Keep Riley? ND kept Brian Kelly

[billdozer15]

On 10/31/2017 at 9:50 AM, tmfr15 said:

This season is horrid and the Huskers seem destined for an 5-7 season. So fire the coach. There are certainly plenty of good reasons.

 

But maybe, we should think about this angle.

 

Brian Kelly took over for Charlie Weis in 2010 and recorded back-to-back 8-5 seasons before going on a somewhat magical ride to a 12-0 season. During that year, ND beat quite a few so-so teams just barely, but ended up in the title game, only to get run out of the building by Alabama. Kelly followed that with a 9-4 season and then went back to 8-5. He did get to 10 wins in 2015 but then went 4-8 last year.

 

Notre Dame chose to keep him and the Irish are in the midst of a one-loss season that could land them in the national title game.

 

We have a quarterback who seems to be getting better and better. We have a couple of quarterbacks that seem to be really good. Tristian seems to be more than good.

 

The 3-4 defense is struggling, but Coach Diaco and the squad have been working through growing pains. Maybe this unit could be pretty salty by next year.

 

I know I am probably crazy for saying this, and I have a hard time thinking that Riley will be there next year, but, what if we keep him and things work out?

 

Don't know myself. I am just throwing it out there.

Pretty simple explanation here as to why he doesn't get a 2nd chance compared to Kelly.

 

Head Coaching Record:

Brian Kelly 237-89-2 (.726)

Mike Riley 111 - 95 (.538)

 

MR has nothing in is 40+ years of head coaching experience that indicates he is going to get any better. Brian Kelly is significantly more accomplished and therefore gets the benefit of the doubt.

 

 

[billdozer15]

15 hours ago, B.B. Hemingway said:

The Browns fired Belichick then what happened???!!!! Are we sure we're not firing the greatest coach of all-time??!!

Are you comparing the ownership of the Browns to the Patriots? 

[ladyhawke]

I want Scott to come home. Mike Riley thought he could make a change but didn't, except he did help heal up Husker Nation after Bo was fired.  He reached out to the community and made Nebraska more acceptable by his sideline demenor.

However, he is not a good fit and never was.  The sneaky way Eichorst hired him to,d us everything we needed to know.  What AD hires a coach without counsel for the rest of the University? 

Anyway, this was an interesting article that I hope doesn't come true.  Come home Scott-You're our only hope.

 

https://www.landof10.com/nebraska/nebraska-football-mailbag-mike-riley-retained

[billdozer15]

3 hours ago, ladyhawke said:

I want Scott to come home. Mike Riley thought he could make a change but didn't, except he did help heal up Husker Nation after Bo was fired.  He reached out to the community and made Nebraska more acceptable by his sideline demenor.

However, he is not a good fit and never was.  The sneaky way Eichorst hired him to,d us everything we needed to know.  What AD hires a coach without counsel for the rest of the University? 

Anyway, this was an interesting article that I hope doesn't come true.  Come home Scott-You're our only hope.

 

https://www.landof10.com/nebraska/nebraska-football-mailbag-mike-riley-retained

The only way I see that he helped heal the fan base was by uniting them against him being hired. There were people who didn't want Bo gone, there were people who did. But everyone agrees MR should never have been coach here. So, in that respect yes he united the fan base. Unfortunately this probably needed to happen before we could move on.

[4skers89]

4 minutes ago, billdozer15 said:

The only way I see that he helped heal the fan base was by uniting them against him being hired. There were people who didn't want Bo gone, there were people who did. But everyone agrees MR should never have been coach here. So, in that respect yes he united the fan base. Unfortunately this probably needed to happen before we could move on.

There are a few oddballs but for the most part fans don't like the Riley product and know it's time for a change. United again!

[ladyhawke]

1 hour ago, billdozer15 said:

The only way I see that he helped heal the fan base was by uniting them against him being hired. There were people who didn't want Bo gone, there were people who did. But everyone agrees MR should never have been coach here. So, in that respect yes he united the fan base. Unfortunately this probably needed to happen before we could move on.

I respectfully disagree. It was so refreshing to have a calm influence on the sidelines. I’m sure the refs were glad not to have Bo in their faces all the time. Riley reached out to the fans and was indeed a healing influence on Husker Nation. He hasn’t panned out as a coach but I have appreciated his demeanor and I know I’m not alone in that assessment. 

Edited November 3, 2017 by ladyhawke

[billdozer15]

15 minutes ago, ladyhawke said:

I respectfully disagree. It was so refreshing to have a calm influence on the sidelines. I’m sure the refs were glad not to have Bo in their faces all the time. Riley reached out to the fans and was indeed a healing influence on Husker Nation. He hasn’t panned out as a coach but I have appreciated his demeanor and I know I’m not alone in that assessment. 

I think you are agreeing with me, you just don't know it

 

There were two camps:

1) Bo needs to Go

2) Bo should stay

 

There is now one camp:

1) MR is not a fit at Nebraska.

 

Whether you were in the "Bo needs to go" camp because of sideline behavior, off the field behavior or blowouts, you are now very likely in the MR is not a fit camp. If you were in the "Bo should stay camp" because he wins 9 games or whatever reason, you are now very likely in the "MR is not a fit" camp.

