Home Football Mike Riley in Games that Matter

Mike Riley in Games that Matter

107

I’m looking through CFDW and can’t find any big game victories.

In fact, I can’t even find many big games.

I’d list:

2008 Civil War
2009 Civil War
2012 Stanford

These games had National/BCS bowl implications, so “big game” applies. Riley is 0-3.

Then there are the intriguing games that weren’t necessarily big games:

LSU 2004 L
USC 2006 W
Cal 2007 W
Penn State 2008 L
USC 2008 W
TCU 2010 L
Boise State 2010 L
Wisconsin 2011 L
Wisconsin 2012 W
Washington 2012 L
Texas 2012 L

So Riley is 4-7 in these games. You could argue some other games, like Boise St 2006 were intriguing. They don’t help Riley’s cause, though. And maybe USC 2006 was just a “good win”, but not an intriguing game. Morale was low going into that game, but there was something in the air that day. If you take away USC ’06 and add Boise St 2006 (national TV game, ESPN, favorite, etc) he’s 3-8.

Anyway, in both the USC games and Cal, OSU was a big underdog (i.e. zero pressure). So out of these games, that leaves Riley with 1 victory (Wisconsin) where there was an expectation to win (granted, the line was -7, but many fans thought OSU had the better team).

Intuition told me Riley doesn’t perform when the games matter most and/or there are expectations. I just wanted to check the numbers.

107 COMMENTS

  1. This trend is over a decade old. Yet fans still think a light is going to turn on and he’s going to win these types of games. Wake up, people.

    • I also believe that the stipulation of “…when games matter most and/or there are expectations.” should include losing season openers to Sac St. and EWU. Those should be put against his record in such a categorical standing as well.

    • Maybe even the WSU 2010 game. I believe that we were their only W all season other than a Big Sky Montana State. And we were playing in Corvallis. There was DEFINITELY the expectation to win that game!

    • Keeping another team out of a big game doesn’t mean it was a big game for your team. It was important to you, emotionally, but that’s about it.

      • In state rivalry. Opponent’s fans come to your stadium carrying roses and celebrating prematurely. I think that qualifies as a “intriguing” game AND a big win.

        • I agree with Angry. Civil War is always big. BeavBlazer, the really sad part is that that game was 15 years ago, and we won 5 games that year, and its considered by some of us to be a high water mark for the program.

      • Angry is right on this one as that was a great game (I was there), but OSU played spoiler in that one and the CW is always a big game regardless. As far as winning one for all the marbles, I feel like Eisenhower did when a reporter asked him what he thought Richard Nixon’s biggest accomplishment was… give me a week and I’ll think about it. That would be my response to Riley’s big game wins.

  2. Washington last year and Stanford this year had pretty big implications for being in the driver’s seat for the Rose Bowl Riley blew all these and his 2nd Rose Bowl chance last year against Stanford when up with a decent lead. He choked that game just like he did the Alamo Bowl. His FCS losses are a great embarassment to the university. We are nationally as well known for these losses more than any wins.

    In all honesty Riley has done little over the last 13 years of note. He had a couple USC wins at home which is nothing compared to beating them on the road like a bad WSU team did this year. Those USC wins were mostly novelties that didn’t produce anything more than a Sun Bowl. No big whoop yet BDC gave Riley the equivalent of a 17 year deal for a field goal in a super sloppy Sun Bowl since he received an already very long 10 year deal with an assmunch stupid 6-6 level for extension. Riley can likely reach that 7 years out of 10 beating Nicholls St, Cal , Colorado and WSU and a couple other games where we are already expected to win at home.

    I can’t find one big game win that actually had any meaning for taking the program up to a higher level. Even USC this year would have meant a good chance for a Holiday Bowl but he didn’t show up and for the past several years is far too pass happy. Think we can find several other coaches like Frost at Oregon or Wilcox or perhaps the Stanford D coordinator who would not make the common sense blunders Riley is prone to in most games. Couldn’t Riley try in just one game to actually try running about as much as he passes?

    If we ran more early in the season and were used to it we could be better prepared for the teams that come hard after the QB and not have to take too many sacks that cost us drives, points and all these “big” games that Riley never has won.

    • Yeah, Washington last year, agreed, but I didn’t list is b/c they had a chance to rebound vs Stanford. But yeah, that should probably be on the list. It doesn’t help his cause, though.

