POLL: Temperature Check on Coaching Staff

[chicolby]

I know many had mixed feelings at the time of the hire of Mike Riley and staff. After 6 practices and several media stories, etc. what is your read of the staff?

Note: This is a rating on their performance TO DATE. I recognize many are holding full judgment until the season begins, but based on what we've seen and know for NOW, how would you rate the coaching staff's performance.

 

[jflores]

IMO, to date they've been excellent.

They could be the kindest bunch of losers to ever grace NU, but we'll have to wait until the lights come on to find out.

 

[SilentCommit]

They are clearly here to sabotage us. I miss the days of no information or transparency. I also don't know what to do with myself now that I don't despise the head coach. Frankly, I'm lost.

 

[bigboxes]

Originally posted by SilentCommit:

They are clearly here to sabotage us. I miss the days of no information or transparency. I also don't know what to do with myself now that I don't despise the head coach. Frankly, I'm lost.

LOL

 

[huskerj12]

Originally posted by jflores:

IMO, to date they've been excellent.

They could be the kindest bunch of losers to ever grace NU, but we'll have to wait until the lights come on to find out.

This is how I feel too. They've won the Offseason National Championship as far as I'm concerned, but it's impossible to truly judge until we see them in real action.

 

[Charlie Marlow]

much too early to tell. sort of as worthless as those preseason polls that come out the second the clock hits zero on the national championship game. or bracket projections after the opening weekend of college basketball.

 

[chicolby]

As mentioned in the initial post - I recognize that it's too early to judge his complete performance. Obviously we want to see how the team performs on the field, wins, losses, etc, which is why I asked how you would judge the staff to date.

That would be based on what we're hearing, seeing, so far. That might include media relations, recruiting, practice format, feedback from players, etc.

 

[RedCap]

The only measure that will really matter is the results on the field at the end of the season. So too early to judge the new coach and his staff as we haven't even played a single game yet.

 

[nebcountry]

I say good - generally positive.

I would hate for us to have a fully filled commit list for next year, but to some degree I would like to see this staff sell our program to some recruits before the mad rush starts. I think the 3 guys committed now look to be contributors in the future, but they all committed before the current staff was even hired.

Given a "clean slate", "fresh start", Riley had the opportunity to build a dream-team staff. I view some of the staff as excellent, some not so excellent.

Riley indicated he would take the current strengths/weaknesses into account when the staff builds the schemes/plays. I'm not buying into this until the BYU game is in the books.

 

[mothmonsterman]

Given the question, I'll say excellent. I realize when the bullets start flying this could be a disaster, but so far this seems like the staff that can bring us to our rightful place.

 

[sparky62]

I had to go with excellent. When I first heard who SE hires I'll admit. I was pe'oed. Could not for the life of me why he did that. Then I started to do some research and listened to the pundits. The more I listened, the better I felt about the hire. Then I started watching & listening to everything about their schemes & their recruiting tenacity.

Long story short. IMO from what I have seen so far this is a home run hire. This entire staff is making me smile each & every day.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

You didn't know Riley was sent here to tank the program and throw deep every single play? Good gravy, when are you people going to wake up?
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[SPbObRT]

So far A plus but we havnt played a game yet with the OSU west staff, I'm willing to give them 3-4 years to do better then the last HC who clearly didn't want to be here.they have shown they care good enough for me. GBR

 

[Tulsa Tom]

Originally posted by SPbObRT:
So far A plus but we havnt played a game yet with the OSU west staff, I'm willing to give them 3-4 years to do better then the last HC who clearly didn't want to be here.they have shown they care good enough for me. GBR

I like how Reilly has handled the press, how he recruited at least initially, and how he has dealt with the players.

I was not impressed with overall with his hires but he did what coaches do...find those that they know. Reilly was very upfront that he trusts those people he has worked with in the past so it is no surprise that we are OSU west.

Overall he has done well...but it hard to say much until the games start.

 

[omnione]

The media releases have been great. But talk is cheap. Bo would still be here, warts and all, with one of those conference championship games going his away coupled with a 0-2 loss season.

The Riley crew have said all the right things so far. That's really all I can grade so far. I can't rate an incomplete project that is spring ball yet.

 

[Hoosker Du]

Originally posted by SilentCommit:

They are clearly here to sabotage us. I miss the days of no information or transparency. I also don't know what to do with myself now that I don't despise the head coach. Frankly, I'm lost.

Thank you. A stupid stupid poll deserves a sarcastic answer..

