OT - Nebraska AD Eichorst Doubles Down on Mike Riley

Natives are getting restless.

But still find the time to take shots at Michigan. Good times.

But it's glaringly obvious that this dumbshit at Nebraska fired him because of his personality. They hired a mediocre coach who is old and whose system has been demonstratably proven to not work with who Nebraska can recruit. 

Just blow this up and hire Troy Calhoun and be Nebraska.

They fired the guy that won 9 or 10 games every year and brought in a guy struggling to make a bowl game.  This in the same year that Iowa has played noone and is ranked #10.  Under their former coach Nebraska easily rolls to the B1G West crown.

 

Nebraska fans, brace yourselves for 8-10 years of utter misery. You fired your perennial 9 win coach thinking that was beneath you. We've been there. We know how it feels. Then, you hired Mike Riley. Yes, we've been there too. Ugh. The pain is nearly unbearable. Soon, you'll be scouring the Osborne coaching tree for anyone that resembles the greatness of yesteryear. Meanwhile, years will have elapsed and you'll find yourself tied 0-0 with Northwestern clinging to the hope that this is the game where things turn around on a gritty road victory. But, then you realize it's just Northwestern and you've completely sunk to the bottom. And then Iowa completely kicks your ass every year. Oh, the humanity! We feel your pain. Hang in there Huskers! You're in for a rough go.

if you're trying to be elite. You can go .500 in conference play and still get 9 wins and being an average team in your conference isn't really anything to be super happy about.

It's easy to wish the 9 win ghetto on another team and another fanbase because it's not you sitting through deflating big game losses and all that. On paper 9 wins don't sound bad but in practice for a program with ambitions it should always be an intermediate step, not the destination. Harbaugh wasn't hired to win 9 games because that means you'll lose to OSU most years and won't be in the Big Ten race most years. People will accept it this or that year but not as a steady level of performance.

It's also a media bait and switch because on the one hand if a big name program loses games they create the "so and so always drops one they shouldn't" or "they just can't get over the hump" narratives and mock the team involved (see "Clemsoning") but if a program follows their lead and actually does something about it, they'll be the first to call them fickle, entitled etc. as well.

Nebraska's problem is that their fall from grace might be more structurally rooted than say Texas's current troubles or even our issues in recent years. Nobody really knows how good you can be at Nebraska nowadays. Their success was primarily the work of one man and one system. Both are long gone. Can they recruit on name and tradition? On being by far the most popular team in a mid-sized state when most of their recruits aren't from that state?

To some extent, their structural issues can be exaggerated because it's not a terminal issue necessarily. But their challenges are certainly notable enough to make sure they won't be good on auto pilot. Nobody can be good on auto pilot anymore, to be fair, but these guys may not even be an OK team anymore on auto pilot. And that's what the Riley hire really was, it was a 'safe' 6.5/10 hire that they figured would be good enough but it may well not be. Riley isn't a guy who turns heads, who will generate buzz either among donors or among recruits. Riley is a competent coach who at Oregon St seemed to have found the perfect low ceiling "happy to be here" environment where the occasional 8-9 game season is heralded rather than criticized. No matter how good a guy and how experienced and solid a coach he is, it seems extremely dubious he will ever be able to either put enough talent on the field at Nebraska or to create a system with a competitive advantage which can make up for talent issues. And that's what they need, they need someone exceptional with unique characteristics to bring them back. Riley seems like he will have them plateau at Minnesota levels.

Expect him to say, "Yeah, Moe, that coch sucked last night. He just plain sucked. I've seen coaches suck before but he was the suckiest bunch of suck who ever sucked."

 

While Nebraska asked for this to happen, dont forget we weren't so innocent either during Carr's era. How many people were calling for his head during his 9-10 win seasons? Look what happened to us..

Before the season started, Husker fans were oddly optimistic, willing to ignore Riley's past record and focus on any positive attribute they could find (mostly that Riley was a nice guy) to convince themselves they were better off with Riley than Pellini.

The bloom is off the rose: 

And oh, by the way, since we are looking back, Mike Riley has only won THREE of his last NINETEEN conference games.  And another new record: In over 125 years of football, Nebraska had NEVER lost six games before November 1st.  Until now.

http://www.cornnation.com/2015/11/1/9653042/report-card-purdue-boilermakers-55-team-impersonating-nebraska-45

Its a bold strategy Cotton, lets see if it pays off for him

He will get another season. Now, next season he better show some improvement and make a bowl game. Although, Michigan did not fire RR after his 3 win '08 season, and RR only won 7 games in 2nd season. Hoke had one losing season and was fired due to his downward trajectory. I always tell my NE friends that I hope you did not hire a Hoke like coach!

Who are the idiots at the regent (or whatever they're called at Nebraska) level who approved the contract terms with that ridiculous buyout? Upper administration people frequently deserve a good deal of blame in catastrophic athletic dept situations - it was MSC who rammed Brandon down everybody's throat, including her own selection committee that pointedly did not recommend DB.

Honestly, I don't understand all the clamoring for Riley to get fired. It's his first year. Their six losses are by a combined 23 points, and that was 5 losses by a total of 13 points before last week. The guy needs a chance to run his own staff with at least SOME of his own guys.