Enough is Enough. Shawn Eichorst is the First to Go.

Nebraska's 21-17 loss to Northern Illinois last weekend turned out to be the final straw for the administration at the University of Nebraska. The firing of athletic director Shawn Eichorst is a simple statement that "enough is enough" and that things need to change.  My reaction?

Here, Here!

Firing Eichorst doesn't do much of anything for 2017. It's not going to suddenly inspire Mike Cavanaugh to be able to teach his offensive linemen to be able to block.  It's not going to help Tanner Lee to throw the ball towards people wearing the same colored jersey he's wearing this weekend.

It might help those players have coaches who can make them successful in 2018.

A lot of flimsy excuses have been offered for Mike Riley ever since he took over in Lincoln, some of which simply don't compute.  Purdue, Illinois, Iowa and now Northern Illinois don't have better talent than Nebraska.  Nebraska's losses in those games were the result of being outplayed and outcoached.  Period.  Mike Riley got a mulligan for 2015.

He doesn't get one for 2017.

Riley defenders are going to be quick to claim that Riley hasn't had a chance to develop championship level talent.  That's missing the point.  He's had more than enough time to develop talent good enough to get Nebraska to seven or eight wins this season.  Right now, that goal seems unrealistic.  A second losing season marked the end for Bill Callahan; a second losing season will also mark the end of Mike Riley's coaching career.

A few thoughts:

If your first thought was "this is going to hurt recruiting," just shut up and go away. Signing day is still a ways away, and everything that opposing coaches say about Mike Riley being on the hot seat would still apply even if Shawn Eichorst was still the athletic director.

Mike Riley hasn't been fired yet, and he won't be fired until a new athletic director is named - and likely not until after the season is over.  And if Mike Riley manages to get his team under control and the Huskers somehow get to seven wins, he probably keeps his job.  If he gets this team to Indy, he'll get all sorts of credit and even a contract extension.

Why was this done now? First, a message needs to be sent that this is not acceptable. Shawn Eichorst surprised the college football world by hiring Mike Riley, a coach who was struggling at Oregon State. The results of that hire so far are a strong indication that you couldn't let Eichorst have a second shot at hiring a football coach.  Nebraska's leadership has two months to get a new athletic director in place, with job one being to figure out the football coaching situation.   I suspect it won't take nearly that long.

Trev Alberts shouldn't be a serious candidate for several reasons. He's done a nice job at UNO, for the most part, but with mixed returns.  At UNO, that's pretty good actually.  Good decisions were the move to division 1 and hiring Dean Blais, who upgraded the hockey program.  Bad decisions include the decision to build the money-sucking Baxter Arena.

(A quick note to UNO fan bois... The budget for Baxter Arena is completely separate from athletics at UNO, so it's silly to dismiss claims that Baxter is losing money by claiming that the athletic budget is balanced.  The University system is having to pump extra money into Baxter's operations to keep the doors open, and that's money that's outside of the athletic department's perview.)

In any event, Nebraska needs an athletic director who's run a major athletic department.  It very well likely will be an existing athletic director at another major college program.  I'd argue that Creighton's Bruce Rasmussen is more likely to be selected than Alberts.

While an interim director will probably have Nebraska ties, the eventual hire probably won't have Nebraska ties.  That shouldn't be viewed as an issue.  More importantly, the new hire should have experience running successful football and basketball programs.  Nebraska hasn't had those things, and it's time to bring in someone who knows how that works.

It's not for certain, but Nebraska will probably be needing a new head football coach in two months. And that next coach will need to have championship quality experience.  This coaching search will be different.  Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel argued today that Nebraska's past history in hiring coaches means Nebraska is not an elite program.

If the Nebraska job were such a great job then why are the last three coaches hired named Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini and Mike Riley? This sounds like a pool of candidates for NC State, not Nebraska.

Every coaching search is different.  Bill Callahan was hired because Steve Pederson couldn't find anybody else.  Bo Pelini was hired because Tom Osborne couldn't afford anybody else. (North Stadium expansion and the buyouts limited his options.)  Mike Riley was hired because Shawn Eichorst never looked at anybody else.

The next athletic director has the resources ($25 million a year in new B1G television revenue) to pursue just about anybody not named Urban, Saban, or Dabo. He needs the vision to not just burn money, but to find the best coach out there, and almost no matter what the cost.  It might cost double what Mike Riley makes...maybe even more.

