🏈 UPDATE: Nebraska hires Mike Riley as Head Coach (updated Bielema thread)

[bcracker]

This is interesting:

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsport...-nebraska-in-serious-talks-with-bret-bielema/

 

[Bamabww]

Damn, didn't see that coming.

 

[bcracker]

Finebaum is talking about it too.

 

[planomateo]

Is he trying to get AD Jeff Long to increase the salary ranges for his assistants?

 

[JoshB]

I would imagine Bilema's agent is putting this rumor out there, trying to get more money for him and his staff... Expect the Les Miles to Michigan rumors to start again.

 

[We All Bleed Crimson]

IF this did happen, you know Wisconsin fans would be hating!

 

[bama alum]

IF this did happen, you know Wisconsin fans would be hating!

More than that. If Bielema left Arkansas, get the popcorn out! Watch the meltdown! opcorn2: If Arkansas has a HC opening, you know who their #1 target will be. Time to go home, Gus!

 

[bcracker]

If nothing else @planomateo it will give Long something else to think about on Tuesday! I'm leaning towards yours and @Birdman37 thoughts on this. If the Bieleman camp is behind the rumor, the coach is saying, "Show me and my boys the money!" I can't imagine him bailing after just two years.

But, man, can you imagine the meltdown in Fayetteville if he were to bolt!

 

[Crimson&WhiteGecko]

If nothing else @planomateo it will give Long something else to think about on Tuesday! I'm leaning towards yours and @Birdman37 thoughts on this. If the Bieleman camp is behind the rumor, the coach is saying, "Show me and my boys the money!" I can't imagine him bailing after just two years.

But, man, can you imagine the meltdown in Fayetteville if he were to bolt!

Nothing surprises me on coaching moves after Fran.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

Hey, the degree of improvement at Arky got him two conference wins. Arky would be competitive in the b10 cg this year.

 

[planomateo]

2 SEC wins in 2 years gets you a shot at a BigXII school, arguably one of the bigger ones...

Chest thumping material.

 

[alabama mike]

IMO, I don't think he goes anywhere but does get some money out of his "talks" with Nebraska.

 

[rick4bama]

He leave a B1G school to come to and SEC school, now thinking about going back to the B1G school.

 

[ElephantStomp]

This doesn't surprise me. He's learning the crap he did at Wisconsin doesn't work in the SEC and he's learning it's a different beast in the SEC than the B10

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

What has 3 legs, loves to run the ball, and would fit like a glove at Nebraska?

 

[TerryP]

This doesn't surprise me. He's learning the crap he did at Wisconsin doesn't work in the SEC and he's learning it's a different beast in the SEC than the B10

A big offensive line with good running backs doesn't work in the SEC?

I'm not surprised it's taken Bielema this amount of time to get that program turned in the right direction. Much like Louisville, he left Arkansas with a depleted roster with the exception of skill positions (and there's an argument to be made about the lack of success in QB recruiting.) That's not even delving into the lack of players on defense.

 

[Bamabww]

Nebraska: Welcome to Your Regularly Scheduled Identity Crisis

Is Nebraska still an A-list job? As I argued earlier this week, the malaise that lingered throughout the Bo Pelini era emanated from a place much deeper than the head coach’s office: Nebraska has been searching for a coherent, sustainable identity since the turn of the century, if not longer. In the past decade, the Cornhuskers have changed coaches, conferences, and philosophies, and have nothing in particular to show for it: no conference championships, no top-10 finishes, no major bowl bids under Pelini or his predecessor, Bill Callahan. Consistency notwithstanding, no one ever mistook Pelini for the answer, with his flammable temperament on the sideline and lukewarm results on the scoreboard.

Now that the focus has shifted from the postmortem phase to the future, though, it seems there’s no prevailing consensus as to who the answer might be, or even what the answer would look like if the fan base could somehow conjure the perfect coach out of thin air, Weird Science–style. How can there be, until they’re all asking the same question?

