Where do you see Nebraska Football in five years?

[JJ Husker]

People are so caught up with this shortsighted notion of needing to "make a statement" with a "splash hire". All that stuff wears off after the first kickoff of the season. We needed a good coach who runs a solid progrum and will get the most out of his players for the next 5+ years. I have no doubt we got that.

I didn't want a coach that "made a statement" or a "splash hire". I think there a lot of us that just wanted a HC hire that "made sense". It makes me wonder how many people had to google "MIke Riley"...

So, the average fan has to kow who they are for it to make sense? Hardly.

So hiring Mike Riley made sense to you, even though you didn't know who he was?

I knew who Bill Callahan was when he was hired. Does that make that hire "make sense" now that we have learned more about him? Knowing who Riley was at the time he was hired has nothing at all to do with determining if the hire made sense. Stupidest argument I've heard in a while. Sure, initially for a couple days, it seemed to be a head scratcher but, after finding out more about him, it makes perfect sense and seems to be an excellent hire to me.
What else ya got as a reason to be such a doubter? What exactly is wrong with Riley? Please tell me you can differentiate his record at OSU from his capabilities as a coach. By almost any metric, it is easy to see that he generally performed better as a coach than a person should at OSU. Likewise, it also plain to see that Pelini way underperformed at a place like Nebraska. Show me what I'm missing here?

 

[skersfan]

9 wins, 4 losses, embarrassing defeats nearly every year. Keep your sights high.

Knock of the number 1 team and the number 3 team, with far less talent. Just not good enough, see no future in a guy like that.

 

[True2tRA]

This labeling of Riley as a "nicer version of Bo" is probably one of the strangest things I keep reading here. The two are completely different types of coaches. Their schemes are entirely different. Their approach to teaching and coaching is different. Riley's willingness to alter his schemes, evolve and adjust based upon talent at hand is something Bo doesn't even comprehend. Riley uses the fans, media and social media as a tool, not as an enemy.

There's literally nothing, NOTHING, similar about these two guys other than they both coach football. Riley sure as hell is a lot more than just some "nicer version of Bo". Riley can coach and he's smart.

 

[Redman]

2015: 9-4 Losses to Miami, Michigan State, a close loss to Wisconsin: Overtime loss in bowl where we get screwed out of 1 second.

2016: 10-3West Champs, lose to Oregon and OSU, Replay OSU in the CCG and lose again.

2017: 9-4, Should be West Champs, Lose to Oregon, OSU, Penn State, and Wisconsin

2018: 8-5, Tough Season: Losses to Michigan, Wisconsin, OSU, Michigan State, and bowl game.

2019: 11-1, NU fans upset left out of the playoffs.

2020: Zombie apocalypse, NU football team changes mascot name to the Raccoon Beaters and become the supreme force against walkers north of Kansas City. Lack of food causes team to break conduct code and hunt, kill, and eat Mark Mangino and Brady Hoke.

 

[skersfan]

One very obvious difference. Coach Riley appears and claims to like Nebraska and its fans. Could not get much farther apart than that.

 

[Hunter94]

One very obvious difference. Coach Riley appears and claims to like Nebraska and its fans. Could not get much farther apart than that.

that and he didn't hire a golf coach!

 

[TGHusker]

3 divisional championships, 1 conf championship, wt 1 playoff appearance

Competitive, respected again,

Top 20 finishes 4 years: 1 top 10, 2 top 15

Disciplined

Tell us if you have revisions to your post from a year ago.. Knapp - will we all be living in the mtns still?

MY revision after year 1 of the MR experiment:

After this year - I'd have to temper this a bit. If TA starts next year - I'll be disappointed, we end up 3rd in the division @ 7-5. Wt the number of penalties we weren't as disciplined as I had hoped.

Assuming POB lives up to the billing:

I'll say 1 div championships, 1 conference championship, 1 playoff. top 10 finish - when POB is a senior. 2 top 25 finishes If the MR experiment survives year 3.

 

[Redux]

People are so caught up with this shortsighted notion of needing to "make a statement" with a "splash hire". All that stuff wears off after the first kickoff of the season. We needed a good coach who runs a solid progrum and will get the most out of his players for the next 5+ years. I have no doubt we got that.

Curious if The Dude still feels this way

 

[NUance]

People are so caught up with this shortsighted notion of needing to "make a statement" with a "splash hire". All that stuff wears off after the first kickoff of the season. We needed a good coach who runs a solid progrum and will get the most out of his players for the next 5+ years. I have no doubt we got that.

Curious if The Dude still feels this way

Ha ha! I wonder if anything you said eleven months ago didn't pan out like you thought it would?

 

[Redux]

People are so caught up with this shortsighted notion of needing to "make a statement" with a "splash hire". All that stuff wears off after the first kickoff of the season. We needed a good coach who runs a solid progrum and will get the most out of his players for the next 5+ years. I have no doubt we got that.

