Say Eichorst is fired

Red Five

Red Five

New member
Thinking out loud here...

Say we lose to Rutgers/Illinois and Hank/Ronnie pull the trigger on letting Eichorst go.  Then we will appoint an interim AD and start the search for a new AD.  But the problem with that is that AD searches generally take some time.  (We lucked out last time that TO was sitting around doing nothing and could take over.  That won't happen again.)  Then if you don't have a new AD in place in a month (which would be hard), you are having a interim AD possibly firing Riley and trying to hire a replacement.

Here are some recent AD departures in the B1G and how long it took to hire a full time replacement

Michigan - Fired Brandon 10/2014, hired Manuel 1/2016

Minnesota - Resigned/Fired Teague 8/2015, hired Coyle 5/2016

Illinois - Fired Thomas 11/2015, hired Whitman 2/2016

Outlier -> Rutgers - Fired Herman and hired Hobbs 11/2015

People aren't going to like this, but if Riley leaves this year (by his choice or UNLs) it might be best for Eichorst to still be around to make the hire.  Chances are we are not going to have a new AD named by the end of November.  And if that's the case, the pool of coaches wanting to come here will be shrunk as they are going to want to know who their AD is when taking the job.

 
I was just in a conversation about this.  

If the season goes the way it looks like it might after seeing the performance on Saturday and looking at what's left on the schedule.  I could see Riley being fired sometime around November 1st.  It's becoming more and more common for programs to fire the coach before the season is over.

I would then see Diaco stepping in as an interim HC.

Now.....getting back to your post, I'm struggling to see how all that works if we are going to fire Eichorst first.  Is Hank and Ronnie going to do the coaching search?  Then, you go get an AD and he doesn't have "his guy" in as football coach.

 
Interesting observation by Sean Callahan.  He said Hank Bounds is more involved with football than any University President that he's been around.  Comes to practice, etc.  

Callahan said Eichorst is due a $750k retention bonus sometime in December.

I don't think Eichorst would fire Riley unless it was a "him or you" situation.  But with the retention bonus set to be paid, that will give us a pretty good idea if they trust Eichorst going forward or not.

 
So  Mav, do we look at a firing early of Eichorst to avoid paying that retention bonus.  And goodness, if the season plays out as it has started, and after the contract extension given to MR, is our admin that dump to keep throwing good money after bad? :dunno   We still are paying off Bo.  I'd like to see the money go to a new, upgraded staff. 

 
Unless Riley goes 4-8 or worse, which I don't think is going to happen, I don't see Riley getting fired. My predictions is that Eichorst gets canned and the new AD evaluates Riley next year.

 
Just have TO make the decision on the new hire.  Easy, and saves a lot of money.  

(And some might think he might not make the best decision, but look at the other options)

 
RedDenver said:
Unless Riley goes 4-8 or worse, which I don't think is going to happen, I don't see Riley getting fired. My predictions is that Eichorst gets canned and the new AD evaluates Riley next year.
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A lot of people have said that.  I could see that happening but I think some of it will be based on who the new AD is and who he could possibly hire.  

 
RedDenver said:
Unless Riley goes 4-8 or worse, which I don't think is going to happen, I don't see Riley getting fired. My predictions is that Eichorst gets canned and the new AD evaluates Riley next year.
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I don't see it that way.  Unless Riley has a winning record this year, I think Bounds tells the new AD "I am hiring you to fire Mike Riley and let you bring in the new coach."

Eichorst was hired to fire Bo Pelini.  When that wasn't done in the right time, Eichorst further damaged his relationship with Bo, the coaches, and the players.

 
TGHusker said:
So  Mav, do we look at a firing early of Eichorst to avoid paying that retention bonus.  And goodness, if the season plays out as it has started, and after the contract extension given to MR, is our admin that dump to keep throwing good money after bad? :dunno   We still are paying off Bo.  I'd like to see the money go to a new, upgraded staff. 
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I think it will be a pretty obvious referendum on Eichorst given that looming bonus.  If they don't trust him, he'll be gone by late November or however early it has to be to avoid paying that.  Then Riley will be fired after the Iowa game and the new AD gets to hire the new football coach.

If Eichorst gets to stay, it will depend on how the rest of the season goes.  Eichorst may be instructed that he gets to stay but on the condition that Riley is fired.  Or they both may be allowed to stay - but I would think that would have be be seeing a marked improvement on the field the rest of the year.

 
ColoradoHusk said:
I don't see it that way.  Unless Riley has a winning record this year, I think Bounds tells the new AD "I am hiring you to fire Mike Riley and let you bring in the new coach."

Eichorst was hired to fire Bo Pelini.  When that wasn't done in the right time, Eichorst further damaged his relationship with Bo, the coaches, and the players.
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If that happens it'll be a disaster. We're going to fire the AD, have a job search (or not), hire a new AD, fire the coaches, have a coaching search (or not), and hire a new HC all this season. No way that ends in anything but tears.

 
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