Steve Pederson has been gone for nearly 10 years. He has nothing to do with this team's "grasping at straws".
I also believe firing the two most maligned coaches, who happen to be long-time friends, is not grasping at straws. It's doing what it takes to field a championship caliber team. Time will tell if it works.
I think the questions most people are asking is:
Why did he hire those people in the first place if they weren't championship caliber coaches ?
Did we throw the last 2 years away because he hired his friends ?
I suspect that he thought Mark Banker deserved a chance with better resources, better players, etc. because Mike knows that Mark is a good coach. It is possible that Mike Riley realized that Nebraska needs a great coach or simply a change to the 3-4 because we aren't recruiting DL that seem to be everywhere in the SEC. While watching those DL during the National Championship game I thought to myself that we don't have guys anywhere near the athletic ability and talent of those DL. I also thought how the hell can we get those guys. I think the answer is that you don't bank on getting those guys and move to a defense like the 3-4 and give your players every chance to be successful due to the uncertainty that it creates in the offensive blocking schemes and the QB. I suspect that Wisconsin runs the 3-4 for that exact reason. Not a lot of Simeon Rice like DE running around in WI and none in NE either. I'm sure that Mark Banker's defense would have been amazing with the Grant W., Adam C., Suh, etc. Was there any DC available in 15 that could have been hired to run the 3-4. I don't know but I trust that Mike Riley will get the job done here in Nebraska. GBR
FLHuskerGBR posting style reminds me of 84HuskerLaw's
Same person...multiple screen names... multiple IP addresses...
There are one or two paid (money) commenters here who it appears have hundreds of screen names here.
The worst part about these people is that they are the ultimate betrayers of the Nebraska Football Program. Their loyalty is
NOT to the Nebraska Football Program, their loyalty is to the bank accounts of the people who hire them to come here for sole purpose of protecting their money. These paid commenters would gladly destroy the football program... if in meant saving the million dollar paychecks of their bosses.