Riley Supporters Are Wrong

On here there was a lot of "OK, a 7 win season would be disappointing, but not a total stunner, depending on how the losses happened."

There was a lot of blowback over that.

Which I think is fair, it was a good offseason discussion, but you either double down on the new coaches screwing everything up or maybe the year 1 transition was going to be a shakier hurdle than some anticipated. I was happy to drink plenty of offseason kool-aid, but I think we were setting ourselves up for disappointment with some of it.

If the coaches did the best possible job they would probably be 4-2 or 5-1 right now, even with the team they inherited. However, bumps in the road as both team and coach get acclimated to a season of many news, ... it's neither dire nor unacceptable, and it doesn't necessarily make a strong statement about what to expect in Year 2, either.
Fair enough. I admit, I am eager to see what POB can do once he gets here, but I'm very concerned at this point about our other recruits, or lack thereof. Data shows that in order to win championships we must routinely finish in the Top 15 recruiting-wise, and Riley's current class is nowhere near that.

 
And GOAT, you don't even have a warning point or suspension on your rrecord -- so I'm not sure what you mean by that.
I think that is at some "other" site.
Ohhhh, okay. Well, then ... maybe leave the angst over that back at that other site?
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(Not saying it was or wasn't unfair, but you know...I'm happy to have outside drama stay outside.)

I was repeatedly told that they were good and that I didn't know what I was talking about. Now that we're off to a poor start, suddenly the cupboard is bare and our players aren't any good. Can't have it both ways.
I don't think we're having it both ways, really. I think people who feel the team Riley inherited was very talented are holding him properly accountable to these early results. The people who have felt Bo's roster (whether through recruiting, turnover, management, or a combination) left us with a vulnerable situation are okay to shrug off any number of initial challenges.

We won't do it forever, of course. As time goes on, this team and its makeup become fully owned by Riley.
Put me in the boat with the people who think we have talent on this team and we also have good coaches on the staff right now.

Even with those two things, a transition year can be rough. And, by rough I'm only talking about the W-L record. That win loss record is literally drastically different if somewhere around 20 seconds of playing time goes different. If that 20 seconds are different, all of a sudden we are possibly 5-1 and people's attitudes are totally different even though basically we have the exact same team playing the same way.

 
I think most Nebraskans support the idea of fairness. And that means you give a new coach a few years to get his bearings and get things rolling. That's not being a "Riley Supporter," that's being a sane and rational person.
Disagree. Automatically giving someone x amount of time is being a blind supporter. Evaluating performance every day and acting accordingly is what a sane and rational person should do.

Should USC be giving Sarkisian the rest of his second season?

 
I think most Nebraskans support the idea of fairness. And that means you give a new coach a few years to get his bearings and get things rolling. That's not being a "Riley Supporter," that's being a sane and rational person.
Disagree. Automatically giving someone x amount of time is being a blind supporter. Evaluating performance every day and acting accordingly is what a sane and rational person should do.

Should USC be giving Sarkisian the rest of his second season?
LOL....you are comparing our coach who has lost some games on the last play of the game to a coach with a bad drinking problem that has been found to have been drunk while performing the duties he was hired to do.

Wow....

Also, what you described is NOT what a sane and rational person does. What you described is what an emotional bi polar person does which causes that person to have irrational highs and lows.

Also....you are not Mike Riley's boss. So, your constant/every day evaluation means jack squat. Really....I hate breaking this to you....but, your constant complaining and criticizing doesn't do anything productive for the program. You might THINK you are the boss of the program so you need to point out every single thing that is going wrong constantly.....but...sorry to say, you're not. I hope you are able to take that news OK.

Good managers of a business don't even evaluate performance every single day and be critical of the people below them every single day without having a long term approach. If that were the case, every time someone hires a sales person and that sales person doesn't sell something the first day they are on the job they would be fired. THAT is irrational and it perfectly demonstrates the attitudes some people have had on the first part of the first season with this staff.

 
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I think most Nebraskans support the idea of fairness. And that means you give a new coach a few years to get his bearings and get things rolling. That's not being a "Riley Supporter," that's being a sane and rational person.
Disagree. Automatically giving someone x amount of time is being a blind supporter. Evaluating performance every day and acting accordingly is what a sane and rational person should do.
Should USC be giving Sarkisian the rest of his second season?
If Riley shows up drunk to a booster event and a practice, then yes, he should be fired midway through the season.

 
I think most Nebraskans support the idea of fairness. And that means you give a new coach a few years to get his bearings and get things rolling. That's not being a "Riley Supporter," that's being a sane and rational person.
Disagree. Automatically giving someone x amount of time is being a blind supporter. Evaluating performance every day and acting accordingly is what a sane and rational person should do.

Should USC be giving Sarkisian the rest of his second season?
I think the last coach to be fired either mid year or right after year one for on-field performance in major college or even professional football was a Southern Miss coach a few years back. If that AD/GM is the epitome of sane and rational then I prefer my AD a bit more on the crazy side.

