Michael Joseph Riley (born July 6, 1953) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach who is the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

and

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

for the

New Jersey Generals The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League (USFL) established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983 to 1985, winning 31 regular season games and losing ...

of the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

(USFL). He has previously served as the head coach of two

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

programs:

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

(1997–1998, 2003–2014) and

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

(2015–2017). Riley has also been the head coach of teams in four different professional leagues: the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL),

World League of American Football NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

(WLAF),

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL), and

Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan are ...

(AAF). He played college football for the

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as a me ...

in the 1970s.

Early life and playing career

Born in

Wallace, Idaho Wallace, Idaho is a city in and the county seat of Shoshone County, Idaho, in the Silver Valley mining district of the Idaho Panhandle. Founded in 1884, Wallace sits alongside the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River (and Interstate 90), app ...

, Riley is the eldest of three sons of

Bud In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be spec ...

and Mary (Shumaker) Riley. Bud was from western

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

during World War II, and had played college football at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The Universit ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

under head coach

Dixie Howell Millard Fleming "Dixie" Howell (November 24, 1912 – March 2, 1971) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He played college football as a halfback at the University of Alabama from 1932 to 1934 and with the Washington Redski ...

, a hall of famer as a player at

. After graduation, Bud worked for a mining company in Wallace and was asked by town leaders to coach at the high school; Mary was from nearby Mullan, where her parents, Mike and Mary Shumaker, ran a hotel. The family of four, now with middle brother Ed, moved from Wallace down to Lewiston in 1959, where Bud was the head coach at Lewiston High School for three seasons. They moved up to

in 1962, when Bud became a collegiate assistant coach at his alma mater, the

, under new head coach

Dee Andros Demosthenes Konstandies Andrecopoulos (October 17, 1924 – October 22, 2003) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics He was the head coach at the University of Idaho from 1962 to 1964 and Oregon State University from ...

. Youngest brother Pete was born while the family lived in Moscow. After three seasons on the

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, prima ...

, Andros was hired at Oregon State in 1965 and Bud joined his first staff in Corvallis and stayed for eight seasons, first as the secondary coach and later as

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

. Bud went on to become a head coach in the CFL. Riley had a peripatetic youth and spent his first 11+ years in

northern Idaho The Idaho Panhandle—locally known as North Idaho—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, and Sho ...

, but considers Corvallis his hometown. He arrived in the spring of 1965, near the end of sixth grade, and stayed through high school.

High school

Riley was a hometown hero in Corvallis from his athletic days at

Corvallis High School Corvallis High School may refer to: *Corvallis High School (California) *Corvallis High School (Montana) *Corvallis High School (Oregon) Corvallis High School (CHS) is a four-year public secondary school in Corvallis, Oregon. Originally estab ...

, where he led the Spartans as the starting

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

to consecutive state title games in 1969 and 1970, both played in Corvallis at OSU's

Parker Stadium Reser Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the northwest United States, on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. It is the home of the Oregon State Beavers of the Pac-12 Conference, and opened in 1953 as Parker St ...

. Corvallis High School had narrowly won the early season matchup in 1969, but came up well short against Medford in the A-1 state championship, 27–0. They avenged the loss to the Black Tornado the following year in the regular season 28–14, and again in the AAA state final, 21–10, with left-handed option quarterback Riley throwing two touchdown passes in the second quarter to build a 21–3 lead at halftime. He completed five of nine passes for 76 yards; prior to the final, Riley had thrown only 41 times in 11 games, with 23 completions (and ten wins). He was a three-sport athlete at CHS, also lettering in basketball and baseball.

College

Riley graduated from CHS in 1971 and opted not to play his

in the

Pac-8 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

, but for the

in the SEC under head coach

Paul "Bear" Bryant Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of t ...

. He had family connections to the state and school: his father was born and raised in Guin and his uncle,

Hayden Riley Loyd Hayden Riley (September 14, 1921 – April 24, 1995) was an American college basketball coach. He was the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide for eight seasons during the 1960s, and the Tide's head baseball coach for ten seasons in the 1 ...

, was Alabama's assistant athletic director, head

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

coach (1970–79), and the former head

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach (1960–68). (Mike's cousin, Major Ogilvie, became a star running back for the Tide in the late 1970s; Ogilvie's mother Peggy was one of Bud Riley's five sisters.) In his four seasons at Alabama as a reserve

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

, the Tide won four

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) titles and the 1973 UPI (Coaches Poll) national championship, though they lost the 1973 Sugar Bowl to Notre Dame on New Year's Eve. Until 1974, the final Coaches Poll was released before the bowl games.

