OSU Program Reaches New Decade-Level Lows
By osbeaver
Oregon State failed to grasp the most obvious last night and lost another game because of egregious coaching. While Joe Pa became the most winning coach in NCAA history yesterday, Riley is very near become the most losing coach in OSU history. He will have that distinction before the season is through. Urban Meyer called him out as did the other announcer in the Wisconsion game. Exact quotes were “What is Mike Riley thinking?” Kyle Whittingham said mid week if he was a defensive coordinator he would stack the box against his team and force them to throw. He was just stating the obvious because it literally could not be more obvious.
Enter Mike Riley who thought he must be getting outcoached again and Kyle had to be throwing him a curve ball so he would prepare Oregon State to defend against an all out passing threat. Instead Utah rolled up 200 yards of rushing offense in the first half as the air raid attack Riley and Banker were apparently expecting never materialized. Imagine that. Would a Utah team having around 60 or 70 yards passing in previous games and a struggling replacement QB even make a Pop Warner coach want to protect against the pass before the rush when Utah has been a run dependent team and especially so when having to use their backup QB? All the facts showed that Utah will live and die by the run and only be forced into their lackluster passing game when necessary. Oregon State waited til the second half to think run first and then immediately White had a tough time running. All it took was OSU not thinking the Utah QB could dissect them like Tom Brady.
This all goes to show that OSU needs to change up the coaching by this offseason at the latest. The coordinators need to go, but that isn’t enough. If you keep Riley you will have the same excuse driven, we have the first 8 weeks of the season to “team build” as we go 2-6 persona. It is only going to get worse from here as Stanford is next and Oregon looms. Even Washington will beat this Beaver team at Reser because they have the focus and drive now. They want the good bowls and will play a full 4 quarters. That will be enough to beat Mike Riley and his hoping. No matter how good certain areas of our team ever get we will have many of the same issues. Because our lines are not good enough Mannion will not have enough time to consisently find his receivers. The real key against the Beavers is not to get in a hole early. One fan wrote on a message board last night that he isn’t sure if OSU has ever come back from a halftime deficit. Even if we have the fact that he can say that and it could possibly be true after 11 years of Riley shows just how pathetic of coaches Riley and his coordinators are when it comes to in-game adjustments. Taking a half to figure out a team running nearly 80% of the time wants to run doesn’t count.
Riley peaked a few years ago. If you keep him for another 8 years, like his retarded and unprecedentedly ridiculous contract currently is for, the Beavers will not ever do much more than a Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. They just won’t. Riley thought up a horrendous clause that De Carolis was all too happy to oblige because instead of improving Reser he thought he would just sign the death of the OSU football program with Riley. If I was an administrator at Corvallis High or Crescent Valley I wouldn’t even let Riley coach the team for fear of a weakling program full of excuses developing. So where do we go from here? Certainly, not forward as is. Look at what Arizona did. Mike Stoops made 3 consecutive bowls , including a Holiday bowl and the second he started as poorly as 1-5 he was gone midseason. Clean and simple and the team has gotten better with its fresh start since he has been gone. They can now go out and get a new coach who will bring new energy to the fanbase and allow them to move forward.
When will OSU get to move forward with new energy or hardly any energy for that matter? Who knows. It should be this offseason by Riley retiring. To get the new feel at OSU that we desperately need at this point you really need to clean house. Riley has already stated he wants to stick with his hand-picked coordinators anyway so it is pretty clear he plans on no changes. They will have to be forced upon him. The better idea is to force him out and start anew. The new Pac-12 media deal will provide good resources as long as we are smart enough to buy new and not keep putting good money into a fixer upper that has too many fundamental flaws to ever be anything special again.
Recruits do not like stale. The message at OSU compared to Oregon is devastating OSU. Riley does not excite recruits. What we need is someone with attitude like a Mike Leach who will grab the bull by the horns and demand his players play up to his level of expectations. Recruits and fans love the energy Leach brings. Riley brings next to none and his players play like it. They take on the persona of the coach. That persona is of a “aw shucks” let’s not get 6 wins too often otherwise I will be at OSU past 2025. Instead lets typically go 3-9 at best and scatter in a couple 6-6 seasons. That will be enough to keep me here until 2022 so that is long enough for me. And folks, that is exactly what we are going to get if we don’t get rid of Mike Riley this offseason. He is a tired and failed coach who no longer cares to do anything more than 6-6 and won’t. Even that record is not guaranteed within 5 years no matter if players show any development because the coaching is bad, is getting worse and the whole conference understands that OSU is a patsy team which is easy to outcoach.