The CardBoard
Mike Riley to Nebraska - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: Mike Riley to Nebraska (/thread-4105.html)

Pages: 1 2

Mike Riley to Nebraska - Ronnietrader - 12-04-2014

Beavers need a new coach.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - BostonCard - 12-04-2014

Wow.  That one is a shocker on so many levels.

BC

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - Griffins78 - 12-04-2014

Wow, ronnietrader, you're fast. It barely hit Google and ESPN nor Omaha news had it up.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - Hulk01 - 12-04-2014

Got our of Corvallis just in time. 

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - washingtonismoney - 12-04-2014

If OSU doesn't make a really good hire, they might be roadkill.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - ChicagoCard - 12-04-2014

Not hard to see Mike Riley as the anti-Bo Pellini.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - French Rage - 12-04-2014

Between him and Sarkisian, I guess being middle of the road in the northwest looks good on the resume?

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - washingtonismoney - 12-04-2014

(12-04-2014, 11:02 AM)French Rage link Wrote:Between him and Sarkisian, I guess being middle of the road in the northwest looks good on the resume?

With Oregon and Stanford in the division there's a natural ceiling. ADs are taking that into account and acting appropriately.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - PrinceLightfoot - 12-04-2014

Before Riley arrived at OSU, they had 26 straight losing seasons. They reached a bowl game 8 out of the last 12 seasons and Riley has NFL HC experience. He is great at finding under-the-radar recruits especially from Texas so coaching at more storied football program may lead to better talent.

The problem here is that Nebraska just fired a coach that had several nine win seasons; that is a very high bar! The drop in recruiting and performance is probably more connected to Nebraska leaving the Big12 and playing frequently in fertile recruiting states like Texas than it is a coaching issue.

Pelini was a bit prickly and had a few missteps on the PR front, so perhaps Nebraska feels Riley will not be an issue on that front and will perform better overall given the upgraded in resources available to him.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - needle - 12-04-2014

I thought this might have been a rare year with no HC changes in the Pac. Guess not.





Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - CTcard - 12-04-2014

That's a fascinating move on many levels.

First of all, Riley.
He supposedly turned down several jobs one would think would be better than Nebraska in order to stay in Corvallis - notably U.-S.-C.. Now he decides he wants to go to a program in an area of the country he doesn't know and that just fired their coach whose worst year was 9 wins (three years with 9 wins, three years with 10 wins, 9 wins this year and the team (at least) has one game remaining).
So, what is going on?
My guess is that he has become quite annoyed with the carping in Corvallis - that Riley has lost it or cannot get them to "the next level". Possibly he is also worried about prospects at OSU and in the Pac 12. If the other programs have their act together, OSU is probably the second hardest place to recruit to in the Pac 12 and he may not feel good about the younger talent on hand. Nebraska is not quite a recruiting power house, but its better positioned versus its rivals.

For Nebraska, they are getting a 61 year old coach with a middling won-loss record from a far away part of the country. Given the circumstances at OSU, I think he has been very successful, but the circumstances will now be different. By personality, he does seem to be the anti-Pellini. He's very understated, rather proper with his language, and seems to be acknowledged as a nice guy. Nebraska doesn't seem to believe they need ground-up rebuilding - or I would think they would have gone with a younger, more fire-breathing type of guy.

For Oregon State, interesting to see how much they opt for high-profile for the next guy. Of course there is only so far high-profile they will be able to go, but they may have some resources due to new Pac 12 monies. Riley was reportedly making about $1.5 million a year ago. Somehow my instinct is that the less of a national name they hire, the better they guy will be in the long run.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - Ronnietrader - 12-04-2014

I work in an industry built on news flow and rumors, so I get things faster than the newswires sometimes.  Rumor that is starting to build now is Jim Mora Jr. going to Michigan possibly as early as this weekend.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - washingtonismoney - 12-04-2014

(12-04-2014, 01:18 PM)Ronnietrader link Wrote:Rumor that is starting to build now is Jim Mora Jr. going to Michigan possibly as early as this weekend.

While this would probably be good for Stanford, I really don't want to go through another round of speculation about ... *and as he types those words he drops dead, whispering unintelligibly to befuddled observers*.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - BostonCard - 12-04-2014

(12-04-2014, 12:17 PM)CTcard link Wrote:That's a fascinating move on many levels.

First of all, Riley.
He supposedly turned down several jobs one would think would be better than Nebraska in order to stay in Corvallis - notably U.-S.-C.. Now he decides he wants to go to a program in an area of the country he doesn't know and that just fired their coach whose worst year was 9 wins (three years with 9 wins, three years with 10 wins, 9 wins this year and the team (at least) has one game remaining).
So, what is going on?
My guess is that he has become quite annoyed with the carping in Corvallis - that Riley has lost it or cannot get them to "the next level". Possibly he is also worried about prospects at OSU and in the Pac 12. If the other programs have their act together, OSU is probably the second hardest place to recruit to in the Pac 12 and he many not feel good about the younger talent on hand. Nebraska is not quite a recruiting power house, but its better positioned versus its rivals.

