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Mike Riley's Recruiting Adventures and What Nebraska Fans Should Expect Moving Forward


eightlaces

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I can't believe that the "Fire Reilly" talk would turn a recruit off all by itself. However, if they are on the fence then it would be a HUGE factor. Did we get the season we all expected, no. Maybe our expectations were off from the start. Even after the season has played out, I still can't believe we lost 4 games on the opponents last possession. If we win 50% of those, do things look better, maybe or maybe not. 2016-2017 seasons will determine the "Reilly Era", not 2015. No way he gets more than 3 years if he don't turn it around quickly.

 

For as much dislike there is for the guy, people should learn to spell his name correctly.

 

Wow, calling me out for my spelling.... I was educated in Nebraska, I had more important things to do then study my spelling words. BTW, I am a Riley supporter,I just think he will be on a very short leash.

 

I could have called you out for punctuation, too. But I was trying to be nice.

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I can't believe that the "Fire Reilly" talk would turn a recruit off all by itself. However, if they are on the fence then it would be a HUGE factor. Did we get the season we all expected, no. Maybe our expectations were off from the start. Even after the season has played out, I still can't believe we lost 4 games on the opponents last possession. If we win 50% of those, do things look better, maybe or maybe not. 2016-2017 seasons will determine the "Reilly Era", not 2015. No way he gets more than 3 years if he don't turn it around quickly.

 

I have no idea how much research a four or five star recruit does when choosing where they will play. If they do any research at all, I'd think almost every four and five star recruit would be on the fence with regards to coming to Nebraska. Not only in the last decade and a half have we fired two nine win coaches, we've also had a history of going through changes at AD. Our football program has been unstable to say the least. I'd be pretty leery if I was in their shoes.

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Unless they dramatically exceed the * average they have verballed thus far for the last half dozen recruits (highly unlikely, IMO) the best they can hope for is a class around 25-30 based on current rankings/commit #'s/ and * averages of the teams ahead of them. No way that translates to an A grade, especially since they now have unprecedented resources and budget that no Nebraska coach has EVER had.

 

IMO, this grade is currently C - or worse, based purely on ROI. This class is indistinguishable from those preceding it at 2-3X the cost. Two of the current top 5 recruits verballed to the previous staff, and they lost one of the top 5 that had done the same.

 

Every decent recruit they were '"In the mix" with the last month that declared committed elsewhere, while we picked up a KOS/P and a quick commit/decommit from another 3* kid.

 

I view this class as squandering a ton of goodwill and early (previous staff/spring/summer) momentum due to incompetent coaching during the season, putting the staff on a very real hot seat. It would be cake to negative recruit against Riley, as a losing season means you WILL be fired eventually. No coach at NU has survived a 6-7 loss season for more than a couple years. They will get some bump from the late rally, but the damage was done mid-season.

 

Farniok is the one to watch. He was a slam dunk under any staff here...if he goes elsewhere, that is a horrible, horrible sign.

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I truly fear all of the FIRE RILEY discussion that goes on around places like this will turn away the likes of Keyshawn and his crew. We have a bigger voice than we know.

 

That said, we do need a solid commit here soon before our class momentum completely dies. Hopefully once the dead period ends, we see an explosion and a strong finish.

 

I still, for the life of me, don't understand why people think the fan angst has such a big impact on recruiting separate and apart from the reason for the angst in the first place.

 

For one, as long as the stadium is full on game days, it is only relevant if one assumes that fan angst will translate into a coach's firing and we all know that ADs don't fire successful coaches just because the fans are in uproar (assuming fans would even be in uproar if the coach was successful, itself a dubious assumption).

 

Two, it unrealistically assumes that other programs experiencing similar problems are magically going to have much more patient, well-behaved fans than ours. But if you're read any other teams' message boards, you'd know that the angst is at best a wash and, more realistically, other teams' boards make Nebraska's message boards look like The Reading Rainbow. You think Texas, USC, LSU, or Alabama have less caustic boards than Nebraska? They will tar and feather their coaches if the margin of victory is not to their liking. Half of our fanbase would feel guilty about getting angry at Riley if he tortured dogs in his free time and would probably find a way to blame themselves for him doing it.

 

Blaming the message boards for paltry recruiting is at once a very arrogant and very self-loathing thing to say, IMO.

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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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Good read.

 

The next month is going to be interesting with the recruits still in our board. Winning the bowl game had to help.

I think showing recruits what we are capable of has to be exciting.

 

 

That being said, I dont think a bowl win can make up for 7 losses in terms of "Exciting recruits".. If we get someone here it wont be because of the wins this season.

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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.

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.

 

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.

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Unless they dramatically exceed the * average they have verballed thus far for the last half dozen recruits (highly unlikely, IMO) the best they can hope for is a class around 25-30 based on current rankings/commit #'s/ and * averages of the teams ahead of them. No way that translates to an A grade, especially since they now have unprecedented resources and budget that no Nebraska coach has EVER had.

