http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...football-coach-mike-riley-offseason/78344448/
With hard part in the past, Nebraska football expects bright future
Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports
Winter has come to Nebraska, and with it the offseason. This is the part Mike Riley loves most.
In the past, during stints at Oregon State and elsewhere, Riley used the offseason to layer another floor upon his team’s existing foundation — to establish “things in the program that we can grow from,” he said. There is a rhythm to the annual rebirth, Riley continued, of cadences, formations and plays, and of an offense, defense and team working in unison.
That wasn’t a luxury afforded a year ago, when Riley inherited a group that remained up until the Cornhuskers’ season opener “a mystery” to be solved; admittedly, Nebraska remained a riddle for much of the new staff’s debut.
“Like coaches do, you build up some general concerns about what things are going to look like,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “I really wasn’t worried outwardly about how that was going to be. Then we got into the year and started with losing a game on a Hail Mary, then it kind of went from there.
“It just can’t be played off as bad luck. That’s really shallow to do that, and it’s a trap. It’s pretty self-indicting when you get in close games and you don’t win.”
The low point was Illinois or Purdue — equally terrible defeats during the month of October that came to define Riley’s stepping-off season. The high point came down the stretch, with wins against Michigan State, Rutgers and UCLA bracketing a turnover-heavy loss to Iowa.
So there are words used to describe Riley’s introduction, a 6-7 finish capped by an impressive Foster Farms Bowl win against the Bruins: trying, difficult, tumultuous, draining. There are moments: Brigham Young’s Hail Mary heave, the botched final offensive snap against Illinois, Wisconsin’s last-second field goal, the four interceptions against Iowa.
And there are numbers: Nebraska lost seven games but none by more than 10 points, a program first since 1999, the year of the Cornhuskers’ last conference title; Nebraska played with just 44 active scholarship players from the previous three recruiting classes, a paltry total compared to its major-conference peers.
Yet the Cornhuskers prepare for Riley’s first full offseason with the “feeling-out part” in the past: Nebraska has found its bottom and rebounded, closing with a stretch that does not necessarily hearken to the program’s glory days but paints a picture of a team ready to leap into Big Ten Conference contention in 2016.
“I think we’re close,” said offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf. “I think we’re just scratching the surface of what we can do at times. I think there are some great moments we’ve had that we need to build on.”
Most of all, and for the first time in Riley’s tenure, this is a program on the same page. Trust between Nebraska’s roster and its new staff was slow to develop, as many players accustomed to the previous regime pushed back against a change in direction; Riley called the development of a new bond “our biggest hurdle.”
“Probably as hard as it was, it wasn’t bad for the team to see the reaction to adversity and how we’ve got to handle it,” he said. “That’s where I gained the great impression of the team. The strength they had within their core was good; it allowed us to keep coaching.
“Because it could’ve been disastrous. No matter how much you keep talking about competing and the opportunity to win, those speeches get old.”
If slow coming — and stymied by a series of heartbreaking losses — optimism now sits in Nebraska’s corner. So does an offensive identity, courtesy of a victory against UCLA rooted in an approach marrying the staff’s preferred West Coast style with a powerful and vintage running game.
“I don’t want to have a program that doesn’t have an identity about what it wants to do in the future,” Riley said.
If not entirely replicable against its conference slate, Nebraska’s game plan refocused the offense around quarterback Tommy Armstrong, a senior-to-be best suited in a balanced attack. The pieces are in place: Armstrong returns, as does a stable of running backs, most of the two-deep along the offensive line and one of the best receiver corps in recent program history.
“People at Nebraska want to win,” Langsdorf said. “That’s important to the program. We’ve got to expect the kids to continue to learn and grow and learn from their mistakes so we don’t make the same mistakes going forward. We have to make sure we’re laying the foundation and doing things right.
“But the kids are working and they are progressing. It does take a little time, but we feel like we’re making progress and there are good days ahead.”
That process continues during the offseason, with recruiting, player development and the continued installation of Riley’s blueprint — but it will have a different feel, thanks to a growing comfort level between staff and program. The hard part is over, even if no one, from Riley on down, could have predicted just how difficult it would become.
“There’s never been any time, anywhere where it’s all perfect,” he said. “The establishment of the program took some roots. This is a great place with great tradition. We want to make sure we’re a good example of that. At the same time, the football has to be played at a high level. So we’re going to work hard to gain that.”
