A little about Riley - from an Outsider

[SnohomishRed]

No, Riley was not fired by the OSU AD. It is only speculation but I think it would have been hard to fire Riley there. This is pure speculation, but I think he would have been kicked upstairs to some sort of emeritus position. If Nebraska hadn't come along I think Mike would have been fine with that. He's a hometown boy. He still could ride his bike to the office and he would still be surrounded by his friends and family.

I want to get this out there. This is just a gut feeling. I am 61 years old so I base it a little on age. I would not be surprised if 64 year old Mike Riley at the end of the season quietly comes to a separation agreement. He hears the boos. He knows the lay of the land. He may not acknowledge it, but he is aware fans are not happy. Eichorst getting fired does not bode well for him. Why deal with the stress and pressure. It would be a win-win situation. The Husker brass doesn't actually fire him and he leaves with a boatload of money. He's set for life. He can go home and be happy.

I could be completely wrong. This is pure conjecture on my part.

Mike Riley is a smart guy - Leaving OSU at a low ebb, Firing Banker and to a lesser extent Read. Then having the AD who hired you fired because of how your team has played I am sure is wearing on him. He either goes one of two ways:

1. Sucks it up makes changes on the offensive coaching staff as he did on the defensive side and does everything in his power to get this team elevated
2. Realizes he does not want to make the personal sacrifices needed and retires gracefully

Either choice is understandable

 

[Toms Wife]

Mike Riley is a smart guy - Leaving OSU at a low ebb, Firing Banker and to a lesser extent Read. Then having the AD who hired you fired because of how your team has played I am sure is wearing on him. He either goes one of two ways:

1. Sucks it up makes changes on the offensive coaching staff as he did on the defensive side and does everything in his power to get this team elevated
2. Realizes he does not want to make the personal sacrifices needed and retires gracefully

Either choice is understandable

Riley is not a bad guy and I have to believe that he really felt like his OSU crew could get it done at another place. I don't believe that same crew was going to get another year together at OSU (it was very, very clear to him). Thus, Shawn threw him a life line. I actually think being at Nebraska made it easier for him, when the time came, to cast off some of his buddies and hire better assistants. He has at least to the end of this year to prove that it worked.

 

[Harry Caray]

Interesting article here posted just a couple of days before we hired Riley: https://www.buildingthedam.com/2014/12/1/7315363/the-catch-22

They polled Oregon State fans asking what they should do with the coaching staff:

Fire everyone. Clean slate, start over. - 24%
Get rid of Banker and maybe another assistant or three. - 56%
Maintain the status quo. Not ideal, but better than the unknown. - 20%

 

[HuskerDana]

spend 3 minutes and just post!

Simmer down, it was a joke. I read it. I agree with some aspects of his assessment of MR, until his last paragraph. NU is not Oregon State. I think the OP believes we should all jist go ahead and have blind faith that MR is going to get it done here. While I am still hopeful that he can, I have become more and more pessimistic. This weekend and next gives Riley a huge opportunity to prove us all wrong. I hope he does. I like MR. I hope he gets the chance to leave NU when he chooses....on his own terms.

 

[jimbosc]

Not sure 7- 7 qualifies as a losing season either

It cost Solich his job here - ever after improving the next season. The "taint" was too much to overcome.

 

[jimbosc]

Good discussion - and we can debate the merits of Riley's career. The fact was - he had never run a program like Nebraska at a high level (10 wins or more consistently). He was at USC as an assistant....so he had a good idea of what he was getting into at a premier program. The general fan reaction to Riley being hired was "they hired who?".

Now into year 3 - we see Riley made some early mistakes with his staff - aka bringing all his OSU buddies to Lincoln was not a good idea. The Big 10 is MUCH tougher than he realized - especially during Riley's tenure in Lincoln. He is making corrections but the W-L results are a problem. He already has one losing season. If he has another - he is gone. Regardless of his fine career elsewhere. No way to argue otherwise - perform or get fired. That is where his job is at.

 

[little a]

Interesting article here posted just a couple of days before we hired Riley: https://www.buildingthedam.com/2014/12/1/7315363/the-catch-22

They polled Oregon State fans asking what they should do with the coaching staff:

Fire everyone. Clean slate, start over. - 24%
Get rid of Banker and maybe another assistant or three. - 56%
Maintain the status quo. Not ideal, but better than the unknown. - 20%

Looks like the majority was right from the beginning....

