I have no doubt Mike Riley will get better offensive and defensive linemen into the program and once again win 8 games. I've had people say, "Angry, you are going to eat crow when Riley blah blah blahs."
Look, the guy won 2 games this year. The bar is low. I know he can win 8 or 9 games in this conference because he has done it; therefore, I know he will likely do it again. Moving from a 2 win season to a 9 win season, Riley will seem like a genius, and Pollyannas will label the dissenters as dolts. Even Cassandras will soften a bit–firemikeriley.com will go back into hibernation, Canzano will write that keeping Riley through hard times was a good move, fans on this site will soften, etc.
I already know this will happen at some point in the future. It's a question of when, not if.
My point is simply this: it is time to move on because this head coach will cost the team games. We saw it this past weekend with botched clock management, we saw it versus Cincinnati when he didn't challenge the DJ Woods play, we saw it in his two-point call versus Washington, no challenging the clock vs UCLA 2010, etc. Those are just a few examples that come to mind, but he's had dozens if not hundreds of these "minor" brain farts that cost the team games. Riley's in-game management is good for a loss or two per year. So, an 8 win season could, theoretically, be a 10 win season. And the 9 win season could be a 10 or 11 win season. So, either you call for a new coach, or you accept he'll win 8 or 9 games, be on the cusp for a nice bowl game, yet ultimately shoot himself in the foot and fall short. Unless the Beavs play Hawaii, Riley isn't winning 10 games. Beaver fans also need to realize they are not getting the benefit of the doubt—Bowl committees will pick anyone they can ahead of Oregon State. It makes that extra win or two invaluable.
Even with the changes in other Pac-12 teams (e.g. Luck moving on to NFL, maybe LMJ) , I don’t see Riley doing more than he’s already done. I also don’t see the Sun Bowl being too interested in OSU again. Another low-tier bowl game means nothing, in fact it would probably hurt by 1) reducing coaching staff effort on recruiting and by 2) sustaining mediocrity. This program needs an infusion of energy.
I think your straw man ‘pollyanna’ argument is tired. There aren’t THAT many people supporting Riley because they believe he’s the best coach available.
What there ARE, are people like me who believe that Mike Riley should not be fired because the OSU can’t afford to get a better coach. If you want a better coach, cut a check for the $7 million buyout and add another $7 million for an aggressive bid on somebody better, because we’re definitely going to have to overpay to get a better coach.
Hopefully, we see some coordinator changes this off-season. From what I’ve heard, I believe we WILL see that.
Actually that buyout amount is 12 million, and I have read others on this site put it at 14 million.
$12M?!?!? HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!
FIRE BOBBY D!!!!!!!
Sorry guys, I been trolling for some response from beav nation on the state of affairs after yesterdays loss. I got to say, Fire Bob is very relevant now. But what is done is done. I thought it was ridiculous to give Riley such a contract. Hell did anyone think he was going anywhere. He is Mr Oregon State. He strayed and came home for life. Bob did not have to Be so generous. I could see doing that with a chip Kelly yes. But Mike had Orange and Black ooosing from his pores, he wasn’t going anywhere.
Going with a new coach is definitely a risk. I suppose you have to balance the risk and reward. Also people say that Dennis won 11 games at OSU but at some point you have to factor luck into the equation. I think with the position OSU in it would be incredibly foolish to fire Riley without first putting out feelers for who we could get. That said he will likely get another year or two and likely be here much longer than that if we keep winning.
“It’s going to come down to Stanford’s defense,” the OSU D-coordinator said. “If (the Cardinal) can keep Oregon’s offense under wraps. … Washington had a hell of a (defensive) game against (the Ducks). Something about Oregon’s offense right now doesn’t look right. I’m not sure what it is.
“I don’t see Oregon’s style of play lending itself to winning this game. Plus there’s a guy up for the Heisman Trophy (Andrew Luck) leading Stanford. He has good receivers and great tight ends, and the corners for Oregon didn’t handle Washington State’s pass game when they played the Cougars.
“It’s two great teams, but I’ll tip my hat toward Stanford, and not because I’m from Oregon State.”
Why would Banker open his mouth on this rather than just saying “I’m focused on Cal and our team.” Real stupid.
at this point i expect nothing BUT stupidity from banker. maybe he already knows hes a dead coach walking.
