So you want to get rid of Riley

[gratefullred]

an interesting ranking of the most desirable jobs in college football.

 

http://thebiglead.com/2015/10/13/college-football-job-rankings-2015/

 

Dear old NU is not the job it was 20 years ago.

 

I mostly agree with the piece. Love to hear what u think.

[Blackshirt_Revival]

an interesting ranking of the most desirable jobs in college football.

 

http://thebiglead.com/2015/10/13/college-football-job-rankings-2015/

 

Dear old NU is not the job it was 20 years ago.

 

I mostly agree with the piece. Love to hear what u think.

So...what is it you're trying to say here?

 

That we should just be grateful we got Riley at all? That we should be content with the results that we have seen because we're just a "tier 3" school (according to this article by author Ty Duffy) and most likely couldn't/wouldn't do any better or expect to do any better with another staff? That we should just settle for whatever results we should happen to get and be ok with it? That our expectations should fall in line with this author's belief "Cuz Nebraska just ain't what it used to be, that's just the way it is, and this is the proof!!"

 

I think most of us realize we aren't what we were 20 years ago. We know we aren't in a heavily populated area, we know we don't have lots of top flight recruits around, it's cold there, it's desolate, yadda yadda yadda-stuff that has been the case at Nebraska for a long time. But perhaps there is a chance we could drift closer to (or further in, depending on your perspective) the pit of mediocrity and irrelevance with a few more years of...mediocrity and irrelevance. Not saying that is what will happen with Riley, just saying that pendulum can swing both ways and there is the potential we could slip further in that direction (and yes, I realize that potential exists with any potential staff that may follow this one, also, but Riley is here now).

 

I'm pretty sure most of us would like to be seen as a 'top tier' place again. I would agree we aren't that anymore. But that doesn't mean we should just settle on that and let it dictate our expectations, and frankly, I don't care what 'tier' we're considered to be in as long as we are consistently taking care of business on the field. Maybe some of us would like to see Nebraska football competing for and winning, at the very least, conference championships, and eventually, national championships again, and this is how some of us gauge our 'tier'. Basically, not letting some arbitrary, subjective 'tier' system created in this author's (or anyone else's) mind dictate the expectations or predetermine the destiny of Nebraska football.

 

And maybe I'm totally wrong here. Maybe that's not what you're trying to say, but with the thread title and accompanying article, what is it you're getting at, exactly?

[huskerfan92]

Sorry, but any article that puts our school in the same tier as Virginia, NC State and Iowa loses all credibility.

[GOAT]

Pull out some big $ to hire a new coach and our clout increases exponentially. We have not shown the willingness to do that.

[Count 'Bility]

Prior Solich, we had only two coaches that gobbled up 36 years of history. Its my thought that Nebraska may never had been "desireable". We dont know. Weve spent very little time ever looking for a coach. 11 years. 25 years. 6 years. 4 years. 7 years. Thays the tenures of the last half century +.

 

Also in my mi d it doesnt matter if were desireable or not. Destination is not the issue it used to be. Its $.

[Blackshirt_Revival]

Prior Solich, we had only two coaches that gobbled up 36 years of history. Its my thought that Nebraska may never had been "desireable". We dont know. Weve spent very little time ever looking for a coach. 11 years. 25 years. 6 years. 4 years. 7 years. Thays the tenures of the last half century +.

 

Also in my mi d it doesnt matter if were desireable or not. Destination is not the issue it used to be. Its $.

Agree.

 

It's about $$$ and it's about fit.

 

See Baylor in Tier 4.

[BoNeyard]

Thank for finding that....

 

Yeah no surprise Nebraska is difficult to recruit to, it's why decades ago NU was smart and built the mecca of facilities. The rest of the country caught on and caught up.

 

The article almost makes it sound like Nebraska needs to go back to the Big12.

 

Huskers just need to wreck some havoc within the B1G, create some rift within the conference and build new rivalries..

 

Interesting thing of note, that no one seems to mention with nebraska's slight decline in football dominance is how much of a hit we may have taken moving to the B1G and how long it will take to start cutting into these recruiting pipelines and states that have been owned by other B1G schools for decades.

[Guy Chamberlin]

It's weird, because for 40 solid years of Devaney, Osborne and Solich, we had no idea how desirable the head coaching job at Nebraska was to the college football world.