      I don’t know about Stanford this year…we were all pumped for it, so maybe. But there was also a lot of chatter that OSU was not very good and the byproduct of the schedule…but yeah, it could be on there. That would make him 3-10

      • Each of those games would have resulted in historic, 7-game win streaks and helped OSU in the rankings as well. The historic nature of them made them “big” games; Riley had the chance to do something no other OSU coach had done.

        And didn’t. And god UW was bad last year.

        Funny that UW “stormed” the field after upsetting #8 OSU in Seattle, and USC carried their coach off the field after breaking their “Reser losing streak.” Shows one how far those programs had fallen from their glory days.

  3. The thing that characterizes some of the wins as “low pressure” was not just so much that OSU was the underdog, but rather that Riley’s early season slow starts meant that a meaningful bowl game was already off of the table. So yeah, its nice to knock off a highly ranked USC squad, how about doing it when somethings at stake? The easy answer is every win means something to the team, but clearly, beating a #8 Stanford a few weeks back would have meant more than beating a #3 team in ’06.

    When he has to play for something – 08 and 09 CWs, UW and Stanford last year, Riley chokes miserably.

    Scnell wrote the popular rhetoric the other day “Corvallis is a hard place to recruit to and OSU lacks the facilities to compete, OSU can’t do better than Riley in this scenario.”

    SO – I’d like someone to ask Riley “Do you think its possible for a different coaching staff to come to Corvallis, with these resources and facilities, and get the Beavers football team to the holiday bowl or better in 6 years?”

    Put another, crude way, “Do you think somebody could do better than you under the same conditions?”

    6 years would give another staff the chance to play their own senior/upper classmen recruits. I bet Riley would say its possible.

  4. Riley was 14-34 at San Diego and he had plenty of time and his own players and got progessively worse. He just isn’t a bigtime coach at all. He would be better suited to an Idaho St or Idaho. He doesn’t need marketing or the ability to create buzz in those markets. Just a handful of wins and he can do the same thing over and over all he wants. He can’t win a big game that matters and we shouldn’t give him 20 years to try and fail. That is such a waste and exactly the path we are on. Support isn’t growing like it should and without more wins is going to start a slow fade. Won’t bother Riley or BDC much but won’t be good for OSU. The first move is get rid of BDC. Then if Riley doesn’t produce in the next couple years the new AD can make his pick. I don’t want BDC picking shit and he is married to Riley anyway.

    Ideally I would like BDC fired after this year and the new AD pick a new basketball coach if Robinson doesn’t make the NIT which he won’t. Fan frustration is growing so it seems BDC should be forced to make some major coaching hire in the next couple years if football and basketball continue to struggle. Obviously basketball is more likely but change in both is what is most healthy IMO.

  5. Oregon is about to play Georgetown in hoops opener in South Korea on ESPN. Dana Altman is a quality coach who makes Robinson look like a schoolgirl in comparison.

    If BDC wasn’t at the helm maybe we would have one and hopefully if BDC is forced out soon we may yet still get a real basketball coach.

    • Yeah…..Riley is good but never great. Robinson doesnt seem to be much of a coach at all. He needs to at least break even this year in conference. …but he wont.

      • Robinson is getting worse. The first recruiting class was good, and the Princeton offense was slightly effective. Then everything got worse…

      • I would not say good. Compiling smalltime wins without impact is doesn’t make one good. A 14-34 NFL record is very far from good. A good coach would have a .500 record or better in big games that matter. As Angry’s list shows Riley has none. He has failed repeatedly in every one of 8 or more games that all would have had impact. He is the definition of a choker.

        • If Riley coached anywhere else, everyone who reads this blog would agree with you. But there are those who refuse to believe they root for a loser + natural bias/loyalty. Those things are blinders.

          • You should also figure in LOSSES to smal time programs. He has two losses to D2 programs. A good coach doesnt let that happen. Sorry I called him “good”. A relative term

            Also factor in all his slow start seasons. There is a reason that happens.

            Slow start seasons
            Not many big time wins
            Losses to lower division teams.

      • I am wondering that if Robinson tanks again this year would BDC pull the trigger?
        If Beav football loses out (which is not inconceivable), there will some heat on Riley, but BDC can use CR as the sacrificial lamb, to prove that he is indeed an AD who can make tough decisions while MR continues on with his merry mediocrity. If I’m CR I better hope to God, I can get to 10-8 in the P-12 this year.

