Riley Shelf Life

[HuskermanMike]

LSU was the national champion coming into the 2004 season they expected to pummel oregon state at home. OSU came into LSU and lost 22-21. Why is this important? OSU frosh kicker shanked a PAT that would have tied the game. A bad OSU team or thought of as an easy win by many almost beat #1 team in the country. I did not see a competitive game against a team ranked 20th in the country on the road in 2014 for Nebraska. Riley brings these kind of games and I will be happy, if hes at Nebraska he probably beats LSU.

Note the kicker shanked a PAT 3 times, the same guy................

 

[NebraskaShellback]

Riley - 3 to 8 years.

 

[jmfb]

I'm not really a hypothetical person......but facts are easily findable. Riley's resume is absolutely questionable at best for a job like Nebraska.

Facts are easily obtained, but questions of Riley's fit as HC at Nebraska are hypothetical no matter how you slice it.
And while previous W/L records are simple and straight-forward, they don't appear to be a good predictor. Hoke had a good record before going to Michigan. RichRod looked good before going to Ann Arbor. And looked bad before getting to Tucson but is doing very well for the Wildcats. Pete Carroll wasn't good for the Patriots but has been exceptional at USC and Seattle. I thought Saban would have done a lot better in the NFL.

There are also lots of W/L records that translated into success as well. Urban at Florida and again at tOSU is probably the best example.

My point is that Riley's W/L record at Oregon St. doesn't mean much to how he'll perform at NU. You can keep presenting it as a fact, but it's not convincing evidence in the discussion of how Riley will perform at NU.

The NFL is a totally different animal= if you want to add the NFL then you have to look at Rileys failure at SD then as well
College football is a much different equation

Rich Rod was sabotaged at Michigan- he would have been successful there had they left him alone

Great book there about it, 3 and out. Friends at Michigan verified, very accurate

Lots of great coaches won at every college stop

Bear Bryant

Urban Meyer

Nick Saban

Lou Holtz

Riley- jury is out

Rich Rod is a College great coach and will have a great career

Past results DO matter

Consistent Results either verify what you are doing makes sense, or they dont

The best are going to win at every stop, no excuses

So Nick Saban won at every stop? You must have forgot his stops at MSU and the Dolphins. And don't use that bullsh#t of " Well he went 9-2 his final year at MSU"

Lou Holtz was fired at from the Patriots after about a 2-12 season. His record at South Carolina though winning, wasn't anything super special.

I will give you the Bear and Urban. There are instances of coaches having success at one place and not another also. Pete Carrol, rich rod as you say, Jackie Sherril, Howard Snellenberger, Bill Belichek, the big tuna, Jimmmy Johnson, heck even Vince lumbardi didn't win everywhere these are just ones off the top of my head.

Again- the NFL is NOT college football

Totally different equation

NO one I know of considers Jackie Sherril or Howard S- elite coaches. Howard failed at his 2 stops after Miami

Neither will be in the Hall of Fame and Jackie failed at his last stop

Vince L- by the way wrong about him, he did win everywhere he coached. Had he lived we would have had the Redskins in the Super Bowl by year 3

Jimmy Johnson, you are wrong about him as well. He also won at every spot- turned around really bad Dallas and OSU programs- won Nat Championships and Super Bowls. Great College coach.

Holtz took bottom feeders and turned the programs around. By the time he left, they were winning

Look at the scores

At W&M one season they were about 14 points from being a 1 loss or undefeated team, significant progress. won a conference championship

Turned around NC State into consistent winner, conference champions

Great success at ND and Arkansas

Turned around really bad Minny and SC programs

Winners win

Saban did a great job at MSU- no football person would say different

He WON at MSU, left them a winner then won at places lots of guys had failed LSU and Bama

 

[jmfb]

Lots of great coaches won at every college stop

Bear Bryant

Urban Meyer

Nick Saban

Lou Holtz

Whoa. You just listed some of the Greatest Coaches of all time. This is hardly the "norm". These guys are legends or will be legends by the time their career is over.

I don't think anybody has even remotely said Mike Riley is Bear Bryant, Urban Meyer, Nick Saban or the other dummy you listed.

