Mike Riley to Nebraska

[mauricxe]

From Bruce Feldman:

Heard #Nebraska was determined to hire a "really good guy who ppl in the community would like" well, Mike Riley is that. Otherwise, stunning

[buckeyebikerbabe]

It's almost like he's a placeholder for the "real" hire in a couple of years, sorta like Pope Benedict keeping the chair warm for Pope Francis!

[buckeyebikerbabe]

It's almost like he's a placeholder for the "real" hire in a couple of years, sorta like Pope Benedict keeping the chair warm for Pope Francis!

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2014 13:39:16 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

It's almost like he's a placeholder for the "real" hire in a couple of years, sorta like Pope Benedict keeping the chair warm for Pope Francis!

Great thinking! Wonder who?

[buckeyebikerbabe]

Dec 4, 2014 13:41:19 GMT -5 @buckina said:

Dec 4, 2014 13:39:16 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

It's almost like he's a placeholder for the "real" hire in a couple of years, sorta like Pope Benedict keeping the chair warm for Pope Francis!

Great thinking! Wonder who?

Hmmmmmmm....wonder who fits the bill and might be available in a couple of years?

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2014 13:54:32 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

Dec 4, 2014 13:41:19 GMT -5 @buckina said:

Great thinking! Wonder who?

Hmmmmmmm....wonder who fits the bill and might be available in a couple of years?

Are you teasing? Who do you have in mind?

[buckeyebikerbabe]

Dec 4, 2014 14:03:25 GMT -5 @buckina said:

Dec 4, 2014 13:54:32 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

Hmmmmmmm....wonder who fits the bill and might be available in a couple of years?

Are you teasing? Who do you have in mind?

Naa....Cincy would say "Urban", but I was thinking of some raising star knd of assistant, or maybe TTUN's next hire!

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2014 14:06:00 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

Dec 4, 2014 14:03:25 GMT -5 @buckina said:

Are you teasing? Who do you have in mind?

Naa....Cincy would say "Urban", but I was thinking of some raising star knd of assistant, or maybe TTUN's next hire!

BL


LMAO!!!!!!!!

[buckeyebikerbabe]

This from the Husker's Scout Board. This is a Oregon State fan giving the his analysis of Riley:


Lifetime OSU fan here, MR leaving for you guys is a bit bittersweet for me, but mostly sweet, and I'll tell you why.

The good (from your perspective):

-MR is one of the most well liked, respected coaches in CFB. He is about the last coach you would expect to have a scandal surround or disciplinary issues with players, temper issues, or anything else

-A few years ago MR was being sought after by USC and Alabama.

-The consensus is that MR does "More with less talent". More on this later

-His teams have the capability of beating any team on any given Saturday

-Don't know what you are paying him, but he's dirt cheap. A couple years ago they had a coaches' salary per win article, and I believe MR was #1 on the list. I think we were paying him around 700k per year. Your buyout will be somewhere around 4.2 mil since he was contracted through 2021.

-He has consistently developed good QBs in his system.

-Players like him a lot. One look at twitter will show you all the players long since having left the program still saying positives about Riley and expressing shock to his leaving.

The bad:

-Clock Management is horrendous. I can't tell you the number of times we have blown a timeout for no good reason. This season was particularly bad in failing to call timeouts when we should have.

-Too loyal to his staff, even when changes need to happen. I have no doubt MR will be taking Mark Banker with him, our defensive coordinator. The near-consensus was that MR needed to fire him, or the AD needed to fire him if MR wouldn't this upcoming year. Our defense was horrendous this year. You only need to look at the civil war to see this. A few years ago there was talk about Banker being sought after as a head coach, but now he's degraded considerably.

-Can lose to any team on any given Saturday. In the last few seasons we have lost TWO games to FCS opponents. There were people calling for MR's firing after each of these. a power conference FBS team should never be losing to an FCS opponent, let alone twice in 3 seasons. How many active coaches for power conference teams have more than one FCS loss on their resume? Not many because they don't last long.

-Has not been able to recruit very well. This might change with you guys, but this goes back to the "more with less" - He will be great and finding diamonds in the rough and developing them - this is his bread and butter - but he won't find many actual diamonds. I think many project that with better ability to recruit Riley will do better, which it seems this hire has gambled on. At OSU he started with crappy facilities, but we have spent many millions and how have some very competitive facilities and his recruiting still hasn't improved.

-After a bad loss he doesn't act as angry or pissed as he should be acting. "Golly, Gee, Shucks!" is a regular pattern you might be hearing. "We lost to an FCS team? Golly, that's bad. We really need to think some things over." He doesn't literally say these terms but it's definitely the demeanor he gives off. His seeming indifference to really, really bad situations is going to piss you off.

-A few seasons ago I said that Riley was a good coach, but will never become a great coach. I still stand by that statement. He will surprise you with some great wins, but will break your heart with some horrible losses.

Overall the only reason this is bitter at all for me is that hiring a new coach on a very limited budget is very risky, and we could end up with someone worse than Riley. That being said, I'm more excited that you hired him away from us. Perhaps he will develop further as a coach and no longer have these issues, but that's what we at Beaver Nation have been hoping for quite a while with no results.

