ABQ Husker

Has Nebraska really EVER made a splash hire? Devaney and Osborne weren't splash hires, but they built a "splash" program together. We need this group of coaches, starting with Riley, that can rebuild the legacy as it should be and continue it by passing the torch within the program as it was done 40 years ago. It can be done and i hope this is just the beginning.

NU's statement about all of this is pretty damning. I wonder what Tressel's thinking right now...

Eichorst will be a lot more visible to everyone now that Riley is here. For one, I think he was avoiding Pelini until he could fire him. Secondly, Riley will demand that Eichorst is more involved.

 

Why should he? Why should the AD micromanage the teams? That's what the coaches are for.

 

I'm not saying that he should micromanage anything and agree with you in that respect. Solidarity between Eichorst and Riley is important and will do a lot to heal the locker room.

Eichorst will be a lot more visible to everyone now that Riley is here. For one, I think he was avoiding Pelini until he could fire him. Secondly, Riley will demand that Eichorst is more involved.

Julius Michalik (Cyclone Clyde), is that you? Never thought I'd see that guy's ugly mug again...

I was born a fan of Husker Football by the grace of God.

 

One of my first memories of the Huskers was how elated everyone was that we had finally beaten Oklahoma under Tom Osborne. I think I was 8. I remember how pissed off everyone was when we had to play them in the Orange Bowl for the second time that year.

 

I remember when Osborne made the switch to the Option offense, and how everyone thought it would be so great because it was more like what Oklahoma was doing with their Wishbone.

 

I remember when I had to split wood as a kid, me and a sledgehammer & wedges and a pile of wood out in the backyard, draping the extension cord through the back garage door out to the old plastic AM radio with the back missing, sitting it on a spare log and listening to Lyell Bremser and later Kent Pavelka calling games. Most games kicked off at 1pm those days and I could listen to the Huskers all afternoon.

 

My fandom was set in stone during the 1983 season. The dismantling of Minnesota, where it seemed every play resulted in a touchdown. The Oklahoma win, then the Miami game. How it seemed so hopeless at the end, then we scored and needed the extra point for the tie to win the National Championship, but Osborne went for two and Miami played it perfectly, and I remember how crushing it was to see the pass tipped away. I think the smaller you are the greater the hurt when your team loses, and that game hurt more than any other in my life.

My cousin (Dan Casterline) was on that '83 team and that Orange Bowl my first memory of seeing the Huskers play. I've never even been to Nebraska, but the Huskers have been my team for the past 31 years. That first game really hurt (I was 10), but it's been a fun ride for the most part. 95% of teams in America can't hold a candle to us over that time. GBR!

Could the AD the problem in Wisconsin?

Yeah. I bet Alvarez essentially gave Anderson the perpetual b*tch face Saturday night and that was that...

I'm new to the board, too, but I figured this board was like most in that most of the pessimism would come from the very vocal minority when compared to the entire Husker fan base. I grew up in Texas and started following the Huskers when I found out that my second cousin was playing in the '84 Orange Bowl. He and the rest of the team became my heroes that night (I was 10) and I've been a loyal fan for 31 years now. At that time, I didn't know anything about the reputation all of you had around the country.

Having learned all of that over the years through great times and rough ones, I take great pride in being a Husker fan and in what we are all about. We love winning and doing it right...and I think that's what Eichorst had in mind when he hired Mike Riley. I'm gonna be as critical as everyone else if there's a reason to be, but I expect him to put Nebraska in its rightful place as one of the most respected programs in all of sports, both on and off the field. GBR!

Ohh yeah! Baylor is technically the Big XII champion since they own the tiebreaker by beating TCU. That's gonna end up knocking both teams out since the committee can't take TCU because they didn't win their conference. Interesting...

I know FSU has to get in because they went undefeated, but they will probably get knocked out in the semis. It'll be interesting to see what happens to TCU after what OSU did tonight.

On another note, how does OSU have three QB's that are all gamebreakers when we can't get one? Riley has a lot of work to do in that regard.

 

I support the new Head Coach. I hope to see Mike Riley coaching the bowl game & not Barney Cotton

 

 

It's too big of a gamble. If he loses, the players and fans will question him for 9 months, even though it's not really fair since he will have had 3 weeks to coach them. Let Barney go out with the loss, which wouldn't be a huge deal, or a bit of glory with the win.