 

[Yossarian23]

Originally posted by SPbObRT:
So far A plus but we havnt played a game yet with the OSU west staff, I'm willing to give them 3-4 years to do better then the last HC who clearly didn't want to be here.they have shown they care good enough for me. GBR

How are we Ohio State West? Or did you mean Oregon State East?

 

[dinglefritz]

Originally posted by Tulsa Tom:

Originally posted by SPbObRT:
So far A plus but we havnt played a game yet with the OSU west staff, I'm willing to give them 3-4 years to do better then the last HC who clearly didn't want to be here.they have shown they care good enough for me. GBR

I like how Reilly has handled the press, how he recruited at least initially, and how he has dealt with the players.

I was not impressed with overall with his hires but he did what coaches do...find those that they know. Reilly was very upfront that he trusts those people he has worked with in the past so it is no surprise that we are OSU west.

Overall he has done well...but it hard to say much until the games start.

Pelini repeatedly used that word, TRUST. The problem with Bo's hires though were that the only people he could get to work for him that he felt he could trust were largely under-qualified for the positions they were hired for. Riley's staff on paper is light years better than Bo's in most cases. Bo was NOT a positive in his defensive or head coaching roles. So IMO in the long run we should be better off. This season will be a challenge with the change in offense and the non-conference games with BYU and Miami. Whether people liked Beck or not, his offenses put up numbers. They just struggled at crunch time some times. I love what I've seen thus far from Riley and he has bought himself goodwill and time IMO.

 

[headcard]

I don't see how anyone could not be impressed with this staff. We are hiring coordinators away from other schools as position coaches. This staff is far far superior to the previous staff at every single position.

 

[Tulsa Tom]

Originally posted by dinglefritz:

Originally posted by Tulsa Tom:

Originally posted by SPbObRT:
So far A plus but we havnt played a game yet with the OSU west staff, I'm willing to give them 3-4 years to do better then the last HC who clearly didn't want to be here.they have shown they care good enough for me. GBR

I like how Reilly has handled the press, how he recruited at least initially, and how he has dealt with the players.

I was not impressed with overall with his hires but he did what coaches do...find those that they know. Reilly was very upfront that he trusts those people he has worked with in the past so it is no surprise that we are OSU west.

Overall he has done well...but it hard to say much until the games start.

Pelini repeatedly used that word, TRUST. The problem with Bo's hires though were that the only people he could get to work for him that he felt he could trust were largely under-qualified for the positions they were hired for. Riley's staff on paper is light years better than Bo's in most cases. Bo was NOT a positive in his defensive or head coaching roles. So IMO in the long run we should be better off. This season will be a challenge with the change in offense and the non-conference games with BYU and Miami. Whether people liked Beck or not, his offenses put up numbers. They just struggled at crunch time some times. I love what I've seen thus far from Riley and he has bought himself goodwill and time IMO.

The hiring practices of Bo Pelini were horrendous. However, he is not my measuring stick. You of all people should know that saying Riley is better than Bo in some area tells us absolutely nothing.

 

[inWV]

So far, so good. A favorite saying of a carpenter friend of mine is "this is a process, not an event". I like the opening, but we will see if it translates or means anything in terms of success on the field. Expectations are high.

 

[timnsun]

Originally posted by sparky62:
I had to go with excellent. When I first heard who SE hires I'll admit. I was pe'oed. Could not for the life of me why he did that. Then I started to do some research and listened to the pundits. The more I listened, the better I felt about the hire. Then I started watching & listening to everything about their schemes & their recruiting tenacity.

Long story short. IMO from what I have seen so far this is a home run hire. This entire staff is making me smile each & every day.

I couldn't have said it any better. My sentiments exactly... was not initially wowed, but after hearing things and seeing things, I couldn't be happier.

 

[huskerbr12]

Good - Generally positive so far. (I'm being nit-picky for the sake of being nit-picky)

I don't know how you can't respect and appreciate the admiration MR has shown towards Nebraska Football. He's embraced old traditions and players, he's saying all of the right things, and avoiding all of the obvious land mines. But, they have not been perfect.

The comment above regarding the 0 '16 commits is legitimate. You'd think the new staffs momentum would have lead to at least one early commit. Especially with the number of eyeballs now on recruiting.

While on one hand, I really like how the defensive staff is focusing on base, focusing on "see it, and go", the fact that Banker stayed in a 4-3 vs. Oregon is mind-boggling. You can match personnel and still play a base defense, they don't have to be mutually exclusive. I'm a little concerned we've traded slowing down traditional running attacks, for getting picked apart by spread teams.