  6. What is OSU’s record against ranked teams when we are also ranked at the time under Coach Riley? I’m sure there’s a bowl game in there where we beat a ranked opponent, but I don’t think we’ve beaten a ranked Pac-10/12 opponent when we were also ranked at the time (thus, winning a big game) since the 2000 season.

    • Canada is more his speed.

      BTW, he was 9-9 the year he won his first Grey Cup, and his record in Canada is only 40-32 overall. Pretty mediocre!

  7. Riley loses the next two games his all time record at OSU will be .539. Hip, Hip New Mexico. Won’t be pretty if he loses his last 5 this year. OSU fans will probably be 55-45 or more in wanting a new coach. Todd Graham is ready to show Riley that he is submediocre.

  8. Bottom line is that we’re going to have to wait a half a decade or more to find out if another coach can do better than Riley, right? Lindsay Schnell and BDC are not going to approve of Mike’s termination!

    • Yep. There is nothing of the asshole in him. He will never piss any admin off. Too bad. Someone needs to slip the right drug into his gatoraid. Get him to go whacko….

  9. only nitpick I can think of, wasn’t USC ranked number 1 when we beat them in 2008? Does that not qualify as a big game?

    • Beaver season was already shot because of another slow start, so the game didn’t have any big implications for the Beav’s season. It was a big upset and Riley has made a living off of his two home upsets of USC. I wish he would knock off a top five Duck team at some point before I kick the bucket. That would be something to go on the resume along with the Grey Cup!

    • So you think like BDC that this win qualifies for the equivalent of a 17 year extension? The win was fine but just a home win and good teams win 80% of their home games anyway. Nothing to blow a wad over. BDC still has the splooge on him from that game even though most seasons should have a big win for good teams. That Sun Bowl is still pne of the ugliest games I have ever watched and BDC acted like he was coronating a Roman Emperor even as we sucked ass in that game and noone in the nation was watching or cared.

      • Did I say that? If you read any of my posts you have seen I am very critical of Riley and staff and think BDC needs to go.

        • Was replying to mckalk. I think you are one of the best posters on here who speaks the nonbiased truth and calls our mostly ugly athletic situation minus baseball for what it is. Yep, BDC is a lame duck garbage AD and is (Jerry) killing OSU. :(

          • Oh. It was your comment. Just saying it was a good win but not very impactful besides keeping us handcuffed to Riley for 17 years unless BDC is fired soon like he should be. I refuse to develop Stockholm Syndrome and start thinking Riley knows anything about winning any big games that matter or that BDC isn’t hands down the worst AD of a Big 5 conference. He had Jerry Kill should coach and administer a nursery home bingo team if anyone has to be stuck with them. Don’t bring down an entire university which should be full of fresh ideas.

          • FedUpBeav,

            I think we’re on the same page. In some ways Whiskey is right about the USC games. While not impactful from a championship stand point, they’ve had a huge positive impact on Riley’s reputation as a coach with the media and coaching brotherhood and they have been milked for all that they’re worth!

            I mean, ESPN built their whole stupid Friday night theme on “Riley the Trojan Killer” even though I’m sure many here feel llike I do that those wins over SC are ancient history. If the media wants to wax nostalgic, then let’s talk about two losses to FCS teams or losing to an awful Wazzu team or not being able to beat Cincinnati twice or going to Happy Valley and stinking up the joint. We could go on and on.

          • And you know, when we traveled to Happy Valley we put something like 12,000+ Beavers in that stadium which is so difficult to get to from Corvallis. A really great turnout for a game like that, but we never built anything more on that. No additional big matchup a like that, oh wait, we have at Michigan coming up (while Utah has a home and home vs Michigan coming up)

          • another thing I am sick and fucking tired of hearing about from BDC. We cant get any quality opponents to come to Corvallis. Bullshit. Its because what you are attempting to pay out is a fucking joke. You want quality teams to come to Corvallis? Pony up. Same deal if you want a quality coach in ANY sport. You get what you pay for. If you offer crap, that’s what you get

  10. The only AD DeCarolis follows on twitter is Sandy Barbour. That should tell you something right there. Good chance she is gone after this year too.

  11. Angry, you are the king of nit picking.

    Lets look at this. How many big games did OSU have between 1969-1998. According to your metric 0. So just the fact that OSU has big games now shows improvement in the program. Next let’s look at OSU’s previous coach, Dennis Erickson, and his record in big/intriguing games.

