Mike Riley’s going back to Oregon State, weeks after Nebraska fired him

He was OSU’s head coach before he went to Lincoln.

In a highly unusual move that just might work out fine, Oregon State hired Mike Riley as an assistant head football coach. The Beavers announced the move on Thursday and really buried the lede by hiding Riley’s name inside this GIF of various hires:

This is highly unusual.

Riley was Oregon State’s head coach from 1997-1998 and again from 2003-2014. He went 112-99 at the helm of the Beavers, reaching 10 wins in 2006. Then he left for Nebraska after 2014.

Riley’s Nebraska tenure was a well-documented disaster, and it ended after three years and a 19-19 record. The Huskers fired him immediately following this season and moved to replace him with UCF’s unbeaten head coach, Scott Frost.

The end result is that Riley took a three-year break from Corvallis and returned to take what amounts to a demotion. You don’t see that every day or even every few years.

It doesn’t have to be bad, though.

Riley’s reputation is that he’s an exceptionally nice guy. He recruited fine at Nebraska, and before that, he had a decent run at Oregon State. He didn’t win big there, but almost nobody wins big at Oregon State. He might find some success there again.

In the past, Riley’s been an assistant on both sides of the ball. It sounds like his new role doesn’t have one position group attached, so he can help all around the field.

Another winner here: Nebraska.

Riley had offset language in his contract with the Huskers. Whatever Riley is getting paid at Oregon State should come out of the Huskers’ buyout payments to him. Nebraska’s total buyout cost to get rid of Riley was about $6.6 million.