Thought that was an interesting line to bring up as well. I think it was literally, physically not cleaned up. Especially as it applies to not having pride in the program and/or doing things the right way.
I'm not sure how much I'd blame Riley himself for those types of things. But I do think there was a general lack of Riley being able to put his foot down and say "No, that's not going to happen. We're going to do it this way." And in a lot of ways more costly than not cleaning up the locker room or plane.
If there isn’t a high standard on how the coaches and the players are going to treat minor things within the program (locker room, weight room, team charter, etc.), then there isn’t going to be a high standard on the major things within the program. Simply put, Riley and his staff were too lenient with their players, and they weren’t able to manage things appropriately. We saw this with penalties, turnovers, coming out slowly in games, poor clock management, receivers consistently short of the first downs on pass routes, etc.
Riley ran a loose ship. He was more interested in being friends with players and having the players like them, than being demanding from them. There is nothing wrong with building relationships with your players, but you also have to be demanding and expect greatness from them. That’s what the best coaches do.
Riley is like the grandpa who takes his kid out for ice cream, toys, and candy, and not like the father who has to raise and discipline the kid on a day to day basis. Shoot, Riley gave the team concert tickets to a rap concert that came thru Lincoln in August. Nothing wrong with rap concerts or that stuff, but it was all over Twitter how Riley is the “coolest 65 year old coach in America”. Again, he wanted to be the cool grandpa. It’s not surprise that he wasn’t able to get greatness out of his players.