 

I suppose we could pony up the money and test the waters of the big name, can't miss coaches, of which there are maybe what? Five or six? How will we feel and what is our leverage if they reject the offer?

 

Back when this first happened, in 2003, we were spurned by Houston Nutt. Apparently our first choice and considered a hot property at the time. Things didn't work out so well for us, but it didn't work out well for Houston Nutt, either. Demanding a "top tier" coach is no guarantee of a top tier program. If there are other attractive openings at the time, a hot coach may not want to come to cold Nebraska, where you have six full games to prove yourself.

 

Still, we can absolutely get a great coach. We just don't know who it is. It will involve a risk. He will be an innovative offensive or defensive coordinator, but we will have to trust his transition to HC. He will be a head coach with a short but excellent track record in a conference considered less competitive than the Big 10. He will be a coach with a longer but rockier cumulative record, but who might thrive in the right setting with the right resources. He could turn things around overnight, like Bob Devaney, or he might take a four straight years of mediocrity, like Nick Saban at Michigan State. But the Nick Saban who becomes a hot property at Michigan State is going to go to the SEC, not to Nebraska. We may not have wanted Bret Bielema, but he also didn't want us, and that is an issue.

 

I don't think anyone is content with mediocrity at Nebraska. Nobody. But the notion that Nebraska had a chance at greatness and went for Riley instead makes no sense.

 

Unless you know something I don't. Who did we pass up? Any indication they would have taken the job? Because public rejection during a coaching search is a killer. See 2003.

 

We should be grateful for Riley because he wanted to be here. That's not nothing. And a mere 12 months ago, Mike Riley was voted the second most underrated coach by his college football coaching peers. That's not nothing either. I know TheSker will be quick to point out it was aeons ago, but Mike Riley was approached by Alabama, USC and UCLA for their HC jobs. There were actually professional and objective college football analysts who considered the Riley hire a bit of a coup. The national recruiting director at Rivals.com tweeted that the Riley hire was a "home run" and "I don't think Husker fans realize what a well-respected game coach Riley is and how hard it is to win in Corvallis."

 

Considering that recruiting was considered Riley's strong suit, we may want to let him give it a go before burying him.

 

Riley may still surprise you. He may not. But I don't think we "settled" for mediocrity. We took one of the many calculated risks Nebraska has to make to hire a new head coach.

[suh_fan93]

Interesting thing of note, that no one seems to mention with nebraska's slight decline in football dominance is how much of a hit we may have taken moving to the B1G and how long it will take to start cutting into these recruiting pipelines and states that have been owned by other B1G schools for decades.

 

I guess I don't buy the move to the B1G as being the catalyst for a downward trend in recruiting or making it somehow harder to recruit great players to Nebraska. The changes in scheme (starting with Bill Callahan) or in Bo Pelini's case while being defensive minded the lack of him and his staff creating an identity offensively is what hampered recruiting. Now we're changing scheme offensively again in that we're clearly going to be a passing oriented team.

 

Also I think having a coach and staff that can recruit and truly sell Nebraska to the best true football players in the nation regardless of stars to want to come and play for them has been an issue. You still have to be good at getting good players to commit to come play for you. I am not saying Pelini or Callahan for that matter didn't land any top recruits. We've landed some great players here and there in the last 7-8 years but haven't consistently put good teams together and part of that at least has to do with how we've recruited. I just don't feel not being able to play Oklahoma or Texas and leaving the Big 12 has hurt our recruiting as much as other things but that's just my opinion.

[Count 'Bility]

I do t buy any excuse for lack of recruiti g whatsoever anymore. I do t care where were at. All it takes is a vision and good fit. Utah is a power now. Baylor. TCU. Michigan st.

 

And dont give me the regional and in state card. The game is so much more global now. Social media. TV coverage. Communication.

[skersfan]

I can understand the destination point. I grew up there, love the state, the people, the way of life so to speak. The crime rates, all sorts of positives for the state, but I left shortly after graduation from high school and only go back during the fall. The weather sucks. Too much snow, not enough snow, too hot, too humid, too cold, always too much or not enough something for me to ever live there again.

 

I am not sure money is the only answer either. It would take a boat load of money to get a top coach there. A guarantee type coach, that you know you pay the money, he will come and the kids will follow. I rate them as being Saben, Miles, Meyers and a maybe one or two more. Would have to think about that any further, too (see above) lazy to do that.

