Was Mike Riley the Biggest Miss of the Post-Osborne Era?
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- PROGRAMMING NOTE: This episode was recorded nearly two months ago, prior to the passing of Dee Riley. We want to extend our sincere condolences to Mike Riley and his entire family on the loss of their wife, mother and grandmother. As both Brian and Brandon point out in the episode, Mike Riley is one of the nicest and best people they have worked with. He and Dee touched countless lives during their time in Lincoln, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Riley family.
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The Common Fans bring you Episode 4 of The Reckoning series. This episode, featuring long time Nebraska reporters Brian Christopherson and Brandon Vogel, focuses on the question: Was Mike Riley the Biggest Miss of the Post-Osborne Era?
The crew looks at:
- The very brief coaching search by then Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst as he quickly zeroed in on Riley.
- The challenging environment Riley walked into - a divided locker room, extremely high expectations, and the demand to win right away.
- The 2016 season, when the Huskers got out to a 7-0 start and were ranked in the top 10 before the bottom fell out.
- The forced firing of Mark Banker, Riley's longtime friend and defensive coordinator, and the installation of Bob Diaco as DC.
- The Riley team's recruiting efforts: Calibraska, Friday Night Lights, and more.
- Biggest wins of the Riley era, including the 2015 Michigan State game and the 2016 Oregon game.
- The major turning points: the end of the 2016 season, and ultimately, the 2017 loss to Northern Illinois.
- In the end, Riley was not the right fit for Nebraska, at a time when the Big Red really needed to get it right.
Special thanks to Brandon Vogel of the Counter Read for joining the Common Fans for all of The Reckoning episodes. Make sure to check out www.counterread.com for Brandon's excellent coverage of Nebraska football, college football, and other Nebraska sports.
And make sure to subscribe to our UA-cam channel, / @commonfangbr .
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What do you say Common Fans? Was Mike Riley the biggest miss of the post-Osborne era?
I say yes. Good man, good coach. But he was not the right fit and at the worst possible time.
Not even close. Scott Frost was the biggest mistake and worst coach the Huskers have ever had
@@chadelles2586 Fair take for sure. Hope you'll check out next week's episode focused on the Frost era.
@@chadelles2586 Hard to believe how rough the last 10 years of Husker football have been. Hopefully they're about to turn a corner. Thanks for watching!
@@chadelles2586at the time when Scott Frost was first hired it made total sense (former player, National Championship QB, Nebraska native, successful at UCF). Little did we realize SF would turn out to be THE WORST Nebraska Football Head Coach EVER! HC Riley is a very nice man and polite with the press…the anti-Pelini. Riley was just in over his head but still a better HC than Frost. Just wish Riley would have given Eichorst the hip hip finger when told to fire DC Banker and replace with that goofy Bob Diaco!
It’s kind of that era of Husker football that just gets almost forgotten about. Like it never happened. Great to have Brian to refresh the Common Fan’s memory!
Spot on Geoffrey!
It's sort of like the Callahan era. It is sad because coaches and players worked hard too, even if the results weren't where we wanted them to be. Riley is also our last coach to go to a bowl.
At least Riley had that 2016 season
We'll always have 2016.
Thanks for watching! GBR for LIFE!
And a bowl win.
Don’t forget Billy Devaney being in complete control over who started and who didn’t start. Drove O-line coach crazy in 2017.
Got into the Devaney stuff a little bit on this episode. That part probably deserves its own episode. 😂
Awesome conversation with Brian. Really appreciate the insightful discussion!
Brian was fantastic!
Within minutes of the Illinois loss I did my best to fill Eichorst's voicemail inbox...a bit surprised I didn't get a no contact order. That loss after the "Hail Mary" loss to BYU was it for me.
That game was absolutely brutal. Never should have lost that one.
Those two games. Ugh. Never should have lost either of them.
I was out golfing when they announced the Riley hire, I looked at my buddy and said “oh great, we’re going to suck until we fire this guy”
There was never anything that gave me even a twinkling of confidence in Riley. Atrocious hire! If this was a publicly traded company Shawn Eichorst would be sued for failing the share holders.
🤣🤣🤣
Hard to believe how rough the last decade of Husker football has been. Hopefully we're about to turn a corner. GBR for LIFE!
2:21 I don’t even have to make it through the first ad read before answering the question was Mike the biggest miss and it’s an unquestionable hell no. Scott Frost is the easy answer to that question.
That's a fair take for sure. Hope you'll check out our episode next week focused on the Frost era.
Scott Frost was far worse than Mike Riley. SF was a horrifically bad HC and we let him stay for way too long. He is the worst coach the HUskers have ever had, yes worse than Bill Jennings. Steve Pederson is worse than Mike Riley as well as he started us down this path by making poor choices. Anyone who thinks MR is the worst thing that has happened to us, simply doesn't understand or know the Huskers.
Absolutely fair take. Hard to believe how the last decade of Husker football has gone. Hopefully we're about to turn a corner.
I remember when they announced Riley, i said who? Had to search him, when i saw how he was finishing at the end with Oregon State, i had a bad feeling thus wouldn't last long, and man was i right. I met him and his wife, they were great willing to talk, watched baseball game with my family. But just way he finished i just knew this wouldn't work. And i was hoping to be wrong but for hiw 2017 season went, it showed how out of touch another AD was. Shawn Eichorst was another Steve Pederson, fire a coach yet no accurate plan to hire a legit coach.
As far Frost goes, yes it sucked that it didn't work out for him, but Frost hire made more sense than Riley.
End of the day right now the dumb AD's in the last 25 years are Steve Pederson and Shaen Eichorst.
This is kinda where most of us came down as well.
