Enter Mike Riley, the anti-Bo Pelini hire.

By Pete Fiutak | @PeteFiutak

Riley is a good media guy and a solid personality compared to the abrasive and occasionally odd Pelini.

Riley will be 62 at the start of the season, and most likely is at his last head coaching stop, while Pelini is 47 and will have a second act somewhere big in the FCS ranks as long as he doesn’t implode.

The other big difference? Pelini won a lot of games on a consistent basis. Riley hasn’t.

If Pelini had won conference championships and put Nebraska in the center of the national title hunt once in a while, he’d have been considered one of college football’s most interesting characters. But he didn’t, the act didn’t play well in Lincoln, and now he’s gone.

If you win lots and lots of football games, you can rub people the wrong way and everything will be pushed aside as part of the genius of being a star head coach. But it wasn’t that Pelini didn’t win enough – he came up with nine wins or more in every one of his seven seasons and finished at least tied for the division title in four campaigns – it’s that he wasn’t very likeable. That meant there was no wiggle room when his team failed on the big stage against Wisconsin last season and against the Badgers in the 2012 Big Ten championship, and that made it easy to let him go despite all the success.

But these aren’t the old days when Nebraska dominated a slew of weak sisters to go along with two or three tough games a year. The consistency of winning nine games year in and year out is worth something – ask Michigan what it’s like to fall off the map.

Pelini had seven nine-win seasons in seven tries, so how many has Riley come up with in his 14 years at Oregon State? Four, and just one in the last six seasons.

But despite coming off a losing season and with a 12-13 record over the last two years, this isn’t like Auburn hiring Gene Chizik out of the blue after a disastrous run at Iowa State. Riley is a safe, solid head football coach who should be just fine, but that’s not what Nebraska needs. The Huskers just had fine – they want to catch national championship lightning in a bottle like Auburn did with Chizik.

And that’s how this will all be determined. Riley can’t just win nine games. He can’t just be competitive and be in the chase. Basically, what Nebraska was saying with the canning of Pelini was that it needed a new face of the program, and if that face doesn’t come up with double-digit victories and a conference title, he has failed.

Riley loses Randy Gregory, but he inherits a whale of a defensive front and eight total starters on a defense that should be far stronger. He loses Ameer Abdullah on the offensive side, but he gets back seven starters with just enough talent to put together a good attack.

However, this isn’t a rebuilding job. There is no grace period. There is no five-year plan. This is a good team, with a good coach, and a good chance to be in the mix for the Big Ten West title.

But this isn’t a great team, and the jury is still out on whether or not Riley is a great coach, and it’s going to take something truly special to win the Big Ten title. If Riley pulls it off, though, chalk one up for the good personality guys.

College football needs more guys like Mike Riley. However, Nebraska needs championships. Now we’ll see if the two can mesh.

What You Need To Know About The Offense: The offense worked just fine last season – for the most part – finishing 17th in the nation in rushing and 12th in scoring. So how much will be tinkered with? Offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf was part of the passing fun at Oregon State for several years, but Nebraska doesn’t have the same parts. In theory, Mike Riley would like to go with a pro-style attack, but QB Tommy Armstrong isn’t a top-shelf passer and he doesn’t have the receivers to crank things up down the field. The running game never worked at Oregon State, but it was terrific at Nebraska last year and it should still be fine even without Ameer Abdullah. The O line will be fine despite the loss of three starters in the interior, and the rushing punch of Terrell Newby and Imani Cross will be strong. The key will be to find the explosion in the passing game for this all to work.

What You Need To Know About The Defense: Disappointing, the Huskers couldn’t stop the great running teams and had problems as the season wound down. The Randy Gregory-less defensive front should be outstanding with tackle Maliek Collins leading the way, and the linebacking corps will be good enough. Will that translate into consistent production in the biggest games? The secondary is full of good options, and the pass rush should be fine, but considering the defense allowed an average of 41.5 points over the last four games, new defensive coordinator Mark Banker has work to do.

What to watch for on offense: Do the pieces match the coach? Mike Riley is a pro-style offense fan who likes to push the ball down the field and take lots of chances with the passing game, but he’s not afraid of tailoring what he does to the guys in place. Nebraska is always going to run the ball and it’s not going to change things up 180-degrees, but Oregon State ran averaged under four yards per carry last year with just 1,417 yards and hasn’t hit the 2,000-yard mark since 2008 – that’s not going to fly in Lincoln. Nebraska ran for over 3,000 yards last season, and while Riley is going to want to improve the passing game, if he and offensive coordinator Danny Langsford aren’t blasting away with a good group of backs, there will be grumbling.

