Nebraska Fires Mike Riley as Head Football Coach

Earlier this morning, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln fired their head football coach, Mike Riley after three seasons at the helm of the football program.  Under Riley, the Huskers were 19-19, which was not enough to keep him as head football coach.

Below is a chart of offense, defense and total production of the University of Nebraska football program during Riley's tenure as head football coach, along with who would be the lowest ranked team during this time period (in purple) and the average team (sky blue).  As you can see below, Nebraska has been below average for two of the three seasons at the helm of the program.  All rankings in this blog come from my Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.  More details about the program under Riley are after the chart below, including a link to his employment contract are below.

Mike Riley [2015 - 2017]

2015
The Huskers finished the regular season at 5-7 and were bowl ineligible, but were still able to go "bowling" since not enough schools were bowl eligible, even though other programs were but were not chosen. The Huskers defeated #36 ranked UCLA (37-29) to finish 6-7 overall.  Nebraska played against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was plus or minus one standard deviation from the "league" average SOS.  The Huskers best game was their victory over #30 ranked Southern Mississippi (36-28) and their worst loss was to #118 ranked Purdue (45-55).  Nebraska had the #79 ranked team in total production with the #59 ranked offense and the #78 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2016
Nebraska finished the regular season at 9-3 and were bowl eligible and lost to #65 ranked Tennessee (24-38).  The Huskers played against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS.  The Huskers best game again was their victory over #38 ranked Minnesota (24-17) and their worst loss was again to #41 ranked Iowa (10-40).  Nebraska had the #58 ranked team in total production with the #83 ranked offense and the #24 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.

2017*
At the time of Riley's firing, the Huskers finished 4-8 and bowl ineligible while and playing against a "tougher" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that Nebraska's SOS was between one and two standard deviations below the "league" SOS.  The Huskers best win was their opening game against #32 currently ranked Arkansas State by a score of (43-36) and their worst loss was their last game to #84 currently ranked Iowa by a score of (14-56).  Currently, Nebraska has the #109 ranked team in total production, with the #81 ranked offense and the #116 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.


2017 NCAA FBS Head Coach Changes
Minnesota and Tracy Claeys
California and Sonny Dykes
Oklahoma and Bob Stoops
Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Hugh Freeze
UTEP and Sean Kugler
Oregon State and Gary Andersen
Georgia Southern and Tyson Summers
Florida and Jim McElwain
Tennessee and Butch Jones
UCLA and Jim Mora
South Alabama and Joey Jones
Arkansas and Bret Bielema