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2014 14:31:51 GMT -5 buckeyebikerbabe said:

This from the Husker's Scout Board. This is a Oregon State fan giving the his analysis of Riley:


Lifetime OSU fan here, MR leaving for you guys is a bit bittersweet for me, but mostly sweet, and I'll tell you why.

The good (from your perspective):

-MR is one of the most well liked, respected coaches in CFB. He is about the last coach you would expect to have a scandal surround or disciplinary issues with players, temper issues, or anything else

-A few years ago MR was being sought after by USC and Alabama.

-The consensus is that MR does "More with less talent". More on this later

-His teams have the capability of beating any team on any given Saturday

-Don't know what you are paying him, but he's dirt cheap. A couple years ago they had a coaches' salary per win article, and I believe MR was #1 on the list. I think we were paying him around 700k per year. Your buyout will be somewhere around 4.2 mil since he was contracted through 2021.

-He has consistently developed good QBs in his system.

-Players like him a lot. One look at twitter will show you all the players long since having left the program still saying positives about Riley and expressing shock to his leaving.

The bad:

-Clock Management is horrendous. I can't tell you the number of times we have blown a timeout for no good reason. This season was particularly bad in failing to call timeouts when we should have.

-Too loyal to his staff, even when changes need to happen. I have no doubt MR will be taking Mark Banker with him, our defensive coordinator. The near-consensus was that MR needed to fire him, or the AD needed to fire him if MR wouldn't this upcoming year. Our defense was horrendous this year. You only need to look at the civil war to see this. A few years ago there was talk about Banker being sought after as a head coach, but now he's degraded considerably.

-Can lose to any team on any given Saturday. In the last few seasons we have lost TWO games to FCS opponents. There were people calling for MR's firing after each of these. a power conference FBS team should never be losing to an FCS opponent, let alone twice in 3 seasons. How many active coaches for power conference teams have more than one FCS loss on their resume? Not many because they don't last long.

-Has not been able to recruit very well. This might change with you guys, but this goes back to the "more with less" - He will be great and finding diamonds in the rough and developing them - this is his bread and butter - but he won't find many actual diamonds. I think many project that with better ability to recruit Riley will do better, which it seems this hire has gambled on. At OSU he started with crappy facilities, but we have spent many millions and how have some very competitive facilities and his recruiting still hasn't improved.

-After a bad loss he doesn't act as angry or pissed as he should be acting. "Golly, Gee, Shucks!" is a regular pattern you might be hearing. "We lost to an FCS team? Golly, that's bad. We really need to think some things over." He doesn't literally say these terms but it's definitely the demeanor he gives off. His seeming indifference to really, really bad situations is going to piss you off.

-A few seasons ago I said that Riley was a good coach, but will never become a great coach. I still stand by that statement. He will surprise you with some great wins, but will break your heart with some horrible losses.

Overall the only reason this is bitter at all for me is that hiring a new coach on a very limited budget is very risky, and we could end up with someone worse than Riley. That being said, I'm more excited that you hired him away from us. Perhaps he will develop further as a coach and no longer have these issues, but that's what we at Beaver Nation have been hoping for quite a while with no results.

He is too nice, a people please and probably PW'd. He will UM's beyotch.

[socaljd3]

Of all the negative that guy gives the only thing that can really stick is recruiting...but even that can be construed as an opinion. Everything else he says is just a fan being a typical fan.

[Deleted]

Dec 4, 2014 13:38:01 GMT -5 mikeytbuckeyes said:

What I took out of the CBS report was:
1) He has been less than stellar in a league that doesn't believe in defense
2) He's been stuck at Oregon State for 14 yrs (never offered higher profile jobs even within the PAC 12)
3) While he's been coaching for awhile, what has he won as a coach at any level?

I saw nothing in that abbreviated bio that makes me think he should have gotten the job. I think Greg Schiano (while probably not a popular choice among the Nebraska faithful) would fit the culture of Nebraska and would have succeeded there.

I would consider an NFL gig a higher profile job, no? Riley's a good coach. Oregon State is a nice place to live but a terrible job otherwise. He did pretty solid there. If Oregon didn't have the Nike machine behind them, they wouldn't be any better.

[mikeytbuckeyes]

Yes, after I wrote that I realized my intention was not clear. I was meaning in the college ranks his glass ceiling before Nebraska was Oregon State. However, what I've recently read was that he had the opportunity twice to coach Southern Cal but turned them down. I'd imagine it was before they were any good. While that changes my perception of him slightly, I still don't see him having earned a job like Nebraska. Apparently everyone in the sports media knows something I don't. Kirk Herbstreit was saying what a great hire this is. Again, I don't see it. What am I missing that is apparently right out there in plain sight that all the media can pick up on it but I can't?

[mikeytbuckeyes]

According to SI.com Nebraska was going after BB. It would appear Bret likes it in the SEC and declined their offer.

www.si.com/college-football/2014/12/04/bret-bielema-nebraska-coach-arkansas-huskers-mike-riley

[ohstatefan]

There were some Tressel similarities in that synopsis of him (when we first got him).

Seems like he runs a clean program, very respected, too loyal to assistants. Lots more success than his salary seems to indicate.