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Grace period for Riley?

brianm1202

brianm1202

Offensive Coordinator
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Jan 26, 2016
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With HCMR showing the willingness to do whatever it takes to get our beloved program turned around, does it earn him a couple more seasons or at least a bit of grace from the fans? I see people saying he needs to "win NOW" and that if this hire doesn't work out, it may be the end of his time as head coach. My problem with that is, why wouldn't you keep a coach who is willing to transform and mold and shape the staff until he finds a winning formula?

I say, if Riley is willing to fire his long-time friends and coordinators in order to get this thing turned around, he should have the fans full support going forward. Thoughts?
 
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While I do not disagree with what you have said, I still think that HCMR is still on the clock for the next few seasons. JMHO.
 
Agreed. But I do not think he would have been on the hot seat until after the 2018 season anyway.
 
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Just my opinion and looking at only one path. This path presumes that Riley wants his NU tenure less than 10 years.

Keep making changes when the need is evident. Keep our regular season win count at 7 or more...every year. I'm not gonna have some timeline ultimatum of winning this or that championship by year this or that, I've changed my thinking in that regard.
 
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I don't think this buys Riley any more time at all. If you look at some of the other schools that got rid of coaches this year, they were in the 3rd or 4th year at that school. Some can compare to Nebraska in stature like Texas- Charlie Strong 3rd year and Oregon Helfrich 4th year. Others that I would say are a step below Nebraska made moves as well. Purdue with Hazell not even finishing his 4 year, Cal with Dykes after his 4 year and UConn with Diaco after his 3rd year.

Next year will really be important for Riley. You will need to see improvement in a couple of areas to feel good about where things are headed.
1) Avoid the blow out loses. We thought that had changed in 15 will all of the close loses, but you can't have games like OSU, Iowa and Tennessee where it is over going in to the 4th quarter.
2) Blow out some teams. After the initial two games, which were actually close going in to the 4th quarter I would say only Maryland was a secure win.
3) Improved running game and OL play. I would say the OL talent is on par with some of the teams between 2009 - 2013 and those teams were able to run the ball. I realize it was a different scheme, but improvement needs to be seen in the running game.
4) Put yourself in a position where you control your own destiny for the last conference game to get to the Big 10 title game.

Going forward 2018 is a killer schedule and it may be tough to get to 7-8 wins that year, so there is going to have to be some good will built up for what looks to be a rough schedule. Home games in 18 vs Colorado, Minnesota and Michigan St. and road game at Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Northwestern and Iowa will be no cake walk.
 
It would need to be a pretty bad year to justify firing him in season 3. On what planet was there enough talent on that roster for them to do much better than they did?

If they suck and they're quitting in games, I'll change my tune. If they're just "pretty good" again and show signs of promise from young talent, I want to see year four. UNLESS the recruiting continues to be in the 20s.
 
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I think Riley realized that the 2018 schedule is brutal, and you do not want to be installing a new system before facing a gauntlet like that.
 
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brianm1202 said:
Yeah, I'd say it bought him 2-3 seasons before he needs to be re-evaluated. But I think we should put a squash on all of the "must win now" and hot seat talk.
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He needs 3 seasons, because the next 2 years of schedules do not look like they have potential to for breakout seasons.
 
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brianm1202 said:
With HCMR showing the willingness to do whatever it takes to get our beloved program turned around, does it earn him a couple more seasons or at least a bit of grace from the fans? I see people saying he needs to "win NOW" and that if this hire doesn't work out, it may be the end of his time as head coach. My problem with that is, why wouldn't you keep a coach who is willing to transform and mold and shape the staff until he finds a winning formula?

I say, if Riley is willing to fire his long-time friends and coordinators in order to get this thing turned around, he should have the fans full support going forward. Thoughts?
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Riley getting canned anytime soon is absurd. There is no way SE is going to let Riley go (nor should he). SE made his bed with Riley and that isn't going to change. If anything, these changes helped SE get another two years. If things went south next year (say 8 wins or less) it is SE who would have needed to worry about his job. Now I think he gets one more year past that no matter what. Riley either retires on his own or he outlasts SE. I don't see any other scenario.
 
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He's fine for now, and he could really help himself with the correct hire here. A great D coordinator hire can improve the defense right away. This isn't something that needs a bunch of time to build (not talking about NCs, that takes more than a few years obviously). The right coach can and will make THIS team better right away.
 
In a way, things are indeed now reset for Riley.

1.) Offensively, things are reset by default due to the QB personnel next year. 3 Pro style guys in the system, prior gen is flushed (Darlington at receiver). So we get to see the first year of the real offensive identity.

