| Oregon Magazine |
| Oregon State Football
Needs Better Leader By Pigskin Pete There are ominous signs of an impending collegiate football collapse at Oregon State. Coach Mike Riley's handling of no less than seven player off-campus incidents resulting in team suspensions since November has underlined his laxness and seems a factor resulting in the defection of four Beaver assistant coaches to other programs this month. Nobody who's been acquainted with Riley doubts he's the nicest guy you can meet. However, "nice" doesn't inspire a team to greater heights and isn't what you need to exude to achieve player discipline, or, apparently, retain loyal assistants. Riley's certainly been exposed to gridiron success. He served as an assistant to the legendary Ad Rutschman at Linfield in Riley's first full time coaching position. Linfield compiled a 52-7-1 record and a small college national title while Riley served there. The current OSU head grid mentor then served as an assistant at Winnipeg of the Canadian Football League before becoming the youngest (33) head coach in CFL annals when he was named that league's oach of the year for the two seasons he guided Winnipeg to Grey Cup titles. A losing two years at San Antonio of the ill-fated pro World Football League followed Riley's CFL success. Then he worked under John Robinson at USC for four campaigns as the Trojans were the top program in the Pac 10 three of those seasons. This success caused OSU to hire Riley to return home (he was the son of a former OSU assistant and a star at Corvallis high) in 1997 as the coaching answer to a string of 26 straight losing seassons. His first two seasons weren't winners (8-14), but enough of a turnaround for a sorry Beaver grid history that the San Diego Chargers took a gamble to name him an NFL head coach in 1999 and he guided a talent-rich squad to an 8-8 mark. The next two NFL campaigns Riley's minions went 6-26 and a last place finish in 2001 pushed him out the Chargers' door. Home again Dennis Erickson had replaced Riley at OSU and inspired a prep recruiting blitz that brought winning results and national notice that carried Erickson into the NFL as head mentor of the San Francisco 49ers (what now looks like a disastrous move by Dennis). Beaver athletic director Bob DeCarolis passed over some golden applicants to satisfy home town sentiment and hire Riley for a second OSU coaching term. Fueled by Erickson recruits, Riley's teams have gone 15-10 since his Corvallis redo. It now becomes obvious, however, that a run of recruiting questionable citizens initiated by Erickson has continued under Riley, whose latest group of recruits is rated near the Pac 10 bottom in skill quality. OSU assistant coach defections have Riley looking for folks to fill key slots that include offensive coordinator, tight ends, wide receiver/recruiting coordinator and linebacker positions. Turmoil signs run rampant We believe there is more than timing coincidence involved in the coaching turnover. Riley and his AD DeCarolis have excused the flagrant off-campus criminal activity of squad members since November. Riley has lived up to his 'nice guy' image in press conference justifications for reinstating offending players. As an asssitant coach in this program, you are justified in wondering where this leads in terms of your own success. As Leo Durocher once famously pointed out, "nice guys finish last" and we don't expect Riley is headed in the direction of proving this judgment wrong. Athletes fresh out of high school need unwavering discipline to reach their collegiate performance potential. This principle seems to have eluded Riley in his years of coaching. © 2005 Oregon Magazine |