 

What do you guys think it would cost to get any of the three? Supposedly Texas danced with Saben at the tune of 10 million and he turned them down. Texas has a lot more to offer a coach than Nebraska does, not just money, but recruiting area. That is what most of them are looking for.

 

So most likely we are not going to get the big name coach, I think most would agree.

 

What do you drop to? Maybe D Antonio? I think with the money Michigan State is making they would keep him.

 

Some up and comer. I remember when Al Golden was at Temple. The greatest up and comer in the country. Is he, or is he bad, the program and the talent tell the story I think.

 

WE have a lot of problems to get a top coach (The three mentioned) here.

 

Patterson or Briles. Neither are leaving Texas. The money now days is so close that top schools could go into bidding wars.

 

Do we have the best coach in the country, very doubtful. Is he the worst, again doubtful.

 

Things here needed to change. I screamed it for 7 years and still do. No I am not happy with where we are with the new hire. But I really do not feel we have given him a chance yet. Close is for horse shoes and hand grenades I understand that. But the bounce of the football a different direction who knows what could be here today. We have no real idea if we are worse off or better than we were win wise, the past staff could be setting the same.

[Blackshirt_Revival]

It's weird, because for 40 solid years of Devaney, Osborne and Solich, we had no idea how desirable the head coaching job at Nebraska was to the college football world.

 

I suppose we could pony up the money and test the waters of the big name, can't miss coaches, of which there are maybe what? Five or six? How will we feel and what is our leverage if they reject the offer?

 

Back when this first happened, in 2003, we were spurned by Houston Nutt. Apparently our first choice and considered a hot property at the time. Things didn't work out so well for us, but it didn't work out well for Houston Nutt, either. Demanding a "top tier" coach is no guarantee of a top tier program. If there are other attractive openings at the time, a hot coach may not want to come to cold Nebraska, where you have six full games to prove yourself.

 

Still, we can absolutely get a great coach. We just don't know who is is. It will involve a risk. He will be an innovative offensive or defensive coordinator, but we will have to trust his transition to HC. He will be a head coach with a short but excellent track record in a conference considered less competitive than the Big 10. He will be a coach with a longer but rockier cumulative record, but who might thrive in the right setting with the right resources. He could turn things around overnight, like Bob Devaney, or he might take a four straight years of mediocrity, like Nick Saban at Michigan State. But the Nick Saban who becomes a hot property at Michigan State is going to go to the SEC, not to Nebraska. We may not have wanted Bret Bielema, but he also didn't want us, and that is an issue.

 

I don't think anyone is content with mediocrity at Nebraska. Nobody. But the notion that Nebraska had a chance at greatness and went for Riley instead makes no sense.

 

Unless you know something I don't. Who did we pass up? Any indication they would have taken the job? Because public rejection during a coaching search is a killer. See 2003.

 

We should be grateful for Riley because he wanted to be here. That's not nothing. And a mere 12 months ago, Mike Riley was voted the second most underrated coach by his college football coaching peers. That's not nothing either. I know TheSker will be quick to point out it was aeons ago, but Mike Riley was approached by Alabama, USC and UCLA for their HC jobs. There were actually professional and objective college football analysts who considered the Riley hire a bit of a coup. The national recruiting director at Rivals.com tweeted that the Riley hire was a "home run" and "I don't think Husker fans realize what a well-respected game coach Riley is and how hard it is to win in Corvallis."

 

Considering that recruiting was considered Riley's strong suit, we may want to let him give it a go before burying him.

 

Riley may still surprise you. He may not. But I don't think we "settled" for mediocrity. We took one of the many calculated risks Nebraska has to make to hire a new head coach.

I can't speak for the others commenting on this thread, but perhaps I should qualify my statement on $$$, fit, and coaches.

 

Unlike some others I have seen posting on these matters, I am not of the persuasion of throwing as much money as possible at a Established Superstar Coach 'X' just to get him here.

 

What I do believe is spending as much money as it takes to get the coach you want and think your program needs and will be a good fit at your program, and to keep him there.

 

At Michigan, that meant spending $5 million a year to lure Jim Harbaugh. At Baylor, that means paying Art Briles $4.2 million a year. At Florida, they are spending something like $3.5 million a year on McElwain. I'm sure we could keep going on down the line, but you get the idea.

 

I personally do not subscribe to the belief to just throw as much money as possible at a big name coach just because he is big name coach, unless that big name coach is absolutely the right guy, the right fit--the guy you want. It needs to be someone whom you feel will mesh with your program. To me, the fit should be the first and most important thing to take into consideration, then targeting the right guy(s), with compensation determined from there.