 

IMO, this grade is currently C - or worse, based purely on ROI. This class is indistinguishable from those preceding it at 2-3X the cost. Two of the current top 5 recruits verballed to the previous staff, and they lost one of the top 5 that had done the same.

 

Every decent recruit they were '"In the mix" with the last month that declared committed elsewhere, while we picked up a KOS/P and a quick commit/decommit from another 3* kid.

 

I view this class as squandering a ton of goodwill and early (previous staff/spring/summer) momentum due to incompetent coaching during the season, putting the staff on a very real hot seat. It would be cake to negative recruit against Riley, as a losing season means you WILL be fired eventually. No coach at NU has survived a 6-7 loss season for more than a couple years. They will get some bump from the late rally, but the damage was done mid-season.

 

Farniok is the one to watch. He was a slam dunk under any staff here...if he goes elsewhere, that is a horrible, horrible sign.

Damn it, I'm trying to be optimistic over here.

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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.

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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.

 

Maybe that is what happens when you hire an older staff - they see retirement in the near future. It is difficult to build a program around a coach who could easily be retiring in 5 years (if not forced out sooner). Recruits see that. They may question the long term commitment of the staff.

Thus, I think the AD blew it last year, (even though MR is a likable guy and all and the image change was needed - I get that). It is better to build around a young, hungry coach and his assistants who want to hit the recruiting trial hard and make the program great (and therefore improve their own status along the way). While Justin Fuente (sp?) did wonders at Memphis, he'll probably do even better long term at VT - because the school has tradition, resources and now a young coach to take them forward. Scott Frost will be successful at his new gig for the same reason. I remember Solich's assistants needing their butts kicked because they had gotten old and lazy - thus we end up wt Frank's 7-7 record in part due to recruiting.

I still hope and want & even believe that MR can succeed but as someone said - it isn't the Xs and the Os but the Joes that are needed to succeed - good players and lots of them.

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I truly fear all of the FIRE RILEY discussion that goes on around places like this will turn away the likes of Keyshawn and his crew. We have a bigger voice than we know.

That said, we do need a solid commit here soon before our class momentum completely dies. Hopefully once the dead period ends, we see an explosion and a strong finish.

 

I still, for the life of me, don't understand why people think the fan angst has such a big impact on recruiting separate and apart from the reason for the angst in the first place.

 

For one, as long as the stadium is full on game days, it is only relevant if one assumes that fan angst will translate into a coach's firing and we all know that ADs don't fire successful coaches just because the fans are in uproar (assuming fans would even be in uproar if the coach was successful, itself a dubious assumption).

 

Two, it unrealistically assumes that other programs experiencing similar problems are magically going to have much more patient, well-behaved fans than ours. But if you're read any other teams' message boards, you'd know that the angst is at best a wash and, more realistically, other teams' boards make Nebraska's message boards look like The Reading Rainbow. You think Texas, USC, LSU, or Alabama have less caustic boards than Nebraska? They will tar and feather their coaches if the margin of victory is not to their liking. Half of our fanbase would feel guilty about getting angry at Riley if he tortured dogs in his free time and would probably find a way to blame themselves for him doing it.

 

Blaming the message boards for paltry recruiting is at once a very arrogant and very self-loathing thing to say, IMO.

Forgetting that 18 year old kids who are highly touted have access to the internet is part of that line of thinking.

 

If they are considering school A and school B, jump on a social media website for both and randomly see positive thinking from one fan base but anger and loathing from the other, it could easily sway them the other way.

 

Our players see more of what we post on this message board than you think, why wouldn't a recruit come to anplace like this to see what the fans think?

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Unless they dramatically exceed the * average they have verballed thus far for the last half dozen recruits (highly unlikely, IMO) the best they can hope for is a class around 25-30 based on current rankings/commit #'s/ and * averages of the teams ahead of them. No way that translates to an A grade, especially since they now have unprecedented resources and budget that no Nebraska coach has EVER had.

 

IMO, this grade is currently C - or worse, based purely on ROI. This class is indistinguishable from those preceding it at 2-3X the cost. Two of the current top 5 recruits verballed to the previous staff, and they lost one of the top 5 that had done the same.

 

Every decent recruit they were '"In the mix" with the last month that declared committed elsewhere, while we picked up a KOS/P and a quick commit/decommit from another 3* kid.

 

I view this class as squandering a ton of goodwill and early (previous staff/spring/summer) momentum due to incompetent coaching during the season, putting the staff on a very real hot seat. It would be cake to negative recruit against Riley, as a losing season means you WILL be fired eventually. No coach at NU has survived a 6-7 loss season for more than a couple years. They will get some bump from the late rally, but the damage was done mid-season.

 

Farniok is the one to watch. He was a slam dunk under any staff here...if he goes elsewhere, that is a horrible, horrible sign.

Damn it, I'm trying to be optimistic over here.

 

we shall see, Riley may need a year of success before he recruits a better class.....as long as we see some improvement and game management we can keep the ship moving forward.

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