Riley- jury is out

Well....kinda. The jury is out on his time here at Nebraska. The jury isn't out on his previous career though. Don't forget, he did have some very successful years at Oregon St. too. He also won quite a number of games that realistically, they shouldn't have won. He overcame quite a bit there. He was hired as a HC in the NFL, and in the CFL. His reputation amongst coaches is impecable. For all the talk you do about the in's and out's of this game, you'd think you would show a bit more respect for the guy. There's a lot of people a hell of a lot smarter than you or I who thinks Mike Riley is an excellent person, coach, evaluator and developer.

Past results DO matter

The best are going to win at every stop, no excuses

Past results do not matter now. In no way will Riley's record at Oregon St. affect the record at Nebraska. If you wanted to apply his record there to his record here, then don't forget to include those good seasons and the upsets over some highly ranked teams too. You guys aren't just gonna sit here and apply all the bad and none of the good. That's being unfair and ignorant. Like I said though, none of it really applies at all.

NU deserves a top 10-15 coach, Riley isn't a top 10-15 coach

Its great that he is a nice guy everyone likes, at the end of the day what matters is wins

I remember a guy I used to coach against. Great guy, very likeable. He had a few seasons where they won, but mostly they lost or were middle of the road. NO ONE in the conference wanted the guy to retire- because we could usually beat him. We talked him up to anyone that would listen

He hasn't consistently won. He had a pretty poor record his last 4-5 years at OSU and I guess since you think NFL experience matters- failed there as well.

To say OSU is impossible to win at- ignores the fact that Dennis Erickson slipped right in and won consistently and won big there right in the middle of the Mike Riley era and I wouldn't consider DE to be an elite coach. DE did much better at OSU than Riley did.

Past experience is usually a good predictor of future results

When one hires a coach or an employee for that matter- we look at past results

Why? Because they are usually a pretty good predictor of future results

As a Business owner who has hired over 300 people, I only hired those with a track record that put them in the top 85-90% in their fields. We had the reputation that allowed us not to have to take "flyers" on unproven or up and down performers. Lowering risk of the hiring failure is why people hire consistent top performers.

Yes, kudos to Riley for pulling some upsets

But his teams were all over the place W/L wise and lost to teams like Sacramento State and Eastern Washington as well, Reminding me of some of those really talented Missouri teams of the 70s- 80s who would be world beaters one week and lose to a really bad team the next week.

Can Riley be consistently successful here? CONSISTENT success is how success is measured here, not great one week and awful the next.

The great ones show consistent progress and at the end of the day- consistently win once they get everything they want in place

Maybe he can be that guy

He hasn't shown he can at his other College Football coaching gigs

 

[jmfb]

I'm not really a hypothetical person......but facts are easily findable. Riley's resume is absolutely questionable at best for a job like Nebraska.

Facts are easily obtained, but questions of Riley's fit as HC at Nebraska are hypothetical no matter how you slice it.

And while previous W/L records are simple and straight-forward, they don't appear to be a good predictor. Hoke had a good record before going to Michigan. RichRod looked good before going to Ann Arbor. And looked bad before getting to Tucson but is doing very well for the Wildcats. Pete Carroll wasn't good for the Patriots but has been exceptional at USC and Seattle. I thought Saban would have done a lot better in the NFL.

There are also lots of W/L records that translated into success as well. Urban at Florida and again at tOSU is probably the best example.

My point is that Riley's W/L record at Oregon St. doesn't mean much to how he'll perform at NU. You can keep presenting it as a fact, but it's not convincing evidence in the discussion of how Riley will perform at NU.

The NFL is a totally different animal= if you want to add the NFL then you have to look at Rileys failure at SD then as well

College football is a much different equation

Rich Rod was sabotaged at Michigan- he would have been successful there had they left him alone

Great book there about it, 3 and out. Friends at Michigan verified, very accurate

Lots of great coaches won at every college stop

Bear Bryant

Urban Meyer

Nick Saban

Lou Holtz

Riley- jury is out

Rich Rod is a College great coach and will have a great career

Past results DO matter

Consistent Results either verify what you are doing makes sense, or they dont

The best are going to win at every stop, no excuses

So Nick Saban won at every stop? You must have forgot his stops at MSU and the Dolphins. And don't use that bullsh#t of " Well he went 9-2 his final year at MSU"

When Saban took over MSU they were 0-11

They had winning record in his year 1 there

He was 34-24 there- never had a losing season. Last season 10-2

So yes he did win at MSU and as soon as he left they went back to losing again

Pretty good coach

For the 10th time NFL has no bearing on the college game- doesn't matter. If it does then Rileys big failure at SD counts too. I don't think it does

 

[jmfb]

Sorry, was wrong about Lou Holtz, it was the jets not the patriots, and he had losing records at William and Mary, Minnesota, and South Carolina. He only had winning records at ND and Arkansas.

