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Midseason firing or not, Mike Riley’s chance to save his job came and went
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When Mike Riley came to Lincoln in December of 2014, he did so knowing that he had a great opportunity in front of him.
Former Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst hand-picked Riley to take over his first big-time program. Riley knew it was different than Oregon State, and the parallels between Nebraska and the San Diego Chargers were few and far between. Expectations were different. The fan base demanded more. It was up to him to take that new challenge in stride.
Instead, Riley recorded a 16-13 record (11-12 vs. Power 5 teams including BYU) before Eichorst was fired on Sept. 21. With a new boss set to take over, the odds of Riley staying on board were slim at best.
In theory, though, Riley had another opportunity at the start of B1G play. If he could simply beat B1G cellar dwellers Rutgers and Illinois, then split back-to-back home games against Wisconsin and Ohio State, Nebraska would theoretically still be very much alive in the B1G West race at 3-1. No coach is getting fired with a chance to win a conference title.
Riley might’ve taken care of Illinois and Rutgers, but Nebraska’s next 120 minutes of football told the real story. His team proceeded to get outscored 94-17. Perhaps even more alarming for the Husker faithful, it was out-rushed 632-154. Nebraska was nowhere near the top-10 competition that made itself at home at Memorial Stadium. Not surprisingly, Nebraska announced it hired Bill Moos as its new athletic director a day after the Ohio State game.
Riley’s opportunity was gone before his new boss even showed up.
It’s always awkward when a new athletic director comes in and is expected to fire the head coach. The incoming A.D. is forced to answer a bunch of questions about a coach that it didn’t hire. Chances are, the two probably haven’t even talked yet. They end up making a bunch of broad generalizations about a coach.
Moos said this when asked about Riley:
“I really haven’t talked much to Mike since he made that move. But, as we speak right now, he’s my football coach, and I’m going to support him. I certainly hope for some victories here towards the latter part of the season. I’m eager to sit down and have a chance to visit with him.”
That’s exactly what a new A.D. has to say. Of course he’s going to say “Riley is my football coach” and “I’m going to support him.” Moos has been around long enough to know how to avoid stepping on a land mine. Nobody in their right mind thought he would say, ‘Well, Riley just isn’t getting the job done. He knows he needs to win more games or we’ll be making a change.’
Man, the field day the Nebraska media would have with a statement like that.
RELATED: Mike Riley says he has “great respect” for new AD Bill Moos
Instead, Moos came out and took it a step further by squashing the notion that a mid-season change would take place. As much as that might frustrate the Husker faithful that’s ready to turn the page, Moos has every right to say and do that.
But he knows why he was hired. It’s his job to get Nebraska back to national relevance. Plain and simple.
If Moos wants to make a mid-season move, you can bet the powers that be would have no problem putting their stamp of approval on it. After all, they were the ones who fired Eichorst after the Northern Illinois debacle. Eichorst had to go in order for someone else to make an unbiased decision about Riley’s future.
The question now is whether Moos sticks to his word and lets Riley ride this thing out. That becomes more and more challenging with each embarrassing loss.
On one hand, Moos can hope that Nebraska gets to a 6-6 mark and the extremely deflating losses are in the past (the Huskers still have to travel to No. 2 Penn State). Nebraska does only have two home games left, one of which is the Iowa showdown. Barring a complete collapse at Purdue in two weeks, Nebraska’s sell out streak should be fine through 2017.
But on the other hand, Moos is trying to make a good first impression. The last thing he wants is to be at the helm while Nebraska sinks to new lows. The longer he keeps Riley around, the more fans will question his intentions to revive a once-powerhouse program.
RELATED: Contract details for Bill Moos released
Moos knew when he took the job that he’d have a big decision to make as soon as he took over. If Riley had done his job better, Moos would still be in Pullman while the rest of the college football world talked about poaching Mike Leach.
Instead, Moos is in Lincoln. This is his opportunity to redeem himself at a big-time program after his fallout with Nike CEO Phil Knight at Oregon. Moos didn’t go to Nebraska to accept mediocrity. Just like when he brought Leach to Washington State, Moos is going to bring in his guy. Pac-12 roots or not, that isn’t Riley.
Moos’ guy might not have been Riley even if Nebraska somehow beat Wisconsin and Ohio State. We’ll never know. It certainly couldn’t have hurt.
Moos can pat Riley on the back all he wants. For now, that’s his football coach. Maybe Moos will even walk the walk and keep Riley for the rest of 2017.
But by now, we know that Riley’s path leads straight out of Lincoln.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.