Great Reads: Riley?s ?Bama and Byron Bennett's Miss

Mike Riley Remembers His Crimson Tide Days

Byron Bennett's ‘Infamous’ Missed Field Goal

Randy York N-Sider

Official Blog of the Huskers

I’ve subscribed to Sports Illustrated almost every year since college, so I know a great story when I read one. Let me assure Huskers.com readers that the Lincoln Journal-Star and the Omaha World-Herald published at least two weekend stories that are every bit as good as anything you might read in SI.

One is an inside look at Nebraska Coach Mike Riley and his longtime connection to Alabama, his alma mater. The other is an incredibly well researched piece on Byron Bennett, the Husker kicker who duck-hooked his game-ending field-goal attempt in Nebraska’s 18-16 national championship loss to Florida State in the 1994 Orange Bowl.  

The Journal-Star’s Brian Christopherson wrote a definitive story on Riley, who was offered the head coaching job at Alabama in 2002 but turned it down while he was an assistant coach for the New Orleans Saints and had his sights set instead on the head coaching job at UCLA, which never offered the opportunity.

The World-Herald’s Dirk Chatelain wrote an equally compelling column on Bennett, who was so distraught that he “dropped off the mat” and basically disappeared from the Husker football family for nearly two decades after missing the field goal. Even Coach Tom Osborne tried to track down Bennett to no avail.

Byron Bennett (13) walks off Orange Bowl after missing field goal in 18-16 national title loss. Photo by Jeff Bundy, Omaha World-Herald

Chatelain Finds Bennett and Resurrects Buried Editorial Treasures

There are so many creative twists in both Nebraska football-related stories, I qualify each as “must read” to the finish. Chatelain did what I and others were unable to do – find Bennett, then write an absolute gem that was so buried in its own vault, even the protagonist didn’t receive a box of 250 letters addressed to him until after he’d moved to Texas to begin his new life.

For the record, Riley lettered at Alabama playing for Bear Bryant and met his wife, Dee, while he was studying the traits that made a coaching staff led by the "Bear" so successful. Riley’s father grew up in Alabama in a family of seven kids. One of those kids, Hayden Riley, went on to be the Crimson Tide's head basketball coach, baseball coach and associate athletic director.

Christopherson pointed out that Riley was a redshirt when Nebraska “thumped” the Crimson Tide, 38-6, in the 1972 Orange Bowl. He also said one of the main coaching lessons Riley learned from the Bear was “how to make everyone in a locker room of more than 100 people feel part of the mission.”

There’s another interesting twist to Riley’s longtime connection with Alabama. Riley will be paying close attention to one of his players at Oregon State – Richard Mullaney, who made 83 catches in three seasons at Oregon State before becoming a 2015 graduate transfer at Alabama. Mullaney has 37 catches for 361 yards with the Crimson Tide this season. "He went down there and found his niche," Riley told Christopherson.

Here’s one final footnote from the Journal-Star: After Riley turned Alabama down, the Crimson Tide hired Mike Price, who never coached a game at Alabama following an “off-the-field scandal”. Alabama then turned to Mike Shula, who went 10-23 during his time in Tuscaloosa from 2003-06.

Former Huskers Working for Both National Championship Finalists

And here’s one final-final footnote. Two recent young Nebraska Athletics leaders will be rooting from opposite sides of Monday night’s College Football National Championship Playoff. Jessie Gardner, a former Life Skills Coordinator at Nebraska, is now a Student-Athlete Enhancement Director at Alabama. Former Husker Sunny Russell will be cheering for Clemson, where she now serves as a life skills intern. A captain of the Husker Rifle Team and an immediate past president of Nebraska’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Russell earned a $7,500 graduate scholarship from the NCAA and another $7,500 scholarship from the Big Ten.

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