 

[husker56]

A Little about Mike Riley from an Outsider:

I was born in California and raised throughout the West Coast, where I met my wife (a Nebraska grad), who eventually dragged me to the Midwest to raise a family.

I am familiar with Mike Riley for 3 reasons: 1) I’m a lifetime PAC10 fan, 2) my wife is an avid Husker fan, which makes me a fan, 3) a conversation I had with Mike Bellotti circa 2011 at a fund-raiser. (and a Mike Riley handshake in a hotel lobby in 2005)

Having lived in the PAC10 footprint most of my life, I knew of and always found Mike Riley intriguing, but my knowledge of Riley only really increased both after my conversation with Bolletti and again when he was named head coach of Nebraska

For those that don’t know Mike Bellotti, he is Oregon’s winningest Head coach of all-time, mentor to Chip Kelly and Chris Peterson, and coached directly against Mike Riley in 97/98 and again from 2003-2009. Upon meeting Bellotti, short on time, I awkwardly asked – “who is the greatest coach you ever coached against?”. While he did not answer my question directly, he did offer up the following 2 nuggets: 1) that he knew of nobody that could do more with less than Mike Riley, and 2) that he felt Riley would have been a national household name and won a national championship if he would have been willing to leave his home state of Oregon earlier in his career.

Why was Bellotti so easy with his praise of Riley that day? I think to understand, one has to dig a little deeper……

The common refrain I hear from Husker fans when I am out w/ my wife watching a Nebraska game goes something like this: “Riley is just a mediocre 500 coach who has never won a thing”. Does that represent the majority of what people think? Like a rushed national writer trying to hit a deadline, does the average Nebraska fan do a 10 second google search of his record at Oregon State, draw a conclusion, and then call it a day?

How many people know that at the age of 24, Riley became the defensive coordinator of Linfield College and over the next 6 years coached them to a 52-7-1 record, 5 conferences titles and a NAIA National Championship at the age of 29.

How many people know that at the age of 33, Mike Riley become the 2nd youngest head coach in the 75 year history of the Canadian Football League (the legendary Bud Grant being the youngest), and in his very first season became the youngest coach to ever win the Grey Cup, only to turn around and do it again 2 years later at the age of 35.

How many people know that at the age of 38, USC hired Mike Riley to be QB/Assistant Head Coach and then immediately won 2 Pac10 titles, with QB Rob Johnson braking numerous NCAA QB records.

My favorite: How many people know that in 1997, Mike Riley inherited a Jerry Pettibone wishbone triple threat Oregon State football team (the undisputed 30yr doormat of college football, Avg 2 wins a season). In his first year he installed a pro-style offense. By year 2 he came within 1 point (twice) of breaking a streak of 27 consecutive losing seasons. By year 4 (having handed the team over to Dennis Erickson in Year 3), Oregon State won the PAC10 title, the Fiesta Bowl, and finished the season ranked 4th in the country. To this day, Erickson credits Mike Riley for laying the foundation for that miraculous season.

How many people know that upon his return from the NFL to Oregon State in 2003, with the worst talent (per recruiting services), facilities and resources in the PAC10, that over the next 7 seasons, the only 2 teams that had a better conference record were USC (Carroll) and Oregon (Bellotti). - the same record as Cal, and significantly better than Arizona, ASU, Stanford, UCLA, Washington and Washington State.

How many people know that over those 7 seasons only 3 PAC10 coaches retained their jobs: Pete Carrol, Mike Riley and Tedford, and that Oregon State went 5-1 in bowl games.

How many people know that the following are Oregon State’s football winning % before, during and after Mike Riley was head-coach:

- Before / Doormat of College Football: 19% winning percent (2 wins/year)
- During / 2003-09: 64% winning percent
- During / 2010-14: 47% winning percent (see below)
- After / Gary Anderson Era: 24% winning percent

How many people know that he has been named, NAIA assistant coach of the year, Pac10 assistant coach of the year, Pac10 Coach of the year, CFL Coach of the year (twice), and in 2014 his Power 5 head coaching peers voted him the most underrated coach in College Football?

So that leaves just 2 relatively short periods of his 40 year coaching career where Riley saw limited or no success:

Three unsuccessful years in the NFL (think Saban, Spurrier, Holtz, Petrino, Chip Kelly, etc.) and five very average years (2010-14) at Oregon State where he went 0-10 against Oregon and Stanford (think Phil Knight-Oregon/John Arrillaga-Stanford $150+ million arms race) but a respectable 29-23 against rest of PAC10 (again with the least amount of talent). This widening un-level playing field was ultimately a key factor in him leaving OSU and coming to Nebraska.

