With Harbaugh going to San Francisco, cardinalreport.com is stating Mike Riley is one of five candidates for the Stanford job.
This brings up some interesting points for debate.
1. Do you think Riley would do as well as Harbaugh with the added resources, boosters, etc at Stanford, or would he still recruit 2-star hiding under rocks salamanders?
2. Is this something we, as fans, want to see? Riley has a lifetime contract. Maybe the only way we get out of that and get someone in here who can take the next step is to have someone pouch our coach. Would this be a blessing in disguise?
3. Does Riley have any interest in Stanford? He has ties in California, but not the bay area. He says he loves Corvallis and wants to remain there, but deep down does realize he's maxed out what he can do at OSU and hand over the baton?
4. Who would you like to replace Riley if he were to leave?
5. Do you think this rumor has legs, or is it a pipe dream (much like Notre Dame before Brian Kelly and USC before Lane Kiffin)?
Personally, I think it's close to the point where Riley moves on. He hasn't been able to take the next step. He's built a solid foundation, but the school now needs an uber recruiter and motivator to rise above respectability. Is there risk? Sure. We could get a horrible coach and regress. Is there possibly reward? Obviously. If Riley were to leave for Stanford, I'd feel good about that. The lifetime contract was a mistake, and any way out of it is good for the program. I'd also be energized and excited to see what new, young blood could build upon this foundation. I'd love to see us hire the entire Air Force staff if Riley & Co move south.
All this being said, the report, much like our offensive linemen, likely has no legs. We're stuck being "walk-on U" for the next 11 years.
I don’t think Riley leaves, but if he does I hope to god it’s Bronco as the next coach.
I think it’s a possibility actually. If he does go then I say the best of luck to him. I don’t think him leaving is a strong possibility but it is definitely possible.
If he does leave I think the Beavers should go after Brady Hoke of SDSU. I think they could get him if Michigan doesn’t get him, which is likely. He’s a great coach and look at what he’s done at SDSU and Ball St. before that. Basically the same offense but he’s a winner and I know he could take the Beavers to the next level.
Agreed!
I think Riley is on the list because he has a reputation of being an ethical coach who does much with little, and that there is a POSSIBILITY that with more resources and support, he could get better recruits and better on-field results.
I would like to see him get the job, but I don’t think he will be the final candidate nor be offered the job.
His replacement…For many obvious reasons, OSU would probably have to go for an “up-and-comer” rather than an established coach, and I’m not sure who all those candidates are. However, Chip Kelly was at a lower division school 4 years ago, now he’s in the NC. So there’s hope.
Besides, it’d be fun to see Riley return to OSU as a visiting coach….
1.) Riley will not leave.
2.) If he did leave (not happening), wouldn’t that put our highly rated recruiting class in jeopardy?
3.) If he did leave (not happening), what about guys like Tony Franklin or Larry Coaker to replace him? Franklin knows the spread offense and can help OSU keep up with the times. He was offensive coordinator under Tommy Tuberville at Auburn, who’s team with Jason Campbell went undefeated.
Running a Pro Style offense is not behind the times whatsoever. Everyone is in love with running a spread when you don’t need to, to win games. Running a Pro Style offense can get you into BCS Bowls just fine. There’s absolutely no need to change the offense.
Riley’s name always comes up. He’s more respected outside the program than he is within it, similar to Nate McMillan, I’d be incredibly surprised if he so much as interviews at Stanford. Although I’d personally prefer the Bay Area, I think it’s basically a lateral move all things considered.
I believe him when he says this is his last head coaching job. I think the recruiting is improving (based on Scout.com and Rivals.com it has been getting slowly better) and will continue to improve. It is just a slow process. Basketball recruiting is a different game then football recruiting. Anyone that could recruit to OSU better than Riley would get the program sanctions eventually… it is just the truth of the situation.
“Anyone that could recruit to OSU better than Riley would get the program sanctions eventually”
Why?