Well said!
1:25:41 In post I would say not at all surprising from this group. Appreciate one of y’all being somewhat honest in saying they didn’t think he would be successful after the Illinois game the first season. One of the things that bugs me the most about the majority my fellow Husker fans is they’re always so quick to look beyond the 9 wins in 2016 and say that team was a paper tiger. But if you bring up 01, 03 or 11-14 they just plug their ears and go lalalala 9+ wins that’s all that matters. Or how without Ameer Abdullah blessed be thy name they likely lose to a mid tier fcs McNeese St in 14 and the 15 team was always gonna struggle to replace an all time great. Or how he took over a roster with zero depth at nearly every position with 20+ walk ons in the 2 deep. All the while an AD that refused to allow juco transfers. Virtually zero fan support after the first game. Dude was coaching with 3 hands tied behind his back and never once complained or threw his players under the bus. He was a class act and a better coach than we deserved. I will go to my grave saying he never got a fair shot at succeeding at Nebraska and all of us should be ashamed for it.
Love this response! Whether or not the was the right hire, he never got near the support from anyone that his predecessors had nor did anyone else take over a team that the coach he succeeded sort of poisoned the well with upon his exit. They made a bigger deal about the team he inherited due to a handful of drafted players, with two of those being the starting DTs that left after their Junior season (and left a pretty youthful DT core for the 2016 campaign). Another was a walk on in Janovich who came into his own under Riley. A note about the records: it is interesting how 9 wins for Callahan or Riley almost come with an asterisk and anything less is indicative of how bad they are. Even Riley's hard luck first year with close losses is used to say "maybe he isnt the guy" when Frost got completely different responses from many for his close losses. I will give Brandon credit because I believed he mentioned the 2003 season wasnt as good as it looked and was helped immensely by turnovers.
Before I looked at any comments, my first thought was around all the facial expressions and little comments T.J. specifically was making. I know he doesnt personally dislike Riley like he does Callahan, but it seemed like Riley never really had a chance of winning him over.
The constant mis pronunciation of Brett Bielema is pretty silly haha, great episode nonetheless.
😁
Thank you!
I mean SF was a lot worse. I have an opinion. If Mike Riley is not forced to fire his DC and if Tre Bryant does not "have old man knees" I think he survives 2017 season. Mike Riley was slowly pushing Nebraska back to a run first team with a good defense. He had a FB who was good and 2 really good WRs that year.
Every few years I wat 2017 Nebraska vs Arkansas State I believe. What an awesome offensive game with Nebraska slamming into the hole. The defense though.
You're right about the Diaco thing, that really derailed 2017.
Tanner Lee was also a turnover machine in 2017.
@@commonfanGBR Facts I realize I might be in the minority though lol.
@@TJBirkelGBR That's true but if he had a real running threat could have taken some pressure off. Though he was 23 TDs to 16 picks which is a lot. Though compared to our teams TD to Int ratio this past year is looks a lot better lol
I have noticed that you keep saying “Burt belima.” I have alway seen it as “Brett” Did I miss a reference to an older show that explains why you use Burt?
Haha you are hearing that correctly. We talked about him in one of our first episodes and started referring to him as Burt. No real rhyme or reason to it. Thanks for watching Joel, we appreciate it!
No. As Brandon said at the end. Scott Frost was the biggest miss. Possibly one of the biggest misses in the modern era of football. Mike Riley was a bad fit for Nebraska. A career 500 coach is still a better coach than Scott Frost. Harvey Perlman, Shawn Eichorst and Billy Devaney put Mike Riley in a no-win situation. Terrible hires at all levels during this time. Sad
Frost was a good hire nobody new he would fail
@@sparkadventures3369 which makes him the biggest miss. Everyone thought he would win. He did the exact opposite.
Excellent assessment! Thanks for watching!
No, it was unquestionably Frost. We all knew Reily didn't meet the standard, everyone thought Frost was the one to take Nebraska back to prominence. God ... that era was a gut check.
No, Mike Riley was expected to be the filler until Scott Frost was Ready. I was very disappointed with what Frost did, many fans are beyond disappointment. Frank Solich should have never been fired. That was the arrogance of Steve Peterson that did that.
All fair points! Hope you'll check out the other episodes in this series, we got into the Solich conversation here: ua-cam.com/video/pX-EDby76RA/v-deo.html
Appreciate you watching Jason. GBR for LIFE!
Frost is still one of my favorite players ever. However, I can't ignore the fact that his hiring was the most disappointing one.
That being said, Smiley Riley did him little to zero favors with the mess he left him. Therefore, Riley has to be the worst hire, as he never really raised expectations high enough to be a disappointment.
No. That would be Frost.
No. Not even close. The biggest miss was just giving the keys to Solich instead of opening it up and hiring the best coach available nationwide. Like Alabama just did.
Solich had the greatest football machine in the country with the biggest brand in the sport and it only took him one full recruiting cycle to turn it into a program that was going .500. They were really good right up until Osborne's last class left. There was virtually no depth behind that team 2001 and recruiting after that cratered. If you go hire a legitimate nationality established coach there and this program might still be that kind of Nebraska.
There is some truth here. I remember hearing that Bill Byrne felt as though he had his toes stepped on by not having any input after TO retired. After TO’s recruits left, it was clear Solich was not going to be the HC to win the big games. Solich is a good man and good coach but not an Elite HC. Nebraska Football after TO needed an Elite HC. Supposedly Bill Byrne wanted Mack Brown. If Nebraska would have gotten the hire right after TO stepped down we would have had many less misses in the last 25 years!
I had to Google this guy...
Haha! Thanks for watching regularly.