You were wrong about him again

He did really well at NC State- where he turned them into a consistent winner

WHen you take over bottom dwellers like LH did over and over again, you build the wins and competitiveness to the point where they are competitive and in MUCH better shape than when they started. He did that at W&M, Minny and SC and of course at ND, Arkansas and NC State as well. Had he stayed on at Minny, W&M ( why would he do that) or SC- they would have been consistent winners too.

At Minny he took over a 1 win team that got outscored 518-181 by 333 points

2 years later then finish 7-5 and are just 3 snaps away from being 10-2 barely losing to Oklahoma, Ohio State and Michigan State

They outscored their opps by 293-240

So a 386 point turnaround- or 32 POINTS per game- one of the biggest in NCAA history

Quite a turnaround almost anyone would be very impressed with that

 

[Redux]

Boy the discussion in here is getting fun. Riley's record at Oregon State is not what got him hired at Nebraska. TheSker is clearly confused about that.

Riley's team development and on the field performance with those teams are what got him hired at Nebraska.

Lets remember for a moment that he was coaching a consistently decent team at a historically bad place in a clearly competetive league. His records weren't why he was given lifer status, his results were.

A 9-4 record where we get blown out by Wisconsin, embarassed by tOSU and slapped at home by NW is drastically different than a 9-4 season where we lose by a couple points to Wisconsin, almost upset tOSU and smack the crap outta NW. The record is secondary to being able to be proud of our seasons.

We have no clue what is going to happen in the next couple seasons but Riley is already winning big at recruiting. If we aren't competing for a conference title in a couple years I'll be surprised. And by competing I don't mean simply showing up to the game, I mean remembering that a Division Title merely gets you there then you have to earn the crown. Thats something Bo couldn't do. Bring us a trophy back to Lincoln and the Jury won't be out will it?

 

[jmfb]

Lets remember for a moment that he was coaching a consistently decent team at a historically bad place in a clearly competetive league. His records weren't why he was given lifer status, his results were.

A 9-4 record where we get blown out by Wisconsin, embarassed by tOSU and slapped at home by NW is drastically different than a 9-4 season where we lose by a couple points to Wisconsin, almost upset tOSU and smack the crap outta NW. The record is secondary to being able to be proud of our seasons.

We have no clue what is going to happen in the next couple seasons but Riley is already winning big at recruiting. If we aren't competing for a conference title in a couple years I'll be surprised. And by competing I don't mean simply showing up to the game, I mean remembering that a Division Title merely gets you there then you have to earn the crown. Thats something Bo couldn't do. Bring us a trophy back to Lincoln and the Jury won't be out will it?

Im not sure a 3-9 record with the only really close loss was to Sacramento State counts as a "decent" team. Same for some of those 5-7 seasons. As to historically bad- yes it was, but then when he left Dennis Erickson stepped right in and did even better. It will be interesting to see how OSU does in Rileys absence. Last time he left, they did great, best season in school history.

It was Bo's time to go, Im glad he's gone. He wasn't getting any closer to winning titles at this point

Can this guy do it? No one knows and he doesn't have the track record of a Meyer, Saban or anything close that says, yes we can depend on a year 3-4 title run. He's never won anything.

He wins it, and consistently win/ fields competitive teams, not the up and down thing, Im his biggest fan.

If Riley does just that SE will officially be the smartest guy in the room. But in all reality SE has no track record of successfully hiring great Head Football coaches so it is a crap shoot.

 

[NUinID]

Sorry, was wrong about Lou Holtz, it was the jets not the patriots, and he had losing records at William and Mary, Minnesota, and South Carolina. He only had winning records at ND and Arkansas.

You were wrong about him again

He did really well at NC State- where he turned them into a consistent winner

WHen you take over bottom dwellers like LH did over and over again, you build the wins and competitiveness to the point where they are competitive and in MUCH better shape than when they started. He did that at W&M, Minny and SC and of course at ND, Arkansas and NC State as well. Had he stayed on at Minny, W&M ( why would he do that) or SC- they would have been consistent winners too.

