Nielson Leaving?

meganeck · Tue Dec 08, 2015 2:59 pm

It is being reported that Nielson is interviewing for the South Dakota job. Not sure what to think of this. Are things that bad at WIU that is looking to leave already or closer to home, about money? Interesting to see what happens.

W1U · Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:04 pm

Like you said, it's probably closer to home and they can probably offer more money given our state's issues. This is not good...

Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:15 pm

Footballscoop.com does say that he's one of the candidates being interviewed:

Per source, among those interviewing for the vacant head coaching position are Eastern Michigan offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach Kalen DeBoer and Western Illinois head coach Bob Nielson.

From a USD poster on the AnyGivenSaturday.com board:

Have also heard some message board chatter about John Wristen (who built CSU-Pueblo football program from scratch starting in 2007 to winning D2 national championship in 2014), Glenn Caruso (was OC for one year at USD and then to head coach at St Thomas in Mpls, which he has built into a annual D3 contender) and Jed Stugart (currently at U Sioux Falls and was on Joe Glenn's staff at Northern Colorado)

sealhall74 · Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:25 pm

I know for sure he likes fishing. The Saluki job would be a better fit with some very good bass fishing lakes in the vicinity.

If true, I hope the AD staff is systematically searching under all of the sofa cushions on campus to come up with some counter-offer dollars.

lovethenecks · Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:22 pm

Good Bye Coach, saves the school a lot of trouble not having to let him go in a year or Two. Probably a Win/Win. Good Luck, I hope he gets the job.

leatherface · Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:35 pm

Just curious, why do you believe the school would be letting him go in a year or two?

Tue Dec 08, 2015 5:02 pm

His original contract was, I believe, supposed to be up at the end of next year (December 31, 2016). We would need to do something at that point, although I would lean towards trying to keep him. I like what it looks like he's done with the football team so far, and am interested to see what happens in another year or two when it's all the players he recruited that are in starting positions with experience. It feels like we're trending upwards, and Nielson is a big part of that.

I like him and would like to see him stick around, but I can't blame him if he gets a better offer, and it's pretty obvious to anyone that Illinois is not in a great financial state right now...we're going to have trouble doing much in the way of facility improvements for a while. Other options might be more attractive right now.

Neckfansince71 · Tue Dec 08, 2015 5:48 pm

Well I'll be damned! Just goes to show you how much I know about things! I like what Coach N has done too. He has been a class act from day one and that has been very good for this university. Guess you can always interview no matter what job you currently have and weigh the options and offers. I really think though that there is still some unfinished business and I would hope that Coach N remains to see the turn-around through. As far as facilities go, the state of the state of Illinois has little to do with the westside of Hanson Field unless you are talking about student fee's which will probably continue to get eaten up by state cuts. I know that's exactly how ISU got their stadium project to go and the fact that they have 20,000 students didn't hurt their cause either. But the westside project is gonna take a "campaign" to get it done.

jc

wiu712 · Tue Dec 08, 2015 6:30 pm

This story made the 6PM Sports on both WGEM and KHQA.

This is bringing back memories of when Coach Randy Ball left Western. Some people were disappointed that he went to another school in the same conference (Southwest Missouri State).

History could be repeating itself ......

sealhall74 · Tue Dec 08, 2015 6:37 pm

Have we made a decision yet on full cost of attendance? USD has.