College Football - Championship Week (Dec. 6)

[Andy]

I don't think that's the worst hire in the world for Nebraska, but it is curious. That said, if you can win 6-7 games a year at a place with literally no history, in a better conference, than you can probably do well at Nebraska. Better than 9 wins a year? Doubt it. But I never figured the Pelini firing was only based on record.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Didn't Minnesota's old QB kill a guy in the offseason?

 

Mike Riley awesome hire for Nebraska. Can't believe they landed him.

 

no, we shipped Nelson off to Rutgers. NJ taught him to be an [expletive]

[SouthSideRyan]

So going 12-0, 12-2 and 11-1 ranks lower than raising a terrible team up to a mediocre team?

 

The record isn't even what he hangs his hat on, he only has a case because he did it with a backup QB

i think Minnesota actually played out the season with no QB

 

Leidner is a TE behind the center. we literally had a 0 passing game.

 

I already said he deserved it

[SouthSideRyan]

Why not just hire Frost if you're going to do this?

[minnesotacubsfan]

I'm not disagreeing

[Butterscup1679666578]

Ohhhh Nebraska

[Guest]

So they're trading tumultuous 9 win seasons with Pelini for sedate 7 win seasons with Riley. Why on earth would they consider him, never mind hire him?

 

I like Riley a lot. I hink he's a great technical coach and would be able to recruit a whole lot better in Lincoln than in Corvallis. But the speed with which he was hired indicates Riley was probably their #1 candidate and, quite frankly, Mike Riley should not be your top choice if you just fired Bo Pellini.

[RynoRules]

I don't get how or why it's easy to recruit there (Nebraska). Tradition is a fickle thing. Do kids from TX really think they'd rather play there than Texas or A&M? Hell, Tech might be more fun.

[Flames24Rulz]

I don't get how or why it's easy to recruit there (Nebraska). Tradition is a fickle thing. Do kids from TX really think they'd rather play there than Texas or A&M? Hell, Tech might be more fun.

 

Most kids who are being recruited are barely old enough to remember the last time Nebraska was a national contender. It's hard to recruit on tradition when you've been pretty irrelevant for the better part of 15 years.

[minnesotacubsfan]

he'll have to recruit on the idea that those kids will get to compete against teams like Michigan, OState, Wisconsin, etc. It how Kill is doing it

[sneakypower]

whatever happened to that "Bo-liever / Bo-leaver" Nebraska fan on here? that post cracked me up for some reason

[minnesotacubsfan]

my boss is a Nebraska grad and booster. I love beating them.

 

he wont talk about Bo, and I'm not pressing him about it.

[RynoRules]

Nebraska people are largely insufferable

[Ryne Ween]

Riley has always been a target of major programs. Oregon State is a very difficult place to win. No recruitin territory, dominated in their region by some huge megaprograms. The PAC has been consistently a terrific football conference during his tenure with elite teams at the top and very deep in terms of talent. Riley sustaining a .500 conference record for a million years is impressive. He recruiting against Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, UW etc. his players are coming from oregon, Washington and California where OSU is an also ran.

[Thed Hoyerstein]

Riley has always been a target of major programs. Oregon State is a very difficult place to win. No recruitin territory, dominated in their region by some huge megaprograms. The PAC has been consistently a terrific football conference during his tenure with elite teams at the top and very deep in terms of talent. Riley sustaining a .500 conference record for a million years is impressive. He recruiting against Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, UW etc. his players are coming from oregon, Washington and California where OSU is an also ran.

 

He has a 58-63 conference record at Oregon State.

[Thed Hoyerstein]

Reportedly, Riley wasn't UN's first choice.

 

According to the Lincoln newspaper, Bielema turned down Nebraska's offer

[Ryne Ween]

Riley has always been a target of major programs. Oregon State is a very difficult place to win. No recruitin territory, dominated in their region by some huge megaprograms. The PAC has been consistently a terrific football conference during his tenure with elite teams at the top and very deep in terms of talent. Riley sustaining a .500 conference record for a million years is impressive. He recruiting against Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, UW etc. his players are coming from oregon, Washington and California where OSU is an also ran.

 

He has a 58-63 conference record at Oregon State.

 

Yea. That's really good considering.

[NOLA]

Reportedly, Riley wasn't UN's first choice.

 

According to the Lincoln newspaper, Bielema turned down Nebraska's offer

This seems to be true from a few sources. Good.

[Andy]

Nebraska people are largely insufferable

Really? Their fanbase has a largely impeccable reputation. Every time they're mentioned on ND boards, someone posts about how great their fans were when they visited South Bend in 2000, and my cousin, a Sparty alum, passed along similar sentiments when he visited Nebraska for their game there in (I believe) 2011.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I mean, my boss is a total sweetheart. I'm like 98% sure he represents the entirety of the Nebraska fanbase.

[Thed Hoyerstein]

Nebraska people are largely insufferable

Really? Their fanbase has a largely impeccable reputation. Every time they're mentioned on ND boards, someone posts about how great their fans were when they visited South Bend in 2000, and my cousin, a Sparty alum, passed along similar sentiments when he visited Nebraska for their game there in (I believe) 2011.