Calm down. Shit like this is annoying. He probably made the comment because he was asked. It would be a bull shit answer if he said “I don’t know. I’m focused on Cal and haven’t paid any attention to Oregon or Stanford.”
It wasn’t even a well thought out answer so it’s not like he is spending hours thinking about the outcome. Anyone here could have said something similar.
Few of us want Mark Banker back next season, but you’re really reaching in trying to find shit to complain about.
If he is this vague and poor and diagnosing opposing teams and then communicates like this to players, it’s no wonder OSU struggles defensively.
I think what’s been clearly demonstrated by BSU, OSU, Auburn, and LSU, is the need for defensive lineman to control the line of scrimmage, contain and funnel rb’s to sure tacklers. Can Stanford do that? I don’t think they can do it well enough to win. I don’t think they have the size and speed on D to get it done. BSU maybe doesn’t have have the speed, but they sure as hell had the discipline and effort. Holding Blount to -8 yards was impressive.
That answer is a window into his mind and you guys are in for more misery. I can see hearing that from Fentress but a coach who should know you opposition a little better. We won by 23 points. Manhandled Stanford. And he is supposed to come up with a game plan for the Cival War.
No he won’t. He will miss a bowl next year and may be gone. If not almost for sure the following year when he doesn’t get in a bowl yet again. Even if he somehow stick around through 2016 or later I never see 8 or more wins. I see 7 at best. Cut bat after he fails to win another game this season and goes 2-10 and bring in Leach now.
We can get the guy if BDC makes any effort. He has all the reason he needs to cut Riley loose at 2-10 and this year will be the offseason when someone gets Leach. It may as well be OSU and return us to a team capable of beating Oregon on any given year. That simply isn’t thye case with Riley. He may never beat Oregon again.
Riley won’t beat Oregon ever again. Well, as long as Chip stays. If Chip moves on to a big job like Penn State then maybe…
… or if he hires a DC that can scheme against the spread.
That is an irrational post. Riley will never beat Chip. The games have actually been fairly close. And with better in-game adjustments by better coordinators… I am worried a little that Angry has lost objectivity. I think you might be letting the emotion get to you. Rileysafraud doesn’t have any objectivity and is out there breaking down the reasonable fans and maybe he has gotten to you Angry.
I probably side more with Brownale9000 on the Riley situation – not in that we can’t find anyone better than Riley that would come to OS, but combined with the necessary buyout, it isn’t going to happen this year. So, why not put the pressure on OS to do what is possible rather than making irrational statements that divert the conversation away from the incremental changes that are possible – new coordinators.
I feel like I was being objective. Chip Kelly is just great at preparing his team and attacking the opponent’s weakness. Riley is bad at these very things. I can’t see him losing to Riley.
The games have been close? You must be talking about the 37-33 game…? Kelly had the QB take a knee at like…the 10 yard line. That would have been 44-33 if necessary. And last year’s game was 3 scores.
Riley will have 9 more shots at Kelly before his contract expires, so we’ll see!
They did take a knee at the 10, but they also converted 2 4th downs in that drive and Oregon was not able to stop the Beavs at the end of that game. But, that really wasn’t my main point anyway (and probably just took away from my point). The Beavs have not been totally blown out of these games and a little bit of defensive creativity could have easily made the difference in those games. I just think to give any credibility to Rileysafraud is just silly. He makes outlandish statements that don’t follow football facts. And he makes those outlandish statements on every outlet, even if it is not aligned with the topic of discussion. Basketball posts, injury reports, etc.. it doesn’t matter, same message.
I’m really not trying to bag on you. I don’t always agree with you but I do respect your opinion and almost all of the posters on this site. And I find I agree with most of what you say. I can’t even go to the Oregonian anymore because of the shear stupidity that is out there. I don’t know exactly what it is about this site but you have been able in large part to keep the discussion at a much higher level. But Rileysafraud brings the discussion way down into the weeds. And this time it just seems like you brought credibility to him.
I respect Mike Riley. I think he is an outstanding representative for the university. But I don’t think he is an elite coach that will bring us to the Rose Bowl without some major new ideas from creative coordinators. But the reality is this:
– BDC gave MR a contract (silly contract) that at this point is out of reach
– I don’t know if MR will make the necessary changes
– If MR is not willing to make the necessary changes he will eventually reach to boiling point – I would say that point is likely next year if they have another year like this year.