 

As for the bolded part, I don't really care what the refs like. They are there to monitor the game. We should not be making head coach decisions based on refs "feelings".

[ladyhawke]

53 minutes ago, billdozer15 said:

I think you are agreeing with me, you just don't know it

 

There were two camps:

1) Bo needs to Go

2) Bo should stay

 

There is now one camp:

1) MR is not a fit at Nebraska.

 

Whether you were in the "Bo needs to go" camp because of sideline behavior, off the field behavior or blowouts, you are now very likely in the MR is not a fit camp. If you were in the "Bo should stay camp" because he wins 9 games or whatever reason, you are now very likely in the "MR is not a fit" camp.

 

As for the bolded part, I don't really care what the refs like. They are there to monitor the game. We should not be making head coach decisions based on refs "feelings".

I see your point. I also agree that we should never be making coaching decisions based on the refs. My point was that it was refreshing not to have to see our coach yelling at them. Whether we like it or not sideline behavior does influence their decisions. It shouldn’t but it does.

 Thanks for taking the time to engage in discussion with me. I enjoy it and aways learn something new!  GBR!

[LaunchCode]

1 hour ago, ladyhawke said:

I respectfully disagree. It was so refreshing to have a calm influence on the sidelines. I’m sure the refs were glad not to have Bo in their faces all the time. Riley reached out to the fans and was indeed a healing influence on Husker Nation. He hasn’t panned out as a coach but I have appreciated his demeanor and I know I’m not alone in that assessment. 

Fans are fickle.  For example we keep hearing year 3, year 3 it has to work by year 3.  The problem with that is:

 

It's not Lee's 3rd year starting.

It's not Diaco's or the D's 3rd year running the 3-4.

It's not even year 3 for half of our current O-line starters playing together.

 

We've been without our starting back for weeks.  The line has been a rotation of musical chairs along with the defensive backfield and we're fielding a lot of young players.  With youth and inexperience on the field there will be mistakes, missed assignments, and some brain farts.  The bright side is, going forwards you have a much more intelligent and polished team in the seasons to come. 

 

Actual veteran MR QB's this season are doing fine elsewhere:(QB's he recruited, coached, and were on the OSU roster when MR came to N)

Kyle Kempt 4-0 as starter at Iowa State

Luke Del Rio 2-0 as Florida starter

Marcus McMarion 4-1 as Fresno State starter

10-1

 

Lee has improved a ton., Gebbia and O'Brien are in the wings.  The future is bright, patience is golden.

 

 

[ColoradoHusk]

4 minutes ago, LaunchCode said:

Fans are fickle.  For example we keep hearing year 3, year 3 it has to work by year 3.  The problem with that is:

 

It's not Lee's 3rd year starting.

It's not Diaco's or the D's 3rd year running the 3-4.

It's not even year 3 for half of our current O-line starters playing together.

 

We've been without our starting back for weeks.  The line has been a rotation of musical chairs along with the defensive backfield and we're fielding a lot of young players.  With youth and inexperience on the field there will be mistakes, missed assignments, and some brain farts.  The bright side is, going forwards you have a much more intelligent and polished team in the seasons to come. 

 

Actual veteran MR QB's this season are doing fine elsewhere:(QB's he recruited, coached, and were on the OSU roster when MR came to N)

Kyle Kempt 4-0 as starter at Iowa State

Luke Del Rio 2-0 as Florida starter

Marcus McMarion 4-1 as Fresno State starter

10-1

 

Lee has improved a ton., Gebbia and O'Brien are in the wings.  The future is bright, patience is golden.

 

 

I understand you are one of the few holding out hope for Riley, but I (and most others) don't see the improvement and progression that you think is happening.  Riley has the team performing to the level that most of his teams performed prior to coming to NU.  Riley isn't going to all of a sudden become a championship level coach.

 

Mike'l Severe had a great point yesterday on his TBL radio show.  When have you seen a coach be at his best at the end of his career?  I can only think of one coach (Dick Vermeil) at the NFL level who left at his peak coaching career.  Yes, Tom Osborne left at the top, but most people thought that he could have coached another 5-10 years.  He didn't want to "hang on too long".  Riley's teams hit their peak nearly 10 years ago.  His teams have been on a steady decline since 2011.    

[LaunchCode]

35 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I understand you are one of the few holding out hope for Riley, but I (and most others) don't see the improvement and progression that you think is happening.  Riley has the team performing to the level that most of his teams performed prior to coming to NU.  Riley isn't going to all of a sudden become a championship level coach.

 

Mike'l Severe had a great point yesterday on his TBL radio show.  When have you seen a coach be at his best at the end of his career?  I can only think of one coach (Dick Vermeil) at the NFL level who left at his peak coaching career.  Yes, Tom Osborne left at the top, but most people thought that he could have coached another 5-10 years.  He didn't want to "hang on too long".  Riley's teams hit their peak nearly 10 years ago.  His teams have been on a steady decline since 2011.    

