Meyer has also coached at Bowling Green and Utah. 4 head coaching gigs, 0 "transition" years.
Steele predicts major strides for Huskers!
- Thread starter TAKODA
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Redux
Assistant Coach
Urban only goes where the cup board is full. He walked away from his DREAM job of being Notre Dame's head coach to be the Florida head coach. He snubbed Nebraska because we fired a 9 win coach, but Nebraska nor Notre Dame had the talent he inherited at Florida or Ohio State. He is a great coach no question, but also a very smart man. He understands just how important top talent is. He understands he can turn 3* kids into NFL talent, but it is far easier to start with 5* talent.
5-6 mean anything to you Sker?
5-6 mean anything to you Sker?
Would have to agree. Honestly, not impressed with Riley initially, but he is really doing all the right things to get to winning IMO. I'm really hoping to see a continuation of the UCLA game. So far, that appears to be the direction we are going. At least this season. He's getting some great recruits. Has made some changes, seems to embrace the history and pageantry that is Husker football.
I am optimistically thinking we could have as few as 2-3 losses this year.
huKSer
All-American
Landlord
Banned
Urban Meyer is a once in a lifetime coach that is extremely rare to find. Sorry to break it to you that Mike Riley isn't Urban Meyer, that Urban Meyer isn't coming here, and that chances are very poor for not just us, but for every school, that we're all going to miss out on the next Urban Meyer.
Pelini needed an Ameeracle to beat FCS McNeese State in year 7. Urban lost to a really lousy Va Tech team last year, and barely won by 1 against 6-6 Michigan the year before. It happens. It just so happened that our program had statistically improbable luck in those close call games the prior few years under Pelini, and the law of averages crashed down around Riley like a house of cards.
ADS
Heisman Trophy Winner
He also had solid rosters at each school and he's probably the best coach in the country, maybe outside of Saban. Unfair to compare anything he's done to what is happening here.
huskerfan2000
Banned
and I would add to that.. These are not first year coaches, they have many years of coaching and STILL had these management issues. Doesn't bode well for the upcoming years.
Why even bring up Pelini? Seriously.
And there's no such thing as a "law of averages" in football. Though if you really want to argue that, you have to admit the average of 9.5 wins versus say a career .500 record.
Landlord
Banned
I could bring up Mike Leach or Ed Orgeron or James Franklin, but there's not really much familiarity with those. The point is that average to good to elite coaches struggle with the kinds of things that we struggled with last year, and I don't think that some cosmic universe force actually made us lose all the close games, but I do think that one season where a handful of plays didn't go our way when we've been used to them working out for a while isn't enough statistical data to make a determination about much of anything.
Ed Oregon and Franklin aren't even good coaches.
I agree that many good coaches have struggled before. But rarely (ever?) has a national championship quality coach taken over a winning team and posted a losing first year record and later turned it around.
If Riley pulls it off, he may literally be the first.
For the record, plenty of games during the last 8 years could have gone NU's way and then NU had a CCG or two under its belt.
Point being, (a) I don't believe NU was unusually "lucky" under Bo, and (b) sometimes the hallmark of a great coach is winning more close games than you lose. That has nothing to do with "statistic probabilities."
I agree that many good coaches have struggled before. But rarely (ever?) has a national championship quality coach taken over a winning team and posted a losing first year record and later turned it around.
If Riley pulls it off, he may literally be the first.
For the record, plenty of games during the last 8 years could have gone NU's way and then NU had a CCG or two under its belt.
Point being, (a) I don't believe NU was unusually "lucky" under Bo, and (b) sometimes the hallmark of a great coach is winning more close games than you lose. That has nothing to do with "statistic probabilities."
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Landlord
Banned
It's definitely not something we've seen a lot of. But then again, you're already starting from a very small pool of data points with the modifier "...taken over a winning team", because most schools don't fire coaches that consistently win. I don't really expect Riley to win a national championship, nor am I making the claim that he is a great coach.
As far as Bo's teams, sure, they weren't 100% in the close games, but they were awfully consistently fortunate in situations where they could just have easily not been. Just from memory, here's all the super close one possession or "one play decided" games I can think of under Bo.
08 Texas Tech - Lost on an interception in overtime
08 Colorado - School record field goal to take the lead and Suh's pick six to seal it
08 Clemson - I think we ended the game with two sacks to seal it
09 Va Tech - god damnit
09 Iowa State - god damnit again
09 Texas -
10 Iowa State - interception in OT when ISU went for 2 to win it
10 Oklahoma - failed 4th and 3 or something to seal OU's win
12 Wisconsin - botched 4th down play and fumble sealed the win late
12 Northwestern - NW missed a field goal as time expired to win
12 Michigan State - very gratuitous personal foul and PI penalties on MSU let us take the lead with almost no time left
12 Penn State - PSU's supposed goal line fumble that shouldn't have been let us hold on
13 Wyoming - Wyo threw it out of bounds on the last play of the game
13 Northwestern - hail mary
13 Michigan - i remember we took the lead really late
13 Penn State - went to overtime, they missed a field goal, we made ours (i think?)
13 Georgia - failed 4th down under 2 minutes sealed the win
14 McNeese State - ameer beast moding it to avoid overtime
14 Iowa - won in OT
all in all, you're right. If Riley wants to succeed, those kinds of things can't keep happening. Good coaches put their teams in a position to win, and coach their players to take advantage of those situations. Great teams also add a little dash of luck along the way.
TonyStalloni
All-Conference
How much grief did Tom O coached teams endure in the 80's and early 90's before fate finally gave him a reprieve?
1. The loss @ Penn St in 82 with 2 bad ref calls at the end of a close game. Kept us out of the Natl Champ Game.
2. The loss to Miami in the Orange Bowl.
3. The loss to Fla St and the phantom flags and non TD's also in the Orange Bowl.
Not so much the Miami game but the other two were decided by things you can't coach against. Even good teams have close games and sometimes the difference hinges on one unfortunate detail. Could be a tipped pass where you lose the ball or a penalty at the wrong time in a drive. I guess the moral of the story is to score so many points you aren't in a position to lose a game by one freak play.
1. The loss @ Penn St in 82 with 2 bad ref calls at the end of a close game. Kept us out of the Natl Champ Game.
2. The loss to Miami in the Orange Bowl.
3. The loss to Fla St and the phantom flags and non TD's also in the Orange Bowl.
Not so much the Miami game but the other two were decided by things you can't coach against. Even good teams have close games and sometimes the difference hinges on one unfortunate detail. Could be a tipped pass where you lose the ball or a penalty at the wrong time in a drive. I guess the moral of the story is to score so many points you aren't in a position to lose a game by one freak play.