Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Keyshawn Johnson says it would be a ‘huge mistake’ for Nebraska to fire Mike Riley

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Nebraska head coach Mike Riley has at least one supporter campaigning on his behalf, and it’s a pretty significant voice.

Earlier this week, Keyshawn Johnson stumbled across an article on Twitter detailing Riley’s uncertain future in Lincoln. Not only did the former NFL star retweet the article, he then added the comment “It would be a huge mistake, Nebraska football wasn’t built in 3 years and no other program was either.”

Johnson’s son, Keyshawn Johnson Jr., committed to Nebraska as a member of the 2017 recruiting class. But before the season started, Johnson yanked his son out of the university after he was cited for marijuana possession.

Riley was the offensive coordinator at USC from 1993-1996 and Johnson was a wide receiver for the Trojans from 1994-1995, which explains their close relationship.

After a 3-4 start to the season, including back-to-back blowout losses to Wisconsin and Ohio State at Memorial Stadium, Riley has come under a tremendous amount of scrutiny. And with Shawn Eichorst being removed as athletic director earlier this year, the Riley’s future in Lincoln appears bleak.

In three seasons with the Huskers, Riley is 18-15 and 11-10 in B1G games. Overall, Riley is 111-95 as a head coach at the college level.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB