Chip is another bird

DoubleDipper wrote:

DoubleDipper wrote:I really haven't followed OSU football since Terry Baker graduated, but I recall they won a bunch of bowl games in the mid-2000s, including a couple over Notre Dame, so football at OSU can be pretty good.

So who do the Beavers hire as their next head coach? Jonathon Smith, the walk-on QB who led OSU to an 11-1 season in 2000 and defeated Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl when OSU was coached by Dennis Ericson.

I saw a report that Ericson was lobbying OSU officials to take him back as head coach, and that he would in-turn bring in Smith as his offensive coordinator with a head coach-in-waiting designation.  

Apparently OSU was so impressed with Erickson's idea they just cut out the middle-man and named Smith head coach!

I think this is a good hire for OSU. They were never going to recruit a top coach, so a young up and comer is the best option. With Smith, if he's successful, he may even stay long term because of his connection to the school.

I agree. This is probably the best hire they could have made. What's even funnier to me is that Tennessee is just continuing to drive itself into the ground with its search. Then, the whole Florida State-Jimbo Fisher debacle too.

Geezaldinho wrote:I wonder if Mike will head back to Corvallis...

Yup, that's exactly what he's doing.....as Jonathan Smith's assistant head coach.

Riley, who spent 14 years over two stints at OSU was Smith's coach for couple of years and Smith spent a year on his staff as a graduate assistant.

"Current and former players thriving in the NFL and in life are proof of Coach Riley's tremendous ability to recruit outstanding young men," Smith said in a statement. "He understands what it takes to win in this conference, and how to evaluate and develop student-athletes. There is no one better to have represent OSU in the homes of recruits as we build this program."

I'm assuming Riley is still being paid by Nebraska as long as he's not a HEAD coach somewhere, although I read that he would be owed $6.3 million through February 28, 2021, "as long as he doesn't obtain another job."  My guess is his Nebraska buyout will be mitigated, but not by much.

I read the actual buyout was closer to $4 million and that was unless he got a HEAD coaching job.

And nothing says he couldn’t be a volunteer coach at OSU.