichorst were to hire his old buddy that is .500 in his three seasons at Pitt he gets zero benefit of the doubt, if things don't go well he's done. Hell I'd go without HC experience and take Herman or Frost before Chryst.

 

[drfish]

My cousin's friend's aunt's hairdresser's nephew's barber's sister-in-law's father knows a former player that has it on good authority that "Bo is gone. Who cares why? Move on. All this speculation is like

" All you do is work up a lather without accomplishing anything.