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Mike Riley to Nebraska. Now that's a hire I wasn't expecting.

Yeah that hire was baffling to say the least. He is 61 years old too. I

thought they could have gotten someone better than that.
 
Does Michael McNeely work in Nebraska's AD somewhere?

Did he finally get his man?
 
Riley is a veteran HC, whereas Pelini had no experience when he took over. Perhaps Pelini isn't cut out to be a HC, and the success he did have was a result of program itself and not his coaching ability.

Also, maybe the thought process was to go with a safe hire and hope that just some new blood would get them over the hump.

You don't have to look that hard to find plenty of examples of schools that were stagnating a bit but still very good, then replacing a solid coach with a splashy new hire and have things go historically bad for that program in just a few years - UM, ND, Tenn, USC.

Also, don't discount Riley's west coast experience and recruiting ties. Recruiting is something holding Nebraska back a bit and perhaps changing up recruiting territory up a bit might help.
This post was edited on 12/4 1:36 PM by turney333
 
Re: Florida hires CSU coach.

ADs and those that actually run programs realize there is more to running a program than a cool scheme. They value a lot of aspects of running a program when hiring a coach. That is why someone like a Riley could be valued higher than a Jerry Kill. There is more to developing a program than immediate wins.
Posted from Rivals Mobile
 
Re: Do you know his background?

It's just not that he came from Colorado State ... he was Alabama's OC until 2011.
 
Doubt many Florida fans would agree with you about wins. *

nm
 
Former IU coach on his staff,

Jeff Hammerschmidt is his special team/running back coach. He recruited Kris Dielman to IU.
 
Gator fans I know down here are very happy

He has recruited heavily in Florida for years and was the OC at Alabama. My sense is that he was by far and away their number one preference.
 
Strange. They fired Solich who won 85% of the...

games he coached and Pelini who won 9 games every year because they weren't winning the "big" games. They hire Riley who averaged a little more than 5 wins a year over the last 5 years and went 5-7 this year. Makes no sense to me.
 
Re: Former IU coach on his staff,

Looking back at the coaching staffs of DiNardo and Cameron ... a lot of those assistants ended up at big name football programs.
 
Re: Not just wins but wins against big name opponents

Plus they need a Big10 Championship win...not a blowout like they experienced. My friend in Nebraska tells me there were two problems with Pelini.

Too many blow out losses (20+ points)
Did not get along with the alumni
 
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