At Minny he took over a 1 win team

2 years later then finish 7-5 and are just 3 snaps away from being 10-2 barely losing to Oklahoma, Ohio State and Michigan State

Quite a turnaround almost anyone would be very impressed with that

jmfb my whole point in my post was that you pick out 4 great coaches, and they are great coaches, I am not debating that and then say they won at every place the coached. I was pointing out that Lou had losing records at x and y locations.

The point was that you are always so smug and condescending about things. You think your opinion matters more than anyone's because you coach football. I coached FB for 22 years straight and my opinion is no better than anyone else. Lou Holtz was a great coach, but he did not have a winning record everywhere he coached.

Oh and you win I forgot to put NC State in my post. You are right!

 

[jmfb]

Sorry, was wrong about Lou Holtz, it was the jets not the patriots, and he had losing records at William and Mary, Minnesota, and South Carolina. He only had winning records at ND and Arkansas.

You were wrong about him again

He did really well at NC State- where he turned them into a consistent winner

WHen you take over bottom dwellers like LH did over and over again, you build the wins and competitiveness to the point where they are competitive and in MUCH better shape than when they started. He did that at W&M, Minny and SC and of course at ND, Arkansas and NC State as well. Had he stayed on at Minny, W&M ( why would he do that) or SC- they would have been consistent winners too.

At Minny he took over a 1 win team

2 years later then finish 7-5 and are just 3 snaps away from being 10-2 barely losing to Oklahoma, Ohio State and Michigan State

Quite a turnaround almost anyone would be very impressed with that

jmfb my whole point in my post was that you pick out 4 great coaches, and they are great coaches, I am not debating that and then say they won at every place the coached. I was pointing out that Lou had losing records at x and y locations.

The point was that you are always so smug and condescending about things. You think your opinion matters more than anyone's because you coach football. I coached FB for 22 years straight and my opinion is no better than anyone else. Lou Holtz was a great coach, but he did not have a winning record everywhere he coached.

Oh and you win I forgot to put NC State in my post. You are right!

Just stating the facts

Holtz did turnaround programs- HUGE turnarounds

No one would suggest any of his college coaching stints were failures in any sense of the word.

As to opinions anyone including my little girl can have one. The difference is my opinions on football are based on what I know about the game, hers are based on what team colors her mood and which mascots are more interesting and maybe her experience of watching 2-3 games on TV. Not sure those opinions are of the same value. Just like mine wouldn't have the same value of a Tom Osborne

 

[Stumpy1]

I'm not really a hypothetical person......but facts are easily findable. Riley's resume is absolutely questionable at best for a job like Nebraska.

Facts are easily obtained, but questions of Riley's fit as HC at Nebraska are hypothetical no matter how you slice it.

And while previous W/L records are simple and straight-forward, they don't appear to be a good predictor. Hoke had a good record before going to Michigan. RichRod looked good before going to Ann Arbor. And looked bad before getting to Tucson but is doing very well for the Wildcats. Pete Carroll wasn't good for the Patriots but has been exceptional at USC and Seattle. I thought Saban would have done a lot better in the NFL.

There are also lots of W/L records that translated into success as well. Urban at Florida and again at tOSU is probably the best example.

My point is that Riley's W/L record at Oregon St. doesn't mean much to how he'll perform at NU. You can keep presenting it as a fact, but it's not convincing evidence in the discussion of how Riley will perform at NU.

The NFL is a totally different animal= if you want to add the NFL then you have to look at Rileys failure at SD then as well

College football is a much different equation

Rich Rod was sabotaged at Michigan- he would have been successful there had they left him alone

Great book there about it, 3 and out. Friends at Michigan verified, very accurate

Lots of great coaches won at every college stop

Bear Bryant

Urban Meyer

Nick Saban

Lou Holtz

Riley- jury is out

Rich Rod is a College great coach and will have a great career

Past results DO matter

Consistent Results either verify what you are doing makes sense, or they dont

The best are going to win at every stop, no excuses

So Nick Saban won at every stop? You must have forgot his stops at MSU and the Dolphins. And don't use that bullsh#t of " Well he went 9-2 his final year at MSU"

When Saban took over MSU they were 0-11

They had winning record in his year 1 there

He was 34-24 there- never had a losing season. Last season 10-2

So yes he did win at MSU and as soon as he left they went back to losing again

Pretty good coach

For the 10th time NFL has no bearing on the college game- doesn't matter. If it does then Rileys big failure at SD counts too. I don't think it does

You are actually wrong. The season before Saban took over they were 5-6. They vacated those wins because of grade tampering. The year before that they went 6-6.