Curious if The Dude still feels this way

Ha ha! I wonder if anything you said eleven months ago didn't pan out like you thought it would?

Soooooo many things did not. I truly thought we had a shot at the division. As soon as we lost to Illinois I gave that dream up. I thought we would be better on penalties and turnovers ie. creating false starts/forcing turnovers. I thought we would be better defending the pass.

My expectations were a little high I guess.

 

[74Hunter]

Hilarious thread.

 

[NUance]

People are so caught up with this shortsighted notion of needing to "make a statement" with a "splash hire". All that stuff wears off after the first kickoff of the season. We needed a good coach who runs a solid progrum and will get the most out of his players for the next 5+ years. I have no doubt we got that.

Curious if The Dude still feels this way

Ha ha! I wonder if anything you said eleven months ago didn't pan out like you thought it would?

Soooooo many things did not. I truly thought we had a shot at the division. As soon as we lost to Illinois I gave that dream up. I thought we would be better on penalties and turnovers ie. creating false starts/forcing turnovers. I thought we would be better defending the pass.

My expectations were a little high I guess.

Yeah, I thought pretty much all of those things too. We had a lot of bad luck and boneheaded plays that cost us games this year. There's plenty to work on in the offseason. Plenty. But the way we were playing in the last three games gives me a sliver of optimism for next year.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

I know it's not the point of the thread but to me it's eye popping and I had to do a double take when I realized 2020 was only FIVE YEARS AWAY! Good lord I am old.

If we don't win a title in Riley's first 4 years... it will have been 2 decades since our last Conference title.

It's going to be tough to do. Our schedule increases in difficulty significantly after next season. Here is the schedule:

2016: at Ohio State, at Wisconsin, at Iowa (Oregon non conference)

2017: Ohio State, Wisconsin at home. At Minnesota and at Penn State (at Oregon non conference)

2018: at Michigan, at Wisconsin, at Ohio State, at Iowa. Michigan State at home. (Colorado non conference)

2019: Ohio State and Wisconsin at home. At Minnesota, at Maryland. (at Colorado non conference)

I tried to list the tough conference games on paper. It's impossible to know how good a team might be in the future, however, the conference schedules after next season are tough, particularly 2018. So, I don't think it's likely Nebraska will end the conference title drought within a two decade time frame.

I'll adjust this a tad, for 2016 we play: at Ohio State, at Wisconsin, at Northwestern, at Indiana, at Iowa and play Oregon at home. Assuming we actually take care of business against Illinois and Purdue at home, next year is even more difficult than this year. The schedule does not ease up.

I'm sticking by my original prediction that Nebraska isn't going to win anything special through the 2019 season and will likely undergo a coaching change after the 2018 season assuming Mike Riley even lasts that long. To be honest, you almost have to keep Mike Riley through the 2018 season just so the new guy doesn't have to go through that schedule.

 

[huskerfan74]

In five years, I see us hoping we get that sixth win so we can be toilet bowl eligible. Mike Riley would have made a fortune off the back of Nebraskans and he will chew his gum happily as he rides into a blissful and rich retirement.

We will be wondering and arguing what if we hired Tom Harman or Scott Frost or Mark Richt who will be celebrating his third ACC championship.

How about that for a picture to counteract the abundance of Kool-aid drinkers on this blog.

 

[TGHusker]

In five years, I see us hoping we get that sixth win so we can be toilet bowl eligible. Mike Riley would have made a fortune off the back of Nebraskans and he will chew his gum happily as he rides into a blissful and rich retirement.

We will be wondering and arguing what if we hired Tom Harman or Scott Frost or Mark Richt who will be celebrating his third ACC championship.

How about that for a picture to counteract the abundance of Kool-aid drinkers on this blog.

I don't think I know of a true Kool-aid drinker on here. The most optimistic posters post wt a conditional understanding that this experiment could very easily fall apart in year 2 or 3. After this past year, I don't think there are many "All In for Mike" posters. At best there is a 'nervous optimism' by some. I prediction above of one good year of winning the conference and getting to the playoff POB senior year, is based more on POB hype & hope than confidence in MR's coaches. That confidence will have to be earned next year now that this 'rebuilding' transition year is completed (funny how Florida, Mich's transition year did not include rebuilding) I think the benefit of the doubt is resting on POB's shoulders. Unfortunately that is a very heavy weight for a young man to carry. Let's face it, if TA starts the majority of games next year. we will not be much better off than this year. I have zero hope that he can improve - unless the coaches change and run a 'run' first pass 2nd O that allows Tommie to hurt the D wt his legs and not his arms. That is why, I'd rather POB begin his learning curve early and fast by starting next year if the hype is actually real. If the hype ends up just being hype (another dud) then we are to be the most pitied among all football fans. We'll be in one heck of a hole.