Worst Nebraska head coach
- Thread starter Cam82huskers
- Start date
Better question: who is the worst Husker fan. Let's start with those who like to dwell on the negative for some reason.
This topic has been beaten so many times but I’m going to go with Riley. Callahan did take us to a conference ship and recruited really well. Riley didn’t do either.
They all sucked for various reasons.
Frank took a NC team and turned it into mediocre ala Mark Helfrich.
Cally tried to turn Nebraska into something it wasn't, and failed.
Bo took some talent and created a spark that was short lived, ultimately filling the roster will Minnesota level talent.
Riley made some bad blunders, wasn't a good leader and let the ship strike the rocks.
Frank took a NC team and turned it into mediocre ala Mark Helfrich.
Cally tried to turn Nebraska into something it wasn't, and failed.
Bo took some talent and created a spark that was short lived, ultimately filling the roster will Minnesota level talent.
Riley made some bad blunders, wasn't a good leader and let the ship strike the rocks.
Based purely on empirical results I think you have to conclude that Riley is the worst of those four. But subjectively, my gut says Callahan due mainly to his arrogance and his disrespect for TO and our tradition.
I also hate dwelling on the past, in particular the negative past, but I think it’s Callahan hands down. I think the players put forth effort for Riley. At times during the end for Callahan, there was no effort at all. Blowouts (on the negative side) became expected. Even the Penn State game, Nebraska seemed to compete until the end.
I don’t know why Frank Solich is even considered for worse Head Coach..
No Bill Glassford? No Bill Jennings?
Maybe Riley would stand a chance in this race with those two.
No Bill Glassford? No Bill Jennings?
Maybe Riley would stand a chance in this race with those two.
A. Edwin Branch in 1899. His record was 1-7-1. That was following Fielding Yost's 8-3 team of 1898. Bummy Booth went 6-1-1 the following year (1900).
And they don’t get credit for beating Lincoln High.
Texas gets credit for beating Galveston High down here.Winking
Edwin just needed more time. The torches and pitchforks crowd ran him out of town just as things were falling into place. They were apparently too bitter to accept a pro-style offense.
That's what I was going to post. Not only was his record mediocre (outside of the one year with Bobby "Mr. Touchdown" Reynolds), his players got a petition going to have him removed. My stepdad played for him, and thought he was awful, but didn't sign the petition.
Need to categorize do two poles one in modern era 1960 to present day and 1960 and back, in modern times I'd go with Callahan Riley bozo and frank, two could recruit but couldn't coach, two average coaches Had some talent did a decent job but couldn't maintain the talent and went from competition with the top schools started recruiting the talent to compete with the Iowas k states of the world
Gotta put Riley at the Top of this list of 4.
1. Riley
2. Callahan
3. Pelini
4. Solich was much better than the previous 3, IMO.
1. Riley
2. Callahan
3. Pelini
4. Solich was much better than the previous 3, IMO.
All of the above...makes me want to forget the last 20 or so years of husker football
It really bothers me that people say. Riley is worse than Callahan. Callahan came into a great culture and did everything he could to tear it down. Riley walked into a lot of problems and culture-wise did a lot of good. Sure, he was not a good coach x’s and o’s wise but as far as being a good genuine person and being a good role model for his players and the community, and welcoming back former players and trying to restore some of what was lost he did pretty good imho.
Sure, Riley was a nicer guy, but the fact that Callahan accomplished more on the field as our head coach is what I'm going by.
Glassford actually revived the program to an extent after the disastrous era that included World War II and the post-war years — eight consecutive losing seasons for a program that sustained only three in its first 51 seasons.
Glassford's first team went 4-5 (the ninth straight losing season for NU), but then Glassford's teams posted winning records in 1950, 1952 and 1954, while finishing .500 in 1955, his final year. In his entire tenure, that's just three losing seasons in seven years for a program that hadn't won anything in a decade. The coaches who followed Glassford (Elliott and Jennings) buried the Huskers with six more losing seasons in the next six years.