Except for the NFL, Mike Riley has had an immediate and positive impact that resulted in either championships or significantly higher performance at every step of his career (NAIA, CFL, USC, and Oregon State twice). Every place he went got significantly better, every place he left got significantly worse.

As an outsider, who admittedly is not quite as emotionally attached as you all, my only thought about the situation is pretty simple. Based on Riley’s past, I think the odds are significantly greater of winning a BIG10 Title sooner if you stick with Riley, rather than blowing it up and starting all over again. (lest we forget in year 2 he came within one play on the road of winning the BIG10 West with an” island of misfit toys” and a dumbed-down modified scheme).

Mike Riley has overachieved in almost every endeavor he has ever undertaken. If given the right amount of time, Riley will win at Nebraska and win consistently. If Riley can win 2 state championships (player), a NCAA football national championship (player), an NAIA championship (coach), two Canadian Football League Championships (coach), and two PAC10 championships (assistant head coach), and nearly win a PAC10 championship as a head coach with lesser talent (imagine Illinois), then he will win a BIG10 Championship with Nebraska’s resources.

There are many more Riley stories (his association w/ Tom Brady, Bear Bryant, Major Ogilvie, etc..) but let me leave you with one last thought.

How many people know that Mike Riley has coached in College football for 38 years, (held numerous positions, turned down numerous positions) and not once in those 38 years, not a single time, has he ever been fired. I guess there’s always a first time for everything though. Be careful what you wish for.

Go Big Red!

he needs at least one more coaching change on the offensive side imo. by all fairness he deserves this year and one more . if he shows improvements this year and no blow outs, I think this will probably happen. however if he gets another year after this, he had better improve big time or I see no hope for him staying .

 

[Harry Caray]

he needs at least one more coaching change on the offensive side imo. by all fairness he deserves this year and one more . if he shows improvements this year and no blow outs, I think this will probably happen. however if he gets another year after this, he had better improve big time or I see no hope for him staying .

Next year's schedule is brutal. Road games at Ohio St, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Michigan State and Colorado at home. Even if we are improved next year, we might still win fewer games.

The 2019 schedule sets up very nicely, however. You could argue it might be best to let a new coach get their licks in next year against a tough schedule while they install a new system.

 

[Phillipe]

Let's see - if you are trying to define Riley by less than two seasons of his career at OSU, albeit his most recent two, you are deciding to ignore 30+ years of his career. That seems like a pretty short-sighted decision when hiring a coach at a major university. Thus, it appears that you are cherry picking the data that fits your argument which is what the OP was stating yet your post in response to OPs did exactly that.

Take his whole career and he didn't deserve the job here. His career is worse than the guy we fired. Let's not pretend it's not. We fired a guy that had never been a head coach before and asked him to take over a program that won 5 games they year before. The coach we fired averaged more than 9 wins a year. And we all decided that WAS NOT enough.

We replaced him with a guy that won nine games or more 4 times in 14 seasons at OSU. HE had losing seasons in three of his last five seasons at OSU and lost TWICE to FCS schools. Yes, Mr. Does more with less had become Mr. Did less with less. Are you telling me it is easier to recruit to Sacramento State and Eastern Washington? And, although nobody thinks it is fair to mention, he lost 12 of his last 14 conference games. His program was a model of a failing major college football program.

And we hired him. And people still defend his record.

The AD said when he fired the last coach that he didn't win the games that mattered. And then hired a guy that has NEVER won the games that mattered. As a matter of fact I'm not sure he ever got his team good enough to play in games that mattered!

What in his record is so admirable ?

 

[Tuco Salamanca]

Looks like the majority was right from the beginning....

looks like the 20% was right too.

 

[TheBeav815]

You lost me at "I was born"

 

[timnsun]

Take his whole career and he didn't deserve the job here. His career is worse than the guy we fired. Let's not pretend it's not. We fired a guy that had never been a head coach before and asked him to take over a program that won 5 games they year before. The coach we fired averaged more than 9 wins a year. And we all decided that WAS NOT enough.

