Canzano: Mike Riley is back in college football
"Right now, it keeps me involved."
I caught up with Mike Riley on Friday. The former Oregon State and Nebraska coach was in the middle of his morning routine in downtown Corvallis.
It starts with a workout, then catching up on the phone with old friends or going for coffee. Riley, 70, was named to the College Football Playoff selection committee on Friday. He’ll replace Pat Chun, who left Washington State to be the athletic director at Washington.
“I’ve spent so much time in football,” Riley told me, “I’ll just pay attention to it in a little different way now.”
Bill Hancock, the executive director of the CFP, called Riley last week to gauge his interest. They talked about the time obligations. Riley will fly to Dallas every week beginning in the middle of the season to meet for two days, then fly home.
“For me, right now, it keeps me involved but I can still do everything I need to do at home with Dee,” Riley said.
The last few years have been hard on Dee Riley and her family. I’ve written a couple of columns about their plight. The first piece outlined the day Mike went public with the news and another focused on their daughter, Kate, who runs a small business born from a mother-daughter bond.
Dee has been in and out of memory care facilities in recent years. Anyone who has watched a loved one melt away amid cognitive impairment understands the sadness and agony of the disease. She’s currently living in Corvallis and receiving full-time care.
Mike lives in a condominium downtown. Every afternoon, he picks up Dee and they go for a drive. Other times, they’ll take a walk together. There are good moments and bad moments, he says.
“Sometimes, she’s really happy and looking out the window and making comments,” he said, “and other times, she’s not.”
After that, he sometimes plays chauffeur to his grandchildren. As the ex-coach told me: “My grandson Eli has a cellphone now. When he needs a ride, he knows who to call.” Eli is 12. He’s running on the middle-school track team and playing flag football. I remember when the kid was born.
“Man, where did the time go?” I asked Mike Riley on Friday.
“I know,” the old coach said, “it’s a blur.”
The news release issued by the CFP announced that “Riley spent 48 years as a coach at the collegiate and professional levels.” It’s true. He’s been all over the place for nearly 50 years. He’s coached at Linfield College and in the Canadian Football League. He called the plays at USC and was the head coach of the San Diego Chargers, ran the New Jersey Generals of the USFL, and led Nebraska. But when I think “Mike Riley” I see him in a baseball cap on the sideline at Oregon State.
Riley coached for two stretches in Corvallis. The first one was a stabilizing tenure that came in the wake of Jerry Pettibone’s wish-bone act. Riley established a foundation that Dennis Erickson built his skyscraper of a team upon. After Erickson left for the NFL, Riley returned to OSU where he eventually reeled off the most successful three-year football run in school history.
2007: 10-4
2008: 9-4
2009: 9-4
His departure from OSU to Nebraska after the 2014 season, left a divot. The Beavers pivoted and hired Gary Andersen, who unraveled and flamed out. Meanwhile, Riley went 19-19 in three seasons in Lincoln. It wasn’t great, either. But Oregon State fans remember Riley with fondness. He’s their coach. After all, as a kid in Corvallis, he spent a summer painting the inside of Reser Stadium.
I asked Riley how he’s been spending his time lately. The coach perked up and told me he’d been watching the NBA Playoffs.
“I grew up shooting baskets like crazy,” he said.
He likes the young, athletic players that Minnesota and Oklahoma City have. He also likes the Denver Nuggets. He likes watching Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, in particular. Riley told me that he took his grandson to Portland to see Denver play earlier this season.
“You’ll appreciate this,” he said, “but Eli and I got good seats for that game against the Trail Blazers and in that game, the Nuggets didn’t even play Jokic or Murray. We still had a good time.”
Riley told me he watched Oregon State’s spring practices in recent weeks. Several of his former players are now running the operation. He also took Eli to the University of Oregon spring football game last Saturday, where they caught up with Mike Cavanaugh, a loyal Riley assistant for decades who is now on Dan Lanning’s staff.
“I met Lanning,” Riley said, “it was nice to visit with him for a quick minute.”
Riley is a good addition to the CFP selection committee. He knows college football and is a good evaluator. Also, the move is a nod to the Pac-12 and the region. Hancock essentially replaced WSU’s athletic director with a member with deep ties to OSU. If Riley had turned him down, I wonder if Erickson’s phone would have rung next.
I reached out to Hancock, who said: “Mike was appointed primarily because he is a respected college football expert. Secondarily, the appointment is in keeping with the regional balance on the committee. It’s about the ‘west’ rather than about ‘Pac-12.’”
Riley didn’t accept the appointment on the spot.
“I took a couple of days to think about it,” Riley told me. “I ran it by my family. I talked with Kate (his daughter), Matt (his son), and a couple of my friends. Then, I called back and said, ‘Yes.’”
I find the whole thing fascinating. College football has changed immensely in the last few years. The playoff is expanding this season. The “Power 5” is now the “Power 4.” Lawsuits could result in players receiving a share of the profits or becoming employees of the universities.
Amid that, here comes the return of Mike Riley.
A throwback.
He’ll get a say in who makes college football’s newfangled postseason. I don’t mind that one bit.
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Another insightful and poignant moment in time Mr. Canzano. You truly have a flair for humanity, the nuanced authenticity you bring to the table is second to none.
This is a wonderful and worthwhile project for Mike Riley. He deserves the recognition, he and his family deserve the recognition. Well done, coach!