– Fans will start voting with their money as soon as next year if changes aren’t made.
This is all good stuff, but your point about “defensive creativity” is moot. Banker was creative last year; he tried the wide-9 technique to nullify the edge, and Kelly just had his guy run up the middle. Or it just didn’t work. The score wound up being worse not better.
Kelly is now 29-5 as head coach and 22-1 in conference. His loses? BSU, Ohio State, LSUx2, and Stanford. Is Oregon State in that class?
His one conference loss is to Harbaugh, who was arguably the best coach in the conference during his tenure. I just don’t see Riley beating him!! Sorry man. I want Riley to beat him if that’s any consolation.
Re: Rileysafraud, I agree he is over the top. I didn’t even look at who posted the comment…
PS. I wrote Banker with this suggestion http://angrybeavs.com/athletics/2282 and he never wrote me back. I view it as creative, and something that would work for a team like OSU that doesn’t have the size/speed up front to contain Oregon.
to me the more accurate statement than ‘riley will never beat chip kelly’ is ‘mark banker will never give the team a chance to beat chip kelly.’
In 3.5 years as head coach, Kelly is on pace for nearly half as many victories as riley (whose had two tenures) , and has been in the Holiday, Rose, amd NC game.
Kelly has actually only been head coach 2.5 years…
Wow, that is stunning. Kelly is 30-5 right now. So I guess the Holiday Bowl victory was Bellotti as head coach, and Chip 0-2 in two of the biggest bowl games in the country.
What is Riley, 71-60, in 11+ years(?), with a Sun bowl tops. Note that Riley is trending towards the ultimate in mediocrity, the .500 mark….
Does he really need more time to demonstrate what he can and can’t do?
I keep saying it, but Kelly is a historical coach. People will talk about Oregon in the same vein as Tom Osborne/Nebraska, Urban Meyer/Utah, etc. He will go down in history as one of the most innovative coaches ever. I shudder to think how high Oregon’s prestige will rise if Kelly sticks around…the only savior is the NCAA. I don’t like routing against the Ducks, but the Beavers’ mediocrity makes me very jealous of their success. I didn’t care about the Ducks success until the Beavers plummeted, and Riley’s warts were finally exposed. Now that I am stuck with 8 more years of this, I am very envious of everyone successful. It’s not a good feeling.
We understand you guys have a man crush on Leach, but that comment is getting just as old as “Fire Mike Riley!”. Look at where we struggle as a team…Defensive Discipline, Offensive Line Recruiting, Offensive play calling, Running Backs fumbling(being handled properly though), WR’s dropping perfect passes in stride, Punting(has gotten better though)…HMMMM…seems like the ONLY thing OSU does well is Special Teams minus the kicking game. The problem with this team is discipline and execution. Mike Riley’s job is and should be to manage the teams progress(recruiting, game planning, seeing who should be where in respective positions in agreement with the position coaches, and managing in game situations.)
The way I see it, hiring friends as coordinators and position coaches is not the ideal thing to do because you start trusting those people with the “BIG” decisions(Who starts, who doesn’t, what defense we should use this season/week, and not checking up on your coachses to see if they’re making the right decisions.) Riley has lost control of his Coordinators in this regard. This staff is set up to fail because they don’t communicate with the director, Mike Riley! They all do their own thing and Riley let’s them and that’s what kills us. Riley only works with the QB’s, “game planning”, teaching in practices, and yelling at players when needed.
What Riley needs to do is to take control of EVERYTHING! Do what Chip Kelly does in holding meetings with each player, coach, and staff member to see how things are going. See where things should go with each player. Players are hesitant to come to their coach if they feel they aren’t getting a fair shot. I felt the same way in my Senior year of High School in my football program, and we only won 1 game my Senior year…when 2 seasons prior…we went to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years and played Bend in the first round and lost because we couldn’t stop the TE screen/dump! SAME thing is happening to OSU.
My former head coach was forced to retire 1 season after my Senior year….You know where my FG team has been since? 3-6! With a new HC, totally new Coaches all together. So it’s a complete risk to fire one coach and hope the grass is greener on the other side!