We replaced him with a guy that won nine games or more 4 times in 14 seasons at OSU. HE had losing seasons in three of his last five seasons at OSU and lost TWICE to FCS schools. Yes, Mr. Does more with less had become Mr. Did less with less. Are you telling me it is easier to recruit to Sacramento State and Eastern Washington? And, although nobody thinks it is fair to mention, he lost 12 of his last 14 conference games. His program was a model of a failing major college football program.

And we hired him. And people still defend his record.

The AD said when he fired the last coach that he didn't win the games that mattered. And then hired a guy that has NEVER won the games that mattered. As a matter of fact I'm not sure he ever got his team good enough to play in games that mattered!

What in his record is so admirable ?

It’s called critical thinking, something you are not employing at all when you talk about Mike Riley. When you consider where he came from, and the lack of resources that he had, of course he’s not going to have the same record that Pelini did here at Nebraska.

Are you seriously going to tell me that if Pelini were at Oregon State at the same time Riley was, that Pelini would be this great coach? You’re full of crap!

You don’t have an objective bone in your body when it comes to Riley. He very easily may not be the guy... and as it stands right now he isn’t... but it’s not because he didn’t have overwhelming success at Oregon State... it’s because you can’t stand the hire.

Amazing that you can’t see the challenge of coaching at Oregon State and still question how he was so average there...

The only way he gets the time here is if he continues to win this season. For your sake, you better hope he doesn’t continue to win. If he does, you’re gonna have to hibernate for awhile again.

 

[Phillipe]

Al Golden won 12 out of his last 16 conference games while at Temple. We probably should have hired him.... Maybe we should have grabbed Kevin Sumlin before Texas A&M did... Brady Hoke, Charlie Strong, Sonny Dykes, Dave Doeren, Gary Anderson, etc...

Holy cow, that's irrelevant.

 

[timnsun]

Holy cow, that's irrelevant.

How is that irrelevant? You quote his last 14 conference games, how is listing Golden’s record in his last 16 conference games at temple not relevant?

 

[NorthWillRiseAgain]

Holy cow, that's irrelevant.

Actually, completely relevant.

 

[Harry Caray]

Riley's situation is very unique, in that it's almost unheard of at the P5 Conference level for a coach to get 14 years at the same school without winning a conference or even a division title. So there really aren't many other coaches you could compare him to and say "this coach did OK at a bad P5 program, didn't win any championships but then got hired at a big-time program and was awesome". I suppose you could argue Les Miles, though he was only at Okie St for 4 years. Some would say Saban at MSU, but he turned them into a Top 10 his last year there. James Franklin at Vandy, but again he was only there a few years and was a young, dynamic recruiter whose career was clearly trending upward.

Because Riley's career seemed to be trending downward and he was already past 60 years old, this was a "high-risk, low-reward" hire. Even if he had come in here and won the Big Ten in the first few years, he would be looking at retirement soon anyway and starting over with a new coach. Add in the fact that Riley had been a west-coast guy his entire career, it seemed to me to be a very strange fit.

 

[Phillipe]

It’s called critical thinking, something you are not employing at all when you talk about Mike Riley. When you consider where he came from, and the lack of resources that he had, of course he’s not going to have the same record that Pelini did here at Nebraska.

Are you seriously going to tell me that if Pelini were at Oregon State at the same time Riley was, that Pelini would be this great coach? You’re full of crap!

You don’t have an objective bone in your body when it comes to Riley. He very easily may not be the guy... and as it stands right now he isn’t... but it’s not because he didn’t have overwhelming success at Oregon State... it’s because you can’t stand the hire.

Amazing that you can’t see the challenge of coaching at Oregon State and still question how he was so average there...

The only way he gets the time here is if he continues to win this season. For your sake, you better hope he doesn’t continue to win. If he does, you’re gonna have to hibernate for awhile again.

OK, do some critical thinking for me then.

Would you hire a coach that has:

Lost 12 of his last 14 conference games
Lost to 2 FCS teams in the last four years ( one of those FCS schools lost 7 games)
Has not finished higher than third in his division in five years
Never has won a division or conference championship in this country.
Had a .292 winning percentage in the NFL
58-63 record in the Pac 10 (12)

I get it, nobody can win at OSU. Well, except Dennis Erickson, the only other guy that had coached there since 1997 before Riley left. I am sure it is not easy to win there, and it is commendable what he did in 2006-2008. But we hired him in 2015. His last five years there were 29-33. His last team won five games. Three of the teams he beat lost 9 games or more and one of those three was an FCS team. Granted, he did beat ASU that year.