Erickson was a better recruiter, so this makes little sense.
Yeah a lot of boosters jumped ship in the fallout to the DE era. If you are going to thug up the program you better win a lot because people will only look the other way if you win a ton of games. Plus Erickson isn’t exactly lighting it up at ASU is he?
Plus we missed out on Kevin Boss because of all the bad publicity.
I just think a lot of guys could recruit to Corvallis. If we hired Harbaugh when he was young (i.e. before San Diego got him), do you really think he wouldn’t be able to recruit without sanctions?
The statement seems ridiculous to me. I can name dozens of coaches who could recruit to Corvallis without sanctions. Whether they’d ever be interested in OSU is another story, which is why we need a young, outgoing up and comer who is a great recruiter when we do replace Riley.
I see Troy Calhoun and his entire staff as a steal right now. If Riley left for Stanford, I’d write Bob D a letter each day saying that’s the hire. Hoke would be great, but bigger schools are on to him.
I just think you are underestimating the nature of the beast is all. I think Harbaugh might have done better than Riley but Stanford is a lot easier of a place to recruit kids to. All you can offer is a scholarship and a full ride to Stanford is one of the most valuable full rides you can get. Harbaugh would not be able to recruit as well at OSU as he does at Stanford.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/michael_rosenberg/01/06/oregon.knight/index.html
What you guys think of this?
Interesting read… kind of a sad reflection on society but it is what it is I suppose.
“Without Knight, Oregon would be … (gasp!) Oregon State.”
Ouch
“No, most of Knight’s spending is about recruiting. He spends to excess in order to impress high school kids. In the mixed-up world of the NCAA, schools can spend $50 million on gold-plated mouthpiece holders, but if they give a kid $1,000 to pay his mom’s mortgage, it’s a violation.”
So true
My guess is that Riley would not leave Corvallis for Palo Alto. Remember that Riley not long ago turned down USC, where he formerly coached, where he still has friends, where he could have had MUCH better talent (even after living with sanctions for a couple of years — which was not even a certainty at that point).
When Riley turned down USC, Riley said he was happy in Corvallis, and said his mantra is “when you are happy, stay happy”. I’m guessing all of that still goes.
I also don’t think Riley would leave after a “down” year like 2010. Nor would Riley leave if Quizz and James are coming back (which I assume they are).
For all those reasons, I just don’t see Riley leaving. So I’m not going to even think about whether Riley leaving would be good or bad for OSU — doesn’t matter if he’s not going anywhere….
Well, he turned down USC knowing that NCAA sanctions were coming and knew it wasn’t worth the risk.
You may be right that looming sanctions were the reason Riley turned down USC, but that’s certainly not what Riley said at the time.
I may be wrong, but I think Riley is a straight-shooter, and I think he was being honest when he said he’s happy in Corvallis, and wants to keep coaching here. I don’t see any reason to think that’s changed.
Again, I’m not saying whether it’s good or bad. I’m just taking Riley at his word, and saying that he’s not likely to go anywhere soon (at least not voluntarily).
Once again I agree with Silver, I really doubt that Riley is in the mood to consider going anywhere. The fact that he is a straight shooter puts him on many lists of likely candidates.
However, this situation should be a reminder that a successor is not being groomed right now. While staff often follows when a HC departs, that doesn’t happen when an obvious successor is ready to step up to the top job.
Just another reason for changes in the coaching staff under Riley.
How could you groom someone for the OSU job? Riley is locked in until 2019, and possibly beyond. It would have to be a really bad coach who would wait that long.
Riley is a teacher and evaluator, if he was a better salesman he could build a successor with the quiet understanding that Riley would move on to AD before 2019. Of course if he were a better salesman we’d see better recruits.
Heck, maybe he thinks he is grooming Langs or Banker. I think he is smarter than that especially after this season.
At any rate, something has to change in the coaching department to see the team attitude and performance change.