 

They're nice people, but the insufferableness is a function of their place in college football's current landscape. They truly believe national championship contention should be a regularity, which of course hasn't happened this century. The massive advantages that they once had - facilities, money, fan base, TV appearances, etc. are no longer exponentially better than many in P5 conferences and any advantage is mitigated by the dearth of local talent.

 

Any yes, i'm completely disregarding when they lost to Miami in the MNC game after finishing second in the Big 12 North in like 2001 or whatever.

[GlassCow]

I don't post as much as I once did, but those of you that know me know that I am a lifelong Husker fan and spent most of my life in the state. 90% of my family and friends still call Omaha and surrounding areas home, and I get back several times a year. I'd like to give my take: feel free to blast away.

 

1) The Husker Faithful - we are (probably in many cases appropriately) known as delusion. As it happens, we also tend to be the most extremely passionate fan base about our home team. Our football team isn't just a tradition - it's a religion in the state of Nebraska, due to the large number of us that have grown up as 2nd, 3rd, etc. generation fans. It also helps that other then the Zoo, Nebraska doesn't have much going for it in the way of tourism. Those of you that call Nebraska fans entitled or that we feel we deserve national championships are largely mistaken. What we deserve (if we deserve anything as fans) is to be proud of the program, including the coaching staff and the kids on and off the field. Nebraskans tend to be hardworking and hospitable by nature (not me, I'm a lazy azzhole,) and opposing fans that visit Lincoln are generally extremely well treated. My apologies apparently to the Gopher guy in the thread who hates Nebraska and my team - I have a lot of respect for what Kill is doing for your program.

 

2) The firing of Bo Pelini - A majority of the fan base was onboard with his hiring as a way to restore the order after the disaster that was Bill Callahan (still a 4-letter word to all Husker fans.) The excitement for Bo has waned over time, as each of his 7 seasons with the team have included: Multiple blowout losses (despite his billing as a defensive mastermind,) Losses to at least one and often more than one team rated lower at the time of the game, Mentally soft teams that lose the turnover and penalty battles, and an Us versus Them (team versus the fan base in many cases) mindset shared by his staff and the players. This firing wasn't about wins and losses; it was about eliminating a cancer and moving forward with a head coach who wouldn't humiliate our state. Bash the move all you want, but for being the highest paid state employee, he certainly was a very polarizing figure.

 

3) The hiring of Mike Riley - Literally NOBODY saw this coming, within or outside of the fan base. There is a fare among of angst and WTF's? being thrown around on social media and my Rivals board. I was initially disappointed that it wasn't a bigger name, but the more I think about it, the happier I actually am. Here are some points in his favor - 1) People point out his wins and losses, but they don't realize that Corvallis is a football ghost town - he won more games in 14 years there than the previous coaches had amassed in 20+. 2) Everyone that talks about the guy says that he exudes class - he is the anti-Bo in that sense. 3) He is known as a great developer of QB's - we haven't had a good QB at Nebraska since Crouch won the Heisman in '01. 4) He will be given significant resources to hire a quality staff around him. I'm hoping that staff includes Frost as OC, but even if it doesn't, there should be good people. Bo was always afraid to surround himself with quality guys, so he hired his buddies to be yes men. 5) Riley's teams play fundamentally sound ball. They are positive turnover margin teams that don't beat themselves. Again, the opposite of Pelini-coached teams.

 

Time will tell if the move works out, but I see it as an upgrade. I am excited for the future, and I think once Husker fans get to know Riley better, they will largely rally around him. Expectations ARE high at Nebraska, and they should be. You will all laugh at me (and I don't care,) but Nebraska does belong in the group of blueblood universities that have amassed over 800 wins (Nebraska is 4th all-time in wins,) an over .700 winning pct, and multiple conference/national titles along with Alabama, Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State. Most people outside of Nebraska think our glory is behind us - so be it. We have our own standards to live up to, and those include excellence on and off the field. I believe Riley is the right man at the right time. Flame away.

[GlassCow]

Found this after what I posted. Worth an objective listen for those questioning the move:

 

http://cfbmatrix.wpengine.com/?p=16572

[Vanilla Ice]

I don't get how or why it's easy to recruit there (Nebraska). Tradition is a fickle thing. Do kids from TX really think they'd rather play there than Texas or A&M? Hell, Tech might be more fun.

 

Most kids who are being recruited are barely old enough to remember the last time Nebraska was a national contender. It's hard to recruit on tradition when you've been pretty irrelevant for the better part of 15 years.

 

yes this. I'm 21 and I barely remember Eric Crouch. Nebraska as a national contender is not something that I remember. If I was 4 years younger, Nebraska would mean nothing to me.

 

To be fair, I grew up in North Carolina and it might be different in the Midwest, but still.

[Guest]

he'll have to recruit on the idea that those kids will get to compete against teams like Michigan, OState, Wisconsin, etc. It how Kill is doing it

 

shut the [expletive] up about kill for one [expletive] second, skippy mcskiumah