OWH McKweon poses a great question about future.

He probably cant. While fixing the misscues and instilling his own style he will unearth his own shortcomings. There was no magic answer to our woes. Riley too will have to be given time to fix it. We will see progress and regression.

 
Eric the Red said:
McKewon: Tommy Armstrong, Tim Beck make strong cases in Huskers' bowl loss

How does Riley keep all the good stuff about Pelini’s tenure while spackling its structural cracks?

Yes there is plenty of great stuff Pelini brought.
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After watching the game Saturday, Riley has to be very pleased with what he saw. Nebraska players had a rough month, and were able to hang with a very talented team. USC is going to be a National Title contender next year. They are good. Not many new coaches get to walk into a situation where a program is used to winning a lot of games. The potential is there for a quick turnaround with this team, and I'm betting Riley is well aware of that.

 
Some folk dont want to admit it but other than the controversial exit of Bo, Riley is walking into a pretty great situation in Lincoln. The talent is there like a 100 piece puzzle waiting to be put together.

 
That simply is not true. We have talent, some very good, but not the row after row talent of the major programs. USC played the game with 51 scholarship athletes and were able to beat Nebraska, imagine them with 85 and rolling DL after DL fresh. OL 3 deep at every position that can play close to the first string.

Be realistic in your expectations. We are not at the top teams level. Mostly because we failed to recruit from the top down, we decided to recruit who we thought we could get and let the major programs take the top kids with out a fight. I think that may change some now. The team over in Columbus, has far more talent than Nebraska, they are always going to be a hurdle, with Harbaugh going to Michigan and Franklin at Penn State, it is going to be even tougher.

I think Coach Riley will get us there, not next year or the year after, but down the road a bit. He will be able to recruit to Nebraska, and he has a pretty good eye for talent. He will develop what we have, and he will find diamonds in the rough like the Rodgers brothers.

Just give the man time.

 
for most of the years i've been alive(48) with the exception of the 90's, Nebraska made very good with identifying talent in the rough. that is my biggest hope. we get the recruiting going. we have the coaching , facilities and program . let the players take care of the rest. its a hell of a lot easier coaching and winning with good players than bad.

someone said something about competing with the big boys for recruits..i'd say that in year 3-4...there is only so much time in the day, if you don't properly survey the surrounding, know your strengths and weaknesses and work accordingly you can end up with a lot of busted deals and failed pipeline, broke on the street. then you are scrambling to fill the roster.

id rather see us know our strengths (for now) develop a simple system, create an identity, recruit to that system/identity and run it with freightening efficiency(like K state). find the overlooked 2 stars and 3 stars. that will likely put you in the top 15 consistently, then you can start to pick fights with SEC over players after the close calls with the final 4...a big 10 champ. appearance or 2. right now I think enough kids see Nebraska as irrelevant. we need to be relevant first , figuring out how we can win with who we can find and develop would be my job 1.

but that's just me....im not a coach.

I do think Riley has the right demeanor and background to get it done...

 
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skersfan said:
That simply is not true. We have talent, some very good, but not the row after row talent of the major programs. USC played the game with 51 scholarship athletes and were able to beat Nebraska, imagine them with 85 and rolling DL after DL fresh. OL 3 deep at every position that can play close to the first string.

Be realistic in your expectations. We are not at the top teams level. Mostly because we failed to recruit from the top down, we decided to recruit who we thought we could get and let the major programs take the top kids with out a fight. I think that may change some now. The team over in Columbus, has far more talent than Nebraska, they are always going to be a hurdle, with Harbaugh going to Michigan and Franklin at Penn State, it is going to be even tougher.

I think Coach Riley will get us there, not next year or the year after, but down the road a bit. He will be able to recruit to Nebraska, and he has a pretty good eye for talent. He will develop what we have, and he will find diamonds in the rough like the Rodgers brothers.

Just give the man time.
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Mike Riley has 3 years. Had we landed a big name coach with proven success there would have been more flexibility. However, we are taking a huge gamble with Riley IMHO. He does not have a history that says he deserves a benefit of the doubt. SE stated we are out to play championship football. He then hired Mike Riley. My expectations have not changed and will not change due to the previous staffs recruiting efforts or the new hire that was made. This program is at the brink....if this hire fails, it will be almost impossible to recover from. At which point our ability to spend "resources" on a proven coach may have passed us by.

I hope I am wrong.

 
1995 Redux said:
Some folk dont want to admit it but other than the controversial exit of Bo, Riley is walking into a pretty great situation in Lincoln. The talent is there like a 100 piece puzzle waiting to be put together.
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He needs to get more pieces. We're shorthanded at LB in both quality and quantity right now. OL needs a lot of work, it's tough to tell how much talent is in the fold there. QB is still a question mark, even more so with a new system coming in. Need more depth on the DL.

Bo left some good players but plenty of roster holes too.

 
skersfan said:
That simply is not true. We have talent, some very good, but not the row after row talent of the major programs. USC played the game with 51 scholarship athletes and were able to beat Nebraska, imagine them with 85 and rolling DL after DL fresh. OL 3 deep at every position that can play close to the first string.

Be realistic in your expectations. We are not at the top teams level. Mostly because we failed to recruit from the top down, we decided to recruit who we thought we could get and let the major programs take the top kids with out a fight. I think that may change some now. The team over in Columbus, has far more talent than Nebraska, they are always going to be a hurdle, with Harbaugh going to Michigan and Franklin at Penn State, it is going to be even tougher.