I question having an NFL special teams coordinator that can't coach another position and recruits by calling a guru. You only get 9 coaches, pulling one off of a position group feels like a bad idea.

The spring game will tell us a lot about whether or not we should be concerned about the offense. You hear Riley say that they want to adapt the offense to the team, then you hear TA had 3 picks in practice. I'm cautiously optimistic Riley and Langsdorf will adapt, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned.

 

[HuskerTimOmaha]

Originally posted by huskerbr12:

The comment above regarding the 0 '16 commits is legitimate.

Not really, especially with no holdovers from the previous coaching staff. We'll see commitments pick up after the spring game, all the way through satellite camps.

 

[jflores]

Originally posted by HuskerTimOmaha:

Originally posted by huskerbr12:

The comment above regarding the 0 '16 commits is legitimate.

Not really, especially with no holdovers from the previous coaching staff. We'll see commitments pick up after the spring game, all the way through satellite camps.

The kid from Indiana, who is supposedly "our guy" at QB, he's coming to the spring game. Usually seems QB's (especially touted ones) are some of the first out of the gate to commit.

I wouldn't throw the towel in on Riley recruiting because we don't look like Miami right now. Like Tim, I'm expecting commits to come in steadily.

 

[nebcountry]

Originally posted by HuskerTimOmaha:

Originally posted by huskerbr12:

The comment above regarding the 0 '16 commits is legitimate.

Not really, especially with no holdovers from the previous coaching staff. We'll see commitments pick up after the spring game, all the way through satellite camps.

I'll chose to be civil and try for a nice discussion.I made a comment to that effect, and we can have differing opinions. I'm not losing any sleep over not have any commits from this staff at this time. And I agree, we'll have some surrounding the time of the spring game. And who knows, by this time next year we may be celebrating the best NU recruiting class ever. At this point in time that's not the case, and the question by the OP was concerning this point in time.

It surprises me that no one has committed. I don't necessarily think it's great to have a bunch of early commits, but we have made offers with no takers (as of yet). Do we have anyone that can "complete the deal" or "make the hard sell", I don't know. Excluding Langsdorf, the staff is college coaches and would have recruited last year, and the year before, etc. How early is too early, and how late is too late for recruiting, I think that is a balancing act all college coaches face. It was good to have Keyshawn Johnson's team come here, and at least I think we'll have more high quality recruits visit.

 

[HuskerTimOmaha]

Your snide remark is noted.

It's only concerning to those who may think relationships don't matter. Riley and staff are recruiting different (better) prospects at Nebraska compared to their previous time at Oregon State. The close to the 2015 class showed how they built relationships over time and it paid off. See Barnett as a prime example, coach Cav had been on that kid since his sophomore year of high school. Snyder, Ferguson, Alston, Talen and Young were also guys coach Riley and staff were recruiting (again, relationships) for awhile at Oregon State. Others, such as late reaches, relationships are less important.

Where you'll see quicker commitments is the second full recruiting cycle. Why? Because relationships are currently being built, developed and tend to pay off quicker. It's the nature of recruiting, see our 2009 commitments (Pensick, that's it at this same time) compared to the 2010 class (two commitments at same time) to the 2011 class (five [?] commitments at same time).

Also to consider, I feel the staff is also still evaluating our current roster to assure exactly what's needed going forward. As an example, if there's a current underclassmen walk-on performing at a high level right now, I bet our staff deducts "one need" for the 2016 class and puts that elsewhere on the recruiting board. So instead of 3 prospects needed at "this position", they move it elsewhere on the board for this class.

Hopefully this response is civil enough for you. And others...
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[jflores]

The hard sell is one approach, but in many circles its not considered ideal. When you hear a lot of coaches talk, you hear about "wants to be here" and "right fit" because a kid that doesn't want to be at NU for the long run, isn't going to be valuable to us.

The army has a leg up on a hard sell, because once in the system, you are there 4-6 years and there's not a lot you can do about. There's an awful lot of options for a player that decides NU isn't the place for him after he signs on the dotted line.

As Tim notes with Barnett and Snyder, the one you often hear out of recruits isn't that "he gave me little choice and I felt like I needed to move before NU moved on" its usually "Coach XYZ has been there for me over the years and I really got to like him and my family likes him and we felt like he had my best interest in mind".