But if it's a coach that can get Nebraska back into championship consideration, then it'll be a bargain.  That's why Shawn Eichorst was fired.  Eichorst was never going to be able to hire that coach.  The next athletic director will have that as his primary job objective.

Mike Riley's Offense Is Broken. Can It Be Salvaged in 2017?

After every Husker football game, I grade the Huskers' performance on a report card over at CornNation.  I'll do the same tomorrow on the Huskers 21-17 loss to Northern Illinois. And frankly, it won't be pretty. After last week's Oregon loss, I wrote that Mike Riley's offense wasn't working at Oregon State, and it might not work at Nebraska.

After falling to 1-2 in a loss to a MAC school, I think it's time to say that Mike Riley's offense is broken.  I didn't think you could say that last week; this week, I don't know how you can NOT say that.

It's easy to point the blame at quarterback Tanner Lee, who's thrown seven interceptions in the last two games.  Two of those interceptions led to Oregon touchdowns last week; today, two more went straight into the end zone. He's completing under 53% of his passes with a passing efficiency rating that makes Taylor Martinez look like Peyton Manning. But the problem is much more deeper than that; it's starting on the offensive line.  Lee struggles under pressure, and Northern Illinois brought the heat:  three sacks and seven quarterback hurries.

That's the offensive line, and that's been a key issue with Mike Riley's offense dating back to Oregon State.  The folks in Corvallis wanted offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh gone, and they got their wish.  Now he's Nebraska's problem.

Shortly after Mike Riley addressed reporters, Shawn Eichorst, the normally silent athletic director, stepped up to face the music.  He told reporters that losses like this are "not acceptable." That's strong language, but meaningless if not accompanied by strong actions.  And today's loss calls for strong actions.  I'm offering two suggestions to make right now - this weekend, before Monday's press conference:

1. Fire offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh
2. Relieve offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf of his playcalling duties

Not after the season.  NOW.

Promote graduate assistant Tavita Thompson to offensive line coach; he played on the line for Riley at Oregon State, so he's familiar with the position. He might even give the guys a spark.  As for playcalling, find someone else to do it.  Mike Riley took the playbook away from Langsdorf before at Oregon State before sending him off to the New York Giants. Langsdorf reportedly did a great job with the Giants as quarterbacks coach. Nebraska has a quarterback who's REALLY struggling.

Let Langsdorf do what he does best.  Coach the quarterbacks.  Let someone else call the plays.  Maybe it's Riley again.  Or maybe running backs coach Reggie Davis; Riley's complemented Davis for his offensive mind in the past. (And there has to be a reason why Riley likes Davis, even though recruitniks hate his poor recruiting work.)  Maybe Keith Williams.

If it sounds like panicking, it's because it is.  Nebraska is one play away from being 0-3 on the season, going into Big Ten play.  After Rutgers, Nebraska has to play Ohio State and Penn State from the east division and the rest of the west division.  It's a division with a rapidly improving Purdue and a Minnesota team that's rowing the boat.  After today's turd in the punch bowl, Nebraska has to win five conference games to simply become bowl eligible.

Do you see five wins on this schedule, knowing now what we have with Nebraska?

Bob Diaco's defense did everything they could do to keep Nebraska in the game; Diaco star was tarnished by first half turds against Arkansas State and Oregon, but outstanding in the second half in those games. We knew (or should have known) that the 3-4 transition was going to be bumpy, so we should have expected a little bit of that.  And let's be honest:  Riley's replaced all but one defensive coach in his Nebraska tenure, and seems to have upgraded with each and every hire.

Riley's offense wasn't supposed to be like this. Remember the preseason hype?  Lee's NFL expectations was going to become this elite offense that was going to take the Big Ten west by storm.

Well, we were had.  It ain't that.  The question is... what should we do?  Be patient and hope that Riley's offense will become something that it's never ever been?  Or try some triage and try to salvage this season.  Frankly, it's a no-brainer to me.  Expecting this offense to suddenly win five Big Ten games isn't realistic; if things don't change, Riley will be gone. 

And in that light, Riley really has nothing to lose here.  Yes, he might make things worse.  But the bottom line is that unless he suddenly makes things significantly better, fixing Nebraska football will become someone else's job after Thanksgiving.