“What Riley needs to do is to take control of EVERYTHING! ”
Riley can’t do this as a coach/manager because: 1) he has no clear vision of what he wants the program and on-the-field product to be, so he has no clear, consistent message to communicate across the staff and players, and 2) he’s not a detail guy.
The first is manifest in his annual “this team needs to find an identity” proclamation at about game 3 or 4, the latter in examples as simple and available as his dismal clock management and inability to strategically use timeouts (see “Stanford @ OSU, 11/5/11”).
Chip Kelly (unethical as he may be), has a vision he communicates: “we want to be the fastest team in football….I challenged my defense to score 10 touchdowns….” and he is clearly a detail guy. The on the field performance reflects both of these characteristics.
On another blog topic, I joked about UO RB’s wishing the field was 250 yards long so they could wrack up more impressive numbers against OSU/Banker….the responses were all about the speed of UO’s backs…LMJ, Kenyon Barner, Thomas….Kelly is actualizing his vision on the field – he has fast players from 1 – 3, the team plays fast…
Riley does not get his team to play with urgency and cannot even manage a timeout or use a clock wisely at the end of a half. Its as if OSU doesn’t even practice those situations during the week.
Chip Kelly is a lightning in a bottle kind of coach. We here at Oregon have been enjoying tremendous success. We gave him a nice contract and there is a good chance he will stay a while. He is the kind of guy you can’t replace, and when he is gone we will miss him very much. One of the best coaches I have ever seen. lol Not much love for the media sept for the lovely and beautiful Arin Andrews. But His arrival was predicated on MB’s willingness to change. Knowing he could not trade blows in the trenches with the likes of USC or the LSUs of the world. He did what a boxer does when faced with a hard puncher, we danced and used the whole ring. Later he scored with the hire of Chip Kelly. Riley’s offense is too predictable and uninovative and maybe a new OC might do wonders. But he has to find the lightning in the bottle. I don’t know how or why it happens but it just does and the fans go for a wonderful ride. Dennis Erickson was like that abeit for maybe a year and a half then he started to come down to earth. But that one year was the best year OSU has had. It was fun and exiting for the fans and we envied you. Mike needs to think out of the box and I dont know if he is capable of that. I agree with angry that in his best seasons he will never be more than a 8 or 9 win coach. Thats it, I think he has proven that. Oregon State can be great and I mean that. What goes up must come down at some point and we will be no different. But I as a fan have experienced the best that it gets outside of actually winning the big one. If we keep punching the ticket eventually we will but that being said; Oregon State can have that too. Your just stuck in the mud and know one is thinking outside of their box. The world needs to start shaking in Reser.
The trustees for OSU and every other public university in the country will never allow Leach to be hired until he settles his lawsuit with Texas Tech. It doesn’t matter what any AD wants nor does it matter what any high roller alum wants. Any University legal rep or trustee should be fired immediately for approving a contract with a guy suing a public university for breach of contract. So please get Leach out of your head until he settles his lawsuit.
thank you for making it crystal clear. leach will never set foot in corvallis. anybody who brings up leach on this site is detracting from what makes this site great; relevant discussion of beaver athletics. to me its basically the same as constantly bitching that BDC doesent summon bear bryant from his grave to coach em up,
Off-topic. Not sure what just made me think of this, but does anybody here remember going to games in the late 90’s and the students would throw what appeared to be slices of Kraft singles cheese all over the stadium? Does anybody know when that tradition was born and when it died? Just thinking we haven’t had a unique tradition at Reser for years. Would love to see the day when orange cheese slices are flying all over the stadium during a nationally televised game.
All I remember is the ice cream cones being thrown at the roof of the walkway to the dorm quad near Weatherford. Literally a thousand cones tossed up there. They stick for a little while then drop on some unlucky fella. I always finished my cones.
I agree that Riley isn’t going anywhere because of his contract, I also agree that I don’t think he can lead us to anything other than 8 wins or no BCS bowl bid, as the staff holds right now. However, I might be optimistic if we brought in a better DC. The problem is that Riley hasn’t really shown the ability to bring in good assistant coaches who can both recruit and teach and scheme. I will give the new assistants a pass, but will mention there have been many dropped balls and fumbles by both the receivers and running backs. It obviously needs to start at the top and Banker and Lansgdorf have proved they can’t produce, but the same can be said for Cavanaugh, KHJ, and Seumalo. None have recruited their positions effectively. I have been happy with Bruce Read both times as Special Teams, despite Romaine’s struggles.
