Maybe you're talking about Mike Riley 2015... who knows if he would have gotten looks from top flight P5 programs... buys lets not forget that Mike Riley in his coaching history was sought after by Alabama and USC... is that top flight enough for you?
Former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne to headline two UCF fundraisers
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Agreed. If only we kept Solich we wouldn't be in this mess today.
Edit: just think... if we still had Solich he would be reeling in top 10 recruiting classes, we'd be running the option out of the power I with a fullback... probably would have a few more championships.
Right Tom?
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Bama and USC?? Not bad...but not Youngstown State!!
That's great. But, that's not what was initially discussed...nor was it what you were responding to.
Well, at Riley's age he did get a TOP FLIGHT job. He's still employed there. Read that, buddy.
And Bo, once upon a time got a TOP FLIGHT job. What's your point? There isn't going to be a top program beating down the doors for either one of them any time soon.
The only reason Riley may not get a look anytime soon is because of his age. If you want to use that in your argument, it's valid. But don't pretend that he wasn't a candidate when he was younger, because he was. See my post above.
I never said he wasn't...that's been established a long time ago. USC and Bama certainly wanted him during his younger years. But, at the time we hired him it's doubtful that other "TOP FLIGHT" programs wanted him. That doesn't make him any less of a coach
Fair enough. History will show us if this was a good hire or not. If he is here 8-10 years, I'm guessing it was probably a good hire. If only 4, then maybe not.
I do believe he will put the program in a more palatable light for future coaches no matter what happens during his tenure here. I think that is already happening.
Hoping for the best...
USC and Alabama were in pretty bad shape back then, even worse than us in 2007 and 2014. Alabama had just been hammered by heavy sanctions when they offered Riley the job. The only guy that would take the job was an alum that had never coached at the college level. USC was mired in mediocrity and considered Riley because he was once an assistant there under John Robinson. Riley actually wanted the UCLA job but was passed over for an NFL position coach with no head-coaching experience.
Now that was a fun little back and forth. The difference between why maybe a top program might not hire Riley or Bo though is glaring. One is qualified and the kind of guy you want to lead your program but is getting up there in years. The other while maybe now is qualified to lead a program is NOT the kind of guy you want leading it......
You're just reaching. Nebraska, USC and Alabama. All destination schools. Riley was in demand and could have landed one of those jobs if he wanted them. I can promise you that Riley will not tell Husker fans to eff off on his way out, either.
So does that mean Nebraska was not top flight when it hired Pelini?
Edit- or 2003 when they hired Callahan. Callahan was the only guy that wanted the job after Pedey ran through the list of "candidates" that told him no.
Edit- or 2003 when they hired Callahan. Callahan was the only guy that wanted the job after Pedey ran through the list of "candidates" that told him no.
I think there were lots of other guys that would have taken the job in heartbeat but Pedey told a "large donor" booster group that it was going to be a "wow" hire. He almost had to at that point find a "name". He found a name alright but unfortunately the name hired poorly for his defense.
The point that continues to fly over Boxes head is that neither Bo or Riley were in high demand for a TOP FLIGHT P5 school when they were hired at Nebraska. I don't want to speak for him but that appears to be the point Mel was trying to make. There is a large gap in how the two coaches handle themselves on/off the field, and Riley's age does come into play...but so does his recent track record. Not many TOP FLIGHT programs are going to hire a guy who had three losing seasons in the previous five years. His record at Oregon St didn't bug me because it's Oregon St...some of the losses did...but I doubt he was high on the list of other blue blood programs. IMO that doesn't make him a bad hire, and It could be a genius move if it works out. Time will tell.
My point was really to counter the misconception that because a bunch of people declined the USC job or Alabama job that the job wasn't a top flight job.
So indirectly you added to my argument.
Now I will say, the firing of Solich and the lack of sustained success under Callahan made the job less attractive in 2007 and the way Pelini left in 2014, couples with the perception that 9 + wins wasn't good enough.......again made the job even less attractive in 2014 than it was in 2007. Is it still a top flight job? I think so, but top flight and attractive don't mean the same thing.
I think a lot of (younger) people have short memories. Tom has meant so much to the Husker program. Look at all the buildings on campus that are a result of Tom and his work. Did he make bad choices when hiring coaches? Yes. Many in Husker Nation seem to forget how much we were sick and embarrassed by Callahan. Bo was viewed by the vast majority of Husker fans at the time as the right man for the job. I will bet Tom's old friend Frank Solich gave Bo a great recommendation. I imagine the coaches at OU and LSU did as well. Bo proved the Peter Principle correct by not being developed enough and polished enough to handle the high pressure situations that come with running a successful Division I FBS program. I will bet the house if Bo had the personality to be upbeat and always present a happy front that he would still be the coach. I am not defending his record. I am just saying his personality had more to do with his firing than his record. I will argue that all hires are a crap shoot. I have a few Husker friends you live in the Denver area who had kids that went to CSU. They told me that I was going love having Miles as the hoop coach. I don't see too many fans loving Miles, today. (and why is he still the coach? Do ALL the players have to leave before SE will do something?)
To vilify Tom because he helps raise money for a former player, Scott Frost is absurd. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with Tom's support of Nebraska or the current coach, Mike Riley.
To vilify Tom because he helps raise money for a former player, Scott Frost is absurd. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with Tom's support of Nebraska or the current coach, Mike Riley.
How are we defining "top-flight"? Lots of tradition? Then yes, I guess they were still "top-flight". But at the time, Alabama was on the verge of losing 21 scholarships and a 2-year postseason ban due to NCAA violations. This was not Nick Saban's Alabama. He made them relevant again after a long stretch of mediocrity and scandals.
