This guy is so kind, I just had to share it. Beaver fandom at it's greatest! Can't you just feel the family atmosphere radiating from this fella?
Angry Beaver,
Why so angry? I know Mike Riley, I have since 1979 when my brother played football at Linfield College. You are talking about a man who has dedicated his whole life to the game of football, but mostly because he loves coaching young men and helping them to succeed. I grew up in a family where my dad was a head coach of a local 5 A high school baseball team. In 22 years he had only two teams that won the Valley League. My brother was a two time All-American at Linfield College, Riley was the Defensive Coordinator during that time at Linfield, under legendary coach Ad Rutchman. The coaching philosophy Ad Rutchman instilled into Mike Riley is this; "If we work hard and continue to get better and each man does his job and executes it on any given play, beating his man, then that play will bring you positive results , even if the defense knows it is coming" I ve seen it work time and again at Linfield, where they have numerous National Championships and the longest season winning streak in the history of College Football, some 60 years and counting. When my brother played, I saw Linfield run the same play 10 times in a row, only moving from the left and right sides, the defense knowing it was coming and couldn't stop it. Linfield blowing the D-line back as the running back gained 8 to 20 yards a clip.
I belive in Riley's system, and I know you have seen it work before in the past. Looking back these last two seasons, Riley has had a lot to deal with losing guys to injuries and other things that were in or out of his control. I m not making excuses for him, but he is one of the most respected coaches in the NCAA by other coaches and anybody who is somebody in college football. Just in that says volumes, I believe that the problem with Oregon State is not Riley, but Oregon State itself. Corvallis, and Oregon State is a hard sell for most recruits wanting to play Division I football. Seriously would you go to Corvallis if you had a chance to play at USC? Every coach will have to deal with this whether it is Riley or Nick Saben, it doesn't matter. So getting the 5 star recruits will always be a problem for Oregon State until they get that break out season and win a Rose Bowl, believe me Riley knows this and knows where the team is and where it needs to be.
Right now is an interesting time in Oregon State Football, with the young kids and this recruiting class, I do think Riley and Company will have a chance with the players he has now and the ones coming in. I like the mix with so many freshmen who are getting the chance to play. Think about how good Sean Mannion could be in his senior year with the offensive line that is coming in with Agnew or Chris Brown running up and down the field opening routs for Brandin Cooks beating up the opponents secondary. Or Scott Crighton as a 4 time All Pac-12 Defensive End as he eyes the NFL. How about Jordon Poyer as he continues to hone his D-Back skills and everyone calls him "Pick Six." Yes I see positive things on the horizon at Oregon State and I can't wait to see it unfold these next few years. It is very exciting to me watching this team get better.
As far as the X's and O's, well think about how you would set up a game plan , and how you would make decisions on the fly during any given game and situation. Now remember that our coaching staff has hundreds of years in experience in coaching football as well as making those types of decisions. Now when it comes to coaching and you are winning and you have the right guys in the right spots with good experience, it is easy to coach, you can basically throw a football out onto the field and say "Go get-em boys!". That is the best case scenario, now imagine this year and the situation with the injuries, losing Quizz, Katz with the inability to be consistent, starting all those freshmen and all the other things in between. So as a coach you have to make decisions with all these intangibles, not knowing if your players are even going to be able to execute. You can't pull Remmers if you don't have a suitable back up, or if you do its like letting the D-tackle in on every play.
I really don't think the problem with Oregon State is calling the X's and O's, if Riley has the right guys in there, the team has success, you and I have seen it in the past. Look how Quizz came in and had so much success with the running game these past years. Now all of a sudden Quizz is gone and Riley has a problem calling a game because our running game stinks, come on you're an intelligent guy, do you really think we now have a problem with game calling when your O-line can't block anybody and you can't find a guy who can run the ball? As far as Riley with his Game Plans, well Riley is one of the best coaches when it comes to studying an opponent and coming up with a game plan. He believes strongly in his homework like a coach should and he seldom deviates from the game plan, look at his bowl record. Yes he doesn't make many adjustments during the game, when it comes right down to it, the difference between a good game plan and a bad game plan is execution.If you don't carry out those things that make a difference in the ball game you are going to lose, no matter what adjustments you make on the game plan. When people start talking about Oregon State in those regards, well to me it only shows how the guy who wrote the comment is uneducated when it comes to football. Unfortunately I see a lot of that on your website. I believe fans like players need to believe in their coaches and the program, not tear it apart with nonsense rhetoric about how Riley and company can't coach when the players did not execute.Even the players know its not the coaches. So what a waste of time when a website gets critical of a program when it needs its support for the program so it can be successful, it is very elementary. As much as I hate to admit it, University of Oregon fans get it and we don't because we want to be critical of something that is out of our control any way.
