Ran into an old boss at work this morning who played football at Oregon State....

[GOAT]

I'd be optimistic about Riley's abilities if we played fundamentally sound football, and played well, but still lost.

Instead, we lost games that we should've won, which actually never should've been close up begin with. We faced the same circumstances in multiple games and the staff showed no sign of progression or improvement upon past mistakes. Instead, their own ignorance and lack of fundamental basic coaching 101 -- and these are coaches with a multitude of experience, mind you -- are what cost us.

For those reasons, I have little faith.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

So a guy who may not have great physical tools to be a great football player can't have great knowledge of the game and a team itself? If that were true then only the best football players of all time would make the best coaches.

This guy's main point is "he has been okay for Oregon State, but I don't think he is the type of coach that would be a good fit for Nebraska, and Nebraska should be able to bring in a better coach."

How convenient. That happens to exactly agree with what you've been saying for quite awhile now. Frankly, it's getting really f'ing old.

This is a guy who played against Nebraska in college, so he has seen NU near the top of it's powers. He's just surprised that NU got a coach who was "average" at Oregon State. I'm just trying to relay some information and an opinion of a smart, successful guy who is a former Oregon State player and alum.

I wasn't against the Riley hire. I have become tired of Riley's pretty poor coaching through the first 5 games though.

 

[NUinID]

First of all the guy never played for Mike Riley so his opinion is not a first hand account of his coaching ability. I don't know if Riley was a good hire or not, but it happened and we will live with what ever transpires for at least 3 years IMO.

FWIW I was sitting in the Boise airport bar in July and struck up a conversation with a guy in his 50's with a OSU polo on. He said he was acquainted with MR as they had some mutual friends. Said he was a great guy and great coach. But, that he was getting a little heat lately about his teams. Was actually surprised he took the Nebraska Job.

Surprised he took it or surprised he was offered it?

Surprised he took it. This guy was like best buddies with the track coach at OSU or it might have been the golf coach. Either way he had been to a few parties etc with MR and knew him in that regard.

 

[zoogs]

I moved almost 30 posts out of this thread. I apologize in advance if some posts were moved that didn't strictly need to be, or if there are still some posts in here I could have also moved. If your post was moved, it doesn't mean I think you're terrible, so please don't take offense, either. Making an effort to salvage this, is all.

Please keep the tone civil and conversational, please -- whether or not you agree with the points. Thanks!

 

[tmfr15]

Different take from me. Good friend of mine lives in Oregon. Didn't go to school at either major institution in the state but considers himself a fan of both and has seen many "civil war" games in person. He says Riley was facing an almost impossible task in going up against the ducks once that program got rolling. He too says MR is a great guy, but he also said that he's a good coach and choice for Nebraska and said given a reasonable amount of time, he would be successful here.

 

[StPaulHusker]

Different take from me. Good friend of mine lives in Oregon. Didn't go to school at either major institution in the state but considers himself a fan of both and has seen many "civil war" games in person. He says Riley was facing an almost impossible task in going up against the ducks once that program got rolling. He too says MR is a great guy, but he also said that he's a good coach and choice for Nebraska and said given a reasonable amount of time, he would be successful here.

So 6 games?

 

[NUinID]

Different take from me. Good friend of mine lives in Oregon. Didn't go to school at either major institution in the state but considers himself a fan of both and has seen many "civil war" games in person. He says Riley was facing an almost impossible task in going up against the ducks once that program got rolling. He too says MR is a great guy, but he also said that he's a good coach and choice for Nebraska and said given a reasonable amount of time, he would be successful here.

So 6 games?

Funny, the only odd thing I think about the choice is his age. If he was say 56 instead of 62 I would have no problem with the hire.

 

[BIG ERN]

So hypothetically and I say a big HYPOTHETICALLY if we would have knocked down the hail mary, not thrown the INT in OT, or if Devine catches the third down pass. Would everyone still be calling for Riley's job if he was 5-0

No, because good teams find ways to win close games.

 

[Enhance]

So, this guy played for OSU when they were horrendously bad and he's criticizing the coach who came in and made OSU at least somewhat relevant on the college football landscape?

"Yeah, I played on a really bad football team and probably wasn't that great of a player myself. But, let me tell you about how he's not a great coach..."

I don't think that means he "knows his stuff" more than anyone else, honestly.

So a guy who may not have great physical tools to be a great football player can't have great knowledge of the game and a team itself? If that were true then only the best football players of all time would make the best coaches.