2.) Defensively, well, it's going to be a reset now. Changing out your DC qualifies as a reset.

3.) Special Teams, that's been reset as well.

A couple of other lower level departures, that kind of stuff is par for the course at any school.

I can argue pretty heavily that this indeed is a reset in all three phases of the game for the 2017 year.
 
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I am amazed at the "New" Husker fan. They accept mediocrity and poor play like it's a good thing. Of course Riley needs to produce. Now, not later. Nebraska is not a Conference USA, MAC or MWC team. Nebraska has the resources, money, tradition and fan base to be a Top 10 school. The "New" fan likes to kick the Great Tom Osborne around on this board. When Tom was coaching I didn't have to wonder if we were going to be in SI's preseason Top 25 issue, be surprised if we were actually ranked or hoping that we get into a bowl with a 5 win record. Husker fans already making excuses for upcoming "tough" schedules? Sad!!! One thing I do know is that Tom, Frank, Bill and Bo are never going to comeback to coach. It is up to Mike to win and if he can't let's get somebody who can. Too many on this board ALLOW the football team to be just OK
 
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Wasker77 said:
I am amazed at the "New" Husker fan. They accept mediocrity and poor play like it's a good thing. Of course Riley needs to produce. Now, not later. Nebraska is not a Conference USA, MAC or MWC team. Nebraska has the resources, money, tradition and fan base to be a Top 10 school. The "New" fan likes to kick the Great Tom Osborne around on this board. When Tom was coaching I didn't have to wonder if we were going to be in SI's preseason Top 25 issue, be surprised if we were actually ranked or hoping that we get into a bowl with a 5 win record. Husker fans already making excuses for upcoming "tough" schedules? Sad!!! One thing I do know is that Tom, Frank, Bill and Bo are never going to comeback to coach. It is up to Mike to win and if he can't let's get somebody who can. Too many on this board ALLOW the football team to be just OK
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Not rain on your parade but Pete Carroll at USC and Nick Saban at Alamaba both had losing seasons in their first season and were 9-3 in their second season. There is nothing we can surmise from these first two years other than Riley is willing to fire his buddies. I would think year 4 is a better indicator for an NU coach because depth is always an issue here compared with Alabama and USC, especially considering Bo didn't even fill his classes, and a bunch of guys have jumped ship. Riley also had one month to recruit his first class, so really his first real recruits are going to be sophomores next year...probably too early to make judgement. This is what is so sad about the Cally situation, his first real recruiting class was only sophomores when he got fired, of course many of them grew up to be really good players, and when they were seniors we had our best team in a long time. Our fricken impatience causes much more harm than good, and our last four coaches attests to this...
 
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I believe a coach needs minimum of 4 yrs. I think Charlie Strong got caught in the, Herman is available now situation, but deserved another year. I like what MR is doing overall, close strong on recruiting is key for this staff. I believe this yr will end strong and combined with last yr class, he will start to have the foundation.
 
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Full disclosure, I was never a big Riley fan...lol, but I like what he is doing with replacing Banker. I don't care about a brutal schedule in 2018. That will be his fourth year. Progress needs to be shown by then. And I get it's not always as simple as wins and losses. But Ohio State's can't happen anymore. Getting blown off the field by an average Iowa team needs to stop. Bo created a cancerous culture which Riley had to fix, so yeah, I'll give him a pass to this point. I'm excited he's making the changes that he feels (and a lot of us did) that needed to be made. But the way college ball is nowadays, I'm not giving him a free 3 years (from now) because he decided that after Year 2 that he needs to make some adjustments to his staff. I need to start seeing something. He got his QB's now which I think will allow him and Langsdorf to run the offense they want. They won a lot of games they were supposed to this season which was a good next step. Don't lose to Illinois, Northwestern, and Purdue. But don't get curb stomped by Ohio State on national TV either. We now making big "full-in" money out of the B1G (from TV etc.). College football is a business. It's time to start winning now for Riley and I think he & SE understand that. I'm glad he's a classier guy in every way than Bo was/is. But win the West. Have the kind of season Penn State had. Give me some kind of hope that you actually better than what I thought you were coming over from Oregon State. The resources are there. I have my doubts about the guy, but I'm rooting for him to get it done. At least he's not resting on laurels.
 
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B1G RED RULES said:
He needs 3 seasons, because the next 2 years of schedules do not look like they have potential to for breakout seasons.
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If Riley has a bad 2017, his replacement will get a pass for a couple of years. I don't see where HCMR has done anything to warrant a "grace" period. After all, who hired the coaches that he fired anyway?
 