I really dislike the Riley haters and all the talk about how he should lose his job, and to be honest if he doesn't get it done soon , well then Oregon State will need to look for changes at that point, not now. This has no bearing on the fact that I like Riley, I would feel the same if it was Erickson or anybody else. We want the next coach to know Oregon State is a good place to coach, not a place that gets rid of you after a couple of bad years. To be honest, I think we are lucky to have Riley, not many of the top notch coaches in Div-I football would come and coach at Oregon State, and those guys who want Riley's head, well be careful you don't know who we may get in return. Im old enough to remember the Avazono, Kraigthorpe and Pettibone years. Is Riley Oregon State's version of Joe Paterno? well I don't know, but I do know this, to have a program like that of Penn State , before this year, our team would need way more support then what it is getting right now. If we are going to be that kind of fan, well I think you would agree we need to support our team, even to the point of blind faith if we are true Beaver Fans. That is what fans are about, not second guessing the coach and posting critical comments on a website labeled Angry Beaver? I always liked how Oregon State fans had it figured out, not like our cousins from Eugene who win the Rudest fans in the Pac-12 year in and year out, with their bush league and arrogant behavior.
Well thats about all I wanted to say to the creators of this web site and I hope this enlightens you a bit on how us Beaver Fans need to be, and I hope you were able to take some of these things and do a little soul searching and figure out how this web site could attract more then the bottom feeders and really get some good positive blogging going on supporting our team and our coaches as we watch this team improve and get us to respectable bowl game.
Regarding the swipe at me, no offense taken.
I largely agree with these comments.
It’s why I said the t-shirt idea sucked.
Of course, everyone knows bitching about stuff you can’t change is merely cathartic. So I suppose it serves some purpose.
Joe Avezzano® now serves himself up for some righteous indignation backlash.
You’re right,we should accept and embrace the current state of the football program.
New shirt idea:
-“Oregon State Football”
-picture of Riley and Banker laughing it up
-“Mediocrity is neat”
Maybe a shot of the final scoreboard vs Sac St on the back.
Embrace the suck beavs.
Sounds good.
Self-flagellation is a proven winning concept.
Seriously? We should have blind faith in our team? To me, Oregon State isn’t some professional sports team that obtains my allegiance via its geographic proximity to myself. I am part of Oregon State and I have a true vested interest in its success. The degrees granted to me by OSU gain more value as the university gains more recognition. As university recognition is often derived from a successful football program (which is truly sad) and if the university’s perceived prestige directly affects my own life, then I have every right in the world to criticize its shortcomings. If I am part of Oregon State University, then Oregon State University is also a part of me. Since I hold myself to a high personal standard, I must thus do the same for the University which I consider to be a part of myself.
To twist some of your words towards my own viewpoint, I really dislike the Riley enablers and all the talk about how he should never be held accountable. Blind faith in anything is a sickness, but bestowing it upon something which has some direct affect on your life, though admittedly small in this case, is insane. Programs do not become distinguished because of a blindly allegiant fan base, as you have suggested. They get that way because they have a fan base that cares enough to demand excellence. Finally, since you lowered yourself to attack via name calling (bottom-feeders, etc.), I shall do so in turn: You sound stupid, you dolt.
If only the Beavs running backs could run through all of the holes in this guy’s arguments.
LOL Well played!
During Riley’s ten year tenure, the pinnacle is a 3-0 Sun Bowl victory.
People supporting this have a lot of explaining to do. People criticizing it, not so much…
Q: “Why so Angry?”
