Take Two: Is Mike Riley in trouble at Nebraska?

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

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Nebraska is 3-4. The Huskers are coming off blowout losses to Wisconsin and Ohio State in home night games that used to strike fear in opponents.

Third-year coach Mike Riley, 18-15 overall and 11-10 in conference play, has clearly entered “hot seat” status, especially with Nebraska firing the athletics director who hired him earlier this season. Former Washington State AD Bill Moos is the new man in charge.

Does Nebraska need to move on from Riley and start anew with Moos making his own hire to see if and when the Huskers can become a national contender again?

This season has not gone well for Nebraska and regression is certainly a word that can be used when it comes to how things have played out.

The season opener against Arkansas State was a battle. Losses to Oregon and Northern Illinois - a back-breaker - followed. Nebraska beat Rutgers and Illinois leading up to the big back-to-back home games against the Badgers and the Buckeyes. Both of those games were flops.

Nebraska has a bye week to take a deep breath and assess its situation. It’s not good for a program that expects - almost demands - higher levels of winning. With Moos now in, is Riley out? Will changes need to be made for the Huskers to be a national player again?

“Any time the guy that hires you is abruptly fired during the season, it's not a good thing for the sitting head coach. Bill Moos is very much a football guy, and he's going to evaluate things very closely. He's already said he does not believe making mid-season coaching moves, so Riley will have five games now to make his case and show things are heading in the right direction. The question remains what will it take? Would a 4-1 finish keep this staff in place? Will a very competitive 3-2 finish do it?”

“It’s not working out right now. They used to be a team that was formidable to play on the road in a big atmosphere and that’s not the case at all. Both of those games were at home, neither of those games were in jeopardy for the opponent. They just got rolled. They’re really not a threat to beat anybody good right now and Nebraska has higher standards than that.

“If you’re not a threat to beat any good football team in the Big Ten and there are about five or six of them, then I don’t think it’s working out very well. We’ll probably see a change at the end of the season. If not, then it will definitely be after next season. I don’t see them righting the ship here.”