Huskers93-97
New member
I am talking about Walters as the OC. Anyone could fill the OC role because Frost runs the offense anyway. Hire a WR coach who is a great recruiter and who cares who get the OC tag.
Keith Williams
- Thread starter Husker2019
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Mierin
Donor
Saying he can just get a good recruiter implies Walter does nothing, or that’s how it sounded. Maybe he’s a great WR coach.
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
His Nebraska tenure certainly went south, and that Dead Man Walking 2017 season must have been miserable for all involved, but when he was hired, Mike Riley had just been voted second most underrated college coach by his own college coaching peers, and Les Miles, Kurt Warner, Keyshawn Johnson, and Rick Spielman saw fit to send their own sons to play for him.
At some point Mike Riley was a respected football coach, and I can't imagine it was just about being nice.
There is so many things that went wrong with Mike Riley and his HC stint at Nebraska it is hard to count them all, but lets try.
1. He was the wrong fit for the job. He had spent his whole coaching career on the west coast. I would equate it to the hire of Howard Schnellenberger at Oklahoma in the 90's. He only lasted 1 year though.
2. He was past his prime. I knew who Mike Riley was unlike a lot of Nebraska fans. I watch a lot of PAC 12 football. I actually thought he might be a good hire in 2007 when BP was hired. He was in his prime at Oregon St and winning a lot. By 2015 he was not getting things done like he was 5-6 years earlier. I really think he looked at the Nebraska job as a way to breath life back into his desire to coach.
3. Truly great coaches all have one thing in common. They all hate to lose. Everyone likes to win, great coaches can't stand to lose. It didn't bother MR nearly enough when he lost.
4. Sean Eicherst micromanaging everything.
I am sure there are other things. With all that being said, he still knows more about coaching football and the x's and o's of the game than anyone on this board.
You've mentioned it for years now about Riley being voted by his peers as the second most underrated coach in college football.
Serious question......what kind of a "qualification" is that?
He was at no point in his career qualified to be hired as head football coach at Nebraska.
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
Agree with most of this. Not really at odds with what I posted. The question at the time was whether this same Mike Riley, given new motivation and Nebraska's superior resources, could get back to his earlier coaching incarnation, back when Alabama, USC and UCLA were interested in him and he was famous for recruiting to the worst campus in the Pac 12.
Turns out the answer was "no."
Mike Riley was a curious hire, but he wasn't that mysterious or unjustified. He was highly respected by his coaching peers and a guy who fellow football players wanted their own kids to play for.
Scott Frost is a Nebraska guy, but he is definitely running the west coast kinda football he cut his teeth on in Oregon, and that includes bringing in his own California quarterback. So not sure west coast in itself is a factor.
Agree that Riley didn't hate losing enough, and accountability didn't exactly pervade his teams. Not sure you can hang team performance on Sean Eichorst micromanaging: Bo Pelini considered Eichorst a hands-off AD, but he didn't mean it in a good way.
They voted that way because they loved playing his terrible teams that didn't play tough and hurt the other team. Then he would constantly praise them after they beat him. Him, his entire staff are not welcome here.
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
The opinion of fellow coaches isn't a qualification? Seriously? Do you think these fellow coaches would craft their opinions in a vacuum? And be less discerning than you?
"Underrated" was probably in Nebraska's sweet spot in 2015, since we didn't have the money or leverage to poach proven coaches from the top schools.
I would have been okay hiring Scott Frost in 2015; exciting young assistant coach on winning team, who understands Nebraska better than anybody. But if first time Head Coach Scott Frost had gone 0 - 6 in 2015, or even 6-7, we would have been second-guessing the decision to hire a guy with no head coaching experience.
Mavric
Yoda
The kind of "honor" that friends give a guy who's been around a long time and is very likable. He had moments of success at a place that had very little historical success. So he's a guy that quickly comes to mind as being "underrated".
But it's kind of like all the praise that the media heaped on Riley when he was hired here. Almost everyone talked about how great of a coach he was and how that was a good hire for Nebraska. Fluff that's easy to toss around in a vacuum. But when it came down to actually ranking the coaching hires that off-season, he was ranked near the bottom. Because when it came right down to it, they really didn't think it was that great. But that's not as fun to say when you're talking about a new hire.
melscott62
New member
It was a poll.
Just like 4 out of 5 dentists prefer Trident sugarless gum.
No, it's not a qualification. A PAC 10 championship would have been a qualification.
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
So everyone on the "Most Underrated List" was a coach that other coaches liked to play because they were easy to beat? And they honored them with their anonymous vote?
Okay. Fine. Forget what the coaches said. Let's go back to 2014 and see how Athlon rated ALL current coaches, presumably free of treacly new hire sentiment.
Looks like Mike Riley comes in at #27, ahead of Kirk Ferentz, Jerry Kill, Dabo Swinney, Dan Mullen, Mike Leach, and all the way down at #43, Bo Pelini.
27. Mike Riley, Oregon State
Record at Oregon State: 88-73 (13 years)
Career Record: 88-73 (13 years)
Oregon State’s Program Rank: No. 10 in the Pac-12, No. 54 nationally
And above Riley is a list of coaches we might have coveted at the time, but haven't aged so well, either.
Riley was not considered a terrible hire by independent college football observers in 2015. At worst he was considered a head-scratcher. Others thought it was a good fit. The head of Rivals thought Nebraska scored a coup.
Like Pelini, Riely is gone. No sense making them into more or less than they were.
Guy Chamberlin
Active member
The Coaches Poll is also a coaches poll. In 1997 they gave Tom Osborne a national championship. We seemed to think they knew what they were doing.
A PAC 10 championship is indeed a qualification. Mark Helfrich had one and was fired the same year with the same record as Mike Riley.
You were the guy who wanted Jerry Kill, remember? Can you run me through his qualifications again?
Hiring coaches isn't an exact science.
3 conference championships, B1G coach of the year, and close to .700 winning percentage. Not bad compared to Riley, eh?
Admittedly, to my knowledge, Kill was never voted second most underrated coach according to his peers......
The biggest reason I wanted Kill is because I know him.
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Scarlet Overkill
New member
Ah, "gracious in defeat" was his motto
I would have taken that guy in a heart beat!