eightlaces
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A parent chimes in on the difference between Mike Riley and Michigan's Man.
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Perhaps my most personal piece to date.
Lawrence Phillips: The Villain, the Victim and the Questions He Left Us With
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Big Vince makes one mistake in declaring early and it's a big one.
Nebraska's Vincent Valentine Makes Critical Mistake in Declaring for NFL
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What impact would you say that "negative fan reactions" had for Pelini when it came to recruiting?
Because if that's a valid excuse now, you can only imagine what it must have been like trying to recruit with people calling for your head after a 9 win season and a bowl win over Georgia... not to mention, almost no outward support from an administration.
I'm just trying to figure out where the goalposts are set.
Reality is, Riley will probably recruit about as well as his predecessor and the two coaches before that guy. This recruitnik parsing of a recruit here and there isn't really worth much.
It's going to come down to whether Riley and his staff can get a +2 to +4 wins out of talent that should consistently win 8 games a season (i.e., the level of talent NU has and will likely continue to bring in).
This year, they were at least -5 in my opinion.
1.) Pelini hated recruiting enough to hurt himself and always has, but that's beside the point. No one called for his firing until maybe four or five years into his tenure not four or five games into it
2.) Riley actually understands how to recruit much like Callahan did. You have to keep your recruiters responsible and he has some excellent young recruiters such as Bray and Williams.
Regarding #1, at the risk of derailing the thread, the reason for the discrepancy between the five years for Pelini and five games for Riley is that (1) most people were pleased with Pelini was hired whereas people either said "Who?" or "Oh no, not the career .500 coach from Oregon State" when Riley was announced, and (2) Pelini took a 5-7 team and went 8-5, whereas Riley took a 9-3 team and went 5-7.
Regarding #2, what do you make of Hank Hughes, Bruce Read, and Mark Banker, three coaches who, if the reports are to be believed, do jack you-know-what on the recruiting trail? There is no doubt that Bray and Williams are the bright spots of an otherwise very "Meh" coaching staff, but having two guys who recruit their tails off while several others sit on their ass does not constitute "keeping one's recruiters responsible," IMO.
Good questions.
1.) You're correct and again, his status wasn't remotely in doubt until 2011 at the earliest.
2.) Hughes and Read are not guys I look to as stud recruiters. I'm not sure where you're hearing this stuff about Banker because the guy shows up just as much as anyone else. Is he THE closer? No, but he'll get his. Riley, Langs, Williams, Bray and Stewart are all good for quality recruits. You're not going to have an entire staff of stud recruiters. Fortunately, not only does Nebraska have assistants who can close, it has a support staff second to none.
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Point 1 is pure fabrication both in terms of his view on recruiting and when people started bitching. Many didn't like to see Callahan go (some still post here) and never wanted pelini. As far as Riley goes, if any other coach had started like he did, people would have been upset too. As it stands, the timing is immaterial to my question about negative fans impacting recruiting.What impact would you say that "negative fan reactions" had for Pelini when it came to recruiting?
Because if that's a valid excuse now, you can only imagine what it must have been like trying to recruit with people calling for your head after a 9 win season and a bowl win over Georgia... not to mention, almost no outward support from an administration.
I'm just trying to figure out where the goalposts are set.
Reality is, Riley will probably recruit about as well as his predecessor and the two coaches before that guy. This recruitnik parsing of a recruit here and there isn't really worth much.
It's going to come down to whether Riley and his staff can get a +2 to +4 wins out of talent that should consistently win 8 games a season (i.e., the level of talent NU has and will likely continue to bring in).
This year, they were at least -5 in my opinion.
1.) Pelini hated recruiting enough to hurt himself and always has, but that's beside the point. No one called for his firing until maybe four or five years into his tenure not four or five games into it
2.) Riley actually understands how to recruit much like Callahan did. You have to keep your recruiters responsible and he has some excellent young recruiters such as Bray and Williams.
Re: point 2, The argument that Callahan was a good recruiter is pure delusion. He landed some good players, like all NU coaches have, but mainly on the back of the shadiest recruiter at Nebraska in decades. Every NU staff has had great recruiting coaches. Bray and Williams are on par, but hardly exceed others. Where do you put Hughes, banker and the ST coach as pure recruiters? If you were honest, they would be behind every assistant at NU during at least the past 8 years.
Point one isn't fabrication. Happened at LSU, happened at Nebraska and is currently happening at Youngstown. He hates dealing with recruiting and what's worse, the proof is in the pudding.
Point two is not delusion, you just don't like Bill.
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The idea that Riley and Langs wanted to do things "their way" a.k.a. The Callahan Effect isn't true at all. Coming into the job, he was asked about being pass-happy and he said no, I want people on the ground with the ball. He said the same thing following the win versus UCLA, so at this point I'm curious if people are just hearing what they want to.
What you say starts to ring hollow if it isn't matching up to what you do.
Hard to do it when you don't have the personnel who can execute it properly. We're talking about the understanding of principles and familiarity. The team's confidence and knowledge of what they were looking to do versus Miami is obviously different than it was versus UCLA. That's a ten game difference.