    1999 Cal win
    1999 Hawaii loss
    2000 USC win
    2000 Washington Loss
    2000 Oregon Win
    2001 Notre Dame Win, but ND was way overrated, so maybe not that big
    2001 Fresno State Loss
    2001 Oregon Loss
    2002 USC Loss then lost two games after out of “quality” bowl contention

    So Erickson was 4-5 in big/intriguing games and trending downward by not winning a big one after the Fiesta Bowl win.

    Also, I like how you leave off games like the 2006 Hawaii game. That was an intriguing game. Also the 2006 Sun Bowl to get to 10 wins would seem to fit under intriguing as well, but you conveniently leave those off.

    Also, why was the Penn State games so intriguing, OSU lost to Stanford the week before, also the Wisconsin game in 2011 wasn’t so intriguing after losing to Sac St. So the way I see it Riley is 6-5 in big/intriguing games.

      • I think Espn had a post after the duck loss showing the all mighty and all powerful chip Kelly was something like 7-6 in “big games” during his tenure. Was chip an average coach because of this? I don’t know if this is a good metric for measuring a good coach. A more telling stat would be do to the quality of his teams, in 4 years Chip Kelly had almost the same amount of big games as Riley has in 10.

        • Big difference when in your bad years you still win BCS Bowl games. Also doing it in year 1 and never doing it no matter how many years are given. Riley can’t get the job done of taking the program any higher so it is time to give another man a shot who might not choke his opportunities like Riley always has and will.

        • Yeah, so Kelly, by there metric for “big games,” won more than he lost. And for the non-big games, that means he probably won 85-90% of those? Which goes to show that when you win the games you can/should, you get to the “big” games…Riley can’t do the former enough to make the latter happen, and if the latter happens, he chokes.

    • 2006 at Hawaii with Moore/Stroughter et al was a blast. The stadium was packed, loud, and one could feel the walkways between sections shaking and vibrating. They also sell (or sold then) beer. As OSU had many poly players, I was fortunate to be sitting next to some local OSU fans and could celebrate OSU’s big plays a bit. That was the year Colt Brennan was a heismann candidate and the run and shoot (which I’ve always found entertaining) was running well that season.

      The Sun Bowl was a quality win. I think Missouri was a little under-rated or under-appreciated, and Moore was great in that game. Last good bowl performance?

    • 1999 Cal was big. 1999 UA the following week was also big. The CW and the bowl game would have just been gravy and were not big. I don’t think the 1999 Oahu Bowl was even intriguing for OSU fans. That was one big Christmas party.

      Every game in 2000 was big in hindsight, but I think you listed the four biggest.

      I’ll give you 2001 Fresno. We had high expectations, and we busted out early. But the CW that year was not big. we were 5-5, and the season was already crap. We were just playing spoiler. It was still a great game though.

      2002 USC is probably fair. I think a lot of people thought we had a good enough squad to possibly beat them in SoCal for once. Carroll was .500 the previous year, we were rolling and they just lost to KSU. Another reason that would be a good game is because of the 2001 Fresno game. When we went to USC in 2002 it was immediately following another big game at home against 2002 Fresno. They had just barely lost to a highly ranked Nikegon the week previous, and we were embarrassed by them in 2001. We absolutely owned them in every way in the sequel.

      2006 Hawai’i? Not even intriguing. Our bowl game was already set. The bowl game may have been intriguing because we did win a great game at Hawai’i. But that’s stretching it. I think the UW game that year was the only big game after Boise and the first two conference losses given how close Riley was to riding into the sunset. 2006 USC is correctly labeled intriguing instead of big.

    • Key is the Fiesta bowl win for Erickson. He won!!!! Erickson may be 4-5 but the expectations were a whole lot different after the blowout win over Notre Dame. Not sure we can compare the wins and losses between the two coaches, as it is in the WAY some of these losses have come about too. Riley seems to snatch a loss from the jaws of victory more often than not. Riley hasn’t even had a chance to show his meddle in a big-time bowl (BCS) because he can’t win the games needed to get there. At least Erickson took us to the promised land. I would expect a good coach to get to a Rose Bowl or BCS once every 4 years — a great coach can get there every other year.

  12. Bottom line: Riley is a above-average coach with a fairly low ceiling. Win cap is a good way of putting it.

    Weaknesses are recruiting and in game management (including clock mgmt, timeouts, and adjustments). Preparation is also poor at times, notably for early season games.