2019 and “possibly” beyond? His contract makes it so if the team is 6-6 they will likely make a crap bowl, and then he is automaticlaly extended a year. I have faith that Riley can get plenty of 6-6, 7-5 seasons in the next 9 years to extend him to 2028 in a worst case scenario. The over under would have to be he gets in a crap bowl a good 6 of the next 9 years. That means the “most likey” scenario is Riley is locked in til atleast 2025. Yes maybe he could resign or be fired but the way BDC operates this thing and lets these guys hide out in Corvallis like it is Ice Planet Hoth, and mediocrity is accepted and supported, I have to say “don’t be surprised if Riley sticks his head under the sand like an ostrich” for the next 15 years and tries riding it out. It is totally time for the AT-AT walkers to come in and shake things up and bring out the best of Beaver Nation and our program, but to me BDC, Riley and Co. all are in cahoots collecting some pretty paychecks and wanting to keep it that way for a long time, so they all act like mediocre is good for Oregon State and we should be satisfied when none of us are. We all say we want Holiday and higher bowls as the expectation EVERY year and the company line remains any bowl would be swell. The expectations have never risen from Riley himself or he atleast does not have the cahones like Chip Kelly to act like he believes that his teams can be great.
Do you think Riley even does a nervous twitch with what happened to coaches with similiar resumes like Wannsedt or Friegden or is he secure in a Bobby D. blanket?
I don’t think he is worried with that horrible decision by BDC to do a “lifetime” contract. If we don’t get in atleast the Holiday bowl next year with James Rodgers, the whole lot should be forced out. I agree that Holiday and up needs to be stated as the expectation publicly and it would be good to go ahead and say we expect a Pac-12 North championship in the next 4 or 5 years because honestly we should be at a point where if we beat Oregon we have a high chance of getting into a Pac-12 championship. It also needs to be the goal to beat Oregon atleast 45% of the time so that we don’t slip too far behind them. It was nice beating UO two years in a row. When is that going to happen next?
The Holiday Bowl is the old Sun Bowl–3rd place. We’ve been to Holiday Bowls, they were just called the Sun Bowl at the time. What we want next year is at least an Alamo.
True but isn’t there now more competition for that 3rd place spot with two new teams being added?
To get to the Alamo Bowl wouldn’t we likely have to lose in the Pac-12 championship game?
I suppose we could be second place in the North and end up with a tiebreaker over the loser of the championship.
Still, even that seems tough with Stanford and Oregon being the best they’ve ever been.
Yeah I guess with two more teams the Holiday would be more respectable than the Sun.
Yes, that’s how we’d get the Alamo. Unless the championship game winner goes to the title game, and there isn’t a auto-non-qualifier to snatch the Rose Bowl. Then we could make it simply by finishing 3rd. Even then, these bowl committees have the power to select the team they want, so if we were tied with say Cal record-wise and even beat them head to head, they’d probably get picked ahead of us. This is my understanding–correct me if necessary.
I don’t believe Riley would be a good follow-up to Harbaugh from the team members’ viewpoint. Harbaugh is so …. well, present and Riley is more in the background or so it seems to me.
I found this to be interesting…The official osubeavers.com website for the football schedule…they finally put up next years schedule up and it includes the Pac-12 championship on the schedule….whereas the goducks.com website future football schedule doesn’t have the pac-12 championship game…
I think the new goal now is to get to the championship game and then win it and go to the Rose Bowl. That HAS to be the new goal for this team…So with that, I don’t think Riley “jumps ship” after 1 down year. I believe he wants to end on at least 1 good note. I’m thinking Riley would fire an assistant coach before taking a different head coaching job somewhere.
Probably.
I don’t think Riley is going anywhere, but going to Stanford would be a way to get rid of that terrible lifetime deal, which makes it interesting.
I would like a different coach, but I’d rather have Riley then Bobby D making a bad hire like we did in the past. At least with Riley we have coaching continuity and family atmosphere thing going for us.
