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The Nebraska Cornhuskers wasted no time finding their next head coach, announcing the hire of Mike Riley to replace Bo Pelini, who was fired earlier this week. Athletic director Shawn Eichorst conducted the search for his next head coach very quietly with nobody expecting the now-former head coach of the Oregon State Beavers to be leading the Huskers in 2015. While both Riley and Eichorst have expressed their excitement over this hire, Nebraska clearly missed the mark on this one.
First things first, Mike Riley is a GREAT head coach and a fantastic leader of young men. He has spun a winning program out of next to nothing in terms of resources, especially when you consider the abundance of the in-state rival Oregon Ducks just down the road. Corvallis is not a destination that top recruits want to come to, yet Riley found a way to win. Over the last 12 seasons, he’s taken the Beavers to a bowl game eight times with his best season coming in 2006 when Oregon State went 10-4 with a win over the Missouri Tigers in the Sun Bowl.
His success at Oregon State has made him a hot commodity during coaching searches. The USC Trojans offered him their head coaching job twice and he turned them down. He’s also said no to the Alabama Crimson Tide and was a finalist for the UCLA Bruins job. He’s got NFL experience, serving three years as the head coach of the San Diego Chargers, and has a reputation for developing his players, particularly ones that were not heavily recruited.
He leaves Oregon State with the most wins in school history and a 93-80 record overall. Everyone who has met Riley respects him a great deal and consider one of the best men in coaching today.
But does all of that mean that he is the right man to lead Nebraska? Keep in mind, the Huskers just axed a coach that won no fewer than nine games every year over the last seven seasons. While Pelini came up short in the “games that mattered,” he was still able to have a lot of success, winning at least a share of four conference division titles and playing in three conference title games, though he lost all three.
In Riley’s 14 years at Oregon State, he managed to win nine games or more just four times, three less than Pelini did in half the time. Riley has never won a conference title, finishing tied for second in the former Pac-10 twice in 2008 and 2009, never lost fewer than four games in a season and has never taken his team to a BCS bowl. He’s also managed just a 4-10 record against Oregon State’s primary rival, Oregon, and hasn’t beaten the Ducks since 2007.
Riley has made a living finding under-recruited talent and building them up but hasn’t shown the ability to out-recruit anyone, really. Despite his success and his ability to put players into the NFL, Riley’s recruiting classes never rank among the Pac-12’s best.
As nice as he is, he certainly isn’t going to be classified as a “big” or “splashy” hire for Nebraska fans. Yet, Eichorst lauded Riley as the “one coach who fit all the characteristics I was seeking” to be the next head coach of Nebraska, which the AD went on to describe as a “tradition-rich football program.” In a nutshell, that statement is true and also the root of what is keeping Nebraska from becoming a contender in the college football landscape.
Pelini was forced out because he didn’t win enough big games and couldn’t get Nebraska back to the level they expected, which was the national title winning days of the 1990s. The Huskers want to be nationally relevant again and win conference titles and compete for national championships year in and year out, but they continue to try and do it using the same formula they used 20 years ago. The landscape of college football has changed and Nebraska has fallen off because they have refused to adapt.
What the Huskers needed to do was find a passionate head coach that could think outside the box to properly utilize the talent that Nebraska has and to get top recruits excited about playing for one of the most storied programs in college football. When the program leans on their tradition as to why they should be winning today, they come across as old and out of touch.
As great a guy as Riley is, a 61 year old who runs a traditional pro-style offense and hasn’t really won anything is not the thing to break the Huskers out of this rut. It may get Eichorst and the regents at Nebraska very excited but it’s not likely that Riley suddenly starts recruiting blue-chip prospects to help the Huskers bring in the talent necessary to compete at the highest level. Because as fundamentally sound and creative as Riley was with his teams at Oregon State, the talent gap between the Beavers and the conference’s elite was always too much to overcome on a consistent basis.
And at this point, does anyone truly believe that Riley is going to change up his approach now that he’s at Nebraska with more resources than he’s ever had? He doesn’t have a track record of wowing top recruits, so what will happen when he goes toe-to-toe with guys like Urban Meyer or Bob Stoops for recruits? While he’s undoubtedly going to be a big hit with parents and recruits will certainly like him, he’s not the closer that Nebraska needs to bring in the elite talent they’re expecting.
After booting a coach that turned Nebraska around and into one of only three schools to win nine games every year since 2007, how much patience will there be for a coach whose recruiting classes consistently rank outside of the Top 40 nationally and who struggles to hit 10 wins?
Nebraska just fired a coach because he didn’t win conference titles and didn’t play in big bowls only to replace him with a coach that hasn’t won conference titles and hasn’t played in big bowls. Riley’s claim to fame is taking very little in terms of resources and recruits and turning it into something competitive. That’s not the job he’s taken on at Nebraska and “competitive” won’t be enough to keep the Huskers happy for long. Just ask Pelini.
Mike Riley is a great man and a great coach, but he is not the right hire for Nebraska.
You can follow Tyler Brett on Twitter @ATylerBrett, on Facebook and on Google.
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