    But as others have alluded to, what Riley provides is a decent numbers of wins for a great price. If you look at dollars/win, Riley and staff are far and away the best bargain in the PAC 12, and maybe the best in an AQ school. From the perspective of a poor school, it sounds like a great deal.

    The real issue I have is OSU still has a poor school mentality, regardless of all the new TV revenue pouring in. We’re paying down debt and staying the course, and ignoring the arms race going on nearly everywhere else. To hear BDC talk we don’t even have any extra money. Even WA state is paying double what we are on their football staff. Paying down debt is well and good, but now is not the time. We need to invest in our football and basketball programs, and we need to do it now, before we sink any deeper.

    This is a clear case where if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. And we’re getting worse. Ultra conservative spending may send us back to another 28 years of futility if we aren’t careful.

    • I just thought of something…maybe Riley has “slow starts” because he can’t evaluate the opponents talent and schemes at the start of the season because he has to go back to the previous season. When you have to revert back to the previous season to see what a team does scheme wise(offensively, defensively, ST, etc.) then you’re not going to know how athletic the opponents are, nor what they may have added or what attrition they had done in the off-season.

      In other words, it appears Riley can’t game plan unless someone else has laid the ground work for him. I can’t think of any examples except the losses this year:

      EWU: 0-0 on the season, hadn’t played them since 2000….didn’t know how to game plan for defense.

      Stanford: 7-1 Common opponents, WSU and Utah….Utah beat Stanford. Our defense schemed based on what Utah did to Stanford I’m sure and watched passing based on WSU and Utah more than any other team with common opponents being a factor.

      USC: Common opponents, WSU, Hawaii, and Utah….Problem is Ed Ogeron coached only against Utah as a common opponent and Riley and Co. probably didn’t think to throw out the game film of games where Ed Ogeron wasn’t interim head coach. With that in play and an OSU team that came out flat, you will get a loss every time. Comes back to adjustments…did we adjust to USC’s coaching change or not?

      I am honestly thinking that the Beavers will come out with the Win next week in the desert! I’m cautiously optimistic after what I saw the Beavs do against Stanford. If we can make a last minute attempt a comeback with 2 minutes to go in a game against a top 5 team in the nation…imagine what we can do with knowing what the opponents will and won’t run the next week especially after Utah handling ASU the game today with 3 INT’s.

  13. If I had worked for BDC I would be in my 23rd year. Who knows what heights of medicority we would have scaled by now! Beating the Ducks in Autzen at least once every ten or twelve years should be plenty to assure lifetime security for any OSU football coach. JB

    PS. Am I the only one excited about going to the ADVOCARE100 Bowl in Shreveport?

    • I share your excitement. Never been to Shreveport. I hear they have Casinos and a waterpark. I’ve never been on an airboat either. Already purchased my plane tix cause I know they’ll go fast.

  14. I am feeling apathetic about the team. I can’t invest 100% into the team, because in the back of my mind they will do something bone headed. Stanford could be in the National Championship and we even as bad as we played could have won. Riley seemed like he was bold going for it, but it was the difference. Against Oregon you go for it, against a pound it down your throat team you get every point. And I was very impressed with Storm, playing in front of his home crowd in TX. I thought that would translate into this year, but he runs like McCants, tippy toe up to the line and crumble. I watched a documentary of Coach Wooden ( UCLA ). The whole thing was about how he built kids into men of good character. Riley does that as well, but Wooden won a few games while doing so. I would imagine that Riley and co. would place 80% importance on building men of character and 20% on W’s and L’s. The typical Angry beaver might come in opposite at 80% W’ & L’s. If you compare Riley to Kelley, Kelley needed W’s and BCS on his Resume for his future plans. Riley needs 6 wins for his future plans to retire in Corvallis. Once Riley does retire, the only way we get a “success driven” coach is if he is from around here or just loves the area. I have heard Erikson’s wife wants to retire in the Willamette Valley. So without Erikson’s connection with the area, would we have ever gotten a coach of his caliber?

    • I believe there are lots of “success-driven” bright, young fb coaches who would come to OSU. Note,I didn’t say they would stay forever, (enough of that) and I wouldn’t care if they only used OSU as a stepping stone. Coaching changes happen. People posting on ab describe specifics, statistics, records, comparisons, ad infinitum. I think Riley just isn’t particularly bright. Clever enough to parlay himself into a cushy multi-million dollar deal by being Mr. Rogers but his football thinking is dull, dull, dull.

