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Here's why: You're going to replace your football coach. The season is done in just over two months. That means you have a very short amount of time to: 1) Conduct a search and hire the right Athletic Director for your school 2) Give that person time to conduct a search to hire the right football coach for your school 3) Give that coach enough time to salvage/rebuild the recruiting class This is 100% about firing Mike Riley and not trusting the man who hired him to replace him. So what happens next? Ronnie Green has a press conference scheduled at 2:30. Best-case scenario, he has a knock-your-socks-off Athletic Director already hired and coming to the podium with him. This is highly unlikely. Green will announce Eichorst's termination and his plans to fill the vacancy. He will most likely express support for "all of our coaches" and our commitment to excellence. Bap bap bap. Within the next two to six weeks, UNL will hire a new Athletic Director who will announce they are going to evaluate all sports. This means they're going to fire Mike Riley if he isn't already gone and he isn't winning every game since Eichorst has been fired. Sometime around the end of November we'll learn Riley's fate. If there's an amazing hire and it isn't someone not going to a bowl or not Jon Gruden, we may not know who will replace Riley until January. So, short story long, buckle up folks. We've got another three or four months of rocky road ahead.

We hire Jim Tressel. Jim hires Bo Pelini. Half the fanbase explodes.

-1 just for putting Barf's name in the thread title

It would be the most Mike Riley thing ever to turn this team around and win the B1G title game. "Boy we uh, just believed and uh worked hard. These guys uh, played well and uh, gosh it uh, just all seemed to work out."

The last 16 years haven't been the most enjoyable as a fan. But they sure haven't been boring.

I think firing Eichorst was the right step, but that's the first step of many. The rest of the steps are just as important as the first. Here are two things to avoid in those steps. 1) Avoid Les Miles like the plague. He's 63 and will bring most of the same problems Riley has. Sure he may be "better" than Riley but that's like being the thinnest kid at fat camp. Nebraska should strive for higher standards. Remember that Purdue and Minnesota had no interest in hiring Les. 2) Don't just decide to hire Trev Alberts. Please do an actual search for an AD. If Trev has a great interview, a great vision for the future, and has a plan to achieve that vision, then you can hire him. But don't just hire him because he played for Nebraska and is in state. Try to hire the best of the best.

Couple of things from that column about Frost: "After all, there's a reason Nebraska hasn't won a conference title in nearly 20 years." OK, what's that reason? Without diagnosing the reason, this is just hot air. If you know what ails Nebraska, out with it, Mr. Sportswriter. We could sure use a diagnosis so we can start fixing our ills. "If he does that then he could leave UCF for a much better job than Nebraska." What "much better job?" One that pays more? We have pockets as deep as anyone. One with better facilities? There aren't ten schools better set up than Nebraska. One with a more on-board fan base? Not gonna find that. One with easier expectations? See, the trick about being a hot-commodity coach is, you're going to be expected to win wherever you go. If you're taking a "better" job than Nebraska the pressure to win won't be any less, and the consequences of failing to live up to expectations won't be any different. Nebraska is a sleeping giant. As Eichorst & Riley both said after the NIU debacle, we have everything we need to succeed right here, right now. A competent coach could come in and right this ship very quickly. I'm not sure if the writer is saying Frost isn't that coach, or if he's saying Nebraska isn't going to be easy to fix. If the former, maybe he's right, but that's about Frost, not Nebraska. If it's the latter, he's wrong, and all of college football will find that out when we get the right staff in here.

Says every coach in sports....up until he takes a new job. This article is nothing more than a local UCF sports writer writing something trying to convince Frost to stay.

While we lost a very ugly, disappointing game, I feel the Defensive performance got a bit overlooked. I know they gave up a touchdown at the very worst time, but giving up one touchdown and taking heat is like when people dog on the guy who missed the last shot in basketball that would have won the game. Yes, it is good to make every shot, but everyone had chances earlier in the game to make that last shot moot. 7 points in the last six quarters is pretty salty in my opinion, regardless of the competition. Please don't try to convince me otherwise.....this is all I have to hang on to!

What's the fascination with Les Miles? He's a coach in his 60s that has been on the decline, no thanks. His best years are over just like Riley's.

Nah, i agree with him. There's a narrative in the national media that thinks that NU fans expect national championships every year. That's simply not true. Nebraska fans are smart enough to realize the game has changed. BUT... it hasn't changed so much that people can't expect us not to be a laughing stock. Lets say Frost comes in, and he is "the man" and NU dominates the division, wins the west 2/4 years and wins one B1G title every 4. I think Husker fans take that in a hearbeat.

Barfy has been telling the truth for years? Who's truth? His truth or the actual truth? Now you are pimping a Dirk article? Holy cow just stop. So everything is the ADs fault unless the AD is TO then it is the Chancellors fault? Is that how it worked(s)?