 

Right. Riley needs to focus on recruiting and getting his staff together as well as watching film so that he knows what he has.

As I watched the Oregon State Beavers get the living crap beat out of them by Oregon, little did I know that the head man leading the Beavers would become Nebraska's next Head Coach less than a week later.

 

Crazy.

No one did.

 

I was just thinking back through history and I'm wondering if there was ever a shoo-in home run hire at NU? Did people know the day that Devaney or Osborne were hired that they would be as successful as they became? There were probably bigger names out there when those two were hired, right? Someone shed some light on that for me...

TO was on Devaney's staff. In fact, NE fans wanted him fired before he started winning. Mike Riley is a surprise pick and we have the support & facilities he needs to be successful.

 

That's what I thought. The only one with a proven track record was Devaney and even then only one of his Wyoming teams was ranked. I'm glad that people are warming up to Riley a bit now, but in reality this hire isn't much different than any other. All of them had doubters. A home run like Tressel would have been unprecedented in NU history, so to have expected that this time was unrealistic.

I was just thinking back through history and I'm wondering if there was ever a shoo-in home run hire at NU? Did people know the day that Devaney or Osborne were hired that they would be as successful as they became? There were probably bigger names out there when those two were hired, right? Someone shed some light on that for me...

I think he likes to adapt and play to his players strengths. When he has good skill like the Rogers brothers he likes to run the ball and get players in space and play. If he has a good power back at RB he likes to run the ball. He throws the ball a lot lately because that is an easy way to move the ball and that is what he has to work with. Sometimes It is easy to find a guy that can sling the ball around.

 

I am more concerned about his defense. I hope he has a tough stop the run style to implement. That is simple to run. To me the one fault in BPs defense is that he wanted to do to many things. if it was hitting and everyone was in the right place it was great, but when it wasn't it didn't work because he didn't allow enough room for error. There was too many things he wanted his players to worry about. Trust that you have good athletes on defense, give them about 3 things to worry about and let them play.

Yep. On defense, simplicity is often the best way to go. Get lots of speed and run to the ball.

 

It will most likely be a pro-style balanced offense. He had a lot of success with Steven Jackson doing the smashmouth thing and I'm hoping we see the same thing with the Huskers.

I like the sound of that. There is a guy in Alabama who seems to have figured out that it not only breeds victories in college, it also attracts future recruits with visions of playing on Sunday.

 

I lived in Seattle and followed the Washington Huskies pretty closely (but loved when the Huskers went up there a few years ago and killed them), so I saw OSU quite a bit. They were very good when his teams were healthy. There was a huge faction of the UW fan base on multiple occasions that wanted to bring Riley north when they hired the likes of Willingham and Sarkisian. I would argue that Riley is light years ahead of both of those guys and will do more with the level of talent that NU can get than Pelini or Solich ever did.

http://lighttheu.com/2014/04/play-type-by-field-position/

 

 

He's been pass first the last couple years.

He had to be. His O-lines were decimated with injuries.

It will most likely be a pro-style balanced offense. He had a lot of success with Steven Jackson doing the smashmouth thing and I'm hoping we see the same thing with the Huskers.

Jacksonville's not gonna fire Bradley yet. I love the idea, though. He was great in Seattle and would be very successful in college should he decide to go that route. Seattle's current DC, Dan Quinn, is someone I wish NU would look at also. He left Seattle for a year or two to be the DC at Florida and went back to the Seahawks after Bradley took the Jacksonville job. He's a charismatic guy that would recruit well and his results up in Seattle speak for themselves.

Cross off Harbaugh. That was never in play. If he goes back to the college game it will be for Michigan only and it is likely he will remain in the NFL.

Didn't think he was a good fit anyway. I hope he gets traded to the cesspool of the NFL, the Raiders.

I've been reading this board for the past few weeks since it became apparent that Bo was probably on the way out. I like David Shaw a lot just because of how Stanford plays, but I don't think he would leave the Cardinal. What about another of Harbaugh's guys from his days in Palo Alto, Colts OC Pep Hamilton? He would run a pro-style, smash mouth offense that would be really good at NU.