Well for myself, as a graduate of OSU, a FORMER season ticketholder:
A1: Recurring, annual, programmatic inability to implement off-season program that results in early season performance/wins, (this includes a demonstrated inability to capitalize on the additional practices that bowl game participation affords);
A2: Inability of coaching staff to defend spread/option teams, despite recurring contests against said teams (e.g. Civil War which appears to occur on an annual basis), and despite increasing use of such offenses in NCAA D1 football;
A3: Inability of coaching staff to manage clock, timeouts;
A4: Coaching staff’s inability to provide clear, honest, meaningful answers for A1-A3 above;
A5: Coaching staff stubbornness regarding critical program evaluation (head coach verbalizes need for program to “live in a vacuum”) and demonstrated inability of coaching staff to implement progressive change in response to empirical, demonstrable program deficiencies;
A6: Failure of coaching staff to identify and develop team identity, instead emphasizing need for team to “find identity” during course of season (suggest this is a contributing factor to poor, early season performance);
A7: Head coach is highest paid University employee at $1.3M annually, and as such should be expected to demonstrate learning and apply progressive changes to program.
A8: Failure of OSU and Athletic Dept. to develop consistent, marketable school athletic program identity;
A9: Poor game day environment at Reser stadium that caters to elderly, discourages fan enthusiasm and participation;
Well outlined.
You know a manager – maybe Bob DeCarolis – could take that outline and develop and implement a responsive strategy that includes evaluations and clear job performance expectations for the athletic department, coaching staff, and stadium management and staff….”good” (consistently and predictably competitive” football and fan enjoyment could follow.
The guy was correct. Fairweather “angry” fans like you are never going to be happy with Riley and will never be a committed OSU fan until he retires, leaves or is fired. The mob mentality on here is the same human frailty that the founders tried to protect us from by creating a republic as opposed to a democracy.
The fast majority of this board would have fired this guy for four losing seasons out of six?
2000 Penn State 5–7
2001 Penn State 5–6
2002 Penn State 9–4
2003 Penn State 3–9
2004 Penn State 4–7
2005 Penn State11–1
I guess he forgot how to coach for awhile too. Loser.
Joe Paterno had also won a national title before. His greatest win wasn’t squeaking by in a Sun Bowl.
Didn’t Paterno have recruiting issues around that time? Not sure if it was technology related like Riley’s, but I remember they weren’t getting the same type of recruits in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Wow your arguments are terrible.
Paterno has a long history of winning that allowed him to have a few off-years, because they’d seen how successful he can be.
Riley has not done that, unless you think the Sun Bowl is such a great bowl that a 3-8 season and a loss to SacSt, is okay.
The vast majority of the world would have fired Joe Paterno had they known the truth about what was going on in that program during that time. Remember that Joe mysteriously lost his long-time DC and good friend Jerry Sandusky. Are we saying that Newhouse leaving was the key to all the losses this year, and Riley is covering something up? It sure sounds like that’s what you’re suggesting.
Anyway, I think Penn State fans are happy they never fired Joe.
And who are these pricks calling a fair-weather fan? You’re all jerks for suggesting this. You would only be asses for thinking it. You’re wrong in either case.
But thanks (in the original post) for pointing out that Riley would be a national champion coach for an 1980’s D-III team. I think that kinda puts it all in perspective.
Joe Pa should have had is ass fired back in 2003/04, unfortunately that insensitve moron was actually juror and excecutioner of the whole damn football program. Yeah, “Mr. Door Ass”, that is a great example to use for your argument.
Probably should not use door and ass in the same sentence when referring to Penn State.
I’m glad he took the time to write such a lengthy point of view w/ some interesting things to think about. That being said, there were some inconsistencies I thought I’d point out in hopes he would read what we had to say and respond.
Here are a few things that did concern me:
“Riley has had a lot to deal with losing guys to injuries and other things that were in or out of his control. I m not making excuses for him…” (Well you sort of are within the very same sentence)
“I really dislike the Riley haters and all the talk about how he should lose his job, and to be honest if he doesn’t get it done soon , well then Oregon State will need to look for changes at that point, not now.” (So its perfectly acceptable to admit he will lose his job SOON if we continue to play bad football, but if we want a change after two pretty bad, underachieving seasons we are HATERS?)
“This has no bearing on the fact that I like Riley…” (I don’t necessarily think that’s true, nor would I have an issue if it was. What’s wrong w/ having a bit of a skewed view on someone because you genuinely like him?)
“As much as I hate to admit it, University of Oregon fans get it and we don’t because we want to be critical of something that is out of our control any way.” (Go visit E-Duck after they go 5-7 and tell me how much they GET…..forget an excuse laden 3-9 debacle).
