The beginning of the end.
That’s one way to remember Northern Illinois’ last trip to Nebraska in 2017. Tanner Lee threw two pick-six interceptions in the first quarter, and it became clear to everyone that the Mike Riley experiment was heading into an uncontrollable tailspin. Within days, University leadership dismissed athletic director Shawn Eichorst, recognizing that Nebraska couldn’t trust Eichorst with selecting another football coach after completely botching the 2014 hire.
Nebraska losing in MAC-tion would seem to be worthy of the University’s leaders hitting the panic button, but it really was the final straw in a long series of failures under Mike Riley.