Mike Riley And Oregon State Resources

I wanted to know more about this Mike Riley character, as we all do, so I decided to ask another source - a source would possibly have a different perspective such as that of a rival. I contacted David Piper of our Oregon site AddictedToQuack.com.

I thought about asking Piper a number of questions, but given Oregon is in the College Football Playoffs, I wanted to respect his time. Consider this short, sweet, but to the point.

- The narrative at Nebraska has become centered around the idea that Mike Riley won at Oregon State despite having little with regards to resources and having to compete for recruits with Oregon. Is that really the case? How much did the Ducks' program overshadow the Beavers?

It is absolutely the case. Oregon State, for all intents and purposes, is Iowa State. They play in a podunk Oregon town that you can't recruit to, in a state the produces fewer than ten D-1 recruits a year, with a glorified high school stadium, in a state where they are second fiddle to a big national program flush with Nike cash.

Comparing Oregon State to Oregon in football just isn't fair.

Before Riley got to Oregon State, they had 27 losing seasons in a row. He has done a great job of getting overlooked talent and coaching them up. OSU is a developmental program-if you can make a bowl game most years and go on a run at a top two or three conference finish every 4-5 years when you get a really special class, you've done a great job. Riley has done that. Now everyone finds out if he can take the reins at a big time program. He can coach, for sure. The question will be if he can recruit on that level.

- Are Oregon fans happy/sad that Riley is gone, or is more "meh, who cares who coaches there, we're going to kill them anyway"?

I think we're really curious. On our end, this really isn't a hate filled rivalry. We see them as little brother. We want them to do well when they're not playing us. Riley has been at OSU so long, we're not really sure what they can do or become without him, nor what Riley can be without OSU. It's a totally fascinating unknown.

[Jon: As a little brother.... ouch.]