If we were talking about the guy at retirement, sure, nice guy, had some good years. But we hired him. Nothing in that resume says hire me. He was BELOW Average when we hired him. We didn't hire him in 2008. Why is it so hard to see that he was failing when we hired him. And we were a good program at the time.

 

[Phillipe]

Actually, completely relevant.

Of course, because saying we should not have hired Riley means we should have hired Al Golden, or whomever else you picked that also turned out to be similar to our coach. Good point.

 

[NorthWillRiseAgain]

OK, do some critical thinking for me then.

Would you hire a coach that has:

Lost 12 of his last 14 conference games
Lost to 2 FCS teams in the last four years ( one of those FCS schools lost 7 games)
Has not finished higher than third in his division in five years
Never has won a division or conference championship in this country.
Had a .292 winning percentage in the NFL
58-63 record in the Pac 10 (12)

I get it, nobody can win at OSU. Well, except Dennis Erickson, the only other guy that had coached there since 1997 before Riley left. I am sure it is not easy to win there, and it is commendable what he did in 2006-2008. But we hired him in 2015. His last five years there were 29-33. His last team won five games. Three of the teams he beat lost 9 games or more and one of those three was an FCS team. Granted, he did beat ASU that year.

If we were talking about the guy at retirement, sure, nice guy, had some good years. But we hired him. Nothing in that resume says hire me. He was BELOW Average when we hired him. We didn't hire him in 2008. Why is it so hard to see that he was failing when we hired him. And we were a good program at the time.

So wait, he was a good, commendable coach in 2006-2008, but now he's below average?

 

[timnsun]

OK, do some critical thinking for me then.

Would you hire a coach that has:

Lost 12 of his last 14 conference games
Lost to 2 FCS teams in the last four years ( one of those FCS schools lost 7 games)
Has not finished higher than third in his division in five years
Never has won a division or conference championship in this country.
Had a .292 winning percentage in the NFL
58-63 record in the Pac 10 (12)

I get it, nobody can win at OSU. Well, except Dennis Erickson, the only other guy that had coached there since 1997 before Riley left. I am sure it is not easy to win there, and it is commendable what he did in 2006-2008. But we hired him in 2015. His last five years there were 29-33. His last team won five games. Three of the teams he beat lost 9 games or more and one of those three was an FCS team. Granted, he did beat ASU that year.

If we were talking about the guy at retirement, sure, nice guy, had some good years. But we hired him. Nothing in that resume says hire me. He was BELOW Average when we hired him. We didn't hire him in 2008. Why is it so hard to see that he was failing when we hired him. And we were a good program at the time.

So I will use critical thinking here... it’s beyond record... hope that’s ok.

When Riley was hired it was a head scratcher, for sure. He didn’t do much at Oregon State, why would we hire him?

But then I dig deeper and saw that before h arrived, Oregon State won something lol 25% of their games for 30+ years, and I thought to myself, hmmm, how was Riley able to win over 50% of his games? There must be something to that... let me look further...

I saw that the facilities at OSU were some of the worst in the nation, and still marveled at his ability to win about 30% more games than anybody else at OSU... that’s pretty impressive.

And yes, another coach who has won a national championship came in and won here. 1 guy. But thinking critically, I wonder if he can do it, why not someone else? So now that Riley is gone there, Andersen should be able to do better than Riley if Riley is so bad. But what do you know? Andersen is winning 30% fewer games than Riley... hmmm. I’m thinking maybe judging Riley exclusively by his record is short-sighted.

What about his recruiting? He has placed QBs, RBs, and WRs in the NFL in impressive fashion considering he coaches at Oregon state... how has he done that?

And thinking critically, I arrived at the possibility that he knows what he is doing and could be successful here, knowing that he will have better support and resources than he ever has.

So let’s give him his shot. And if he fails, we say bring on the next guy. And we may be headed on to the next guy quite soon. But I don’t feel bad for giving the guy a chance to see what he could do.

This is how you use the power of critical thinking... but to really think critically, one more thing remains... you can’t have made your mind up about the coach before he has played a single game at Nebraska. If your mind is already made up, you can’t possibly think critically of the hire.