I will agree that Mike Riley was a fairly attractive candidate back then because he was still young and had NFL head coaching experience. He would have been a better hire than Callahan in 2004 or Pelini in 2008. But when we hired him he was a 61-year-old coach coming off of 3 losing seasons in 5 years. Doesn't mean he won't end up being a great hire here, but the point is that no other "top-flight" school was going to hire him in 2014. In fact, he was probably one more bad season away from getting canned at Oregon State.
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In other news. TO told the athletic department that he doesn't really want his skybox anymore and thinks it could be better used by the athletic dept to either sell or host clients and/or guests in
If they ever beat us, whoever the head coach is should be immediately firedFair enough, but if UCF ever beats us his name should be removed from the field.
This is what Top Flight means to me... Even though Alabama was a mess, Nick Saban, who had coached a National Champion team at LSU, and was the current Miami Dolphins head coach, couldn't say no to an offer to coach at Alabama.
I don't care what condition they were in at the time, because when Saban took over they were just what you described... they were a mess, and should not have been attractive to a guy like Saban.
So you can say Alabama was a mess, which made it difficult to hire good coaches (hence them settling for an offer to Riley), how did they land Saban? They weren't relevant at all...
Now to your point about Riley's age, I do agree that hiring a 61 year Mike Riley is definitely a risk... It may pan out, it may not. And because of his age, I also agree that the odds of another top flight school hiring him was minimal... We will know in 3 years or so if this was the right hire.
What does that have to do with what I even said?
I know that problem exists, I'm the last person to feed that monster. I was making an observation about the situation when Bo was hired.
Tell me then, who was this mysterious Saban-esque NU alumni we had waiting in the wing at any point during our last 3 hires?
No, there wasn't one. Both the Saban and Meyer hires aren't comparable to what we can do because they were proven commodities before, having both built NC winning programs in the past. We just don't have someone lurking around like that. At least not yet.
Is Sabah an Alabama alum? I honestly didn't know that...
And I think that maybe we are mixing top flight coaches with top flight universities... my apologies if I have contributed to that.
I still think of Nebraska as top flight, even if we haven't won anything of note for 2 decades. Sure I'm biased, but tradition, facilities, and fans all make it a top flight position.
Was Riley a coach wanted by other top flight universities? At one time he was, but maybe not 2 years ago when we came calling. Will he pan out? The jury is still out. But I still think Nebraska is a top flight school, and I hope Riley proves to be a top flight coach.
That's all I was trying to say.
As I stated before there is a difference between top flight job and attractive job. Some jobs are both all the time, some jobs are top flight, but not necessarily attractive and some are attractive but not too flight and some are neither top flight nor attractive.
Alabama both
Nebraska after Solich firing is borderline top flight but not as attractive
Houston is an attractive job but not top flight
UConn is neither.
Alabama both
Nebraska after Solich firing is borderline top flight but not as attractive
Houston is an attractive job but not top flight
UConn is neither.
At the start of Callahan's last year, NU would have still been an attractive job. The division caused by the Solichistas coupled with the tough season definitely made it a tougher sell at the end of the year BUT there were guys that TO could have hired. The problem according to multiple sources were some of the conditions that Tom attached to the job (retaining Watson etal). A decade later and we're still discussing this....
Only in Nebraska. Callahan was right. We need to get a life.
I think you guys are splitting hairs and that's fine. I'll keep tuning in to the debate.
As far as Riley's recent record goes, I'm not particularly bothered by it given the context of what was going on in the Pac 12 during that time. He had a tough row to hoe IMO. IMO, he was exactly what we needed at this point in time and I thank Eichorst for bringing him to Lincoln. Thankfully Eichorst looked further at the resume than the recent W/L record and put importance on character, organization and knowledge.
IMO the Solich hire started a downward spiral. I remember that press conference & thought WTH.At the start of Callahan's last year, NU would have still been an attractive job. The division caused by the Solichistas coupled with the tough season definitely made it a tougher sell at the end of the year BUT there were guys that TO could have hired. The problem according to multiple sources were some of the conditions that Tom attached to the job (retaining Watson etal). A decade later and we're still discussing this....
The biggest problem was T.O put a cap on the salary for the coach he was going to hire and it was below market. That shortened the list of interest big time.At the start of Callahan's last year, NU would have still been an attractive job. The division caused by the Solichistas coupled with the tough season definitely made it a tougher sell at the end of the year BUT there were guys that TO could have hired. The problem according to multiple sources were some of the conditions that Tom attached to the job (retaining Watson etal). A decade later and we're still discussing this....
That is a good point. The sanctions had passed by the time Saban took for Shula, so it wasn't quite as big of a mess. And I think Saban found that he was much more suited to the college game. Alabama will always be a fairly attractive job just because of it's proximity to fertile recruiting areas down south. We will never have that luxury, so I fear that if we don't win something of relevance soon, we may eventually become Minnesota (though Minnesota's last hire on paper looks better than any of our last 3 hires).
Purdue and Illinois also made pretty decent hires considering how bad they've been. This division might get a lot more competitive in the next few years.
Unlimited Budget. Who do you take at that time? Who even comes? Beliema? Is he a "top flight" coach?
Not sure but I cringed when T.O stated publicly that he wasn't going to pay over a certain amount right after he fired Callahan. He was set on Bo or Turner no matter what.
Well I'll agree on that point. Cringey for sure. But the market was weak that year anyway.
In hindsight, the names that were being thrown out at the time did no better at their next school than Bo did or what I believe Turner could have done at NU so spending more money on a head coach may not have changed the trajectory. I still believe in the right spot Turner can be a successful head coach of a Power 5 program.
I'm not so sure of that. I love him and all, but how much hand holding would it take to yield good results? Should he have been groomed to take over for Osborne? We'll never know.