ColoradoHusk,

 

The team showed a lot of heart and character winning on the road last week the way they did.  It saddens me there are some amongst us who were actually hoping the team would lose, and others who went out of there way to disparage the win any way they could. 

 

You don't see the improvement and progression in Lee?  We have a lot of blemishes to hide until we are healthy.  The best chance of hiding them is with a difference maker at QB and Lee did just that in the clutch and on the road.  The offense looked like a well oiled machine on that final drive.  A little over a week ago I watched a ranked Stanford team, minus their top running back, have to pull out a similar one point last minute victory over a one win team on the road and Stanford's O-line is in much better shape than our is.

[ladyhawke]

24 minutes ago, LaunchCode said:

Fans are fickle.  For example we keep hearing year 3, year 3 it has to work by year 3.  The problem with that is:

 

It's not Lee's 3rd year starting.

It's not Diaco's or the D's 3rd year running the 3-4.

It's not even year 3 for half of our current O-line starters playing together.

 

We've been without our starting back for weeks.  The line has been a rotation of musical chairs along with the defensive backfield and we're fielding a lot of young players.  With youth and inexperience on the field there will be mistakes, missed assignments, and some brain farts.  The bright side is, going forwards you have a much more intelligent and polished team in the seasons to come. 

 

Actual veteran MR QB's this season are doing fine elsewhere:(QB's he recruited, coached, and were on the OSU roster when MR came to N)

Kyle Kempt 4-0 as starter at Iowa State

Luke Del Rio 2-0 as Florida starter

Marcus McMarion 4-1 as Fresno State starter

10-1

 

Lee has improved a ton., Gebbia and O'Brien are in the wings.  The future is bright, patience is golden.

 

 

I agree with you that fans are fickle but as MR IS a veteran coach and his whole staff were and are veterans, fans were expecting much more improvement in lesser time.  They hear Coach Riley say that he was experienced in doing more with less.  Well. he had everything here and the team has regressed. You could say, well the team is young and they will get better.  But we're only seeing a few kids get better while our veteran players are either hurt or have regressed.  Why are our kids getting hurt so much? Poor strength and conditioning? Why is our O Line so weak?  The most telling fact is that we got beat by a MAC team who was just totalled last night by Toledo-another MAC team!  If this were MR's first year I would give him grace to get settled but it's time for a change. As it is, none of us know what the final decision will be,  But for me: If Scott wants to come home let's get him here because there will be a major meltdown in Husker Nation if we have to go through another season like this one, (The only exception will be if Scott asks for one more year at his current school with the guarantee that MR retires at the end of the 2018-19 season.).  

 

[ColoradoHusk]

7 minutes ago, LaunchCode said:

ColoradoHusk,

 

The team showed a lot of heart and character winning on the road last week the way they did.  It saddens me there are some amongst us who were actually hoping the team would lose, and others who went out of there way to disparage the win any way they could. 

 

You don't see the improvement and progression in Lee?  We have a lot of blemishes to hide until we are healthy.  The best chance of hiding them is with a difference maker at QB and Lee did just that in the clutch and on the road.  The offense looked like a well oiled machine on that final drive.  A little over a week ago I watched a ranked Stanford team, minus their top running back, have to pull out a similar one point last minute victory over a one win team on the road and Stanford's O-line is in much better shape than our is.

I agree that the team didn't quit against Purdue, but they still didn't play well.  I guess that makes them mentally tough, but not physically tough.

 

You mention Stanford as a comparison, and yes they did go on the road and struggled against Oregon State, and managed to eak out a win.  That type of win is not typical for Stanford.  They usually take care of business against weaker teams.  For NU, the win against Purdue was more of the norm.  It was a sluggish performance against a mediocre opponent.  Yes, it's good to get the win in the end.  It's better than losing to the likes of Northern Illinois.  But, I am not seeing significant improvement by NU.  If you are happy with NU eaking out wins against the dregs of the Big Ten, and then getting blown out by any team in the top half of the conference, then Riley is your man.  Riley has turned NU into Corevallis east. I would rather have NU be better than that.

[BigRedBuster]

44 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

 

 

Mike'l Severe had a great point yesterday on his TBL radio show.  When have you seen a coach be at his best at the end of his career?  I can only think of one coach (Dick Vermeil) at the NFL level who left at his peak coaching career.  Yes, Tom Osborne left at the top, but most people thought that he could have coached another 5-10 years.  He didn't want to "hang on too long".  Riley's teams hit their peak nearly 10 years ago.  His teams have been on a steady decline since 2011.    

 

 

I know a coach who coached for 25 years, was almost forced out by the fans at least once or twice, went through a period where he lost 7 bowl games in a row....and finally in the last 4 years of his career he won 3 NCs.

Edited November 3, 2017 by BigRedBuster

[ColoradoHusk]

1 minute ago, BigRedBuster said:

 

 

I know a coach who coached for 25 years, was almost forced out by the fans at least once or twice, went through a period where he lost 7 bowl games in a row....and finally in the last 4 years of his career he won 3 NCs.

I commented about Osborne two sentences later.  Osborne also retired at 60, which is 4 years younger than Riley is right now.

Edited November 3, 2017 by ColoradoHusk