But it does start at the top and I think first with the Defense. We need to get back to having a stout defense that keeps us in the game. It then starts with the ability to recruit interior lineman consistently. I would settle for a DC who was a much better recruiter than game planner. As I heard Don James say recenty on the raidio, “I realized that I became a much better coach when I started getting better players”. We have got to find somebody who can go out and recruit the talent necessary to be competitive in the league. THere is no reason why Boise State should have a better DL than we do. I think we should consider going after Josh Wilcox for the DC position.
Along the lines of the WWJD in situations. How about WWAD. What Would Angry Do? Your coaching the Beavers. You have a guaranteed 1.5 Million a year for the next 8 years. the future is looking very uncertain with respects to the economy. We can all guess that you would replace some coordinators with your grandmas. But what do you do with your job?
If I had no passion for the job I’d resign. Just like one day I won’t care about college football anymore (if it keeps going down the current path), and I’ll stop writing this blog. There are so many interesting things in life that it is a waste to do something just for the sake of doing it, having a job, etc.
There is an obligation to perform each year that comes with a head coaching job. It’s like being a pilot–you can’t decide which flights you’re going to fly. Need to fly them all. That’s the responsibility. There are Beaver fans who are going to die in 2011, and this is the last team they’ll ever see. Think about that. These people give money, a representation of their labor and intellect. To ask fans to be patient and wait isn’t fair; that’s not a balanced equation. I’d take a long look in the mirror. I felt I could pinpoint the exact problems and turn those problems around within the year, then I’d try again.
Nice to see the Beavs featured in a commercial on ESPN for the Legends Classic coming up later this month. Texas, Vanderbilt, NC State and the Beavs all shown.
Who are the probable o-line starters next year?
My guess is, going into spring practice it’s probably something like:
LT: Darryl Jackson or Michael Phillip
LG: Josh Andrews
C: Geoff Garner
RG: Isaac Seumalo
RT: Colin Kelly or Michael Phillip
But I think Bays, Weinreich and Addie will all get a chance in there at some point. I’d really prefer to see OSU redshirt those freshmen, but if the line is as thin as this season, they’ve pretty much got to play.
Somebody needs to grab Jackson early on in Sprin practice and introduce him to Mannion. They need to let Jackson know that he should think of Mannion as his family. He needs to protect his family. I heard he scored in the 98th percentile in protective instincts.
Maybe they can give him a place to sleep. I had heard that he never had one of those before. “”What? A bedroom?” you may ask…..but no….”a bed”……
Really expecting big things from the guy.
I’m not discerning enough to evaluate this player – Hayden Craig – from Dayton OR. (I will say the competition doesn’t look too great.) He’s committed to U of Montana where, the Missoulian reports “that the Grizzlies are stocking up on big blockers.” Such a thing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJPSl_Jr7RI
“Craig, 6-5 and 246 pounds, was being recruited to play defensive end by Washington State and Portland State. He told the website Oregonpreps.com that the opportunity to play tight end swung him to UM.”
My point being – does OSU ever bother to look at small-town Oregon players?
See Jordan Poyer, Astoria OR
My highschool played him in the championship game at Reser back in ’08. Good game.
theyre are other examples, they just arent impact players. off the top of my head- ben motters from grants pass, burke ellis is from canby, mike remmers is from beaverton, jordan bishop is from west salem, hekkers from beaverton, im sure im forgetting others.
Hekker is from Bothell, WA, just north of Seattle.
same high school as former ducks tight end dante rosario… not quite the same physical specimen though
Joe Paterno fired effective immediately.
Maybe the steal Riley and let us off the hook?
Wonder how Gary Crowton would be as a head coach? Anybody know anything about him?
If I remember correctly Crowton ran BYU into the ground and got run out of Provo.
He was also replaced at Oregon and LSU. Remember the clock management brain freeze by Miles vs Ole Miss? Crowton was involved.