 

[jlb321]

he needs at least one more coaching change on the offensive side imo. by all fairness he deserves this year and one more . if he shows improvements this year and no blow outs, I think this will probably happen. however if he gets another year after this, he had better improve big time or I see no hope for him staying .

any coach - no matter how talented is going to have a hard time surviving if 50%+ of the coaching staff you put together are duds and have either been replaced or are on the verge of being replaced. Most important job when taking over a new program is assembling a competent staff and Riley failed big time to the point that it might cost him his job. He worked side by side with many of these guys for years so it is alarming that given a clean slate and very high budget for hires he elected to bring many of these guys with him.

 

[EatsBugs]

OK, do some critical thinking for me then.

Would you hire a coach that has:

Lost 12 of his last 14 conference games
Lost to 2 FCS teams in the last four years ( one of those FCS schools lost 7 games)
Has not finished higher than third in his division in five years
Never has won a division or conference championship in this country.
Had a .292 winning percentage in the NFL
58-63 record in the Pac 10 (12)

I get it, nobody can win at OSU. Well, except Dennis Erickson, the only other guy that had coached there since 1997 before Riley left. I am sure it is not easy to win there, and it is commendable what he did in 2006-2008. But we hired him in 2015. His last five years there were 29-33. His last team won five games. Three of the teams he beat lost 9 games or more and one of those three was an FCS team. Granted, he did beat ASU that year.

If we were talking about the guy at retirement, sure, nice guy, had some good years. But we hired him. Nothing in that resume says hire me. He was BELOW Average when we hired him. We didn't hire him in 2008. Why is it so hard to see that he was failing when we hired him. And we were a good program at the time.

@Phillipe Simple question, curious, how do you reconcile your opinions of Riley with the opinions of the experts in the field - his fellow Power 5 head coaches who at the time of his hiring voted him the most underrated head coach in college football?

 

[Toms Wife]

@Phillipe Simple question, curious, how do you reconcile your opinions of Riley with the opinions of the experts in the field - his fellow Power 5 head coaches who at the time of his hiring voted him the most underrated head coach in college football?

That's a weird question. Why would you not want someone who is simply considered 'good' and rated well in the first place?

 

[MikeRileyGBR]

Riley sucks as a coach. Case closed

 

[kaz36]

When I read threads like this one, it makes me think that our fan base has gotten exactly what it has deserved in the last 16 years.

 

[timnsun]

That's a weird question. Why would you not want someone who is simply considered 'good' and rated well in the first place?

That’s a weird response... the poster didn’t ask who do you want... he asked why did his fellow P5 coaches got him as the most underrated.

You gave an answer to a question that wasn’t even asked. Typical.

 

[huskerfan1414]

I see valid points on both sides here.
The hypocritical "mind made up" crap is getting old, plenty of people both ways obviously have their minds made up and refuse to pull their heads out. What's the best for the program?
My question is this: when the hell can we start judging Mike Riley based on his results as head coach of Nebraska? And that question goes for both sides.
Words don't mean shit.

 

[EatsBugs]

I see valid points on both sides here.
The hypocritical "mind made up" crap is getting old, plenty of people both ways obviously have their minds made up and refuse to pull their heads out. What's the best for the program?
My question is this: when the hell can we start judging Mike Riley based on his results as head coach of Nebraska? And that question goes for both sides.
Words don't mean shit.

I think giving him thru next year is fair. Hes currently going to war with lowest rated scholly senior class in the all the BIG.

 

[timnsun]

I see valid points on both sides here.
The hypocritical "mind made up" crap is getting old, plenty of people both ways obviously have their minds made up and refuse to pull their heads out. What's the best for the program?
My question is this: when the hell can we start judging Mike Riley based on his results as head coach of Nebraska? And that question goes for both sides.
Words don't mean shit.

It’s already happening from many here. If you are asking when will it happen uniformly? Both sides? Who knows? It’s already happening with some like HuskerDana, Pennsy, myself and others... but obviously there are still many who are preaching patience.

Obviously the potential that Frost presents has impacted some as well. I do think this is a make or break year... but if he goes 7-5 and gets fired this board and the fan base will continue to be divided.

 

[HuskerO]

Of course, because saying we should not have hired Riley means we should have hired Al Golden, or whomever else you picked that also turned out to be similar to our coach. Good point.

The point is that a coach's "last 14 conference games metric" is completely irrelevant when it comes to who and who not to hire and how successful or unsuccessful that coach will be at his new gig.

 

[Phillipe]

So I will use critical thinking here... it’s beyond record... hope that’s ok.