And bringing Sarkisian into the conversation is just low an you know it.

 
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I wanted to introduce myself. I am the guy that wrote about the recruiting rankings stats on the original page of this thread.

I read through it all and it seems about as divided fanbase as it ever was under the previous staff. Hopefully that changes.

In response to people that didn't seem to think that Nebraska would go 2-4 this half of MR first season mustve forgotten about that article that Stewart Mandel wrote about 3 months ago saying that it wasn't a stretch for Nebraska to start the season 3-4.

Outside of that, I would like to go back to the recruiting/talent level talk discussed earlier where a poster pointed out that the national attrition average was 39%. I couldn't find any evidence supporting this claim outside of analyzing the teams that were in the discussion. I found some interesting results I am going to post once I get home. Stay tuned.

 
Hey! I think you mean this thread, but they're both related. In any case, it's cool to have you join in the continuing conversation that came of your original comment. So hello and welcome
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I think most Nebraskans support the idea of fairness. And that means you give a new coach a few years to get his bearings and get things rolling. That's not being a "Riley Supporter," that's being a sane and rational person.
Disagree. Automatically giving someone x amount of time is being a blind supporter. Evaluating performance every day and acting accordingly is what a sane and rational person should do.

Should USC be giving Sarkisian the rest of his second season?
I don't think anybody would argue rationally that Sarkisian should still be USC's head coach. But, from my own perspective, Nebraska has been floating on the fringes of mediocrity for more than a decade. That includes while we were under Bo Pelini. I believe a coach, whoever that coach is, deserves more than six games to do things his way and try to turn things around.

People see 2-4, the penalties, the lack of execution and all of the other problems and say it's time to head a new direction. They're entitled to that opinion, of course. But, what I see is a coach trying to take over a program that really hasn't been good for a long time with players that are good (not great), and most importantly, not his own.

And as I've said from the beginning of this season, if Bo Pelini were here, we very well could be 5-1, 4-2 or maybe even better. 5-1 would likely be best case scenario, reasonably speaking. But, the status quo around here the last 6-7 years was 9 wins and no progress. That very well could've happened again because we knew nothing else around here.. I'm still willing to take a shot at being better if it means taking lumps early on.

 
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The difference between Charlie Strong and Mike Riley is that Strong is much younger.
They are separated by 7 years.
Which, in coaching terms, is an eternity.
I don't buy that
You don't have to "buy" anything. If Strong is a success at Texas, he'll likely be there for 15 or so years, which is a pretty long tenure in CFB, enough to get established with a set system and really get it rolling. With Riley, we probably have 7 or 8. If you don't see the difference in that, I don't know what to tell ya.

 
I think most Nebraskans support the idea of fairness. And that means you give a new coach a few years to get his bearings and get things rolling. That's not being a "Riley Supporter," that's being a sane and rational person.
Disagree. Automatically giving someone x amount of time is being a blind supporter. Evaluating performance every day and acting accordingly is what a sane and rational person should do.

Should USC be giving Sarkisian the rest of his second season?
LOL....you are comparing our coach who has lost some games on the last play of the game to a coach with a bad drinking problem that has been found to have been drunk while performing the duties he was hired to do.

Wow....

Also, what you described is NOT what a sane and rational person does. What you described is what an emotional bi polar person does which causes that person to have irrational highs and lows.

Also....you are not Mike Riley's boss. So, your constant/every day evaluation means jack squat. Really....I hate breaking this to you....but, your constant complaining and criticizing doesn't do anything productive for the program. You might THINK you are the boss of the program so you need to point out every single thing that is going wrong constantly.....but...sorry to say, you're not. I hope you are able to take that news OK.

Good managers of a business don't even evaluate performance every single day and be critical of the people below them every single day without having a long term approach. If that were the case, every time someone hires a sales person and that sales person doesn't sell something the first day they are on the job they would be fired. THAT is irrational and it perfectly demonstrates the attitudes some people have had on the first part of the first season with this staff.
Whoosh, right over your head.

I didn't compare Riley to anybody. I was talking about generalities. Did Pat Haden say "We are sane and rational and we are giving every new coach at least 3 years no matter what?" No. Nobody does this. Everything is a constant evaluation.

I don't think Riley should be fired right now. I've never said he should. Now, if he goes winless with lots of blowout losses to finish the season, then I'll probably be on board with firing him after one season. If he keeps every game close and gets to 6-6 or maybe even 5-7, I probably would give him at least one more year.

But a sane and rational boss does not automatically give a coach x number of years no matter what. That was my point. They should constantly evaluate and act accordingly.

 
I have no problem giving Riley another year; as a matter of fact I'd expect no less. But if this team doesn't show some drastic improvement in several facets in 2016, his seat will be on fire, as it should. Even so, I doubt Eichorst will do anything until Riley's contract is up, no matter how bad things may be. Hopefully Richt will be available by then :-)

 
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