I thought he left Oregon for LSU. The SEC doesn’t really have to scrounge for PAC10 rejects. Not sayin he’s great or anything…looks like he got ran outta LSU after a couple years anyway.
He did leave Oregon for LSU and I honestly do not know all the facts. But LSU had just lost Jimbo Fisher and needed a big name. There was very little protest from Oregon (they have the money to match if they had wanted) and Oregon went a completely different direction when he left. LSU had several time management issues under his watch and some inexplicable play calling adventures during his tenure. Some worked and some did not. A last second pass against Auburn worked. Head scratching play calling against Ole Miss was a failure. Crowton appears to be bright but also appears to be erratic.
I used the words time management as opposed to clock management because at LSU under Crowton, they were often penalized for delay of game and often burned up time outs early in each half due to mixups or delays in getting plays or personnel in from the bench in time to run the plays. In that way he reminds me of the Jeff Tedford system. Watch this weekend and see how the Bears burn up timeouts.
How would you like to have Mike McQuerry as your recruiting coordinator and have him go into the homes of prospective recruits?
hahaha http://kezi.com/sports/229517
apprently scotty is a lame celebrator
Don’t panic!!!
I have informed the Penn State people that I am committed to restoring the glory days of Oregon State football.
I would never disappoint my loyal supporters; McKalk, slamadan and NcaaviOlator. Their pressure on BDC has made it possible! Thanks guys… sideline passes for you next fall. JB
PS; JackBeav still a toool. ding
You must enjoy thinking up useless comments that nobody reads. Good job…. good job.
OT… Nike marketing fail?
http://www.oregonlive.com/playbooks-profits/index.ssf/2011/11/nike_has_no_plans_to_change_na.html
At least the Tiger Woods building isn’t named “Tiger Woods Center for Fidelity.”
Sad irony:
http://kptv.images.worldnow.com/images/16004468_BG1.jpg
I thought they built a new child development center on the other side of the campus a couple years ago. Wouldn’t that be a good enough reason to at least lose the “child” association?
Wrong reply, same subject.
PBH,
If you’re going to start playing and joking about pedophilia, then I too will call for you to be banned in all forms. Joke about me, OSU, whatever. But don’t go where you’re headed.
Don’t worry, I would never mess with that topic… not even close. No one would ever think that situation is anything but tragic. Your friend….PBH
Cool!
Flame on!
Uh-oh, the number of comments on these posts is declining. I think we’ve reached the “I don’t give a fuck about this team” part of the season. I know I don’t. I’ll still watch but the emotion is gone. It might as well be December 1.
Haha. I agree and noticed that. I really don’t feel like talking about the Beavers too much, either. If anything interesting pops up, or I have an interesting idea I’ll write, but otherwise I am going to be working on my next “real” writing project. My last book was recently picked up by Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple’s bookstore, which is pretty exciting, and it made me want to start writing for real again.
Geeez and you’re not going to tell us what the name of it is? Oh well, there goes your book sales down the tubes.
Wow congrats that’s pretty impressive.
Joined that clup a while back…but having a stellar year afield! Got a back country mule deer trip planned…leaving tonight!
*club
I’m at this point for this season, I’m actually in the “I wish it was Dec 1st so then we can see what if any changes will be made for next season.” club.
Im a douchebag, I like balls in my mouth,
Time to restore OSU’s glory-hole days!
Can we now block PBR…I mean, PBH.
Please ban Bonehead. I really like this site when I can read every post and not think I have wasted time.
On Riley back to the better days, there HAVE been some. And I dont think you need to fire him to get them. But you do need to put pressure on the situation such that RILEY feels he needs to make a move and get better coordinators.
As it is, he isnt even trying to win a lot of games. Witness the lack of planning for Utah. A perfectly winnable game, with a little planning.
Never beating Chip Kelley? Might not be a problem in a year or so when UO fires him. Might have beat him the past years, if UO has to void those wins. Bellotti was a winning coach and in essence got fired. And he wasnt involved in NCAA violations, at least that we know of.
The notion that the Sun bowl isnt a good thing has to be wrong. OSU doesnt have the money or the rich, rabid alums that will demand contending for the title every year, so its never going to be an Alabama or LSU….or Oregon. But we CAN get back to playing intelligent, competitive football, with a winning record.
I dont think it will happen with the current set of coaches.