Hard sell has its place, but I have a hard time believing NU is going to hard sell its way back to relevance. Especially considering, we haven't been out-talented so much as out-executed or undisciplined or any number of other issues in the Pelini years.
This post was edited on 3/18 2:05 PM by jflores

 

[nebcountry]

Originally posted by jflores:

The hard sell is one approach, but in many circles its not considered ideal.

I made a mistake, I'm not familiar with sales so I used wrong terminology. I was thinking more along the lines of the charismatic person that could sell anything to anyone. The person "buying" isn't feeling bullied/coerced, but 100% believes
they're making the right choice and someone else would have a hard time convincing them otherwise. Obviously, that would be a textbook salesperson, and each person will have varying degree of ability to convince others.

 

[jflores]

Originally posted by nebcountry:

Originally posted by jflores:

The hard sell is one approach, but in many circles its not considered ideal.

I made a mistake, I'm not familiar with sales so I used wrong terminology. I was thinking more along the lines of the charismatic person that could sell anything to anyone. The person "buying" isn't feeling bullied/coerced, but 100% believes
they're making the right choice and someone else would have a hard time convincing them otherwise. Obviously, that would be a textbook salesperson, and each person will have varying degree of ability to convince others.

No biggy. I probly would use the term "closer" then, it probably has less negative connotation than "hard sell".

While we don't have Steele and Orgeron, I do think we have some closers on staff. Cav seems to be underrated as a recruiter.

 

[huskerbr12]

I'm with you on relationship building and agree all things point to a very successful run through the spring game and camps.

However, in the name of relationship building, I am surprised that they haven't offered an in-state kid who accepted on the spot. Between Fant, Domann, Taylor, and the 3 kids in Kansas, the fact that none of them accepted on the spot surprises me. It gives me flashbacks of kids leaving official visits ready to pull the trigger but asked to wait until they're back home to finalize it.

It goes back to the OP and why I rated it Good, rather than Very Good or Excellent. If they had new verbals from top kids in the 500 mile radius, I'd say that would be pretty excellent. But they don't. I like the way they seem to be going about their business, they seem to be building good relationships, they seem to be targeting the right guys. Time will tell if they can reel them in and close. (by the way, I think they can do it, they just haven't, yet)

 

[jflores]

Originally posted by huskerbr12:
I'm with you on relationship building and agree all things point to a very successful run through the spring game and camps.

However, in the name of relationship building, I am surprised that they haven't offered an in-state kid who accepted on the spot. Between Fant, Domann, Taylor, and the 3 kids in Kansas, the fact that none of them accepted on the spot surprises me. It gives me flashbacks of kids leaving official visits ready to pull the trigger but asked to wait until they're back home to finalize it.

It goes back to the OP and why I rated it Good, rather than Very Good or Excellent. If they had new verbals from top kids in the 500 mile radius, I'd say that would be pretty excellent. But they don't. I like the way they seem to be going about their business, they seem to be building good relationships, they seem to be targeting the right guys. Time will tell if they can reel them in and close. (by the way, I think they can do it, they just haven't, yet)

So when they offered Fant, I was thinking, ok, so here's an example of what people would jump down Pelini's throat about, how its early in the recruiting cycle, and he's going to take some in-state 3* that he could get any day of the week instead of seeing what we can pull out of GA or wherever hotbed is the flavor of the moment. I was rather surprised that like you said, some of these kids didn't sign up right away.

At least with the Kansas kids, I really don't think that the state of Kansas holds the same reverence for NU as the old days, but it would probably depend on where they are from. The one kid I think is a Rivals 250 safety right? So I wouldn't expect him to just see the N and jump, but I have no idea on the other two.

 

[HuskerTimOmaha]

Oh boy
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[500mileRadius]

I think they've done pretty good for a staff that had a 2-14 conference record the last two years.
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[HuskerTimOmaha]

And the Youngstown State crowd chimes in.
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[huskerbaseball13]

2-14 the last two years? Source? So are you saying they would be doing a bad job if they were 18-0 the past two years? Made up number just like yours.
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[huskerbaseball13]

Oh....and I think Wisconsin just scored again.
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[Archie Graham]

Originally posted by HuskerTimOmaha:
And the Youngstown State crowd chimes in.
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One has to post somewhere given that the YSU papers are already reporting on Carl's "alleged" history with cocaine, weed, and general humping of anything that moves.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

One of their local writers laughed at the idea of Carl coming when they hired Blo when interviewed here on local radio when Blo was officially announced there. Blo, Carl, and Tressel. Maybe Brown can save them all.... well, as long as they are not gay that is.
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