I think Coach Riley will get us there, not next year or the year after, but down the road a bit. He will be able to recruit to Nebraska, and he has a pretty good eye for talent. He will develop what we have, and he will find diamonds in the rough like the Rodgers brothers.

Just give the man time.
Click to expand...
What isnt true? That hes entering a good situation? He most certainly is. He has a chance to sign a great class before he even coaches a spring game. Add that to the talented guys he has to work with on offense and young but experienced defense and he has nothing to complain about.

You criticized Bo for not being able to turn us around quicker yet you expect a 61 year old to take his time making us better over years and years? He needs to make this a quick turnaround, especially considering the 9 win bar has been pretty much set in stone now.

 
1995 Redux said:
What isnt true? That hes entering a good situation? He most certainly is. He has a chance to sign a great class before he even coaches a spring game. Add that to the talented guys he has to work with on offense and young but experienced defense and he has nothing to complain about.

You criticized Bo for not being able to turn us around quicker yet you expect a 61 year old to take his time making us better over years and years? He needs to make this a quick turnaround, especially considering the 9 win bar has been pretty much set in stone now.
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I don't think the team is as talented as you make it out to be. Our #1's could run with most of the B1G (OL being the exception). But the #2's, and #3's...that's where we fall behind the elite. Those guys are probably a better measure of talent than just concentrating on the 1's. Every team is going to find a handful of top guys, but it's those behind them that make the difference between 10 wins and 12. We aren't 12 win talented. We're not far off, but I'd say we're no closer today than we were in 2008 when Bo took over. We've got to get those 15ish ranked classes, that are FULL. Then Riley can do something.

 
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I'll leave this link to the thread I created about Nebraska talent vs the Big Ten and Oregon State talent vs the Big XII. IIRC, Nebraska was the 3rd most talented team in the Big Ten (and most talented team in our division) according to recruiting rankings over the past 4 years this past season. This year's class isn't finished yet, so we don't know where we'll stack up in terms of talent come next fall. But Mike Riley should be able to come in here and start competing/winning Big Ten titles right away. He's a good coach, so don't expect much regression from the typical #9wins, but the room for improvement, especially considering what he's done at Oregon State, is limitless.

Also, when it comes to the conference title games/playoff games, I don't think talent is as much of a factor as talent + coaching. Boise State wasn't more talented than Oklahoma. Utah wasn't more talented than Alabama. Hawai'i wasn't more talented than Notre Dame. We do have the talent to get us to these games. I think we just haven't had the coaching.

Here's the link: http://www.huskerboard.com/index.php?/topic/73092-talent-vs-coaching-mike-riley-the-pac-12-vs-bo-pelini-the-b1g/&do=findComment&comment=1480298

 
Ya know I find it funny that over and over it got posted that the problem was Bo and his staff and their coaching being the problem. Now that they have been taken out of the equation, its the fact he didnt recruit the right players or good enough players so he hasnt left Riley much to work with.

Making the excuse that we arent talented enough to win many games in Rileys first year because of Bo's "poor recruiting" is just as bad as the guys (myself included) that blamed conference adjustment and injuries for Bo's lack of success.

 
1995 Redux said:
Ya know I find it funny that over and over it got posted that the problem was Bo and his staff and their coaching being the problem. Now that they have been taken out of the equation, its the fact he didnt recruit the right players or good enough players so he hasnt left Riley much to work with.

Making the excuse that we arent talented enough to win many games in Rileys first year because of Bo's "poor recruiting" is just as bad as the guys (myself included) that blamed conference adjustment and injuries for Bo's lack of success.
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We will be changing offensive and defensive systems. Expecting to win big in year 1 is a recipe for disappointment. Expecting to win big in the next 3-5 years is realistic and fair.

Bo had 7 seasons to build a championship level program and he couldn't do it. If Riley does the same he will be let go as well.

 
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alwayshusking said:
1995 Redux said:
Ya know I find it funny that over and over it got posted that the problem was Bo and his staff and their coaching being the problem. Now that they have been taken out of the equation, its the fact he didnt recruit the right players or good enough players so he hasnt left Riley much to work with.

Making the excuse that we arent talented enough to win many games in Rileys first year because of Bo's "poor recruiting" is just as bad as the guys (myself included) that blamed conference adjustment and injuries for Bo's lack of success.
Click to expand...
We will be changing offensive and defensive systems. Expecting to win big in year 1 is a recipe for disappointment. Expecting to win big in the next 3-5 years is realistic and fair.

Bo had 7 seasons to build a championship level program and he couldn't do it. If Riley does the same he will be let go as well.
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Theres no way he gets 7 years if we continue 8-4 or worse. The guy said Saturday night the main factor into this being right place and right time was his age. That alone tells me that even if he is successful right away this isnt going to be a 10 year affair. I expect the next OC to be the coach in waiting.

 
alwayshusking said:
We will be changing offensive and defensive systems. Expecting to win big in year 1 is a recipe for disappointment. Expecting to win big in the next 3-5 years is realistic and fair.

Bo had 7 seasons to build a championship level program and he couldn't do it. If Riley does the same he will be let go as well.
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Had we finished 5-7 like Oregon State did, the above might be true.

 
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