Brooks Hatch

We down here at the Blog have always believed that Oregon State football coach Mike Riley was a perfect fit for the Beavers.

So Sunday’s news that he’s agreed to a three-year extension – making him, in effect, OSU’s coach for the next decade, or probably as long as the now-56-year-old Corvallis High graduate wants to remain in coaching – is a good thing for the Beavers.

It provides long-term stability, consistency and direction. Those are all excellent qualities, provided the people running the ship are good at their job, which Riley and his staff have proven to be, as evidenced by four consecutive top-3 finishes in the Pacific-10 Conference and four consecutive seasons of eight wins or more, despite playing what the Blog considers to be the Pac-10’s  second-toughest nonconference schedule (behind USC) over that span.

One thing we’ve always appreciated about Riley is his relentless optimism. We’re certain he has bad days, but given the choice to commiserate or take the positive approach, he invariably chooses the latter and looks at what can be, instead of what just happened.

And that’s always been true, even in the days when OSU’s football fortunes were far less rosy than they are today. It’s been more than 13 years since Riley was first hired at OSU (Dec. 13, 1996). That’s a lifetime ago for a football coach, and the photos of a 43-year-old Riley that day prove it.

But his remarks at his introductory news conference in the old Dee Andros Room at Gill Coliseum still speak volumes as to the type of coach the Beavers had hired – oddly enough, on a Friday the 13th – to possibly end nearly three decades of hopeless gridiron futility.

(And remember this: In 1996, Parker Stadium was an absolute dump. The Valley Football Center was a concrete shell. There was no Truax Indoor Center, no Sports Performance Center, no BRIDGE program, one grass practice field, and the TOTAL budget for  salaries for the entire staff,  recruiting and for other program-related expenses was about half of Riley’s  projected 2010 compensation. In other words, he was joining a program at absolute rock-bottom, with a half-a-shoestring budget and no history of success for nearly 30 years.)

Yet he spoke about what could be, not what has been.

“We’re not focusing on 26 losing seasons. We’re focusing on our first game,” he said.

“We’re gonna roll up our sleeves, coach the players and prepare them the best we can, and get the people in this state behind this program to the very best of our ability.

“Do I think this is a graveyard? Obviously not. Do I think we can win? Obviously I do.”

He’s demonstrated those words were more than lip-service, more than  typical hiring-day braggadocio.

He’s done what he said he’d do, without a wisp of NCAA infractions or player-mistreatment shenanigans that led to the recent firings of Mark Mangino, Mike Leach and Jim Leavitt, to the extent that he’s now the second consecutive OSU football coach to turn down the head coaching position USC, something incomprehensible when he was hired.

And now he’s here for the duration.

To paraphrase the man himself: That’s a good deal for the Beavers.

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A few other notes of note:

* Former OSU offensive coordinator Mike Summers has left the Arkansas coaching staff to be come the new offensive line coach at Kentucky. We’re certain the Tates Creek High School grad is thrilled to be back in his hometown of Lexington.

* Former Beavers’ defensive lineman Dwan Edwards had a sack and six other tackles for the Baltimore Ravens in Sunday’s rout of the New England Patriots in their NFL wild-card playoff game.

* When one door closes, another one opens, right? How appropriate that the day after one OSU coach (Riley) removes his name from a coaching derby, speculation immediately begins that men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson will be considered for the vacancy at DePaul, in his hometown of Chicago?

Here’s the first shot, fired by NBE Basketball Report contributor Ray Mernagh, and the second, from Chicago Now college basketball writer John Templon.

(I remember another Corvallis sports reporter remarking sometime last summer that OSU better get that practice facility done so the Beavers don’t lose Robinson in a lateral move to a place like DePaul, where former coach Jerry Wainwright was obviously on thin ice. Wonder who that genius was?)

Being an escapee from the Great Lakes snowbelt myself, I can’t understand why anyone would ever live in the land of the wind-chill factor and lake-effect snow squalls. But, to each his own.

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As some already know, former Beavers’ baseball star Jacoby Ellsbury is ticketed for left field with the Boston Red Sox this season, as he’ll be displaced from his customary center field by the recently-acquired Mike Cameron.

Here’s a good analysis piece from the Boston Globe, speculating on how Ellsbury will react to the switch.

Hopefully he’ll accept the move like a professional and not cause any problems that could make him a divisive factor onthe team, because one thing is for absolute certain: Playing left field in Boston beats playing center field in Pittsburgh or Kansas City.

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And finally, since we’re speaking of vintage Mike Riley today, check out the name of the investigating OSP trooper in this Oregonian story about an accident on I-205. One of our all-time favorite OSU football players, that’s who.

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