To Nebraska: A Moral Tale

Good and bizarre news out of Corvallis and Lincoln.

It's quite funny in reality.  OSU "fans" were shocked this morning to hear that the coach they so desperately wanted to dump into the street has simply parlayed their discontent into a better job.

Mike Riley has taken the head coaching job at Nebraska. That's right. He kissed off Corvallis before the Beaver geniuses could kiss him off.

This is like wrecking your junker old Dodge and having somebody mistakenly cut you an insurance check for a Rolls Royce.

Good for the old coach, 61.

I'm on record numerous times here in saying I like Riley.  I think he's an outstanding coach.  Hell, two years ago his team went 9 and 3 and won a bowl game.

Riley historically coached up the mostly average players he brought in. There were of course exceptions, but depth of talent was always an issue.   Where he couldn't find more than a handful of first-rate talents, he found the rough-cut diamonds.  The hometown boy did good with what he had to work with, time after time.

OSU had 28-straight abysmal seasons once the racist Dee Andros drove the program off the road in the early '70s.  Riley came in and changed that.

Riley always said he wanted to "coach at Oregon State for life."  Well, the natives turned restless (a sign of the times) and the storm recently turned as ugly as the loudest louts in the "Beaver Nation." He lost seven games this season, including a seventh straight to rival Oregon.

Riley brought a program up from the bottom, escaped to the NFL until he was fired, and then returned and continued to build a steady winner.  Again, with many average players and facilities.

Injuries on the defense killed his thin Beavers this year, and that happened because Corvallis is not an optimal place to recruit to; the school's facilities are mediocre.  The stadium, despite a recent renovation on one side, is basically a dump, and Corvallis itself is caught in an Andros-induced coma of acculturated conservatism that reeks of bigotry.

It's a beautiful little town with a gorgeous campus and excellent academics, but under its skin there's a cesspool of certifiable rednecks that run things.

So OSU's loudest complainers got what they wanted.

A job opening that a coach far less seasoned and savvy than Mike Riley is will take as a stepping stone to something better. You know, like Riley did, though he didn't really want to until all the shouting began.

The moral is, of course, be careful what you wish for Beaver fans. You outshone the Ducks' crybabies who wanted Helfrich fired after one loss earlier this season.

You won something, finally, I guess.


TS