What to watch for on defense: The defensive line is going to be terrific. It hurt the easy narrative last year, but Randy Gregory was good, not elite, and he’s able to be replaced despite leading the team with seven sacks. Greg McMullen might not be as good, but he’ll be solid enough to go with a good pass rushing rotation. This year, tackle Maliek Collins appears to be ready to blow up on a national scale, and Vincent Valentine is a big body on the inside ready to gum things up. Five underclassmen played roles last year, and now the work is going to pay off.

The team will be far better if … the run defense dominates. Yeah, it’s a new coaching staff and a new attitude, but it’s the same Big Ten. Nebraska didn’t just struggle last year when it couldn’t stop the run, it lost. The Huskers gave up 180 rushing yards or more four times last season, struggling against Michigan State, Wisconsin, Minnesota and USC – they lost all four games. The fifth-worst day from the run D came against McNeese State, and it took the Ameerical play from Abdullah to pull that out. BYU will be a good test right away for the Husker run D, but Wisconsin and Minnesota come in back-to-back weeks in mid-October.

The schedule: It’s an interesting non-conference schedule. Opening up against BYU is rough, and going to Miami will be one of the Big Ten’s big September moments. South Alabama is just pesky enough to put up a fight, and Southern Miss is improving.
– Playing Michigan State in interdivision play is rough, but at least it’s at home and at least there’s no Ohio State to face. Going to Rutgers for the other East game isn’t bad.
– The Huskers don’t have to play two road games in a row, but they also don’t get two straight home games after the first two, alternating the rest of the way after starting out against BYU.
– The Wisconsin, Northwestern and Iowa games are at home. If the Huskers are good enough to win those two games, they should be good enough to beat Minnesota on the road.
– WATCH OUT FOR … Rutgers. It’s the road game coming off the Michigan State battle and just before the week off. Nebraska will play 11 straight games before getting a break, and the Scarlet Knights are No. 11.

Best offensive player: Sophomore WR De’Mornay Pierson-El. It takes someone special to wear No. 15 at Nebraska. Mostly a return man last season, he’s a dangerous all-around prospect who can run, be a deep threat, and turn into a devastating top target who needs to get the ball in his hands as the top receiver. There are several good running backs, and QB Tommy Armstrong and OT Alex Lewis are going to be good, but Pierson-El is the difference-maker who could be the one guy who can make the offense explode.

Best defensive player: Junior DT Maliek Collins. Randy Gregory got all of the headlines, but Collins had every bit as good a season up front – he just did it in a different way. A dangerous interior pass rusher and a strong run stopper, he had his bad moments – like everyone else on the Husker D did against Wisconsin – but combining with Vincent Valentine at tackle, Collins should have another all-star season as the do-it-all producer who’ll be the new star of the line.

Key player to a successful season: Junior QB Tommy Armstrong. Johnny Stanton left, but there are some other quarterback options with Zack Darlington and Ryker Fyfe just a few of the guys in the fight for time. Armstrong is hardly a rock of a starter with too many interceptions and too many inconsistent moments, but without Ameer Abdullah to carry the team’s weight, and with a decent, not great, receiving corps, Armstrong has to be the reason Nebraska wins a few of the key games.

The season will be a success if … Nebraska wins ten games and the Big Ten West. If Nebraska doesn’t do both, then it’s going to be sort of tough to explain away the dumping of Bo Pelini – outside of the fact that the program just didn’t really want him around anymore. There are no excuses with no Ohio State, Michigan or Penn State, and with Wisconsin and Michigan State at home. This would probably be the fourth-best team in the East – and that might be generous, but in the West, it needs to win the thing.

Key game: Oct. 10 vs. Wisconsin. Nebraska can lose all of its non-conference games and can drop the home game to Michigan State, and none of it matters if the Huskers roll through the rest of their Big Ten schedule and get by Wisconsin. Bo Pelini didn’t get fired because of the loss to the Badgers last year, but … Bo Pelini sort of got fired because of the loss to the Badgers last year. In the last two games against Wisconsin – last year’s date in Madison and the 2012 Big Ten championship – Nebraska was outscored 129 to 54 and allowed 1,126 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns. Win this game, likely, win the West.

2014 Fun Stats:
– Third Down Conversions: Nebraska 76-of-184 (41%) – Opponents 58-of-193 (30%)
– Fourth Quarter Scoring: Nebraska 127 – Opponents 62
– Punt Return Average: Nebraska 15.9 yards – Opponents 8.9 yards

Players You Need To Know

1. DT Maliek Collins, Jr.
While he’s not necessarily an anchor, he’s a 6-2, 300-pound quick athlete on the inside who earned All-Big Ten honors after getting into the backfield on a regular basis. Smart – he earned all-star honors in the classroom, too – a great leader, and productive in all areas, he came up with 45 tackles with 4.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss. Extremely quick off the ball, he knows how to get to the quarterback and bring the pressure, and he proved he could gum up the works – at least against just about everyone except Wisconsin. Very good last year, now he’ll grow into the star everything will work around.

