Riley describes first meeting with Moos more 'social'

Nebraska head coach Mike Riley had a limited opportunity on Sunday to visit with his new boss Bill Moos about 30 minutes following his introductory press conference.

Before that meeting Moos had already made it clear he does not believe in making coaching moves of any kind during mid-season.

With the nature of how this season has turned, naturally there are going to be a lot of questions about Riley and his relationship with Moos going forward.

On Tuesday, Riley said their initial meeting was strictly a meet and greet catching up on old times.

“It was very, very social,” Riley said of his first encounter with Moos. “I’ve known Bill and we’ve known each other for quite a few years.

“I happened to be in the building around that time because we were doing a recruiting weekend. They called me and actually said he was upstairs in the stadium. I just had a brief meeting with him. Kind of a hello and congratulations meeting. We kind of talked about old times more than the future times.”

As for on the field, NU lifted weights and watched film on Monday, and they held a short practice earlier this morning since Nebraska is on their fall break.

“I thought it was great workout,” Riley said. “I thought what we did was appropriate. It was a little bit less game planning and more back to the basics and some interactive work between our No. 1 offense and defense and our next man offense and defense. We didn’t do any special teams or anything like that. We just had some good basic football practice with some good interactive competition.”

***Riley addressed the status of both wide receiver JD Spielman (shoulder) and safety Joshua Kalu (hamstring), who left Saturday’s Ohio State game with injuries.

“I think it’s fortune for us,” Riley said. “I don’t know if either (Kalu or Spielman) would be able to play this week, but everything we learned about both Josh Kalu’s injury and JD Spielman’s injury is they should be back by the end of the week and ready to practice on Monday.”

***Riley remains optimistic that both safeties Aaron Williams and Antonio Reed will be ready to go for the Oct. 28 Purdue game.

“We are,” Riley said when asked if he’s hopeful Reed and Williams will be back for Purdue. “We feel confident that will happen too. They were in a situation going into the Ohio State game where we kind of held our breath on them until Thursday and then pulled the plug. They should be good and ready to go by the next game.”

***The status of sophomore running back Tre Bryant (knee), and the possibility of him taking a medical redshirt for 2017 still is in discussion.

“We are having ongoing discussions with Tre about that during this bye week with no conclusions,” Riley said.