For the Nebraska Cornhuskers, it’s not a matter of if they’ll fire head football coach Mike Riley as much as when it’ll happen. On Monday, athletic director Bill Moos made it clear that time is not now.
“It’s not like I’ve got a coach to hire this afternoon at 3:30,” Moos said Monday, via ESPN. “Mike Riley deserves to finish the 2017 season. That’s how I operate.”
Nebraska is currently 4-6 and has been embarrassingly blown out in many of its losses. Last Saturday Minnesota went off, beating the Cornhuskers 54-21. It’s been an ugly season, and fans have been clamoring for a change at the top.
In almost three full seasons as the head coach at Nebraska, the man who replaced Bo Pelini has gone 19-17. He did lead the Cornhuskers to a 9-7 record last year and won a bowl game after the 2015 season. However, for a program as storied as this one, Riley clearly has not done what he was brought in to do.
It’s going to be interesting to see what Moos does after the season. There were rumblings he’d be potentially looking to bring Mike Leach with him from Washington State, but that’s not likely to happen. The program needs a big-splash hire in the worst possible way, so Moos has his work cut out.