Really, what would be the point of Riley taking the Stanford job football-wise? Stanford has always had a lot of ups and downs, I do not see it that much different that OSU over the last 10 years…Andrew Luck is a once a decade talent that I guess he would get to coach for one year. Not great fan support for the program either. Here is my question…if the Beavs go 5-7 next year, does Riley get fired? A lot of coaches are now getting the axe very quickly. Would Riley see Stanford as a way to get out of dodge and start fresh? I dont think he is there yet.
Riley cannot be fired. OSU is not going to pay his salary for 7 years if he’s not coaching.
I like Riley, but he’s maxed this thing out and needs to hand his work over to someone who can make it better. It’s just like any craft. People have limits. We’re ten years into this now; we know what Riley can and can’t do.
I know what you’re saying, and I pretty much agree. But I say we have two to three years to make this decision still. The ten year mark was hit with several years in absentia. While I find disturbing trends in recent years, I can hope for better in subsequent years and find that there is more to be seen than was first thought.
I believe in some pressure and expectations and you either have it or you don’t and then you can make a decision and move forward.
Look at Riley’s record in all the big game sthat we actually get on national TV for. It isn’t good AT ALL! Yes, we have had a few nice wins against USC. But we always get drubbed in games against Boise St or sometime Fresno St’s. We were an embarrassment against UCLA and started like duds against Washington, and then played the most ugly pathetic game of any Pac-10 team this year against WSU.
The WORST thing is this teams never came back from even 1 point down last year. They had zero fight and did not show themselves like we expect from what should be a tough OSU program. Ten years is a long time and Riley’s latest bowl pinnacle was a lousy game noone watched where we beat Pitt 3-0. Then BDC blew his wad and acted like Riley deserved the moon for coming close and almost being relevant. Real teams and programs win some of those big games and take the next step and are often in Holiday or Alamo bowls when they aren’t in BCS bowls. Riley can’t get over the hump and if he did it would mostly be luck and a one-timer. I don’t think his personality inspires enough or he doesn’t get his players to play at a high enough level for 60 minutes. New blood can do alot to reenergize a program and VERY SOON I would prefer that to going through the definition of insanity which is “doing the same things every year and expecting different results.” Riley has a foundation and maybe someone else can take the torch and go for actual glory.
I really believe, Bobby D. has to feel the pressure first if the program stays stagnant in the next couple of years before he is going to put any pressure on Mike.
But even before that happens, there have to be clear expectations communicated publicly, not implied expectations.
That becomes a problem because I doubt Bobby is not going to come out and say that the expectation is just to get bowl eligible because based on past history we here at OSU are happy with that, but once again it is almost implied with the way the Riley contract is structured.
Or on the flip side he is not going to say I expect a North Division championship within x amount of years because when that does not happen, what does he do?
I guess what I am saying is that if the program has peaked or flat-lined it may take a change at the AD level before anything would happen.
I think Mike Riley should take over the play calling duties! He also needs to make sure the best players are starting, regardless of seniority. Don’t allow Brandon Hardin to play corner, otherwise our defense will give up a lot of points, and big plays!
imo the program will not level out or flat line. I believe the program will continue sinking towards the bottom 1/3 of the table. The program is much worse than it appears and if it weren’t for the Rodgers brothers the true quality of Riley’s teams would already be evident. Painfully evident.
From a Dove candy wrapper: “A pessimist is really an optimist with experience.”
The optimist part of me is hoping we get lucky and some team hires Riley away. The pessimist part says no fricking way, OSU is in the process of reverting to the mean.
Is it necessary for me to point out that the Rodgers brothers attending OSU is not an indication of Riley’s recruiting ability?
imo it’s more of a case where they fell into his lap and was that ever a stroke of luck for him.