 

I cannot tell you precisely who we passed up, but I can tell you, if we are to believe what Shawn Eichorst said, that this process happened very quickly, he immediately targeted Riley, they met days later, and boom, Riley was our coach. So as far as claiming inside knowledge on the process itself, I personally can't.

 

I'm not necessarily saying this is the wrong way to go about the process (some would say it is, some would say it isn't), the question just remains is Riley that fit? Were there guys who were better fits? You'll always be taking a risk, but I think there is a difference between the risk involved in having your number hit in roulette as opposed to a winning hand in a game of blackjack. How calculated was this risk vs. its potential reward? We don't definitely know the answer to that right now. In the meantime, there will be debate and speculation until we get some answers on the field.

 

But, like I said, I'm not sure what the OP is getting at exactly with his original post. Makes it a bit hard to formulate a concrete dialogue when I'm not sure if he is saying the Huskers are doomed to be insignificant in 'tier 3', won't get a good coach again after Riley leaves or retires, are doomed to never have a good coach again, or expects us to believe we should accept this 'tier 3 reality' (whatever that is/means)--I really don't know.

 

With that being said, I do very much agree with your comments about being thankful for coaches taking interest in us regardless of their perceived worthiness or fit (did not intend to be snarky with my "That we should just be grateful we got Riley at all?" question. I was genuinely trying to determine what the OP was trying to convey in the post).

 

And yes, it is humiliating to be publicly passed up. I'm not sure exactly what SP's thinking was there (or in many regards, for that matter). As negatively as the Callahan era is looked at today, thank god we didn't end up with Houston Nutt. Ugh.

[GOAT]

I can understand the destination point. I grew up there, love the state, the people, the way of life so to speak. The crime rates, all sorts of positives for the state, but I left shortly after graduation from high school and only go back during the fall. The weather sucks. Too much snow, not enough snow, too hot, too humid, too cold, always too much or not enough something for me to ever live there again.

 

I am not sure money is the only answer either. It would take a boat load of money to get a top coach there. A guarantee type coach, that you know you pay the money, he will come and the kids will follow. I rate them as being Saben, Miles, Meyers and a maybe one or two more. Would have to think about that any further, too (see above) lazy to do that.

 

What do you guys think it would cost to get any of the three? Supposedly Texas danced with Saben at the tune of 10 million and he turned them down. Texas has a lot more to offer a coach than Nebraska does, not just money, but recruiting area. That is what most of them are looking for.

 

So most likely we are not going to get the big name coach, I think most would agree.

 

What do you drop to? Maybe D Antonio? I think with the money Michigan State is making they would keep him.

 

Some up and comer. I remember when Al Golden was at Temple. The greatest up and comer in the country. Is he, or is he bad, the program and the talent tell the story I think.

 

WE have a lot of problems to get a top coach (The three mentioned) here.

 

Patterson or Briles. Neither are leaving Texas. The money now days is so close that top schools could go into bidding wars.

 

Do we have the best coach in the country, very doubtful. Is he the worst, again doubtful.

 

Things here needed to change. I screamed it for 7 years and still do. No I am not happy with where we are with the new hire. But I really do not feel we have given him a chance yet. Close is for horse shoes and hand grenades I understand that. But the bounce of the football a different direction who knows what could be here today. We have no real idea if we are worse off or better than we were win wise, the past staff could be setting the same.

 

See below

[shyndy]

Sorry, but any article that puts our school in the same tier as Virginia, NC State and Iowa loses all credibility.

Not only that but it uses being in the SEC as a trump card. Like Florida trumps FSU in terms of desireability because SEC.

[lo country]

Throw cash and even a guy like Briles or Patterson would come. IIRC, Peterson would never leave Boise........These guys (and their agents) are smart enough to know the big cash comes win, lose or draw. just look at Bo's buyout as proof. Riley was nothing more than the unit-Bo hire. Safe, controllable and "good", but not great.

 

Kids come to winning players and winning coaches. Not sure if I was a kid would I look at NU as a "winning program", having a winning coach or looking like they are trending up. We don't get to go bowling, my prediction is the class tanks (I don't follow recruiting so I have no idea where we are at), but some of the higher talked about pros[ects don't stay.

 

Money gets a coach and winning gets the recruits.