Glassford's legacy is mixed because of the brutal Camp Curtis workouts and the player revolt. But worst coach, at least based on record, has to be Jennings — nobody else stayed that long without posting a winning season, or at least breaking even. Plus, Jennings pulled a Bo Pelini on his way out with the statement that the football team could never feed the ego of the entire state — kind of the early 1960s equivalent of telling everybody to "f*ck off."
I agree that he did more on the field. I guess, imo it’s easier to correct losing on the field. That turnaround can happen real quick. 11 years later we’re still trying to get our culture back..imo that’s more detrimental to a program.
The common thread for all of them was bad and/or disjointed leadership at the AD level and above.
I'm going to change to frank and my reason why, is he let his recruiting slide to mediocrity hence he gets fired if frank would have maintained stability 9-11 wins being at the top or winning your division no way slippery Steve can fire him so in a sense frank it the reason for the down fall
Question was about being a coach, not being an ambassador.
You can get someone in house to kiss babies, nod your head "yes" to everything asked of you, and head up the glee club for 50k or less. Just ask Oregon State.
That’s part of being a head coach though. You’re the head and face of the program. So if only want to talk about on field results then ok
1. Riley
2. Callahan/Bo tied, equally crappy for some of the same and different reasons
3. Solich
I'm not defending Callahan, but look at it objectively. He took over a program that had totally gone to a QB run heavy offense the two years prior. He inherited Joe Dailey. Yes he went 5-6 his first year attempting to transition to his offense. Pretty much blew the Southern Miss game with turnovers, which could have meant a winning season.
2nd year, he gets Zac Taylor. 8-4 record. Lost to TT at TT by 3. Lost to OU at home, by 7, a bad loss to Kansas at Kansas when Mangino was starting to turn them into a very good program, and a loss by 14 at Missouri. They have one of them more enjoyable victories in the last 20 years at Boulder that year (unexpected 30-3 victory), and topped it off with a win against Michigan in the Alamo Bowl (yes there was some officiating issues in that game). TT ended up # 20, OU # 22, and Nebraska # 24.
3rd year, division champions, lost to OU in the CCG. Lost a close game in the Cotton.
4th year, high hopes, Game Day comes to town because people actually thought there was a chance against vaunted USC. IMHO, this is when we saw just how much Adam Carriker and Jay Moore covered for Cosgrove's flaws as a DC. They left and the D went to hell.
So in 2 years, he completely changed the offense and gets Nebraska to the CCG. I don't care what you think, that was an amazing accomplishment.
I've said it before, but had BC done two things in 2007, who knows what might have happened. 1, start Joe Ganz and 2, get just an average DC in place of his buddy, and he just might still be here.
Now take Pelini. The guy could coach without a doubt, when he had great players. That 2009 Gator Bowl was awesome, and 2010 he had just an ungodly defense. But the guy didn't seem to want to do the things that a HC needed to do in order to maintain success.
I like to compare Bo and BC after 3 years, because in year four, Carriker and Moore were gone as I mentioned, and in year 4 Bo was starting to run out of Callahan recruits. In years 1-3, BC was 4-6 vs ranked teams at the time they played. Bo in that same time was 5-7. In their careers at Nebraska, BC was 4-10 (40%) vs teams ranked when they played, Bo was 10-15 (40%). Pretty equal crap.
2. Callahan/Bo tied, equally crappy for some of the same and different reasons
3. Solich
I'm not defending Callahan, but look at it objectively. He took over a program that had totally gone to a QB run heavy offense the two years prior. He inherited Joe Dailey. Yes he went 5-6 his first year attempting to transition to his offense. Pretty much blew the Southern Miss game with turnovers, which could have meant a winning season.
2nd year, he gets Zac Taylor. 8-4 record. Lost to TT at TT by 3. Lost to OU at home, by 7, a bad loss to Kansas at Kansas when Mangino was starting to turn them into a very good program, and a loss by 14 at Missouri. They have one of them more enjoyable victories in the last 20 years at Boulder that year (unexpected 30-3 victory), and topped it off with a win against Michigan in the Alamo Bowl (yes there was some officiating issues in that game). TT ended up # 20, OU # 22, and Nebraska # 24.