With hard part in the past, Nebraska football expects bright future
Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY Sports
Winter has come to Nebraska, and with it the offseason. This is the part Mike Riley loves most.
In the past, during stints at Oregon State and elsewhere, Riley used the offseason to layer another floor upon his team’s existing foundation — to establish “things in the program that we can grow from,” he said. There is a rhythm to the annual rebirth, Riley continued, of cadences, formations and plays, and of an offense, defense and team working in unison.
That wasn’t a luxury afforded a year ago, when Riley inherited a group that remained up until the Cornhuskers’ season opener “a mystery” to be solved; admittedly, Nebraska remained a riddle for much of the new staff’s debut.
“Like coaches do, you build up some general concerns about what things are going to look like,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “I really wasn’t worried outwardly about how that was going to be. Then we got into the year and started with losing a game on a Hail Mary, then it kind of went from there.
“It just can’t be played off as bad luck. That’s really shallow to do that, and it’s a trap. It’s pretty self-indicting when you get in close games and you don’t win.”
The low point was Illinois or Purdue — equally terrible defeats during the month of October that came to define Riley’s stepping-off season. The high point came down the stretch, with wins against Michigan State, Rutgers and UCLA bracketing a turnover-heavy loss to Iowa.
So there are words used to describe Riley’s introduction, a 6-7 finish capped by an impressive Foster Farms Bowl win against the Bruins: trying, difficult, tumultuous, draining. There are moments: Brigham Young’s Hail Mary heave, the botched final offensive snap against Illinois, Wisconsin’s last-second field goal, the four interceptions against Iowa.
And there are numbers: Nebraska lost seven games but none by more than 10 points, a program first since 1999, the year of the Cornhuskers’ last conference title; Nebraska played with just 44 active scholarship players from the previous three recruiting classes, a paltry total compared to its major-conference peers.
Yet the Cornhuskers prepare for Riley’s first full offseason with the “feeling-out part” in the past: Nebraska has found its bottom and rebounded, closing with a stretch that does not necessarily hearken to the program’s glory days but paints a picture of a team ready to leap into Big Ten Conference contention in 2016.
“I think we’re close,” said offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf. “I think we’re just scratching the surface of what we can do at times. I think there are some great moments we’ve had that we need to build on.”
Most of all, and for the first time in Riley’s tenure, this is a program on the same page. Trust between Nebraska’s roster and its new staff was slow to develop, as many players accustomed to the previous regime pushed back against a change in direction; Riley called the development of a new bond “our biggest hurdle.”
“Probably as hard as it was, it wasn’t bad for the team to see the reaction to adversity and how we’ve got to handle it,” he said. “That’s where I gained the great impression of the team. The strength they had within their core was good; it allowed us to keep coaching.
“Because it could’ve been disastrous. No matter how much you keep talking about competing and the opportunity to win, those speeches get old.”
If slow coming — and stymied by a series of heartbreaking losses — optimism now sits in Nebraska’s corner. So does an offensive identity, courtesy of a victory against UCLA rooted in an approach marrying the staff’s preferred West Coast style with a powerful and vintage running game.
“I don’t want to have a program that doesn’t have an identity about what it wants to do in the future,” Riley said.
If not entirely replicable against its conference slate, Nebraska’s game plan refocused the offense around quarterback Tommy Armstrong, a senior-to-be best suited in a balanced attack. The pieces are in place: Armstrong returns, as does a stable of running backs, most of the two-deep along the offensive line and one of the best receiver corps in recent program history.
“People at Nebraska want to win,” Langsdorf said. “That’s important to the program. We’ve got to expect the kids to continue to learn and grow and learn from their mistakes so we don’t make the same mistakes going forward. We have to make sure we’re laying the foundation and doing things right.
“But the kids are working and they are progressing. It does take a little time, but we feel like we’re making progress and there are good days ahead.”
That process continues during the offseason, with recruiting, player development and the continued installation of Riley’s blueprint — but it will have a different feel, thanks to a growing comfort level between staff and program. The hard part is over, even if no one, from Riley on down, could have predicted just how difficult it would become.
“There’s never been any time, anywhere where it’s all perfect,” he said. “The establishment of the program took some roots. This is a great place with great tradition. We want to make sure we’re a good example of that. At the same time, the football has to be played at a high level. So we’re going to work hard to gain that.”