When Riley was hired it was a head scratcher, for sure. He didn’t do much at Oregon State, why would we hire him?

But then I dig deeper and saw that before h arrived, Oregon State won something lol 25% of their games for 30+ years, and I thought to myself, hmmm, how was Riley able to win over 50% of his games? There must be something to that... let me look further...

I saw that the facilities at OSU were some of the worst in the nation, and still marveled at his ability to win about 30% more games than anybody else at OSU... that’s pretty impressive.

And yes, another coach who has won a national championship came in and won here. 1 guy. But thinking critically, I wonder if he can do it, why not someone else? So now that Riley is gone there, Andersen should be able to do better than Riley if Riley is so bad. But what do you know? Andersen is winning 30% fewer games than Riley... hmmm. I’m thinking maybe judging Riley exclusively by his record is short-sighted.

What about his recruiting? He has placed QBs, RBs, and WRs in the NFL in impressive fashion considering he coaches at Oregon state... how has he done that?

And thinking critically, I arrived at the possibility that he knows what he is doing and could be successful here, knowing that he will have better support and resources than he ever has.

So let’s give him his shot. And if he fails, we say bring on the next guy. And we may be headed on to the next guy quite soon. But I don’t feel bad for giving the guy a chance to see what he could do.

This is how you use the power of critical thinking... but to really think critically, one more thing remains... you can’t have made your mind up about the coach before he has played a single game at Nebraska. If your mind is already made up, you can’t possibly think critically of the hire.

That was nice.

So, in this critical thinking, did you ever ponder the way his career was heading? With your theory that facilities and support would improve a coach, did you think, wow, what might it do for a coach that has proven he can win already?
We didn't hire a 60 year old coach in a vacuum. We were a program hovering at nine wins a year. Why take a chance on a guy that never did that on the assumption that nobody can win at OSU? That's a big gamble.

My mind was convinced after looking at the facts and not giving him a free pass for his failures. And nothing he has done at NU has changed my mind. He took over a perennial nine win program and headed us straight into a losing season.

 

[Phillipe]

The point is that a coach's "last 14 conference games metric" is completely irrelevant when it comes to who and who not to hire and how successful or unsuccessful that coach will be at his new gig.

Yeah, sure. I bet I see a lot of coaches with that on their resume getting hired in the future.

So much for having high standards

 

[EatsBugs]

Yeah, sure. I bet I see a lot of coaches with that on their resume getting hired in the future.

So much for having high standards

Since I am a Patriot fan, I will remember to thank God every Sunday that you @Phillipe were not the one making the decisions that fateful day when the New England Patriots decided to hire a 36-44 Bill Belichick who in his last 12 games with the Browns finished 2-10 and became the first head coach ever to get swept by an expansion team.

Patriot Nation thanks you for sticking to message boards.

And the rest is football history.

 

[bigboxes]

Since I am a Patriot fan, I will remember to thank God every Sunday that you Phillipe were not the one making the decisions that fateful day when the New England Patriots decided to hire a 36-44 Bill Belichick who in his last 12 games with the Browns finished 2-10 and became the first head coach ever to get swept by an expansion team.

Patriot Nation thanks @Phillipe for sticking to message boards.

And the rest is history.

Haha. Tar and feather, baby!

 

[timnsun]

That was nice.

So, in this critical thinking, did you ever ponder the way his career was heading? With your theory that facilities and support would improve a coach, did you think, wow, what might it do for a coach that has proven he can win already?
We didn't hire a 60 year old coach in a vacuum. We were a program hovering at nine wins a year. Why take a chance on a guy that never did that on the assumption that nobody can win at OSU? That's a big gamble.

My mind was convinced after looking at the facts and not giving him a free pass for his failures. And nothing he has done at NU has changed my mind. He took over a perennial nine win program and headed us straight into a losing season.

I never thought we should have hired Riley. When he was hired, I was asking questions like everybody else. So when I started looking at things, I looked at everything mentioned in my post above. I was encouraged by the talking heads, all of whom thought this was a good hire. I assumed his last couple of seasons were not the norm, especially if he had the resources and facilities here at Nebraska to lean on. Why is that so unreasonable? Did I see what I wanted to see? Sure I did... it was the only way to explain his hiring... so I gave the coaches the benefit of the doubt and got behind them.