Tuco Salamanca said:
Wait ...what? I have some sort of power to ALLOW these things to go down. WTF? No one told me. Here I am just going to games, cheering on the boys. No clue I could ALLOW poor play.

Now I know. I hereby forbid poor play and losses. So let it be written. So let it be done.
Click to expand...

No, you are ALLOWing it! Let that sink in...
 
SEMO_yogi said:
If Riley has a bad 2017, his replacement will get a pass for a couple of years. I don't see where HCMR has done anything to warrant a "grace" period. After all, who hired the coaches that he fired anyway?
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Depends what is considered bad. I cannot see us doing better than another 4 loss season in 2017 - 2018 will likely be worse.
 
Wasker77 said:
I am amazed at the "New" Husker fan. They accept mediocrity and poor play like it's a good thing. Of course Riley needs to produce. Now, not later. Nebraska is not a Conference USA, MAC or MWC team. Nebraska has the resources, money, tradition and fan base to be a Top 10 school. The "New" fan likes to kick the Great Tom Osborne around on this board. When Tom was coaching I didn't have to wonder if we were going to be in SI's preseason Top 25 issue, be surprised if we were actually ranked or hoping that we get into a bowl with a 5 win record. Husker fans already making excuses for upcoming "tough" schedules? Sad!!! One thing I do know is that Tom, Frank, Bill and Bo are never going to comeback to coach. It is up to Mike to win and if he can't let's get somebody who can. Too many on this board ALLOW the football team to be just OK
Click to expand...
Both DR Tom and Solich took over National championship teams. Little easier than the horrible mess BO left the program in. GBR
 
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I personally want to give the guy a chance and get his own recruits in, it does nothing but harm a program to hire and fire after 3-4 years, all you do is ride the roller coaster, never gain never lose. give him some time to develop those kids he recruited, then if it aint working show him the door, he has already done this with guys he has coached with for 20 years.
 
Wasker77 said:
I am amazed at the "New" Husker fan. They accept mediocrity and poor play like it's a good thing. Of course Riley needs to produce. Now, not later. Nebraska is not a Conference USA, MAC or MWC team. Nebraska has the resources, money, tradition and fan base to be a Top 10 school. The "New" fan likes to kick the Great Tom Osborne around on this board. When Tom was coaching I didn't have to wonder if we were going to be in SI's preseason Top 25 issue, be surprised if we were actually ranked or hoping that we get into a bowl with a 5 win record. Husker fans already making excuses for upcoming "tough" schedules? Sad!!! One thing I do know is that Tom, Frank, Bill and Bo are never going to comeback to coach. It is up to Mike to win and if he can't let's get somebody who can. Too many on this board ALLOW the football team to be just OK
Click to expand...

I suppose people could think I'm being soft in only asking for 7 win regular seasons (every year minimum) and making changes. It's definitely a departure from the Husker standard of demanding CC's. I'm a fan of the program, not the coaches, never have been a fan of coaches. I'll continue to critique things I don't like. I'm under the impression that Riley is here, by choice, for a short period of time before he retires. By short, maybe 7 or 8 years and we're already 2 years in. If Riley's intent is to coach at NU into his 70's, then a completely different standard applies in my book.

What is "best" for the program, imo:
- Find what works for recruiting, the system, the personnel, and keep making changes until we find something that works.
- Develop a well thought out succession plan that doesn't involve a google search the weekend after Riley is gone. It would be wonderful if there was actually a coaching tree that we could at least think could lead to success.
- The last thing we need is another roster purge, radical scheme changes, transition year records, and continuing our stigma of firing coaches because they only won 9 or 10 games.

Yes, we could potentially hire the next super great coach. I just don't see that as a high probability of success. If Riley can't put together winning seasons, then he's not the right coach in my book and we can't ride it out until his retirement. We won games this year with some players not really suited to what the staff wants to do. I don't think the program will implode.
 
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Considering Lupoi and Diaco are floating around, I'm curious what this does to the timeline as well.

Both are home run hires, but I don't think either could be expected to transform the defense next year.

In the case of Diaco, they got better every year at ND, but weren't dominant for a couple years.
 
brianm1202 said:
With HCMR showing the willingness to do whatever it takes to get our beloved program turned around, does it earn him a couple more seasons or at least a bit of grace from the fans? I see people saying he needs to "win NOW" and that if this hire doesn't work out, it may be the end of his time as head coach. My problem with that is, why wouldn't you keep a coach who is willing to transform and mold and shape the staff until he finds a winning formula?

