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| Riley was 93-80 at Oregon St in 14 seasons. Photo Credit: USA Today Sports |
Nebraska has found its new head coach in former Oregon St head coach Mike Riley.
By: Michael Hanley
In what was a shocking move, the Cornhuskers went to the pacific northwest to find their new coach to lead them for the foreseeable future. It was officially announced on Thursday that the school had in fact hired Mike Riley. Their is a scheduled press conference for Friday morning to introduce Riley to the local and national media.
This is a shocking move on two fronts, one the fact that Riley's name was never brought up in conversations about the potential next head coach of Nebraska. The second is Riley leaving Oregon State, a program he had such an attachment and passion for during his two stints there. It looked as if he would be in Corvallis for the rest of his coaching career.
There was a long list of names people were throwing out as possible candidates for the Nebraska job, some pretty recognizable names depending on who you asked. Bret Bielema was reportedly offered the Nebraska job last night bu turned it down to stay on as Arkansas head coach.
Scott Frost, offensive coordinator for the Oregon Ducks, was a name people immediately jumped to with his ties to Lincoln being a former starting quarterback for the program back in the mid to late 1990s, leading them to their last national championship in 1997.
His candidacy never did take off though as some people in the media and Husker fans had thought.Their was no private jet heading to Eugene to interview him or any sort of contact with Frost about the head coaching vacancy. It was a logical fit for both parties but was not meant to be at least this time around.
There were other active head coaches talked about but never did anything materialize with them. The Huskers did some job to keep their mission to hire Riley away from Oregon State under wraps. No one could have even pictured the two as a fit for each other.
It was assumed that Riley would just be going into the off season and doing his usual work with recruiting and getting set for spring practice before next season arrives. No details have come out about just when and how did they meet before agreeing to this new deal. Safe to say it was one of the more surprising hiring choices that a major program has made in quite sometime in college football.
Mike Riley and Oregon State were synonymous with each other. In no way shape or form could you picture one without the other. It was looking like that he would be a lifer in Corvallis as he had spent 14 seasons as the head coach of the Beavers football program.
He had experienced a level of success there as he went 93-80 overall combining his two separate stints there. Riley had made the program one that was tough to play against and made opponents uncomfortable especially when they had to come up to Corvallis and play the Beavers in their own building.
Also the player development Riley and his staff were able to do with recruits who were not highly ranked or thought of was very impressive. He sent a good number of his own players onto the NFL were they have experienced success at that level of football.
Now people will point to his seven losing seasons and 58-63 Pac 12 conference record as negatives and concerns and they are fair but he was in an environment that was not equipped with all the resources that bigger programs like Oregon, USC, Stanford have to their advantage.
Riley also did not have four and five star recruits up and down his roster to work with but still made the most of what he had to work with and produced some very solid teams and ones that went to bowl games.
Riley walks into a good situation at Nebraska that is committed to winning at a high level and has all the tools a head coach could possibly want in order to succeed. The fan base is loyal and is badly wanting to return to their glory years of the mid to late 1990s where they were competing and winning national championships.
The level of recruits Riley will be able to pull in also is upgraded as Nebraska is a program that can go out and recruit nationally with the other big time programs in the sport. The ability of Riley to mold and maximize a players potential and talents will bode well for the Huskers who under their previous coach never could never fully develop guys into what they could be.
His NFL experience as ahead coach also will play very well into the program's hands as he can show current and future players of the program that he can help them get to the professional ranks if they follow and buy into his brand of football.
Riley will have to win and win big to be a big hit with the fan base and alumni but with all the new resources and current team he will takeover chances are he will be able to do that now and into the future for Nebraska.
Follow me on Twitter: @Magic20099