Coaching career

Riley began his coaching career immediately after his playing days ended, first as a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research respo ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, and then as a graduate assistant at Whitworth in

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

, where he received his

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

. In 1977, he was hired as the

and secondary coach at

Linfield College Linfield University is a private university with campuses in McMinnville, and Portland, Oregon. Linfield Wildcats athletics participates in the NCAA Division III Northwest Conference. Linfield reported a combined 1,755 students after the fall ...

McMinnville, Oregon McMinnville is the county seat of and largest city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. The city is named after McMinnville, Tennessee. As of the 2019 census, the city had a population estimate of 34,743. McMinnville is at the confluence of ...

. During his stay at Linfield he assisted head coach

Ad Rutschman Adolf "Ad" Rutschman (born October 30, 1931) is an American football coach, former baseball coach, and college athletics administrator. He was a head football coach for 24 seasons, head baseball coach for 13 seasons, and served as athletic director ...

's Wildcats to a six-year record of 52–7–1, which included five conference titles and an undefeated NAIA Division II championship season in 1982.

CFL

Riley was hired as an assistant coach in the

in 1983 with the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fiel ...

, and was a part of their 1984 Grey Cup championship team. Hired as the Bombers' head coach at age 33, Riley reportedly became the youngest head coach in CFL history in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

at Winnipeg but in fact was three years older than Bud Grant, who was 29 when he was hired as Winnipeg's head coach in January 1957 (Grant had turned 30 by the time he coached his first game that summer). Riley led the Blue Bombers from 1987 to 1990 and won two

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

s during his tenure.

WLAF

He also coached the

San Antonio Riders The San Antonio Riders were a professional American football team that played in the WLAF in 1991 and 1992. The team played at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio in 1991 and then were forced to move to Bobcat Stadium on the campus of Southwest Texas S ...

of the defunct WLAF. He was intended to stay on as the Riders attempted to transition to the CFL (as the

San Antonio Texans The San Antonio Texans were a Canadian Football League (CFL) team that played in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1995 CFL season. They had relocated from Sacramento, California, where the team had been called the Sacramento Gold Miners ...

) for the 1993 CFL season, but the team folded before it could begin playing as a CFL team.

USC

Riley returned to the college ranks in 1993 when

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

head coach John Robinson offered him the position of

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

and

quarterbacks coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

; he later became assistant head coach. The ''

Mesa Tribune The ''East Valley Tribune'' is a newspaper concentrated on cities within the East Valley region of metropolitan Phoenix, including Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek. Formerly a daily newspaper, the ''Tribune'' resulted from t ...

'' named him the league's top assistant coach in 1993 after leading the Trojan offense to record setting numbers. USC quarterback Rob Johnson set numerous Pac-10 and

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

records under Riley's tutelage and later became a fourth-round

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

pick. "He's a player's coach, who gets the most out of you by treating you like normal", Johnson later said. Riley remained at USC through the 1996 season, helping the Trojans to post-season victories in the

Freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

Cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

, and

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

Bowls. USC won an outright league title, shared another, and finished second once.

Oregon State

Riley was hired as the head coach at

in 1997 to replace

Jerry Pettibone Jerry Pettibone (born July 11, 1939) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Northern Illinois University from 1985 to 1990 and Oregon State University from 1991 to 1996. compiling a career college ...

, who had resigned at the end of the 1996 season. Riley's initial contract was a five-year deal at $185,000 per year. In the Beavers first season under Riley, they posted a record of 3–8. This was a difficult season for Riley as he attempted to run his NFL-style offense with players recruited by Pettibone to run the

wishbone Wishbone commonly refers to: * Furcula, a fork-shaped bone in birds and some dinosaurs Wishbone may also refer to: * Wish-Bone, an American salad dressing and condiment company * Wishbone formation, a type of offense in American football * Wish ...

triple-option. The 1998 season was a big step in the right direction, with the Beavers posting a 5–6 record, their best record since 1971. Two of the six losses were by a single point, to Washington and California in back-to-back games late in the season. This was followed by a last-minute loss to a highly ranked UCLA team. The 1998 season was capped off by a double-overtime 44–41 victory over the rival

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. ...

in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

game. Although his first stint with the Beavers only lasted two seasons, Riley is considered by many to have laid the foundation for the success of the Beavers in the years to come. The 1999 team, led by

Dennis Erickson Dennis Brian Erickson (born March 24, 1947) is an American football coach who most recently served as the head coach for the Salt Lake Stallions of the Alliance of American Football league. He was also the head coach at the University of Idaho ( ...

and built around players Riley recruited, posted a 7–5 record and earned a trip to the

Oahu Bowl The Oahu Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision (then known as Division I-A) bowl game played in Honolulu, Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. Played on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, the Oahu Bowl was sponsored by th ...

