CHICAGO — It’s been two hard Julys.
The sentiment was shared by Nebraska coach Mike Riley and the three players he brought along to Big Ten media days on Tuesday. Amid the questions each fielded about season expectations and football, all took time to reflect on two men whose deaths they said put life in perspective.
Punter Sam Foltz lost his life in a car accident on a Sunday in late July 2016, prompting Nebraska to withdraw from the Big Ten media days set to start the next day. Then, earlier this month, Bob Elliott — who took over as NU safeties coach in February before his health forced him into an off-the-field role as a defensive analyst in June — died in hospice care.
“Two summers in a row losing somebody from the team and the organization,” Riley said. “I absolutely can’t believe that. But the more you’re in this thing, the more you know that next phone call might not be any fun. There’s so many moving parts. You’re dealing with so many people — 130, 140 players, all the numerous branches off the coaching tree — that something might happen. I hate it.”
Riley reflected on both former Huskers throughout the day. Foltz as the Nebraska kid who helped introduce the new coach to Big Red culture with his unique personality and drive as a former walk-on. Elliott as the 64-year-old contemporary of Riley’s, a man the head coach thought could have become a great friend in time.
NU safety Aaron Williams had an affectionate nickname for his position coach of only a few months: OGE, short for “Older Guy Elliott.” It’s a term of respect, the junior said, for someone who took a genuine interest in his well-being beyond the field.
“I didn’t view him such as a football coach, and he didn’t like to be viewed as that,” Williams said. “He’s an outstanding football coach, but he wanted a more personal relationship with you. He might walk past you and ask you how your day’s going. He wanted to know about your day, your family — he wanted to know about that kind of stuff. He wasn’t so much concerned with the X’s and O’s, but he wanted to know you as a person. I used to love Coach Elliott. That’s my man.”
Williams credited new safeties coach Scott Booker for coming in and “being interactive” with players in the wake of Elliott’s passing. As with Elliott, Booker knows how to make others smile and has teamed with cornerbacks coach Donte Williams on a smooth on-field transition.
But it still doesn’t take away the sting of the loss.
“It’s very difficult because it’s a relationship you build with people, then you just see them leave,” Aaron Williams said. “I feel like we all deal with it (by) being so close, being able to lean on each other.”
Just coming to Big Ten media days had linebacker Chris Weber thinking back on last summer, when he heard Foltz had been in an accident.
The senior added that one emotional blow doesn’t make the next any less painful. Just the opposite, really.
“Back-to-back Julys, two tragic deaths within our program,” Weber said. “Both were unique in their own ways.”
Others are lukewarm, but Mike Riley sees upward trend for Nebraska behind defense, quarterbacks
CHICAGO — Mike Riley wants time.
As he sat at Big Ten media days describing how he builds a team, he said he wasn’t so much motivated by money as he was more years on a contract. Success takes time to achieve, he suggested. Time to learn his team, develop older players who can teach the younger ones and find a “better way” to play.
He also said success could be cyclical.
“You just don’t want the down cycle to be too deep,” he said.
Riley has zero room for a down moment at Nebraska. In two seasons, he’s 15-11. Computer analytics such as ESPN’s Football Power Index predict a middling record — along the lines of 6-6 or 7-5 — for his 2017 team. College football preseason magazines see the same. Third or fourth in the Big Ten West. Sixth or seventh in the Big Ten as a whole. Middle of the pack. NU has a new quarterback, a new defense, a new No. 1 receiver, running back and tight end, and the strength of the team — the secondary — has sustained two major injuries that even Riley wouldn’t sugarcoat.
So where are these Huskers on the cycle of success?
“I think we’re trending upwards right now,” Riley said, conceding he knows the preseason narrative about Nebraska’s 2017 squad. “I feel good about that with our football team. And there are parts that would not necessarily, within me, agree. But the way I feel about this team is very, very positive.”
No argument from the three players who accompanied him — quarterback Tanner Lee, safety Aaron Williams and linebacker Chris Weber. Of course, all college players think, somehow, their team is flying under the radar. But NU actually is, and its players acknowledge that they’re decided underdogs in the Big Ten.
“Guys see it, and they use it,” Lee said. “We have a list of goals in our locker room that we want to achieve, and then we use those (outside predictions) as, ‘this is what everyone is expecting of us. Are we just going to let that happen?’”
Lee doesn’t think so. And since he was asked several times over an hour about NU being an underdog, he had plenty of practice explaining his viewpoint. He may also better understand how Big Ten media view the Huskers vs. how the team views itself.
The fifth-year junior who transferred from Tulane and has yet to take a snap at Nebraska said he likes “where our locker room is at.” The team anointed 11 players to serve as offseason conditioning captains, which helped. Players who had sat for several seasons behind departed seniors are hungry to make their own mark.
“We had so many seniors graduate and so many faces out there that aren’t going to be there this year that there are a lot of guys on this year’s team that are ready to fill those roles and step up,” Lee said. “There’s a lot of guys who are capable of performing.”
Williams agreed.
“We’re under the radar because there’s a lot of question marks, a lot of new pieces this year, but I feel like we use that as motivation,” Williams said.
Riley prefers positive reinforcement, but even he might use the doubters “as a little jab” with his team every once in awhile. He, too, has practice being overlooked; his Oregon State teams were never picked to win the Pac-10 title and, in terms of facilities, location and recruiting, Riley was often punching up in weight.
Nebraska has the facilities, tradition and higher profile. But there were moments last season that felt like NU had far more work to do.
Exhibit A: the 62-3 loss at Ohio State. That one, Riley said, hit him “right between the eyes.” It reminded him how far Nebraska had to go in its play and its recruiting. The game was a talking point around the football program from the time it happened in November until the bowl game loss to Tennessee.
OSU visits Lincoln this year. So do the other two teams — Wisconsin and Iowa — that beat the Huskers during the regular season.
Why might those games turn out differently? Riley offered several reasons for his general optimism:
» Nebraska’s defense generally and new coordinator Bob Diaco specifically.
“It feels like we’ll play good team defense together,” Riley said. “I have a feeling the combination of how this thing is being coached from the front backwards, I’ve been impressed with that, and I’ve been real impressed with the buy-in from the players. And so I know that is a key, key ingredient.”
Riley reiterated that he didn’t fire longtime coordinator Mark Banker and hire Diaco to go backward on defense.
» Quarterback play. In two years coaching them, Riley rarely said a discouraging word about starter Tommy Armstrong and backup Ryker Fyfe. His praise for Lee and his two backups — redshirt freshman Patrick O’Brien and true freshman Tristan Gebbia — was notable, though.
“I’ve never been in a spring game where I’ve had three quarterbacks where all three of them make it look like football pretty nicely,” Riley said.
» Warm thoughts about running back — where three players are one year older — and tight end, where Riley is bullish on senior walk-on Tyler Hoppes from Lincoln Southwest.
Riley didn’t mention the offensive line in his rundown. When told he hadn’t, Riley said the unit is relatively experienced.
“My expectations are that this group will play well, and, frankly, they need to,” Riley said.
There’s little question that NU’s prime Big Ten West rivals, Wisconsin and Iowa, will play well on the offensive line. Riley is 0-4 against the two teams. The losses to the Badgers — 23-21 in 2015 and 23-17 in overtime last season — came down to the very end.
“It’s been a big issue that we’ve talked about, big goal for our team, it’s about finishing,” Riley said. “We’ve virtually lost on the last play of the game the last two years. Heartbreaking, tough losses. If we want to get where we want to go, we have to win that. (Wisconsin) is like that. They’ve set that bar.”