This guy's main point is "he has been okay for Oregon State, but I don't think he is the type of coach that would be a good fit for Nebraska, and Nebraska should be able to bring in a better coach."

I never said that so don't create a straw man. That's like saying you had to have played in the NFL to be a good NFL coach, and that's undoubtedly false.

My point is this - you clearly aren't a big fan of this coaching staff. So, to further substantiate this, you posted a thread in relation to a conversation you had with a former OSU football player who played on the team when they were terrible and never even played under Riley from what I can tell. So, why does this make his opinion more valuable than any of the other X number of people who have come out vocalizing opposition to Riley?

It would be like finding a former Husker from a team back in the 50's, that nobody remembers, and asking them to give their thoughts on why Bo Pelini will be a good/bad coach at Youngstown State, and then relaying this information to the fans. There's really nothing of substance to this and I'm drawing into question the foundation/reasoning for posting this. It does nothing but further your own obvious agenda because there's almost zero credibility associated with it.

 

[Kernal]

in the 1980's. I was going to say something about Riley, but I thought better against it, because he's got bigger things on his mind. Unsolicited by me, he said to me "Hey, I am sorry that Riley isn't doing well for Nebraska. I didn't think it was a good hire at the time, and I don't understand why a program like Nebraska would hire him in the first place. Don't get me wrong, Riley is a nice guy, but he's not a great coach."

We chatted for a couple minutes in the hallway, and then he ended it with "Banker is not a good defensive coordinator. We had been trying to get ride of him for a long time." I just replied "Yeah, I don't know what Banker is trying to do out there."

I just thought this was an interesting perspective. I know this isn't the first time we have heard this chatter from Oregon State fans/alums. This was a guy who played football at Oregon State, so he knows his stuff. It's almost like he felt sorry for me, in that I (as a Husker fan) have to deal with Riley now. The most telling part to me was the way he interjected "He's a nice guy". When we keep on hearing that about Riley, it tells me that they struggle to find other positives about Riley, so they always fall back on "well, he's a nice guy".

What a coincidence! I ran into an old unmatched sock yesterday while putting away laundry. It's not from the 1980s and didn't play at OSU, but it was very interesting nonetheless.

 

[JJ Husker]

I just got off the phone with a guy I've done business with for years. He asked me what I had planned for the weekend and told him watching the Husker game. He then informed me that he was an OSU graduate and volunteered that we should be patient through this rough start with Riley. Said it constantly amazed him how he competed so well with the big boys of the Pac 10 with the limited resources he had and the recruiting disadvantage with Oregon. He said he thought we would be happy with Riley if we could get through this rough patch. Anyway, thought that was interesting. He didn't mention anything about Banker and I didn't ask because I had another line on hold. I'll try to ask him next time we talk.

 

[BoNeyard]

Well, I live in Oregon and I have someone very close who was close to the Oregon State program. I know one person who is actually good friends with Riley as they are boosters of the OSU program, they aren't super close friends, but I have not spoken to them since this debacle has unraveled.

I have a very close family friends who are huge Beaver fans, and had spoken to the Riley staff in Corvallis, before, mainly because the person I know is a local HS football coach and has met Riley on numerous occasions.

Anyways, the later said going into the season that this staff was so excited because of how much talent and depth was on this roster. Specifically Mark Banker who said something along the lines that at Oregon State they may have had 2-3 studs on the D-Line and that was it, no depth. He mentioned he was excited at Nebraska because you had studs not only on the entire starting line, but on the bench creating great depth.

I got excited hearing this as I thought maybe this staff with their experience will do amazing things with talent and depth. So far they have greatly disappointed me.

Take it for what it is worth, I know on the internet, especially when things start to turn downhill everyone and anyone can post they know someone who knows someone.

 

[Lux]

Do we trust your boss or do we trust Keyshawn Johnson?

 

[grandpasknee]

A month ago, I almost ran over my old high school football coach. He was also our driver's ed instructor. He said I'd always been a bad driver and would never get over the hump.

So I backed up and ran him over.

 

[True2tRA]

I wish him the best of luck with Gary Anderson. Sounds like Oregon State is dumping something like 60+ million into their football program? (correct me if wrong?)

You'd think an Oregon State fan would be appreciative of some of their programs best years and some of the hugest upset victories on a national stage, but hey, nothing wrong with wanting more.