  15. In my humble opinion, if you trying to prove Riley is mediocre coach you’d be better served to research losses that we should have won. That should be on the coach. Really thinking about, I bet Saban and Urban(at $4 mil + a year) are about the only coaches in college football that are much above 50/50 in” big games”. Big games would constitute evenly matched teams playing in a meaningful game, which on average most good coaches are probably still about 50/50. Because these aren’t professional athletes and most players make mistakes.

    I kind of see where your going, but I don’t think this particular argument is a good one. Unless there are only 2 great college coaches.

    • 1: Losses in September

      2: Losses to FCS teams

      3: Losses to in conference opponents with losing records.

      I’m going to guess that Saban and Meyer aren’t the only coaches that have Riley covered in these categories.

      • So you understand my point? Having an average record in big games isn’t a good metric for judging the quality of a cfb coach. There are many other stats to look at that would be better. The 3 you point out are good ones.

        • Yeah I wasn’t really agreeing or disagreeing. If you’re going to be great you have to come up big in big games. But that’s not the only measurement. It is important though.

    • Utah is solid. If Wilson cuts down the turnovers their dangerous. Erickson just needs to work a little magic with him.

      And I might be going crazy, but I’m almost ready to bet USC comes a back and wins the south. If they can avoid anymore major injuries. Lotta future NFL players improving every week now.

  16. I hadn’t been to PO for a while. I’m surprised they’re somewhat subdued and leaning toward reality.
    http://www.pure-orange.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi/bscpigskin2?cmd=get&cG=231323333373&zu=323132333337&v=2&gV=0&p=

    A question arises from the end of that post. How did Mark Banker get to where he is?

    He was the DC of a bad D2 team for 14 years. The head coach got fired, and so (effectively or directly… it doesn’t matter) did he.

    He moved on to Hawai’i as the LB coach for one year. The head coach got fired, and so (effectively or directly… it doesn’t matter) did he.

    That resume apparently gets you a job as the assistant head coach at a USC fresh off a Rose Bowl win. I’m guessing the pay and responsibilities didn’t match the title. Or maybe the .500 bowl-less 1996 season where USC was in a five way tie for fifth in the Pac 10 at 3-5 in conference games… meant he saw the writing on the wall for another head coach?

    So he became the DB coach at OSU, moving with Riley. We know this story. Riley was here for two years then left just before signing day in 1999. And as everyone is wont to say, we couldn’t get anyone equal or better as head coach.

    Banker was then an assistant DB coach (under Rod Perry) for three years at San Diego. The head coach got fired, and so (effectively or directly… it doesn’t matter) did he.

    Then he spent a year as the assistant head coach for a wildly successful 2002 Stanford team under Buddy Teevens… which apparently warranted his hire as the DC for OSU in 2003.

    And the rest is history.

    The record of the teams where he was an assistant before he became an NFL DC:
    Springfield College (GA) 12-8
    Cal St Northridge (DC) 71-76-1
    Hawai’i (LB) 4-8
    USC (Asst HC) 6-6
    OSU (DB) 8-14

    As an NFL asst DB coach:
    San Diego 14-34
    This one might not be fair. Riley was fired because of the 2001 season. And it really had to do with bad luck. The team’s poor performances were due to poor defense and terrible special teams. ST stunk every year for Riley at SD, but he did have a good DC in Joe Pascale until Pascale had a spinal injury that left him paralyzed, in the hospital and out of football.

    So now we know. Banker didn’t make it to where he is by being incompetent.

    • I’d be more curious to see the defensive statistics (NCAA rank) of his defenses over all those years. Don’t really care about his two years in the NFL. But where did they rank – i.e. – Run defense, pass defense, scoring defense mainly.

    • right on cue, Minnesota getting good, just as OSU shows up on the horizon of their long-term
      schedule. DeCarolis has a true gift for picking out these “diamonds in the rough.”

  17. Here’s another tidbit. OSU is the NCAA team to have a 4,000 yard passer, a 1,500 yard rusher, and two 1,000 yard receivers. Care to name the year and the players involved?? Any your bonus question: Who was the OC of the Beaver team that year?

    • Derek Anderson, Stephen Jackson, Mike Hass, James Newsome, Paul Chryst. 2003, they finished 8-5, 4-4 in the Pac10. And beat mighty New Mexico in the Las Vegas Bowl. But that team lost at Fresno State, before also losing to UW, WSU, USC, and they lost the civil war. So who cares about stats with those loses?

