Cause it sure isn't to teach or intelligently scheme Special Teams play. Out of all the criticism I've ever heard about Riley and the staff this is the only one that has true merit.
What does Bruce Read really do for his HUGE paycheck?
- Thread starter red rover 70
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This one I have to agree with you on. The fact we have a full-time coach for special teams that are literally not (special) for me has nothing to do with money. We are giving up another FT coach in place of this? If we were lights out on ST play I wouldn't question it but we are not.
Since day one our special teams play has been underwhelming to say the least. We have athletes in all these other positions that are making strides in a big way. The only common denominator is the position coach. Sorry to say but that's all I got.
His problem is trying to teach too much. Now, they seem to line up completely different than last year. It's like he experiments all the time on the job.
There's been a little bit of a rumor mill that Read will go bye bye and Tavita will come on board. The suggestion was that Miles, Leitao and Allen would not be coming here if Tavita disappeared after this year when his GA period was up.
Nice! That would be a huge upgrade, IMO. But would Tavita coach the Special Teams or would they divide them up among the staff, like most teams do?
I believe the idea is to have Tavita be the TE coach and also run ST with some fill in from others as necessary. It was indicated that one other coach might be a candidate to leave (I believe Stewart because he might possibly want to be a DC again), but it seemed Read was the more likely option of the two.
I also don't see Riley getting rid of Read. Wish he would, punt and punt return teams have looked awful so far. Lightbourn shouldn't even have an option to run the ball, its either a fake or punt the ball. Also I feel like he is making it too complicated with the rugby style and traditional. Whichever one is comfortable for a true freshmen punter should be the way to go about it. Then punt return is mind-boggling this year with the weapons we have. Not sure how it has become a "circus" according to Riley.
I have no problem with people questioning a coach's effectiveness based on the results on the field. That said, I get tired when people bring up "huge salaries" to add more oomph to their stories. Guess what? Major NCAA football coaches make a lot of money. To hold him to a standard because of a high salary isn't relevant here. If he's not getting the job done and there's a better coach who would, fine.
Lightbourn didn't have an option to run the ball. He did that solely on his own. Foltz had been given the green light to do that at any time, but he said that had not given that to Lightbourn.
That's on the coach for not making it more clear. Coaches are judged by their results, and you're either coaching it to happen, or allowing it to happen.
I don't think anyone has a problem with paying our coaches high salaries because that's the only way to get/keep assistant coaches. But we have a ST coach who doesn't recruit and only coaches the ST's who is making 450k. I just checked Alabama, Clemson, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas, USC, and not one of those teams have a full-time ST coach that doesn't coach another position.
How much more clear could it have been? They never told him he could do that. He said he thought he saw something in how the defense was moving that made him think he could make it. Freshman mistake. Live and learn. Do players ever make mistakes on their own or are they always the coach's fault?
The problem is we're not getting any bang for our buck.
Caleb Lightbourn has more rushing yards than we do punt return yards. 
And that's all you need to know.Caleb Lightbourn has more rushing yards than we do punt return yards.
Seems noteworthy that there's a post critical of a member of the NU coaching staff, and yet nobody has squealed at the O.P. for being a Pelini holdout, accused him of secretly wanting Riley to fail or insisted that he find a different team to root for.
But he's not a major ncaa coach.. He doesn't recruit worth a flip and his unit is underwhelming given his elite title (hardly any d.1 programs have special teams ONLY coach.
That's because our special teams play has been lackluster to say the least since Read has gotten here. Or to put it another way I'm just stating the extremely obvious.
Exactly - The difference between good coaches and bad ones is just this
If the rumor is true and Read is leaving then I take back everything I said about Riley hiring his buddies. I honestly do not think that will happen however and if not I hold Riley directly accountable for how the team does under these coaches. The problem I have had with every coach Since TO is that they hire buddies and then do not hold the assistant coaches accountable - Solich hired Cotton, Callahan hired Cosgrove - Pelini had several guys on his staff that did not deserve to be there.
A head coach should have the program as his number one priority - above any friendships or relationships with coaches. What is best for the team should come first and all decisions should be made accordingly. I simply do not see Riley putting NU ahead of his relationships with his assistants, if this in fact changes then I think Riley can be very successful here - but he needs to hold every assisant to the same standard
You are obviously correct IMO; well stated, and many assume it would be any true head coaches goal. You set goals for everything and if not attained within an explainable range,its the hot seat. Someone may indeed move to the A D ; if something doesn't come up elsewhere. ...... Hughes may be a good to average coach; but thats not what we are about - I was happy that HCMR seemed to have standards; took action when they were not lining up. You are heading a program; you don't own it. GBR
I don't think Read leaves either. They will probably find a front office type of job for him. As I understand it, he recruits ST and does some of the up front work preparing for the other guys to go out and do some recruiting in various areas and who they should see and stuff.
I'm interested in a college head coach that did not "hire his buddies". I'll wait for your list.
Saban, Meyer, dantonio, harbaugh. The coaching community is fairly close so yes they know coaches, but these guys hire with one thing in mind.... Winning. Do think any of these would keep any coach because of past relationship?
Read isn't only a special teams coach. He is Riley's main talent evaluator on the staff. My understanding is that the recruiting staff filters recruit film to him and he evaluates before scholarship offers go out. If special teams continue to struggle, I wouldn't be surprised to see him moved to an admin role only within the recruiting staff.
Yeah, it kind of is. Devaney basically oversees the recruiting department, where talent evaluation is one of his roles. He is kind of a numbers guy when it comes to scholarship allocation, roster management, etc. I believe that he handles the NFL liason role also. Everyone in the recruiting department handles talent evaluation, but I've been told Riley trusts Read the most when it comes to that.
Harbaugh's own kid is on staff, and Harbaugh could easily find 10 guys more qualified (virtually any current NU assistant would qualify) . If you polled 20 random people on this board and any of them could name more than one Dantonio assistant, I'd be shocked.
Saban and Meyer are the cream of the crop, no doubt (heck Sark is a film evaluator for the time being at Bama), however it was fairly universally recognized two years ago that NU was not getting one of these two guys (Zatechka did a whole podcast on this).
The only guy on this staff who is questionable right now is probably Read. And it would appear that we are steering towards a direction that is his strength as we speak to make room for a better actual coach. That's a pretty small potatoes complaint about an entire staff, of whom the haters 2 years ago would have had Ed Orgeron be Wide Receiver coach simply because he was EdO and they couldn't be bothered to consider Williams a good hire "because we're Nebraska and he's from Tulane".
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Keep dreaming. Riley and Read are buddies. The fact that Riley has wasted a full-time position with this individual for years is just one of the many reasons Riley has never won anything meaningful in college football.
Okay, well that suggestion sounds like something coming from RSS from one of the make believe insiders that make crap up.
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