5 worst Oregon State football head coaching hires of all-time

No. 2: Gary Andersen (2015-17)

Sometimes it is true that nice guys finish last. That was the case with Gary Andersen at Oregon State.

However, when he was lured away from Wisconsin to take over in Corvallis, the move seemed to be a home run. In two years with the Badgers, he had put together a 19-7 overall record and an appearance in the 2014 Big 10 Championship Game.

What's more, prior to that, he had resurrected a dormant Utah State program going 26-24 overall in four seasons and leading the Aggies to a pair of bowl games. Thus, the Beavers thought they had pulled off a shrewd move by bringing Andersen in to run their program.

However, Wisconsin was a perennial winner with a sturdy culture already in place after decades of success. That is a much easier job than the Oregon State job has ever been.

Andersen won just seven of his 30 games as head coach at OSU. What's more, he was just 3-18 in conference play.

What makes the Andersen story so bizarre, though, is that when he resigned as head coach, he declined to take any portion of a $12 million buyout that was owed to him by the school. Some may say that's a sign of his character while others might see that move as absurd and irresponsible.

Sure, Andersen seems like an earnest fellow but he proved to be an awful coach with the Beavers. He actually was set up to succeed after Mike Riley rebuilt Oregon State football by taking the Beavers to eight bowl games in the previous twelve seasons.

Andersen couldn't sustain that success and in just two-plus seasons, he torpedoed any positive momentum the program had enjoyed. In fact, he would begin a run of six consecutive losing seasons. That was a killer for a fan base that had seen enough losing streaks to last a lifetime.