For Nebraska, they are getting a 61 year old coach with a middling won-loss record from a far away part of the country. Given the circumstances at OSU, I think he has been very successful, but the circumstances will now be different. By personality, he does seem to be the anti-Pellini. He's very understated, rather proper with his language, and seems to be acknowledged as a nice guy. Nebraska doesn't seem to believe they need ground-up rebuilding - or I would think they would have gone with a younger, more fire-breathing type of guy.

For Oregon State, interesting to see how much they opt for high-profile for the next guy. Of course there is only so far high-profile they will be able to go, but they may have some resources due to new Pac 12 monies. Riley was reportedly making about $1.5 million a year ago. Somehow my instinct is that the less of a national name they hire, the better they guy will be in the long run.

Thanks CTCard, you saved me from writing a long post on my thoughts, which echo yours almost perfectly (this is where I miss the up arrow).  I will note that Nebraska just fired a coach who went 66-27 over the last 7 years and hired a coach who went 45-42 over that same period.  Meanwhile, Riley left a job where he basically had a "lifetime" contract* for a team that just fired a coach who in eight years never had fewer than 9 wins in a season.

I suppose the logic for Nebraska goes that Riley is a good coach, who did the best he could in the armpit of Pac-12 recruiting (sorry to anyone from Corvalis, but I agree with CTCard's assessment), and I've always respected what Riley has done at OSU.  On the other hand, Riley may have been getting tired of the inherent limitations of coaching at Corvalis, made worse  by the rise of Oregon as the dominant program in the state, if not the Pac-12, and with getting blamed for OSU's poor performance.  For OSU, I wonder if it is a bit like Washington's reaction at USC hiring Sarkisian (that is, "thank you for taking him off our hands).  They may feel like Riley lost his touch, and though they are thankful for him helping bring the program up from the ashes, I suspect they are not all that broken up about him leaving.  So maybe what looks like a WTF move is actually a win-win-win.  Whatever the outcome, good luck to Riley.  As I said, I've always kind of liked and respected him as much as any opponent's coach in the Pac-12.

BC

* As I understand it, Riley's contract at OSU went through 2021, but had a clause that automatically tacked a year on for every year he had at least 6 wins and went to a bowl game.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - BostonCard - 12-04-2014

(12-04-2014, 01:24 PM)washingtonismoney link Wrote:[quote author=Ronnietrader link=topic=11277.msg107422#msg107422 date=1417724297]
Rumor that is starting to build now is Jim Mora Jr. going to Michigan possibly as early as this weekend.

While this would probably be good for Stanford, I really don't want to go through another round of speculation about ... *and as he types those words he drops dead, whispering unintelligibly to befuddled observers*.
[/quote]

One thing I like about our current coach is that there is that rounds of speculation are fewer and less intense than our prior coach. I have no illusions that Shaw will be here for life.  But when he does go, I expect it will be handled with the professionalism and class that Shaw has always exhibited.  I also doubt he'll leave for UCLA (or, in fact, any other college program).

BC

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - washingtonismoney - 12-04-2014

(12-04-2014, 01:43 PM)Boston Card link Wrote:One thing I like about our current coach is that there is that rounds of speculation are fewer and less intense than our prior coach.

I'm not referring to the coach I'm referring to a certain UCLA recruit playing quarter... *in a remarkable miracle the unintelligibly muttering man, after resurrection, goes and dies again.* 

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - BostonCard - 12-04-2014

My bad.  Yeah, I'm not interested in further speculation about that recruit, but I think that ship sailed a LONG time ago, and is not coming back.  We'd be better of speculating about 2016 QB recruits.

BC

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - BostonCard - 12-04-2014

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/81596/everyone-wins-with-riley-bolting-to-nebraska

As I was saying, LOL, a win-win-win.

BC

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - SamAtoms1980 - 12-04-2014

I thought this was a joke.

Mike Riley will get broiled in Lincoln.  Can anyone here imagine him winning at NU more than Bo Pelini or, for that matter, Frank Solich?  That's what's going to be demanded of him there.  I don't see this turning out well at all.

Re: Mike Riley to Nebraska - JeffInCorvallis - 12-04-2014

Riley's overachieved with the talent that he has had at OSU.  He is a good coach and he is genuinely a great guy.  OSU doesn't have the money, facilities, or weather to compete for the athletes that other Pac-12 schools can routinely recruit.  Most galling for Beaver fans has been the rise to national prominence of the Ducks, just 50 miles down the road.

There's been a lot of murmuring about how Riley can't get OSU to the next level and maybe he's lost his touch.  I think he just got fed up the griping, realized he's unlikely to win a conference championship at OSU, and made it known that he'd seriously consider a good offer if it came along.  Nebraska isn't what it once was, but still, for a college coach it would be tough to turn down an offer from a storied program.  He's likely getting a nice pay raise as well.  My guess he's only going to coach about 5 more years.

Unlike the consensus here, I think he'll do well at Nebraska, if by "well" you mean 9 or 10 wins and occasionally playing in the conf championship game.  Most college programs would be ecstatic about that but given the recent history of coaches in Lincoln I'm not so sure.

And I did see that comment about Corvallis being the armpit of the Pac-12.  I can see you've never been to Pullman.