He didn't win sh#t at MSU besides in his last year.

He went:

6-5-1

6-6

7-5

6-6

9-2

 

[Red Five]

MSU 5 years before Saban

8-3-1

3-8

5-6

6-6

5-6

MSU 5 years after Saban

5-6

7-5

4-8

8-5

5-7

The 5 years before Saban, Saban's tenure, and the 5 years after Saban all pretty much look the same.

Is Saban a great coach? Yes. But using MSU to prop up that argument isn't the best way to do it.

 

[bleedNUred]

I guess I just don't understand the negativity, if you're a fan of this team wouldn't you want to hope for the best? I mean like others have said many times, we haven't even seen this staff coach the team we love to watch play and yet some are already writing him off as a bad hire or trying to "prove" it's not gonna work out. Doesnt make sense to me...

 

[jmfb]

MSU 5 years before Saban

8-3-1

3-8

5-6

6-6

5-6

MSU 5 years after Saban

5-6

7-5

4-8

8-5

5-7

The 5 years before Saban, Saban's tenure, and the 5 years after Saban all pretty much look the same.

Is Saban a great coach? Yes. But using MSU to prop up that argument isn't the best way to do it.

Ok so 3 losing seasons before Saban in 5 years- NONE under Saban

3 losing seasons after Saban in 5 years- NONE under Saban

and a TEN win Season- nobody did that the 5 years before or after. With wins over Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon and Florida that year. Pretty great season for MSU

Very nice run

 

[jmfb]

I'm not really a hypothetical person......but facts are easily findable. Riley's resume is absolutely questionable at best for a job like Nebraska.

Facts are easily obtained, but questions of Riley's fit as HC at Nebraska are hypothetical no matter how you slice it.

And while previous W/L records are simple and straight-forward, they don't appear to be a good predictor. Hoke had a good record before going to Michigan. RichRod looked good before going to Ann Arbor. And looked bad before getting to Tucson but is doing very well for the Wildcats. Pete Carroll wasn't good for the Patriots but has been exceptional at USC and Seattle. I thought Saban would have done a lot better in the NFL.

There are also lots of W/L records that translated into success as well. Urban at Florida and again at tOSU is probably the best example.

My point is that Riley's W/L record at Oregon St. doesn't mean much to how he'll perform at NU. You can keep presenting it as a fact, but it's not convincing evidence in the discussion of how Riley will perform at NU.

The NFL is a totally different animal= if you want to add the NFL then you have to look at Rileys failure at SD then as well

College football is a much different equation

Rich Rod was sabotaged at Michigan- he would have been successful there had they left him alone

Great book there about it, 3 and out. Friends at Michigan verified, very accurate

Lots of great coaches won at every college stop

Bear Bryant

Urban Meyer

Nick Saban

Lou Holtz

Riley- jury is out

Rich Rod is a College great coach and will have a great career

Past results DO matter

Consistent Results either verify what you are doing makes sense, or they dont

The best are going to win at every stop, no excuses

So Nick Saban won at every stop? You must have forgot his stops at MSU and the Dolphins. And don't use that bullsh#t of " Well he went 9-2 his final year at MSU"

When Saban took over MSU they were 0-11

They had winning record in his year 1 there

He was 34-24 there- never had a losing season. Last season 10-2

So yes he did win at MSU and as soon as he left they went back to losing again

Pretty good coach

For the 10th time NFL has no bearing on the college game- doesn't matter. If it does then Rileys big failure at SD counts too. I don't think it does

You are actually wrong. The season before Saban took over they were 5-6. They vacated those wins because of grade tampering. The year before that they went 6-6.

He didn't win sh#t at MSU besides in his last year.

He went:

6-5-1

6-6

7-5

6-6

9-2

Ok so 3 losing seasons before Saban in 5 years- NONE under Saban

3 losing seasons after Saban in 5 years- NONE under Saban

and a TEN win Season- nobody did that the 5 years before or after. With wins over Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon and Florida that year. Pretty great season for MSU

Very nice run- most ADs and fans would be pretty pleased with that and they were

He did win there- just like I said

Most coaches come in with a 5 year plan- looks like Saban did too, and he executed on it

Took him a little less time at both LSU and Bama- but same end result- big turnaround