I’m sure I’m probably in the minority here, but I am not a fan of the Calhoun idea. The last 3 years he’s finished 4th twice, and 3rd once, in the MWC. His best finish was 2nd in the conference. Granted, Air Force is not your typical college program, but has he proven that he can recruit? This year Air Force is ranked 7th/9th in the MWC. Would he bring the option to Corvallis, and how successful would that scheme be in the Pac-12?
Who says we can even lure him to OSU? Sure, he’s from Oregon, but I’m not sure that alone would be enough to lure him. He’s turned down the likes of Tennessee and Colorado (and significantly more money) the past couple years because he wants to continue to coach his Alma Mater.
DREAM SCENARIO:
Riley is offered and accepts Stanford job.
OSU gets aggressive with a personal call from Obama to Chris Peterson and he is offers and accepts becoming the next OSU coach. The Beavs win the Pac-12 his first year after an epic Civil War for the Pac-12 North title and defeat of USC and make the Rose Bowl where they edge out Ohio St in another Chris Peterson classic. In future years they appear in the Alamo, Fiesta and another Rose Bowl but never worse than the Holiday Bowl.
That is what a Chris Peterson could do for our program, but could BDC ever swing it? No way because he doesn’t have the gumption and he wouldn’t even try and never even pick up the phone I am 99% sure. Yet we pay him to do his very best for OSU and nothing is ever really attempted to strive for and grab more.
Yeah, the Beavs have been down the option road once before and it did not work. In fact, a couple of the best defenses in the last twenty years(94,95) were wasted because the offense could not score enough points in the P-10. Calhoun seems like a talent, I would hope that he is not dead set on the option.
UofO landed Lyerla today. Damnit. anyone but them.
The fall back retort to this seems to be – “We didn’t want him anyway”.
LOL
Anything but admit that Riley can’t recruit worth a damn.
moala to cal, fuuuudge
Sample to UW.
I don’t put too much stock in the argument that after the Rogers brothers leave there’s nothing left. Fact is, ever since the resurgence of the program 12 years ago or so the Beavs have always featured one workhouse running back that they worked to death. Simonton, followed by Jackson, Bernard, followed by James Rogers (fly sweep as a freshman), followed by James Rogers (with James being converted to receiver. There’s no reason to believe they won’t have another RB to step up when Quizz is gone. We’ll see next season if they have one they’re grooming.
And, of those, Riley did recruit Simonton, Bernard, and James Rogers. Quizz sort of fell into their lap as a result.
As for Stanford, word is they really want Chris Peterson. Will Peterson leave Boise for that ?
Recruiting at Stanford is no picnic because Stanford will not compromise its rigorous academic standards for athletic scholarships. In that sense Stanford has an edge on one type of athlete: those who are outstanding students and outstanding athletes athletes. A Stanford degree is as good as it gets for someone interested in academics. That’s why Luck is staying, to get that degree. But how many are there of those out there? Enough to establish an elite program year in and year out? History says no. Toby Gerhard and Andrew Luck, almost flukes.
Erickson is a better recruiter? Please go do some research angry. Our offensive line was decimated with Erickson recruiting. How many good recruits did he bring in? Three – Derek Anderson (who likely would have come anyway) Steven Jackson, and Chad Johnson for one year. The meat of the Fiesta Bowl team was Riley (Simonton, Smith, Houshmandzadah, The presidents, James Allen, Keith Johnson, Weathersby, I could go on… Erickson has never stayed in a place for more than 4 years so how would you know if he can recruit. Miami – Wow tough to recruit there. Look what he has done at Arizona State – nothing – little easier to recruit to Tempe than Corvallis. Erickson took the job here in 99 because he knew we had talent already in place plain and simple. You might not like Riley, which is what is clouding your thinking, but he is the best coach for Oregon State. If you knew more about footbal you would be coaching, not writing a blog.
“If you knew more about footbal you would be coaching, not writing a blog.”
You realize this is one of the worst arguments you can make, right?