I have doubts bout this guys’ comments early on, he says his father coached 5A. 5A has only existed for about 5 years (I know that it nitpicky but still).
Now as for defending Riley’s system. It is insane in modern football terms that runs the same play several times in a row. That is an outdated system that harkens to a long read era of football. I hardly believe that Riley still runs a system from the late 70’s, he can’t possibly be that dumb. Also, he needs to consider that what works at Linfield (glorified high school team) won’t work at the major DI level.
This guy further defends the atrocious play calling by saying that our running game was a failure this year, did he see last years team? Also, please don’t give me some nonsense that even attempts to defend not making in game adjustments. That is more arrogant than a wallstreet banker.
While this weak man attempts to call us uneducated about football, he clearly shows that he doesn’t know people and lumps himself in with Riley. This letter actually makes me feel bad because I know that Riley is smarter than this man but the entire undertone of the letter is that he and Riley have some tenuous common ground so they must be very similar people.
I won’t even begin to delve into the depths of blind faith. All that needs to be said about it is to look at the horrific things that have happened in history because of faith, Penn State not excluded.
Please excuse any of my typos as I am typing from a phone. I also meant to add that youth was clearly not the major problem last season as this man seems to suggest. That is a such a weak argument that nearly ruins his entire letter.
The major thing I don’t understand about people like this guy (and there are a lot of them) is how they always start out talking about what a good guy Mike Riley is. Most people are not denying that he’s a nice guy who loves Oregon State but when somebody is getting a seven figure salary, being a nice person is not enough. For that kind of money people want results.
The other big issue I had was with this comment:
“I really don’t think the problem with Oregon State is calling the X’s and O’s, if Riley has the right guys in there”
Isn’t that kind of the idea? A coach is supposed to be adjusting the X’s and O’s according to his current teams strengths and weaknesses. This is college football, not the NFL. Players are always going to be coming and going. Especially given the fact that, as was stated by this man, we are not USC. We don’t have five star recruits waiting behind other five star recruits that we can simply fill in the holes with when somebody graduates. Certain players we have will be stars and others will be barely Pac 12 caliber. It’s on the coaches to make a game plan that fits their current team strengths..
Then they always preface it later w/ “But I don’t think that because he’s nice” (even though I went out of my way to mention it lol)
What a ridiculous, nonsense, rambling-but-saying-nothing email you got, angry. Riley is a GOOD GUY, and is RESPECTED, so he must keep his job, and you should “SOUL SEARCH” and leave him alone. Yeah, great. And he also has stopped caring about winning…..now just going thru the motions of recruiting and being a coach.
And the losing to a Sac State is all the players fault….they didnt execute and beat their man, every play.
LOL…
Riley is a GOOD GUY, and is RESPECTED, so he must keep his job, and you should “SOUL SEARCH” and leave him alone.
Yeah I mean I guess by that logic Ghandi could have been Pop Warner.
This is the type of “enabling” attitude that will continue to sink the program. Was it out of Riley’s control to recruit and offer scholarships to players like Prince, Pankey, Remmers, and Johnson, to name a few, who did not or have not panned out? Was it out of Riley’s control to continue to use antiquated offensive and defensive schemes when other teams throughout the conference are making changes in order to win games? I think it was in his control and he needs to be held accountable for the mess he’s made.
You must have all your money out of the stock market now because thats how you hold it accountable.
Becasue he is nice and loyal, Coach Riley was rewarded with a long term contract. But much like Mack Brown at Texas, Riley became complacent. He delegated more of the day to day stuff including the game management and he did not personnally spend the time in R& D or evaluation of day to day activities. He became a CEO coach ( like Jon Corzine, Dick Fuld, Ken Lay….). The assistants were not challenged to develop new systems to compete, and were not challenged to fight against malaise. As the internet blossomed, OSU relied more and more on outsourced scouting from commercial services and lost some of the face to face contact and relationships required for successful recruiting and gathering of intelligence. Mike was probably bombarded with the new wave of management consulting that encourages leaders to step away from day to day involvement by deledgating everything but the paycheck. At least Mack Brown realized and admitted that he had gotten too far removed from the actual nuts and bolts of his organization, took personal responsibility for the decline, and layed out a clear vision for the future. At OSU, Mike Riley is still in denial and at the very least needs a public confession and personal guarantee of renewed dedication.