2. WR De’Mornay Pierson-El, Soph.
The do-it-all explosive weapon, Pierson-El turned in a special season as a punt returner, averaging 17.53 yards per try with touchdowns against Fresno State, Michigan State and Iowa. He struggled on kickoff returns, and he wasn’t used much as a runner, but he threw a touchdown pass and showed off the upside as a receiver to turn into a deep threat gamechanger. At 5-9 and 185 pounds, he’s not all that big, but he can fly and cut on a dime averaging 14 yards per catch coming up with 23 grabs for 321 yards and four scores even though he wasn’t used much in the offense until the final month of the year. Against USC he caught eight passes for 102 yards and a score – the talent is there to make those numbers the norm.

3. S Nate Gerry, Jr.
While he’s trying to get back healthy from a knee injury, when he’s right and 100%, he’s one of the team’s best tacklers and all-around defenders. Athletic with good range and raw speed – he was a South Dakota high school track star – with 6-2, 205-pound size and great popping ability. Second on the team with 88 tackles, he was always outstanding in run support making 15 tackles against Iowa and 11 against Minnesota, seemingly in on just about everything. He made his share of plays when the ball was in the air, too, coming up with five interceptions including one in three straight games in the middle of the season. If he’s healthy, he’ll be an All-Big Ten performer.

4. QB Tommy Armstrong, Jr.
After battling for the No. 2 job in 2012 before suffering a knee injury, he came back fine and held off the challengers to take over the starting quarterback job after Taylor Martinez went down. Last season the gig was all his, showing the promise and potential to be the team’s leader and star for the next few seasons completing 53% of his passes for 2,695 yards and 22 touchdowns with 12 picks, while running for 705 yards and six touchdowns and even catching a scoring pass. A dual-threat option, he’s not a polished passer, but he’s good enough to do what the Nebraska offense needs – even with the new emphasis on pushing the ball a bit more down the field. At 6-1 and 220 pounds he’s built well and can run, but he has to cut down on his picks and needs to be far more consistent after completing fewer than half of his passes five times in his last nine games.

5. DT Vincent Valentine, Jr.
The big body on the inside next to Maliek Collins, Valentine has 6-3, 325-pound size to occupy the interior and be the main man against the run. He’s not the athlete or the pass rusher that Collins is, but that’s not his job or his role. Even so, he came up with three sacks and seven tackles for loss to go along with 45 tackles. Now that he knows what he’s doing after two years of experience, look out. He has the talent and upside to go from very good to special.

6. RB Terrell Newby, Jr.
While he wasn’t used too often last year with just 67 carries and eight catches, he appears to be ready to be the main man in the rotation. The 5-10, 200-pounder from Los Angeles is a pure No. 1-caliber running back with good moves, a great burst, and a workhorse mentality to go along with the type of personality to be a Face of the Program type of guy. Fresh – most of his production came in the opener last year against Florida Atlantic – he’s ready to explode.

7. OT Alex Lewis, Sr.
The former Colorado Buffalo has a good 6-6, 290-pound frame and an aggressive hitting ability for the ground game. A good pass protector, the Big Ten all-star has the feet and talent to be the main man for the line at left tackle – but he can produce just fine on either side. Strong, he’s the tone-setter who can move and get physical. Names a team captain, he’s a true leader who needs to be fantastic with some key parts missing up front from last year.

8. P Sam Foltz, Jr.
The All-Big Ten performer came up with a solid year averaging 42.2 yards per try blasting away with 18 punts of over 50 yards. Excellent in 2013, he was used more and came through with a good campaign averaging 41.6 yards per try putting 22 inside the 20. Last year he dropped 26 punts inside the 20 and was more of a weapon. In his third year with the gig, he should be even more consistent while showing off the leg to get the team out of jams.

9. LB David Santos, Sr.
Versatile enough to start on the inside or out, the 6-0, 225-pound senior has produced over the last two years no matter where he played making 87 tackles in 2013 and 50 last season missing three games banged up. While he’s okay inside, considering he’s not all that bulky, he’s better on the weakside when he gets more room to roam. With his sideline-to-sideline range he should be one of the team’s leading tacklers again if he’s right again after his knee injury.

10. RB Imani Cross, Sr.
A smart, big back in the rotation, the 6-1, 240-pounder mixed in with Ameer Abdullah over the last two years with a team-leading ten touchdowns in 2013 and five scores last year to go along with 384 yards. A big-time recruit a few years ago, he has the talent and the upside, but he needs to get the ball in his hands more after being all put phased out over each of the last two seasons. He ran 22 times for 109 yards and a score against Illinois, and ran 20 times against Purdue, but those were the only two games he got more than six carries. While he can always be a power back, he needs to be the type of runner who wears down defenses as games go on.