3rd year, division champions, lost to OU in the CCG. Lost a close game in the Cotton.
4th year, high hopes, Game Day comes to town because people actually thought there was a chance against vaunted USC. IMHO, this is when we saw just how much Adam Carriker and Jay Moore covered for Cosgrove's flaws as a DC. They left and the D went to hell.
So in 2 years, he completely changed the offense and gets Nebraska to the CCG. I don't care what you think, that was an amazing accomplishment.
I've said it before, but had BC done two things in 2007, who knows what might have happened. 1, start Joe Ganz and 2, get just an average DC in place of his buddy, and he just might still be here.
Now take Pelini. The guy could coach without a doubt, when he had great players. That 2009 Gator Bowl was awesome, and 2010 he had just an ungodly defense. But the guy didn't seem to want to do the things that a HC needed to do in order to maintain success.
I like to compare Bo and BC after 3 years, because in year four, Carriker and Moore were gone as I mentioned, and in year 4 Bo was starting to run out of Callahan recruits. In years 1-3, BC was 4-6 vs ranked teams at the time they played. Bo in that same time was 5-7. In their careers at Nebraska, BC was 4-10 (40%) vs teams ranked when they played, Bo was 10-15 (40%). Pretty equal crap.
This year's Minnesota game and second half against Iowa were as much of an unconditional surrender as those blowouts at the end of the Callahan regime.
At least Callahan's teams were getting boatraced by high-powered offenses. After hanging 54 on NU, Minnesota didn't score another point.
Hey hey- dont get ahead of yourself
Minnesota beat NU by 33 points
Minnesota only beat the great Oregon State Beavers by 34
NU> Oregon State by 1 point
Even though supposedly since NU had much better facilities and programs- NU was supposed to be light years ahead of OSU- or that's what we were sold by the admins and Riley lovers
Yeah, Callahan even showed distain toward NU before he was fired even Stopped wearing Husker gear
Solich by a mile...
Took the most powerful dynasty in college football history
Top 3 recruiting classes in 1996 and 1997, and by the time they graduated we were 7-7.
Plus I was around his teams...they were arrogant and undisciplined. He walked around like he had done something, and they did as well. Even though those responsible for winning were long gone.
He won over 70% of his games but was never hired by a decent program again. Absolutely garbage.
He didn't even fill his recruiting class, and was so unattractive to players that he took the dynasty and barely had top 40 classes by the time he was fired. Can't blame Cally when he took over a program without a winning culture, he couldn't continue what Frank was doing...Bo had a ton of talent and went down the path of solich, lazy and arrogant...Riley was just not a good coach, but was given historically low levels of talent.
Took the most powerful dynasty in college football history
Top 3 recruiting classes in 1996 and 1997, and by the time they graduated we were 7-7.
Plus I was around his teams...they were arrogant and undisciplined. He walked around like he had done something, and they did as well. Even though those responsible for winning were long gone.
He won over 70% of his games but was never hired by a decent program again. Absolutely garbage.
He didn't even fill his recruiting class, and was so unattractive to players that he took the dynasty and barely had top 40 classes by the time he was fired. Can't blame Cally when he took over a program without a winning culture, he couldn't continue what Frank was doing...Bo had a ton of talent and went down the path of solich, lazy and arrogant...Riley was just not a good coach, but was given historically low levels of talent.
Pelini if you can look past 9 wins a year....
I look past Pelini’s record the same way I look past a glass filled with salt water when I’m thirsty.
MR by a country mile.
Two losing seasons in three years is extremely impressive. Even Clownahan couldn't hack that.
Frank & Bo weren't even in MR's galaxy.
Two losing seasons in three years is extremely impressive. Even Clownahan couldn't hack that.
Frank & Bo weren't even in MR's galaxy.