Mack Brown suscumbed to pressure to change coordinators. He showed clear vision for the future by paying huge coin to get the Boise State Off. coordinator and going to a two quarterback system. How did that work for him? You write enough crap it sounds pretty good after awhile.
You keep making the same mistake. You can’t compare Riley to guys like Joe Paterno or Mack Brown. They each have National Championships under their belts and proven winning ways with the occasional down year here or there. Riley has never even won the Pac 10 (12), yet people like you make him out to be Oregon State’s version of Jesus Christ. I’m just saying wouldn’t it have been smarter to wait for him to actually accomplish something (and no, that doesn’t mean going 6-6 and to a bowl game) before declaring him as our lifelong coach?
Actually if you look at recent interviews with Mack Brown ( like in last 6 months) you will see that he points the finger at himself and indicates that if things do not improve at Texas, then he should be let go. I am not a Mack Brown fan, not even close. I believe that it was Mack or Texas agents that exposed Will Lyles to Yahoo about recruiting in Texas. Reporters don’t usually invent stories. Most of the time they are fed stuff and in this case Texas was sore about prime recruits leaving Texas and so served up Oregon/Lyles on a platter to Yahoo. Yes Mack Brown is trying to buy back success by throwing out the old and purchasing new hired hands. But at least he has acknowledged that he had lost his way. And he has acknowledged that the fault lies less with the players than the highly compensated management team of coaches,
That whiny enabling diatribe made me throw up. The Beavs will not top 6-6next season. I predict 5 wins as most likelywith 4 also very possible. Hoping 5 or less because I don’t want an extension and with even 6 wins BDC would use it as excuse to take all heat off Riley for 2-3 more years. This whole situation is a sad mess. I too am a FORMER season ticket holder. The arrogance and accepting of 6-6 as a slap me silly on the back great season have given me no hope we will ever get beyond Riley’s quite low bar of Sun Bowls. Riley and BDC both should retire if we don’t have any real expectations. Kelly did it in Year 1. Riley never will. 20 years won’t matter. He will be embarassing himself soon if he doesn’t realize he doesn’t have what it takes. Our big issues aren’t being addressed.
You are a critic and not a fan. You think Kelly built a program at Oregon? What challanges has he faced? What was his teams record at New Hamshire? When the NCAA slap down arrives we’ll see how that changes the situation.
I could never force myself to wish an OSU team loses a contest.
Regardless of the raging enmity you feel for whatever you blame for the problems with a sports team at OSU whether it’s the coaching or the facility or whatever, you really deserve some self-examination if you wish for the Beavs to lose yet would still describe yourself as an OSU supporter.
Obviously at that point you might as well be a Nikegon fan, and good riddance to you.
Yeah, yeah, trot out your “blind faith” chimeras and all that other bullshit, it matters not to me. You are not an OSU fan, just a gadfly.
Go Beavers!
I think enough attention has been given to the email. Is there anything newsworthy today? I’m finding my attention drawn towards the Blazers today rather than Oregon State.
Well, some feet from Japan are scheduled to wash up on the beaches soon.
Stuff like that?
“… if he doesn’t get it done soon , well then Oregon State will need to look for changes at that point, not now.”
Ok dude, so when EXACTLY is this “soon”? Apparently it’s “not now”, we got that, but when EXACTLY does Oregon State need to look for changes?
Once you’ve answered that, then let me ask you this. Why do YOU get to decide when “soon” is? Us bottom feeders at AngryBeavs.com have already reached our “soon” you passive-aggressive arrogant fuck.
Does anyone suppose that the reason MR is so respected amongst fellow coaches is because they admire how he stays off the hot seat after going 8-18, 4 straight losses to his rival, and a loss to a FCS school? I’d respect the hell out of a colleague who figured out how to get his paycheck separated from his performance.
As soon as somebody cuts a $7 million check.
Totally agree with the e-mailer. You guys are haters! All programs have horrible recruiting cycles and have an offensive line full of walk-ons. Remember you guys, Oregon State was a play away from the Holiday Bowl last season. Riley has been so close to the Rose Bowl twice. That’s like practically making it. Is there any way we can extend Mike Riley? This past season proves he deserves it.
