Who do we hire?
- Thread starter Detasselingthehuskers
- Start date
All Hail Herbie
Five-Star Recruit
Frantz, your point is well taken and agreed. However, we keep evaluating the Riley and Frost tenures as 1:1 when we both know that they will not be treated the same. The Why is the most important question when we discuss a 5th Year for Coach Frost. And the answer is not found in his job performance to date, but with his history with the state, the university, and the football program as a player.Frost is 0-10 against top 25 teams with an average margin of defeat of 17.9
Riley was 2-6 against top 25 teams with an average margin of defeat of 18.0
For those reasons he has the option for a 5th Year, whether we are bowl eligible this year or not. If we miss a bowl this year for the 5th consecutive time, the right thing for him to do would be to move on (like Forrest Gregg at SMU). SMU never had to confront a decision on the future of the NFL Hall of Famer and alum, because he recognized that the state of the program could not be easily fixed during his tenure. Coach Frost should consider the same and the fans will think no less of him for it.
Nebraska55fan
Banned
In Frosts defense- Riley took over teams that consistently won 9-10 games. The situation Coach Frost took over from Smilin Mike "Retirement Fund Scammer" Riley was much different than what Smilin Mike took over from Bo.Frost is 0-10 against top 25 teams with an average margin of defeat of 17.9
Riley was 2-6 against top 25 teams with an average margin of defeat of 18.0
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Treand3
All-Conference
True about Beliema but you have to wonder what sort of offer was on the table. My point was Nebraska, as we know, comes with its set of challenges (and baggage) that one doesn't have to deal with at a place like Arkansas or Illinois and because of that you have to offer more, a lot more, than 4 million a year that BB was making at Arkansas. There are obvious jobs I wouldn't leave for a Nebraska program that is still unstable. Wanting to be somewhere is only as relevant to what you get in return with most jobs.
As for Riley, Coaching or a profession in any industry, the lack of results will get you fired no matter if you are the swellest person on the planet.
Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
Well my point was that the AD's sole motivation wasn't finding the anti-Pelini, as they wouldn't have reached out to Beilema first, and while Mike Riley was famously nice, he actually did have a respected coaching profile, notching 8 bowl seasons at one of the historically worst programs in college football, winning Pac 12 Coach of the Year, out-coaching the likes of Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh, turning down USC and Alabama when they were interested in hiring him, and getting a reputation straight from Rivals for successfully recruiting to the Pac 12's least attractive school . When Nebraska hired Riley in 2014, he had just been voted second most underrated college coach by his head coaching peers. Former players and coaches sent their own sons to Nebraska to play for him.
Riley failed and his firing was justified, but this notion that he was only hired because he was nice doesn't tell the story. In 2014, he just might have been the best coach who was willing to come here.
Treand3
All-Conference
Ok so maybe it wasn't solely about being a nice guy(Even though it played large factor) but based off of going after BB first as it is pointed out, you have to question how intentful the search actually was. It seemed like it was going to be a Wisconsin inspired hire, which may or may not have been the best approach. Eichorst spent almost the same amount of time in Wisconsin's Athletic Department as Bielema was the coach for the Badgers and as Chryst was BB's OC, who spent a bit of time under Riley. Riley also was highly recommended from Alvarez as well.
I can think of another Pac-12 HC that would've taken the Nebraska job after Bo was fired but wasn't offered enough money to pull the trigger. There was contact with the Athletic Dep. He uses a system that could've fit Armstrong (Dispite my disdain for him as a QB) and the other Pelini recruited talent much better than trying to implement a pro style offense. He also only had only 2 losing seasons out 10 up to that point with some 10 win seasons and a BCS bowl win. So to me money absolutely is a factor when in a coaching search and can be used accordingly to attract a quality coach with proven success, not based off an upset here or there with all due respect. It very well could've been that that's all they could afford but because of that we have been paying for it the last several years. Just my couple of cents.
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Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
Maybe everyone else knows who you're talking about, but I'm drawing a blank.
David Shaw at Stanford? He would have been perfect, but it's hard to imagine him leaving that set-up.
Gotta admit, I didn't hear many substantiated rumors at all in 2014, maybe because the 2004 post-Solich search went public and looked bad for the program.
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fwhuskerfan
Walk-on
Wittingham at Utah was my guess
Treand3
All-Conference
Shaw wasn't leaving Stanford.
Whittingham....Absolutely would've taken the job had we paid up.
I say that because Utah ended up bumping up his salary to 2.6 million per year after there was communication with Nebraska. Riley started out at 2.9 million. I feel pretty confident if the brass would've offered north of 3 million he would've jumped. He's good with OL and and is a DL/LB guy at heart which is needed in the B1G. Where Riley is a QB centric coach as is Frost. Again I know there is the possibility that they didn't want to payout more than what they did to start Riley but Whittingham is now making the same per year as Frost he has a lot more to show for it.
Bingo
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Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
I still struggle to remember that Utah and Colorado are in the Pac 12.
Guy Chamberlin
Heisman Trophy Winner
The defense came out of halftime and let a really bad Illinois team push them around and put the game out of reach. That was a team wide meltdown.
Arguably, the offense has played well enough for us to be 3-1. The defense played well enough for us to be 3- 1.
I'm looking at you, Special Teams.
Hagg
Starter
Then the offense will collapse. Wait a minute, it usually does anyway. Okay, go ahead with that ST and defense thing. Actually it’s the defense that is improving quite well as it is. Let’s have Frost get rid of the O-line guy and the ST guy and we’ll be good to go.
Trev talked about that it's a little tricky. He doesn't want to pull anyone off the defense cause we are finally getting that side of the ball figured out. As for the line coach better see vasr improvement till the end of the year or he gone