I do not want to talk about Nebraska football. I would like to discuss how universities run their sports programs. They need to get a grip on how they hire and fire people, and some schools need to be a bit more realistic about how they manage their people. The Huskers have gotten rid of their AD named Shawn Eichorst, and they will likely put mike riley in a position where he could be fired by the new person who is hired. That alone puts Nebraska football in a bad spot, and it continues a cycle of bad decisions that started a long time ago.
Why not fire him in the summer?
If you, as the University of Nebraska, were unhappy with the football team, you should have fired Eichorst in the summer. If you planned to fire Eichorst because you thought the athletic department was run badly, you would have fired him in the summer. Who is playing in the summer? Nobody plays in the summer. You would have had all summer to get rid of him, let him clear out his office, and hire his replacement. Instead, you decided to fire him in the middle of the football season when basketball is also about to start. You have put the two biggest programs at the school in jeopardy because they have no central leader to turn to. Everyone in both programs will spend the next couple months wondering who you will hire, and you will get the same bad results you have gotten in the past.
Mike Riley is in trouble
Mike Riley is no doubt in trouble because the person who is hired to replace Eichorst will feel free to fire Riley and hire his own guy. This would continue the vicious cycle of hiring and firing that has been going on at this school since Tom Osborne retired. It has been a long time since Nebraska was truly relevant in football, and the football team cannot grow if they keep firing coaches.
Frank Solich was once 9-3, and the school fired him because he was not Tom Osborne. Begging Solich to come back to Lincoln is probably the only real solution for this problem.
The Tennessee hole of despair
Tennessee is in the same situation because they fired Philip Fulmer, could not find a replacement and have been a mess ever since.
These two schools have not learned from each other's mistakes. One can look at college sports and realize that taking the approach of either Nebraska or Tennessee is a good way to have miserable fans and alumni. However, Nebraska is happy to keep blaming people for not being perfect like Tom Osborne was. They are going about this all wrong.
