I don't get the logic.
How is it that Dennis Erickson being able to win at a place like Oregon St. means that Dennis Erickson is a great coach, but Mike Riley winning at a place like Oregon St. raises doubts about his coaching ability?
I think TheSker just really has something against Riley and really liked Bo Pelini. Which again, doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense.
TheSker is probably Mary Pat.
*Mind blown*
Dennis Erickson is a Mercenary Coach. As head coach he has had 10 jobs since 1985. Eight of those jobs were in college and 2 were with the pros. The longest he spent at any job was 6 years and that was Miami. Most jobs it was 4 or less years. He would either be fired or moving on to the next great thing.
Erickson's record at OSU over his 4 year period was his record was 31-17 for a 65% win percentage. Nice, but not spectacular. His records were 7-5, 11-1, 5-6, 8-5. He had the very nice record his second year and played a bad ND team in the Fiesta Bowl with mostly MR recruits, and he got real lucky with a couple of JUCO guys that really helped his team.
No one is ever going to convince me that Erickson is a great coach. He is pretty good, but he is really good at finding a situation that helps further his career.
MIke Riley's career record at OSU is 93-80 for 54% win percentage very average. But from 2003-2009 his record was 56-33 with only 1 losing season. What happened to cause the down turn in his fortunes? A couple of things that I can see.
1. The rise of the PAC 12 overall as a conference, specifically Oregon and Stanford, but also UCLA, ASU, Arizona. These teams man for man almost always had better talent than OSU,but the coaching was upgraded at all of those schools and really saw a jump in their quality of play.
2. The money that OSU was gaining from its FB program was not being put back into the FB program it was being spread throughout the AD to upgrade all the sports teams. He wasn't able to keep up with the other PAC 12 teams in facilities and recruiting budgets etc.
3. I think Mike Riley got a little too comfortable in his position at OSU, I think he got a little complacent with his nice lifetime contract and had lost some fire. I think he needed a new challenge and Nebraska is it.