Take a lap

I don't really care about Nebraska ties anymore. Things had changed since the 90's. Our strength and conditioning in the 90's and earlier were so above and beyond the rest of the country we could take Nebraska farm boys and turn them into blocking powerhouses. It's different now. Nebraska ties would be a small cherry no top. I want a proven coach, and I want to shell out an insane amount of money for him. I want a proven winner. I know people LOVE to think about Frost, but we need consistency and a proven record. Scott hasn't had a chance to prove those things yet, not because he is incapable, but because he hasn't had enough time. I feel so much better today.

I'm betting it's over. And the relief is, at least we know. Barring a miracle, this experimental, hope-for-the-best hire is done. It's off to the next one. Just gotta rip the band-aid off this regime.

So help me if this guy turns out to be an OWH subscription salesman...

"Must read" and "Barfknecht" do not belong in the same sentence. Honestly - nothing Barf writes can't be found on half a dozen Husker message boards.

I refuse to read any article written by Barfy. Haven't read his crap for years. So so let me get this straight, the "cancer" that has been in the Athletic Department also includes the man that is your avatar?

No don't go

You're trying to hard. And the space hints at the copy and paste.

Calm down Jason.

Eichorst was brought into fire Bo at the request of Perlman. Eichorst just screwed up and did it a year late, and then hired a bad coach after firing Bo.

Its time to move on, there's nothing he can do to magically become some great coach. He was exactly what his record suggested he would be.

Love Hank and Ronnie are hiring a search firm. Leads me to believe it will be a true national search and not just Trev.

Will we ever stop with this? I give TO all the respect for what he did on the sidelines, that was two decades ago. Let the man be and let this program move on.

I really think if he's 7-5 or 8-4 you don't can him. You make changes on the staff at OL and RB coach and allow for another year of development in this group under Riley. Let's not overreact to one loss. And you don't keep a coach for his recruits but if he's able to get guys like Parsons or Pledger etc..

Callahan, Pelini and Riley were/are unworthy coaches for an institution like Nebraska, except of course, when they were actually hired. Callahan had just coached an NFL team to the Super Bowl (and would go back to a respectable professional coaching career) so suggesting the University of Nebraska was above his station is kinda silly. I don't think Callahan was a good fit, and frankly he needed a place to land after his firing, but only hindsight lets you bemoan his hiring over our preferred candidate, the coveted college football genius Houston Nutt. We didn't "settle" for Bo Pelini. We wanted him. Many already considered him a Husker from his last stint with the team -- and many wanted him hired back in '03 — and when we got our second chance he was the Defensive Coordinator for the National Champion LSU Tigers, part of a resume that included the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers. There wasn't much handwringing at the time: Bo was no doubt about to be hired by a P5 program, and we got to claim him as proven Husker. The year we hired him, Mike Riley was voted the second most underrated coach by his college football peers. His reputation for doing more with less was enough to make him a candidate for HC jobs at USC, UCLA and Alabama. His recruiting reputation was so respected that Rivals called the hiring a huge win for Nebraska. NFL superstars like Kurt Warner, Keyshawn Johnson and Chirs Spielman send their sons and nephews to Nebraska to play for Riley. None of these guys has worked out. Not at the level Nebraska fans demand. But every hiring was defensible at the time, and if we're applying hindsight, the guy you supposedly thought we should hire in 2003, 2007 and 2014 often went on to post records unacceptable by our lofty Nebraska standards. The only thing sadder is fans who think the University could cut a check and get Nick Saban or Urban Meyer to jump at the opportunity. It's not easy hiring a legendary coach.

Maybe I'm in the minority here but losing to NIU at home is not what I consider a "slow start". We should have won the game on talent alone so I feel like it comes down to coaching. He wasn't a splash hire and I think he needs to go. The program needs a coach that can launch it back into the top 25 where it belongs. It pains me when I look at the top 25 now and see teams like San Diego State in it and we're sitting at 1-2.

Please, just stop with the trolling/purposefully obtuse/ignorant hot takes. The reason we are being outspent by Purdue is because we took a gamble on a coach who A) isn't a humongously hot commodity, B) doesn't really care all that much about 3.5 million compared to 2.5 million, and C) knew the writing on the wall of not being here long even if he did extremely well. Riley at Nebraska is an anomaly of a situation. Please don't try to compare it to a school trying to pay top dollar for a 'splash hire' up and comer who was shopping around the market. We pay Bob Diaco more than any school in the B1G pays any assistant coaches other than Michigan, and we have the highest recruiting budget of any school in our conference (all that before ever having an equal share of TV revenue). That should be all you need to know that we're willing to spend competitive amounts of money when necessary.

No but it reveals your dishonesty when your only rationale given for listing it is the point differential, but the 70-10 (higher point differential, bud) 2004 game against a worse Texas Tech team doesn't make your top 3. Blowouts are blowouts. Once it gets to the point of being considered one, the score is honestly irrelevant because both teams have understood that to be the case at the latest sometime in the third quarter, and anything from there on is a wash. How about you give a real reason? Until you do, this entire board dismisses most of what you have to offer by way of opinion to be ignorant and simplistic.

Has he really recruited better than the last coach? Should it really take 4 or 5 years to see improvements? Good coaches don't need "their guys" to show program improvements.