, which ended a streak of 28 straight losing seasons.

NFL

In January 1999, Riley left the Beavers to become the head coach of the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

of the NFL, signing a five-year deal at $750,000 per year.OregonLive.com
– Oregon State Insider: Mike Riley, and his dad Bud Riley, both know the sting of being fired – October 13, 2011 Riley coached the Chargers from 1999 to

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, with a record of 14–34. In 2000, the Chargers had their worst season; they went 1–15, with their only win on a last-second field goal against the Kansas City Chiefs. Riley's last game was indicative of his last season, as the Chargers played well, but one poor play turned the tide. The 2001 Chargers ended their 5–11 season with a loss to the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

, after

Doug Flutie Douglas Richard Flutie (born October 23, 1962) is an American former football quarterback whose professional career spanned 21 seasons. He played 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), eight seasons in the Canadian Football League (CF ...

passed for 377 yards and drove for the tying field goal with 16 seconds remaining, but poor

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

play led to a long Seahawks

kick return A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another position ...

and subsequently a 54-yard winning

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

. Riley was fired as head coach of the Chargers after three seasons and was an assistant coach with the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. He was offered the

job in December 2002 after

Dennis Franchione Dennis Wayne Franchione (born March 28, 1951), also known as Coach Fran, is a retired American football coach. He is the former head football coach at Texas State University, a position he held from 1990 to 1991, when the school w ...

left for

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. Riley was also under consideration for the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

job during that period.

Return to Oregon State

After spending the 2002 season with the New Orleans Saints, Riley returned to Corvallis to become the head coach at Oregon State in 2003 following Erickson's departure to become the head coach of

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

of the NFL. Riley agreed to a seven-year contract that started at $625,000 per year and increased incrementally to $950,000 in year seven. Continuing on their new success, the Beavers won bowl games in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and 2004 before having a down year in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. After starting the 2006 season 2–3, the Beavers went 9–4 on the regular season, including an upset of #3 USC in Corvallis. The Beavers completed their impressive season with a win over

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

in the Sun Bowl in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

, ending their season with a 10–4 record. In 2007, the Beavers again started 2–3 and finished 8–4 on the regular season, including an upset of #2 Cal in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. The Beavers finished the year 9–4 with a win in the

Emerald Bowl The San Francisco Bowl was an annual postseason college football bowl game certified by the NCAA and played in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally named the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl during its first two editions from 2002 to 2003, it w ...

in San Francisco over the

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, Riley's Beavers knocked off #1-ranked USC 27–21 at

Reser Stadium Reser Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the northwest United States, on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. It is the home of the Oregon State Beavers of the Pac-12 Conference, and opened in 1953 as Parker St ...

. The Beavers went into the Civil War with a chance to reach the Rose Bowl as Pac-10 champions but were defeated by

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, 65–38, and instead accepted another invitation to the third place Sun Bowl, where they beat

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

in a defensive struggle, 3–0. Though winless in bowl games as a player, Riley has a 6–2 NCAA football bowl record as a head coach through the 2013 season, having won the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl, 2004 Insight Bowl, 2006 Sun Bowl,

2007 Emerald Bowl The 2007 Emerald Bowl, one of the 2007–08 NCAA football bowl games, was played on December 27, 2007, at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California, with the Atlantic Coast Conference represented by the Maryland Terrapins against the Oregon State Be ...

, and 2008 Sun Bowl. Riley is a combined 8–1 in bowl games as a head or assistant coach. In the

2009 Las Vegas Bowl The 2009 Maaco Bowl Las Vegas was an National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS post-season college football bowl game, in which the 2009 BYU Cougars football team, Brigham Young Cougars defeated the 2009 Oregon State ...