It's also hard to do it when you give the ball to our backs 18 times and call 45+ pass plays.
Newby averaged 5.9 yards per carry against Miami this year. Ameer averaged 6.5 yards per carry vs. Miami last year. 6.5 is better than 5.9 but not so much that one of those games resulted in 229 rushing yards while the other resulted in 82.
If the coaches are telling you can run it against certain teams but you can't run it against other teams, that's pretty much where that confidence is coming from.
There is no "sweet spot" for passing the ball. It's about the effectiveness of the passes you do throw. That's why TO had a highly effective passing game even though he often threw it around 15 times a game. "Balance" is overrated, and I hope Riley is realizing that and coaching up Langs accordingly.
I generally agree with everything here but what the bolded implies. Armstrong won the game (leading an offense to 37 points while posting 250+ yards in total offense is much better than just avoiding a loss). This just makes me wonder why that wasn't the game plan for games like Purdue and Illinois, which should have been walk off wins.
When it comes to Riley's offense, yes there is. However, you are correct when it comes to the effectiveness of the pass. You'll see passes that Tommy failed to make again only if he can't make them, someone else will.
Armstrong won the game because he was put in position not to do much damage and stay on the ground where he was more of a threat to UCLA than putting the ball in the air where he was actually a threat to his own team's success. Also, Purdue? Ryker Fyfe.
Knock Fyfe, but then admit that having a pass heavy first half and a disastrous 70% passing 3rd quarter after trailing only 21-9 at half was all on the coaches and their awful game planning.
Riley's offense has been traditionally much more than 22 passes a game. I think in his own idea world, attempts would be between 35 and 40 a game. At least based on his history. M
The absolutely most Riley'd want to see the ball passed is likely 35 and that's only in a situation where you have a passing game that can gash a defense like Nebraska's run did against the UCLA D. There's no reason to cross 30.
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What impact would you say that "negative fan reactions" had for Pelini when it came to recruiting?
Because if that's a valid excuse now, you can only imagine what it must have been like trying to recruit with people calling for your head after a 9 win season and a bowl win over Georgia... not to mention, almost no outward support from an administration.
I'm just trying to figure out where the goalposts are set.
Reality is, Riley will probably recruit about as well as his predecessor and the two coaches before that guy. This recruitnik parsing of a recruit here and there isn't really worth much.
It's going to come down to whether Riley and his staff can get a +2 to +4 wins out of talent that should consistently win 8 games a season (i.e., the level of talent NU has and will likely continue to bring in).
This year, they were at least -5 in my opinion.
1.) Pelini hated recruiting enough to hurt himself and always has, but that's beside the point. No one called for his firing until maybe four or five years into his tenure not four or five games into it
2.) Riley actually understands how to recruit much like Callahan did. You have to keep your recruiters responsible and he has some excellent young recruiters such as Bray and Williams.
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How is a recruiting class ranked in the 40's receive an A?
1.) We're viewing Riley's hiring to now as the year.
2.) Nebraska's current rank is 32.
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There is no "sweet spot" for passing the ball. It's about the effectiveness of the passes you do throw. That's why TO had a highly effective passing game even though he often threw it around 15 times a game. "Balance" is overrated, and I hope Riley is realizing that and coaching up Langs accordingly.
I generally agree with everything here but what the bolded implies. Armstrong won the game (leading an offense to 37 points while posting 250+ yards in total offense is much better than just avoiding a loss). This just makes me wonder why that wasn't the game plan for games like Purdue and Illinois, which should have been walk off wins.
When it comes to Riley's offense, yes there is. However, you are correct when it comes to the effectiveness of the pass. You'll see passes that Tommy failed to make again only if he can't make them, someone else will.
Armstrong won the game because he was put in position not to do much damage and stay on the ground where he was more of a threat to UCLA than putting the ball in the air where he was actually a threat to his own team's success. Also, Purdue? Ryker Fyfe.
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The idea that Riley and Langs wanted to do things "their way" a.k.a. The Callahan Effect isn't true at all. Coming into the job, he was asked about being pass-happy and he said no, I want people on the ground with the ball. He said the same thing following the win versus UCLA, so at this point I'm curious if people are just hearing what they want to.
What you say starts to ring hollow if it isn't matching up to what you do.
Hard to do it when you don't have the personnel who can execute it properly. We're talking about the understanding of principles and familiarity. The team's confidence and knowledge of what they were looking to do versus Miami is obviously different than it was versus UCLA. That's a ten game difference.
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Thanks guys. Get ready for when the 13th of January comes (dead period ends). These guys are going to come out of the gate hot.
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The idea that Riley and Langs wanted to do things "their way" a.k.a. The Callahan Effect isn't true at all. Coming into the job, he was asked about being pass-happy and he said no, I want people on the ground with the ball. He said the same thing following the win versus UCLA, so at this point I'm curious if people are just hearing what they want to.
Fans see 40-plus passes and think that's the game plan. 22-25's roughly the sweet spot and you need the talent available to run the ball if you're going to stick to that. That means all 11 on the offensive side of the ball and Terrell Newby did no one any favors by dancing back and forth behind five yard holes and getting dropped for two. As of right now, Zig's your back of the future.