Hope springs eternal and when you’re a nice guy you get a pass for a long time. Therein lies the problem with OSU football. If you’ve met Mike Riley it’s easy to give him a little more time, one more chance and I can imagine that the big boosters get MR at his best. I had a chance meeting at a small airport in Michigan in Jan 2009. Even though he didn’t know me from Adam he noticed my OS hat (wish it could’ve been an angrybeavs.com hat now) and we had a 5 minute conversation and I came away thinking he was a down to earth guy I would want my son to play for and how many D1 coaches could you say that about. That being said what infuriates me is that he can’t seem to articulate why performance has tanked and what exactly he’s going to do to fix it.
I generally agree with some of what the e-mailer says. You can’t win without good players and we lost the bulk of two recruiting classes due to injuries, grades, injuries, behavior issues and injuries. The last two seasons, the offensive line sucked, therefore we couldn’t run the ball, therefore the offense went 3 and out a lot, therefore the defense was on the field 65% of the game and we got destroyed in a lot of games. It’s a pretty simple equation. I don’t think the game has passed these coaches by and I don’t think they got stupid overnight. You all may disagree.
Personally, I think recruiting has been turned up a notch and we will get better some point in the future. The point then is, is 8-10 wins enough? In the long run, the answer is absolutely no. In the short run, the answer has to be a begrudging ‘yes.’
The one large OSU donor I know is downright pissed off about the last 2 years and he doesn’t seem to care too much that Mike Riley is a nice guy. But he’s also unwilling to cut a massive check when OSU still has Reser phase 3 and plenty of other facilities upgrades in various stages of planning, along with the millions that have already been spent in the last few years not to mention the instability in the economy the last 3-4 years. Unfortunately, OSU doesn’t have a lot of big donors to choose from when asking for the buyout plus an increased contract for a coaching candidate.
The long-term plan is to improve recruiting, continue to improve facilities, get back to winning 8-10 games a year, build the donor base and when the time is right, get a new coaching staff in place. It will happen, just not right now. The irony is, the more people pull back on their donations, the longer it will take to make that change.
Unless one of you sells a million tee-shirts and cuts a big check to the athletic department.
One thing about Pat Casey his clock management skills are the best.
blah… blah… blah…
“…I hope this enlightens you a bit on how us Beaver Fans need to be…”
Now that qualifies as a crock of you know what.
I was all set to add my comments but after reading the responses I feel you-all have taken care of that quite admirably and I salute you.
I would like to comment about the need for OSU to improve recruiting and how that is now being taken care of.
Why has it been necessary for the talent level of the football team to become so piss poor (I’m thinking OL, DL & LBs) BEFORE anyone at the school recognizes that this needs to be improved? What the hell have the coaches been doing the past 4 or 5 years?
I’ll tell you what I think has been going on. The talent level is and has been in a steady decline over those years and it’s become evident as the lesser quality players have moved into the starting role. And in the case of Reemers the talent of his back up is even worse that him. Holy crap!!!
Tell me that that isn’t the coach’s fault. I need something to laugh at.
Gilstrap used to take care of recruiting. Once he passed nobody picked up the slack. Partially because Riley’s ego…he thought he had the same eye for talent.
Scouting on the o-line was especially poor. So many guys who didn’t quality (e.g. Gerarld Parker), left the team (McNeil), or never panned out (Lyons-Pena) etc. Riley is not horrible, but he is a below average evaluator and very stubborn/egotistical (e.g. Hekker, Robinson)…heck, he even insisted the Krebs brothers were players when they left.
I was going to write on here earlier, but work has been busy today…which is good…Anyways..
I generally agree with the e-mailer and partially with Brownale9000.
Here are my reasons on why I agree and what I agree with:
Morale is a funny thing for anyone doing anything. We give support when someone is down, that gives them a chance to turn their thought process around, but there IS another side to that coin….the person you are supporting has to buy into that support and right now, the fans and the Athletics(football and AD department) are butting heads right now. The fans are upset with how things are being operated because we don’t SEE any changes going on, while the AD and team feel the problem is mental issues along with the injuries…well, don’t those go hand in hand?
When your “star running back”, Malcolm Agnew, has hamstring issues AND ball control issues…doesn’t that effect the other Running backs in worrying about fumbling so much that they don’t try to gain yards, but more colapse and fall at the first feel of contact in fear of fumbling the ball? That’s what I see as the problem…The running backs are becoming less and less ‘Go Getters!’ as much as they are tentative.