Now here’s the difference between you and me... instead of getting pissed off about the hire and staying away from this board until things started going south, I supported the coaches 100%. Hell, nothing I can do was going to change anything. I’m not a donor, I barely go to any games since I live out of state... so instead of staying pissed, I got behind these guys. The alternative was not an option.

Now if you think I was in favor of the hire from the start, you are mistaken. But after the hire, it made no sense for me to be a pissy little girl about the hire.

You must be so proud that you knew it from the start. Good for you.

 

[timnsun]

Since I am a Patriot fan, I will remember to thank God every Sunday that you @Phillipe were not the one making the decisions that fateful day when the New England Patriots decided to hire a 36-44 Bill Belichick who in his last 12 games with the Browns finished 2-10 and became the first head coach ever to get swept by an expansion team.

Patriot Nation thanks you for sticking to message boards.

And the rest is football history.

This is probably irellevant I’m guessing. Don’t know why, I will let Phillipe, in his infinite wisdom, set the record straight.

 

[WuTang_Husker]

The point is that a coach's "last 14 conference games metric" is completely irrelevant when it comes to who and who not to hire and how successful or unsuccessful that coach will be at his new gig.

LMAO just stop. Nobody on this board would ever consider hiring a head coach who was 0-14, 1-13, 2-12 in his last 14 conference games. Yeah that should have no bearing on whether a coach is hired or not.

 

[Minn1954]

Since I am a Patriot fan, I will remember to thank God every Sunday that you @Phillipe were not the one making the decisions that fateful day when the New England Patriots decided to hire a 36-44 Bill Belichick who in his last 12 games with the Browns finished 2-10 and became the first head coach ever to get swept by an expansion team.

Patriot Nation thanks you for sticking to message boards.

And the rest is football history.

What the hell are you talking about?!
As a Patriot fan you should know that Bill Belicheck was hired as defensive back and assistant head coach by the Patriots in 1996 after his disastrous tenure as head coach of the hapless Cleveland Browns (1991-1995). The 1996 Patriots went to Super Bowl XXXI.
He then was hired by the New York Jets as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator (1997-1999). The 1996 Jets finished with a 1-15 record but improved to 9-7 and barely missed the playoffs in 1997. The Jets in 1998 improved with a record of 12-4 and advanced to the conference championship game.
In 2000, five years after his head coaching stint with the Cleveland Browns and with the endorsement of Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, he was hired as the head coach of the New England Patriots and the rest is history.
Since his tenure as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Bill Bellicheck appeared in a Super Bowl and a conference championship game. Based on this success and on the recommendation of Bill Parcells, he was hired as head coach of the New England Patriots in 2000.
Immediately prior to being hired by the University of Nebraska, Mike Riley had a record of 2-12 in his last 14 games in the PAC-12 and never won, or appeared in, a PAC-10 or PAC-12 conference championship game.
How are these two scenarios synonymous?
This is not to mention the absurdity of comparing the NFL and the college football game.

 

[Phillipe]

I never thought we should have hired Riley. When he was hired, I was asking questions like everybody else. So when I started looking at things, I looked at everything mentioned in my post above. I was encouraged by the talking heads, all of whom thought this was a good hire. I assumed his last couple of seasons were not the norm, especially if he had the resources and facilities here at Nebraska to lean on. Why is that so unreasonable? Did I see what I wanted to see? Sure I did... it was the only way to explain his hiring... so I gave the coaches the benefit of the doubt and got behind them.

Now here’s the difference between you and me... instead of getting pissed off about the hire and staying away from this board until things started going south, I supported the coaches 100%. Hell, nothing I can do was going to change anything. I’m not a donor, I barely go to any games since I live out of state... so instead of staying pissed, I got behind these guys. The alternative was not an option.

Now if you think I was in favor of the hire from the start, you are mistaken. But after the hire, it made no sense for me to be a pissy little girl about the hire.

You must be so proud that you knew it from the start. Good for you.

I stayed of Nebraska boards for most of Riley's tenure soI wouldn't be like this. I did't want to be negative. I joined because I figured it was all over and I would be interested in the discussions about the next coach.

Perhaps you are right, maybe I should just leave this topic alone. But, something about this obsession with defending what seems so obvious to me to be no longer defensible has me intrigued.

I'm sorry. I just blows my mind that people thought it would work to turn Nebraska into OSU. I think we over estimate what he did there. It' seems to me like people think we hired Bill Snyder. We didn't.