The plan versus UCLA was fantastic for Tommy because it didn't give him much of a chance to put the win in jeopardy. The run/pass ratio was going to be heavy and when you've got a QB with legs like Armstrong, you make a team that can't cover everyone pay, especially once they cheat up just in case he takes off.
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Giving a grade to Nebraska's head man for what he's done and sneaking a peek to the future.
Mike Riley's Recruiting Adventures and What Nebraska Fans Should Expect Moving Forward
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Winning or losing the Foster Farms Bowl may end up being as easy as one...two...three...
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Time for the 2015 Huskers Team Awards feat. Jordan Westerkamp, Joshua Kalu, Dedrick Young, Andy Janovich and more!
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As for his final words for the Husker Voting Machine, Wilson kept things short and sweet. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all the Huskers. I firmly believe that I would not be an All-American right now if it were not for them, so thank you.”
Nice article! I like the new acronym, too. Assuming that you came up with it, that is.
I assume it's been used before, but it was there for use.
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It came, it saw, it conquered on behalf of Boe Wilson.
Boe Wilson Shoved Into Under Armour All-America Game by Husker Voting Machine
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Pretty sure the teams are allotted about $250k for expenses. Leave the band in Lincoln and keep the travel party to the minimum necessary and is it completely doable. This isn't the Rose Bowl or CFP, it is going to be a garbage bowl against a garbage team...nothing to be proud of. The risk of losing another game to me far outweighs the value of additional practices or recruiting exposure wherever the game might be. Regardless of who we play, a loss in a bowl would be devastating.
Can you please explain your reasoning?
Why sure. We aren't going to play a top tier team in whatever bowl gets saddled with a team that couldn't win half its games. So, the risk of losing would seem to me to far outweigh the "reward" of the extra practice. If I were considering playing at Nebraska, it would certainly have an impact on my decision if we go out and lay another egg (see Purdue game). The MSU win was a gift due to a terrible call that went our way. No other way to describe it. 5 wins, weak schedule. I just can't get excited about going to a bowl under these circumstances.
Why does it matter the level of opponent? Can they field a team? Awesome. Nebraska still gets invaluable practices regardless of opponent. Could be Alabama, could be McNeese State. This game has nothing to do with recruiting and no, MSU wasn't won on a bad call.
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Pretty sure the teams are allotted about $250k for expenses. Leave the band in Lincoln and keep the travel party to the minimum necessary and is it completely doable. This isn't the Rose Bowl or CFP, it is going to be a garbage bowl against a garbage team...nothing to be proud of. The risk of losing another game to me far outweighs the value of additional practices or recruiting exposure wherever the game might be. Regardless of who we play, a loss in a bowl would be devastating.
Can you please explain your reasoning?
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5-7 doesn't count: Check
They were almost 9-3: Check
Bowl game win/loss doesn't matter: Check
Let me just ahead two months:
Recruiting rankings don't really matter: Check
They got some guys with great offers: Check
It is the 2017 class that will save us: Check
Pfft.
Recruiting rankings don't really matter: To a large extent, they do.They got some guys with great offers: And several with a great number of P5 offers including ones from other B1G schools.It is the 2017 class that will save us: More "add momentum" than "save". -
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Unfortunately they are a package deal. Would this staff have benched him after his 5th interception?
Think about the fact that Nebraska could've very well won if not for that tipped pick-six. Tommy locked onto his man again and didn't see the read by Iowa's LB.
Do you realize that it wasn't an LB who picked off that pass?
TA didn't "lock into his man" on screen that resulted in the pick six. He threw to the guy who should have been open, but Alex Lewis blew his block. And that guy made a great play on the ball. It happens. But from a "read" perspective, TA made the correct throw.
Why are you throwing Lewis under a bus?
I wouldn't say that's throwing Lewis under the bus. That guy was his to block and he didn't get him cut like he was supposed to. It was a bad play on Lewis' part. It was worse on TA's.
Totally agree, by CM likes to label many of us as "player haters" for criticizing players.
Well unfortunately, criticism comes with accepting a scholarship to play big boy college football. I have 100 percent respect for college athletes off the field until they give me a reason not to, but their performance on the field/court, etc. is always up for critique.
More so with coaches, yet you and others consistently scapegoat players (like you did when Cally was here). It's annoying to the rest of us who can see what a trainwreck is happening in Lincoln right now.
Then why are you wasting your time on this board? Shouldn't you put together a portfolio for presentations considering there are a ton of schools that need new leadership in place? Think of all of the disasters you could thwart with your ability to see into the future after less than one full season of analysis. You could charge millions.
Also, it seems like you're the one who can't get over Callahan. You bring him up practically every time we exchange words.
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5 Things We Learned About Nebraska after National Signing Day 2016
in Husker Football
Posted
With 21 new signatures, it's time to look over National Signing Day's tea leaves and into Nebraska's future.
5 Things We Learned About Nebraska after National Signing Day 2016