Predictably, without a clear vision of what the program can or should be in the future, many of the initial suggestions for moving forward aim to resurrect the glories of the past. The odds-on favorite to win the job, per Las Vegas, is Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost, the starting quarterback on Nebraska’s last national championship team in 1997. Also high on the wish list is first-year Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl, who played in Lincoln, spent eight years there as an assistant, and went on to amass a stellar record as the head coach of North Dakota State. But it’s hard to make a really compelling case for either guy that doesn’t begin and end with picking him out in one of the team photos from the good old days. Frost is regarded as a comer, but remains very green for a prospective CEO, still in just his second year as a coordinator. Despite his track record at NDSU, Bohl is coming off a rough, 4-8 debut at Wyoming, and his first tour at Nebraska ended with a pink slip in 2002.

Neither has as compelling a track record at the FBS level as, say, Greg Schiano, whose name has also come up because … well, why the hell not? A lot of people have heard of him and he’s available. In this market, that’s a seductive combination.

Perfect Fit: Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi. The general assumption this winter is that big-time ADs have become increasingly gun-shy toward candidates who have never been head coaches before, which may be even more true at Nebraska than elsewhere. (Pelini had no head-coaching experience before he took the reins in 2008.) Narduzzi has spent 25 years as an assistant, the last 11 of them as Mark Dantonio’s defensive coordinator at Cincinnati and Michigan State. But Narduzzi has been up for multiple head-coaching gigs in that span, turning some down while building one of the most reliably suffocating defenses in the nation. Think of him as the upper Midwest’s answer to Charlie Strong, who spent years bouncing around the SEC as an assistant before finally landing his big break at Louisville at age 48, the same age Narduzzi is now. Unlike Louisville, Nebraska isn’t a stepping-stone to a glitzier gig (Texas, in Strong’s case), but neither does it have proven winners leaping to leave their current posts.

Narduzzi knows the Big Ten’s recruiting turf, and how to make hay with less-celebrated prospects,6 a relevant skill for a program limited by geography and demographics. He’d also arrive with a straightforward mandate to remake the Huskers in the defensively driven image of Michigan State, which is bound for another January bowl game in pursuit of its fourth 11-or-better win season in five years. It’s not the most progressive brand of football, but the challenge at Nebraska isn’t selling more tickets. It’s creating a product that the perennially sold-out crowds can recognize and embrace from one week to the next.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/florida-michigan-nebraska-college-football-coaching-searches/

 

[TerryP]

Predictably, without a clear vision of what the program can or should be in the future, many of the initial suggestions for moving forward aim to resurrect the glories of the past. The odds-on favorite to win the job, per Las Vegas, is Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost, the starting quarterback on Nebraska’s last national championship team in 1997. Also high on the wish list is first-year Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl, who played in Lincoln, spent eight years there as an assistant, and went on to amass a stellar record as the head coach of North Dakota State. But it’s hard to make a really compelling case for either guy that doesn’t begin and end with picking him out in one of the team photos from the good old days. Frost is regarded as a comer, but remains very green for a prospective CEO, still in just his second year as a coordinator. Despite his track record at NDSU, Bohl is coming off a rough, 4-8 debut at Wyoming, and his first tour at Nebraska ended with a pink slip in 2002.

Change the names and this sounds like something written about Michigan, post-Rich Rod.

Both guys would certainly understand the culture. To me, it seems like the best move would be hiring a coach who has a background running a type of offense, and defense, that fits with the Nebraska recruiting footprint. I've mentioned Paul Johnson. Another that would seem to fit would be Troy Calhoun. Calhoun would also be very familiar with that footprint considering he's been working in Colorado.

 

[planomateo]

Gotta love this time of year and how coaches names get thrown out there...

Mike Riley to Nebraska. I hope I'm wrong about this hire, but it doesn't seem like a big one to me.

So his wife likes Lincoln?

 

[c5vetman]

Just got the ESPN notification