Osborne played for NC several times before winning one. Won Big 8 titles. Competed for Big 8 titles each year. Tom Osborne was as consistent as a coach as you will ever find.

Chip Kelly ran the damn ball. A lot. At a pace that defenses hated. We would be lucky to have him.

We'll be no worse off than we were in 2004, at the very least. Prospective coaches aren't stupid. They know what Nebraska is. They also know, as everyone does now in hindsight, that Pedersen canning Solich was bulls#!t, and not indicative of anything other than a rogue AD making a bad decision. They also know that despite his 9 win seasons, Bo needed to go. Nobody is holding that against us anymore. If Riley struggles to a losing or barely winning season, they'll know that Riley wasn't the right guy and wasn't good enough. None of that, in 2017, screams, "Oh Nebraska has such unrealistic and unreasonable expectations."

Isn't it too soon for SE to be writing on here? This is about the saddest excuse for an ass kissing I have ever read. SE was a fraud and a fake. Plain and simple. He can take his money and go. He never wanted what was best for Nebraska or he wouldn't have hired Riley in the first place. Career .500 coaches are what they are for a reason. He was far from a businessman, unless he was a businessman that ran his shop like a dictatorship. He wanted YesMen to surround himself, just as Harvey taught him And STPAUL Husker... SE had nothing to do with Volleyball winning the Natl Title cause as Jason Peters said, he gave Coach Cook and the Volleyball Program ZERO support. So goodbye and good riddance Shawn. The door can certainly hit you on the way out.

Get someone to grammar check it.

Fine, if you want to pretend he won't be, then that's your prerogative. The writing is on the wall though. If he can't beat NIU, how's he going to get to 7 or 8 wins? Even if he does somehow do that, next season is the coach-killing schedule anyways.

Plans to visit for OhioSt game.

If Scott was in his 5th or 6th year at UCF I'd feel more confident in him coming to DONU.

It's like the who's who list of people I wouldn't want to be president if something were to happen to Trump.

Would it kill you to NOT be pessimistic about every freaking aspect of this team? To admit Diaco did a good job? Criminy!

The bold is 100% not true, and you can ask fans of any of the lower-profile schools (Purdue, Northwestern, Indiana) about that. The Big Ten's heavy hitters like Michigan & Ohio State do not use their power to gain undue influence like Texas did/does. The Big Ten has always been MUCH more democratic, a "rising tide floats all ships" mentality. You may be right that Colorado was initially a target, but I'm not sure I remember that. What I remember is that four Big XII schools were going to the Pac-10, while Missouri's governor was basically on his knees begging to get into the Big Ten. The package of Big XII schools rumored to be headed to the Pac-10 included Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado & Texas A&M, but exactly which schools and how many were under negotiation. The one key in all of this was that Baylor was never considered part of the move, and that rankled the Baylor Admin, who had (have?) powerful friends in the Texas legislature. Baylor did all the backroom wheeling & dealing they could, and had it rigged so that they went along with the Big Boys to the Pac-10 and Colorado was left out in the cold. The Buffs, for all our history with them, are to be commended for taking decisive action. Once they discovered they were being ousted for, of all schools, Baylor(!), they immediately began separate negotiations with the Pac-10 to join by themselves. This likely saved Colorado from being a MWC or CUSA school, and all but confirmed that Nebraska would bolt the Big XII. The deal between the Big XII group and the Pac-10 was held up by the liberal Left Coast schools not wanting religiously conservative Baylor, and Texas was holding firm to their desire to have their own Longhorn Network, which was already in the works as of 2010. Negotiations were ongoing but not productive. Colorado changed all that with their preemptive move. Suddenly Baylor was completely out of the picture. The other Texas schools, who had been browbeaten into solidarity by the Texas legislature, were left without negotiating power. Oklahoma had tied fate to Texas' stern and would go wherever they led. Missouri was already half out the door to whomever would take them, and the Big Fish in the North - Nebraska - was suddenly on extremely tenuous ground, faced with trying to cobble together a conference out of regional schools that would have resembled something like THIS MESS, and that's when Perlman & Osborne did the best thing that's happened to Nebraska, both athletically and for the University as a whole, in the past 20 years - they said Yes to the offer floated by the Big Ten for immediate membership. Fifty years from now the University of Nebraska will be on solid footing, in a prestigious conference, with respectful peers and a respectable academic reputation. This move was brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, and keeps us in company with schools with which we have far more in common than our former Texas brethren.

I feel absolutely ridiculous that off the top of my head I came up with this list. 20 games?! Ughh Southern Miss 2004 Texas Tech 2004 Oklahoma 2004 Missouri 2007 Oklahoma State 2007 Kansas 2007 Oklahoma 2008 Texas Tech 2009 Iowa State 2009 Texas 2010 Wisconsin 2011 Michigan 2011 Ohio State 2012 Wisconsin 2012 UCLA 2013 Minnesota 2013 Wisconsin 2014 Illinois 2015 Ohio State 2016 Northern Illinois 2017