If your're gonna fire Riley.....

Melby said:
Sorry, but Chris Peterson isnt leaving Washington.  He turned down USC with a similar offer. Peterson wanted to go to a place without super high expectations and found it at UW.
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So we know coaches take into consideration a program's expectations when deciding to take a job.  Urban Meyer made a comment about expectations when considering Nebraska post Solich.  Riley and SE are putting the program in a good position.  Here's my logic.  Callahan took the program to new lows.  Pelini provided some hope but the blowout losses made us realize we had a long way to go.  SE and MR could be taking us to the bottom.  At this point who can honestly say that your expectations haven't been severely curbed?  For me, a new coach that could consistently get the 9-10 wins and be competitive in every game would be... satisfactory? encouraging?  Not sure of the correct adjective but it would be a welcomed improvement from where we are now.  This seems like reasonable expectations for a program like Nebraska and any coach that thinks otherwise is not the man for the job.

BTW, thanks for spelling Peterson correctly.

 
saunders45 said:
Maybe Dan Mullen.
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Dan Mullen didn't help Miss St succeed, Dak Prescott did. He was stealthy good and underrated. Just like Kevin Sumlin didn't make A&M good, Johnny Manziel Did. Find the coach who made a team good and kept them good through a couple of Cycles of recruiting. Chris Peterson comes to mind with what he did at Boise St and then Washington last year. 

Chip Kelly cheated his way through recruiting to get the talent to win, he left right before he got caught. 

Les Miles couldn't ever find a QB or run a great offense with a guy who could throw well. His defenses were always great. 

Brett Bilema is somebody who's going to rub the fans wrong the way Bo did and he hasn't done jack squat at Arkansas. 

James Franklin was one we should have gone after with what he did at Vanderbilt. He is big time. 

Scott Frost hasn't proven anything yet. 

Art Briles is available if you want to win, but count it that he will be covered in scandal and we will probably have a team of criminals. 

Could we get Jim Tressell to come out of the AD position at YSU? Probably not since he is great pals with Bo and has probably heard all sorts of stuff. 

What about Mike Brown? He won a NC at Texas. Nope, he could recruit but his coaching was about on par with Callahan. He only won there because he got lucky with some really talented recruits who were special. 

Could we get Pete Carrol to exit the NFL? Doubtful. He is making crazy money and has a good setup in Seattle. 

We need a proven, good recruiter, good coach, and someone who has won over and over and knows how to create that culture. Who is that guy? Would he even want to come to Nebraska? It's a stressful job with a ton of work to be done to rebuild and fans are only going to give him 2-3 years to do it before they call for his head. 

 
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There isn't a ton of work to be done to rebuild.  We have top-notch facilities, we'll open our wallet to fund recruiting trips, we sell out the 18th largest stadium in the world every game, and if you're successful we'll celebrate you til your dying day. 

A top-notch recruiter comes to Nebraska and there's no reason we can't compete for Conference titles & national championships within three years.

 
^Good analysis.

I think we do give Riley a lot of patience and see this through. He'll either have brighter days on the field eventually or the on-field product will always stink. Either way we work on keeping Nebraska's place as a destination program (which maybe goes through bad times) but not as a place where it's hard to win but has unreasonably high and fast expectations. 

Scott Frost is one guy I'd keep my eyes on. I think that would be a great homecoming if he does well at UCF. I'd take Les Miles too. Franklin won't take a lateral move, nor would Petersen, just to be realistic. But in either case, Nebraska should show that we give class acts ample time and support. They've done that so far with Riley and barring a spectacular collapse, I think he at least makes it to year 4. At that point it's a year-to-year evaluation. Where's the program headed? What's available? After a certain period of demonstrable patience it's easy to both make a change and set up the next guy for success. You don't want him looking over his shoulder the minute he steps on campus, or feeling like he has to take shortcuts to start winning right away.

But let's ride this year out first. Maybe it'll all be moot (for a while) by the time the season's over. 

 
knapplc said:
There isn't a ton of work to be done to rebuild.  We have top-notch facilities, we'll open our wallet to fund recruiting trips, we sell out the 18th largest stadium in the world every game, and if you're successful we'll celebrate you til your dying day. 

A top-notch recruiter comes to Nebraska and there's no reason we can't compete for Conference titles & national championships within three years.
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The whole offensive line needs a rebuild, the tight end position needs a rebuild, the OLB needs a rebuild, and the WR's need a rebuild. Bring in a whole new offense and defense again and you're going to need a couple of years for players to learn it and get good at it. The new HC would need to be similar to MR's offense enough to not need to scrap players for different kinds of players. As for D.C., don't judge diaco until he has had two full seasons here. 

 
Les Miles couldn't get it done with more talent in a 100 mile area than we have in 700. His offenses were bad, and I don't think he'd do all that well here.

As for Mullen, yeah, he had Dak. But he's also been very good at MSU (especially for what they are), and was a good OC for Urban Meyer too. He runs a spread/power run offense. IDK, but I've always been intrigued by him.

 
I realize this is a pipe dream but I think SE should at least call Stanford and see if David Shaw has any interest. Given the type of football he likes to play he would be the ideal fit and I think the whole fanbase could get behind him. Nothing against any of the other candidates but you're going to have a split fanbase with anyone else except for maybe Frost. 

 
I grow tired of people treating this offense as an alien species. 

Its a collection of plays. Words like "pro style" and "spread" get thrown around without any definition! It's blocking and catching, throwing and running. It's Y-Cross, mesh, snag. It's a counter, ISO, draw. They are just plays and concepts. 

 
Agree wt Knapp on this one.  We have the resources, facilities and the fan support to win and win big.  We have sold ourselves short with the MR hiring.  I'm tired of hearing that we can't return to big time at NU.  Is it harder than turn around done in recruit rich locations like Bama, PSU, etc - yes.  But a coach who can turn NU around would be King for life as Knapp notes. Most coaches want a challenge and if we hire a quality guy I think we can get it done.  BC never had his heart at NU, Bo didn't have his heart hear and had not proven himself as a HC, MR - Mr Nice guy but a 500% coach who appears to have taken this job as his last hurrah - leaving pressure of OSU disgruntled fan base behind.   We need to be bold and believe that we can get to the top again with the right guy.  Who it is I'm not sure.  I like Frost - if he proves himself as HC  this year,  Mullen, and a host of others. 

 
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