I say, if Riley is willing to fire his long-time friends and coordinators in order to get this thing turned around, he should have the fans full support going forward. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
He's already had 2 seasons. He wasted them by bringing in his cronies. How many more does he need?
 
nebcountry said:
Just my opinion and looking at only one path. This path presumes that Riley wants his NU tenure less than 10 years.

Keep making changes when the need is evident. Keep our regular season win count at 7 or more...every year. I'm not gonna have some timeline ultimatum of winning this or that championship by year this or that, I've changed my thinking in that regard.
Click to expand...
I think Riley and/or SE showing the ability to make these changes, completely flips my thinking as well. I think unfortunately we got so accustomed to coaches not making these changes, that we didn't think Riley would either.
I think this is turning into a killer staff with a Head coach that knows what he's doing. Stay the course! I believe it will work in time.
 
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Tuco Salamanca said:
Glad Riley hasn't figured this out yet. I could have been pink slipped with Banker and Read. Skated by one more time.
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Tuco.. You sir are good! Beat me to a lot of posts. I seriously post less because of you. So thanks for allowing me to sit back, laugh and hit the like button you cinical bastard
 
y
OO Snipes said:
I think Riley and/or SE showing the ability to make these changes, completely flips my thinking as well. I think unfortunately we got so accustomed to coaches not making these changes, that we didn't think Riley would either.
I think this is turning into a killer staff with a Head coach that knows what he's doing. Stay the course! I believe it will work in time.
Click to expand...
I agree other coaches have not made necessary changes. But just because he gets rid of the coaches many thought he should have 2 years ago doesn't mean he's making the best possible decision. Also, firing these coaches when they have shown improvement is just odd timing. Firing coaches willy nilly isn't usually a good sign and hasn't worked in other cases, which is why I generally favor waiting until a coach shows that no more improvement can be made. I agree that Read was probably not going to improve anymore, but I don't know if Banker got a fair shake. But it's not my decision, and will have to wait and see how the next guy does before being able to fully evaluate it.
 
it all depends on what riley's offense looks like with a true passing qb
 
No. He wasn't in serious danger till POB's Junior year is over if not his Senior year is over anyway. This doesn't change that, though it probably improves his chances of success.
 
oldjar07 said:
y
I agree other coaches have not made necessary changes. But just because he gets rid of the coaches many thought he should have 2 years ago doesn't mean he's making the best possible decision. Also, firing these coaches when they have shown improvement is just odd timing. Firing coaches willy nilly isn't usually a good sign and hasn't worked in other cases, which is why I generally favor waiting until a coach shows that no more improvement can be made. I agree that Read was probably not going to improve anymore, but I don't know if Banker got a fair shake. But it's not my decision, and will have to wait and see how the next guy does before being able to fully evaluate it.
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So let me see if I am following your logic.

Riley shouldn't have hired Banker.

Riley isn't necessarily making the right decision in firing coaches, (that shouldn't have been hired to begin with)

But because the defense improved from bottom third to middle third, Banker should be given more time, because he hasn't bottomed out yet.

Firing willy nilly gives the impression that it was just random, throw a dart a some pictures. Not sure that is the case.

Do you have examples of some willy nilly firings for me to review? I like to look into these sort of things. Just looking for say 10 situations where a college head coach went willy nilly and fired a staff member so we can determine if the replacement was better or the original hire was better.
 
Harry Caray said:
I think Riley realized that the 2018 schedule is brutal, and you do not want to be installing a new system before facing a gauntlet like that.
Click to expand...

Not only Riley the whole program and the whole fan base see 2018 as one of the most difficult schedule Nebraska has ever had and it could be a great season with a lot of promise or it could be sub .500 season.
 
scarletred said:
Not only Riley the whole program and the whole fan base see 2018 as one of the most difficult schedule Nebraska has ever had and it could be a great season with a lot of promise or it could be sub .500 season.
Click to expand...


What is the infatuation with looking ahead 2 seasons and trying to predict outcomes.

Two seasons ago Oregon was a top level team, Penn St was not. Colorado was winning 2 or 3 games a year. Mississippi St and Arizona were top 10 and Virginia Tech and Florida won 7 games each. Things change.
 
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Well his predecessors all won their division in or by year 3. If he doesn't win the division this year I think the writing is on the wall. Frank and Bo did it in year 2, Callahan in year 3. This isn't an accomplishment, it should be an expectation at Nebraska. We should be in the ccg at the very least 66% of the time.
 
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