      • What it shows is that this type of offense is capable of putting up lots of yardage and plenty of points to win games. But what the poor record (8-5) and losses tells us is that the defense that year was dogshit. It had to be, otherwise we would have had a much better record; and dipshit Banker was the DC. Oh, by the way, it was Newson, not Newsome. Paul Chryst was a great OC. He was the OC in 97-98 at OSU, by the way.

        • Yeah that’s a great point. I was thinking about that season and how we went down to play at #2 USC after the civil war loss. USC improved to the #1 after kicking our ass, #1 in the AP and coaches polls but the bcs computer magically had LSU and Oklahoma in the bcs game and USC dominated Michigan in the Rosebowl and deserved to be #1.

          • And then the next year OSU goes to #3 LSU to start the season against their 638 returning All Americans… and only we remember what happened there. And the next four games sucked too.

          • I just can’t blame Riley for the LSU game(as much as I’d like to), it was strictly “luck o’ the beavs”. It’s probably happened, but I’ve never seen a game since where a kicker at the D-1 level missed three extra points in one game. Then again maybe it was Riley’s fault if he kept telling Serna it was “neat deal” after each miss!

          • That LSU game and the 2008 Utah game are my least favorite moments. We weren’t able to adjust to the QB change in the first, and we adjusted way out of our game to allow Utah back in on the second. Those are two shining examples of playing not to lose only to end up losing.

          • But we’ve also had this talk before, and Riley is actually pretty good about holding a lead from the half and better to start the fourth. It all comes down to game planning. Whether or not we have a good one going in, Riley is going to use it until the final gun.

  18. Curious Stat: Mannion has been sack 19 times. But Keith Price at UW has been sacked 21 times. Mannion has 6 INTs, Price has 4.

    Side note: Nick Montana at Tulane now and has 20 sacks and 7 nits.

  19. Only one 4000 passer in OSU history: 2003 DA
    Only three 1500 yard rushers: 2000 Simonton, 2002 & 2003 Jackson

    I’m guessing Newson and Hass were the two WRs.

    • I see a great opportunity for a “Do The Beaver” video and dance complete with a Benny wink at the end.

      Pure Orange’s Pigskin board has started a thread on if removal of the AD is the smartest and best first move to fix OSU Athletics. The answer to that is a resounding “YES!!!”

    • “Do the Gopher”>>>>>>> than Chainsaw. If they did the ear splitting Chainsaw at Gitmo, somebody would be brought up on war crimes. The “Do the Gopher” is a marketing stitch for exercise from blue cross blue shield. When they start showing people dancing in the crowd they have the Caddyshack Gopher superimposed so he appears to be watching them and then he turns back with expression of WTF. It is really funny. A major miss in marketing is to not use the whole sequence complete with the Kenny Loggins music to get the crowd going for the 4th quarter. They did it a couple of times back in the late 90’s and it was awesome. Everybody loves the Caddyshack gopher!
      At the end of the game yesterday, they did show the scene where he pops up after Carl blows up the golf course……the scortched earth scene.

      Me after beating Penn State:
      ? 0:16? 0:16
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krVXRCcr2M4
      Jul 16, 2006 – Uploaded by mjanos77
      Gopher Trapping Using the Cinch Surface Methodby Thomas Wittman80,108 views ยท 2:41 …

  20. Mike Riley and Big Games got me thinking, so I did some research. I decided to define a big game as Ranked vs Ranked match-ups and Civil Wars. I included Civil Wars because its always a big game for the fan base and goes a long way toward the reputation OSU has in-state.

    All stats are per Phil Steele’s web site, I’m not sure which poll he uses so there may be some variances based on the poll but it should be close.

    Ranked vs Ranked and all Civil Wars (5 -12) 29% winning percentage

    Ranked vs Ranked (1 -7) 13% winning percentage
    (Only win was 2008 Sun Bowl 3-0 over Pitt)

    Just for Fun

    OSU Ranked vs Opp Not Ranked (12-4) 75% winning percentage

    OSU Non Ranked vs Opp Ranked (10-25) 29% winning percentage

    • So the percentage of OSU not ranked vs ranked is the same as us being ranked vs. ranked. We’ve played more games not ranked vs. ranked than ranked vs. ranked, but yet there’s more body of work of not ranked vs. ranked….I’m curious of non civil wars….

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