The same can be said with Mannion. He became more and more tentative with his throws after he started throwing interceptions. Oh, and his fumbles. That takes a toll on his mental game because he starts to focus more and more on his mechanics and not wanting to throw INT’s and force bad plays, so he eats the ball more.
Then there are the WR’s, they had their share of injuries, but their mental game colapsed a little near the end of the season as well…Remember the stupid Personal Foul penalty on the first play of the Civil War? Ya, that was Brandon Cooks…true freshman in his first Civil War game! Ya, that will happen until you learn not to sink to the *Ucks’ level of thinking and playing(cheap).
Then we had our Offensive Lineman…Yup..they are mostly walk-ons..what else do we expect when there aren’t anyone else to step up in their positions? Michael Philipp had to Redshirt this year due to surgery/injury last season…So we will have him back next year and who’s to say that we won’t redshirt lineman next year?
Also, Riley talks about experienced players…well, he definitely has 15 experienced sophomores on the team next year…so let’s give them a chance when they are all healthy at one time…what do you say to that?
Another thing, We fired our Linebackers coach after last season…was there “vast” improvement in the Linebacker positions play or was it vast improvement on the SPEED side of it? hmmmm…..
The one thing I disagree mostly on is the whole idea of “if we run a play and they know it’s coming, so what, if we execute properly, it won’t matter what thier defensive scheme is…that can work, but running plays that the opponent knows you’re running when your current team is sporadic…is not at all going to win games…There were times this year that they ran plays that were unconventional and in “inappropriate” times for Riley and guess what…They were HUGE plays!!! This would go a long ways for the coaches if they would just change ever so slightly in their order of plays they run especially when you know you don’t have an Offensive line that can’t run block and so what makes you think they will run block if the other team KNOWS you are going to run the ball?! hmmmm…that’s what makes us question the coaches big time on that one.
So I agree that football is more mental than basketball and almost as mental as baseball. You can be talented all you want, but if your mental game is anyway compromised, then good luck with that player playing. Confidence is HUGE when it comes to performance.
problem is that the bar is set so low for OSU football. after a D1 record 28 season losing streak ending in the late 90’s a sun bowl invite seems great to your average fan. sites like this are great because it gives critics a voice – that we expect (demand) better. i wouldn’t be surprised if our coaches read these comments either – to get a true, unbiased opinion rather than hearing from a chorus of cheerleading yes-men……
never understood why people say its difficult to attract good players to corvallis. i don’t know, maybe pullman, auburn, waco, lubbock, tuscaloosa, manhattan ks, stillwater, etc have higher appeal? i’d take corvallis over any of them. that argument never holds up.
It doesn’t matter where you go as long as you can play for a solid team….Stillwater aka Ok State has been on the rise the past 4-5 years…we’ve been in decline the past 4-5 years. Can someone remind me of when the last time OSU fired a head coach in football because of a losing record and how long was his tenure?
News note: Casey falls off roof and breaks bones. Riley would delegate someone else to go up on the roof to check on the problem for him. That is why one has won two national championships and the other …not so much.
I think two words can sum up the argument for firing Riley from my point of view. Sacramento State.
The person who submitted this email is a prime example of why Beaver Nation is a 2nd rate fan base. I am sick and tired of hearing how MR is such a “nice guy”. This term has nothing at all to do with a football program or grading of a head coach. Bottom line, if you like losing and mediocre football then jump on the bandwagon supporting the author of the email.
I also know MR and he isn’t a nice guy behind the scenes. He has one huge ego and hates any and all criticism of his coaching abilities or football program. He has always blamed his team members for game loses and he will never change. Dennis Erickson, after a lost game, would state on TV and in interviews that “I got out coached”. This is a man. MR is not a man, he is a coward hiding behind his poor team mates. What a shame.
Anyone who supports the statements made in the email is ignorant to the fact and truth, that under MR, OSU’s football program will be a failure. Over his long history as football head coach, the best we have seen is a low end bowl game. Playing for the Rose Bowl is not winning and going to the Rose Bowl. Making a stupid statement like this just shows how pathetic our fan base is. Face it, most fans who put up with the deplorable performance of our football program and the failed efforts of MR as head coach, they are just losers. Real and dedicated college football fans who love their team and love to win would have had MR ousted a long time ago………..like duck fans.
Those who support a loser like MR are helping to bring our football history to all time “dark ages”. With MR as head coach, our football program to others is just a JOKE! Thanks a lot!