, the Beavers lost to the

BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the West ...

of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

. In Riley's second stint at Oregon State, the Beavers produced four NFL quarterbacks, Sean Mannion,

Sean Canfield Sean Canfield (born November 12, 1986) is a former American football quarterback. He was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL Draft. Canfield played college football at Oregon State. Early years Canfield attende ...

, Matt Moore, and Derek Anderson. Following the 2009 season, Riley was rumored to be up for the

vacancy created by the resignation of

Pete Carroll Peter Clay Carroll (born September 15, 1951) is an American football coach who is the head coach and executive vice president for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the head football coach at USC Troja ...

. Those rumors were put to rest when Riley signed a three-year extension at OSU through the 2019 season. During the 2012 season, Riley snatched his 75th career win surpassing

Lon Stiner Alonzo L. "Lon" Stiner (June 20, 1903 – March 8, 1985) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at Oregon State College—now Oregon State University—from 1933 to 1948, compiling a record of 74–49–17. Stiner led th ...

as Oregon State's all-time winningest coach. Riley completed his second stint at Oregon State with an 85–66 () record in a dozen seasons. His 93 wins overall in 14 seasons at OSU are the most in school history.

Nebraska

On December 4, 2014, Riley was named head coach of the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

. In his first season as head coach at Nebraska, Riley's Cornhuskers completed a 5–7 regular season (their first losing season since 2007) with numerous last second losses; notable among these was the Huskers' first game under Riley, wherein they lost to BYU, 33–28, on a last-second

Hail Mary pass A Hail Mary pass is a very long forward pass in American football, typically made in desperation, with an exceptionally small chance of achieving a completion. Due to the difficulty of a completion with this pass, it makes reference to the Catho ...

from the Cougars' backup quarterback, Tanner Mangum, to wide receiver Mitch Mathews (a loss which snapped Nebraska's streak of 29 consecutive home opener wins). Despite their losing season, however, the Cornhuskers were still invited to a post-season bowl game due to a lack of enough eligible teams to fill all bowl slots and the team high academic progress rate (APR). The Cornhuskers defeated the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). ...

in the 2015 Foster Farms Bowl, finishing the season 6–7.

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

saw improvement as the team began the season with seven straight wins and reached number 7 in the AP Poll, and finished 9–4 overall after losses to Wisconsin, Ohio State, Iowa, and Tennessee in the

Music City Bowl The Music City Bowl is a post-season American college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that has been played in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1998. Since 2020, it has been sponsored by TransPerfect and is officially known as the ''TransPer ...

. The Huskers significantly regressed in 2017, going on a four-game losing streak to finish 4-8, the school's worst record since 1961. The last three of those losses saw Nebraska surrender at least 50 points. Riley was fired following the season.

Second return to Oregon State

On December 7, 2017, it was announced that Riley would return to Oregon State to be the assistant head coach under newly hired Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith, who had been both a player (1998) and a graduate assistant coach (2003) during Riley's first and second tenures as head coach at Oregon State.

San Antonio Commanders

In June 2018, Riley was named the head coach of the San Antonio Commanders of the Alliance of American Football.

Seattle Dragons

On June 6, 2019, Riley was named the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Seattle's new

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

team, the

Seattle Dragons The Seattle Sea Dragons (formerly known as the Seattle Dragons) are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. The team is a franchise of the new XFL (2020), XFL and plays its home games at Lumen Field in Seattle. Origin ...

. He missed the first three games of the season due to personal reasons.

New Jersey Generals

On January 6, 2022, Riley was named the Head coach and General manager for the

of the

Head coaching record

CFL

WLAF

NFL

College

AAF

USFL

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Mike 1953 births Living people American football cornerbacks American football quarterbacks Alabama Crimson Tide football players Linfield Wildcats football coaches Northern Colorado Bears football coaches Oregon State Beavers football coaches Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaches San Antonio Commanders coaches San Antonio Riders coaches San Diego Chargers head coaches Seattle Dragons coaches USC Trojans football coaches Whitworth Pirates football coaches Winnipeg Blue Bombers coaches Sportspeople from Corvallis, Oregon People from Wallace, Idaho Players of American football from Oregon Corvallis High School (Oregon) alumni New Jersey Generals (2022) coaches

Early life and playing career

High school

College

Coaching career

CFL

WLAF

USC

Oregon State

NFL

Return to Oregon State

Nebraska

Second return to Oregon State

San Antonio Commanders

Seattle Dragons

New Jersey Generals

Head coaching record

CFL

WLAF

NFL

College

AAF

USFL

See also

References

External links