Why didn't Riley take the Alabama, Usc, Ucla job?

Vince R.

Vince R.

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I live in Southern CA and a local sports radio station spent a lot of time talking about Nebraska hiring Mike Riley. For some who live in the same area, the host was John Ireland.

He and his co host talked about Riley turning down jobs that seemed (at the time) like perfect fits. He turned down USC twice and Ucla after Rick was canned.

They said Riley was too invested at OSU and he couldn't allow himself to play against them. OSU meant too much to him. They also said that Mike is a "small town" type of guy which is why Nebraska made a lot of sense.

The Alabama job was offered after his stint with the Chargers. The radio hosts pointed out that at that particular time, the Alabama job was not a "hot" job to have. They were the worst team in the SEC and had completely fallen off. Plus he wanted to be back at OSU.

But why now?

OSU's athletic department gave up. They are second fiddle in a state with little to no talent and had to compete with Oregon, Stanford, Usc, Ucla, ASU, AU, etc to acquire it. The emergence of FOUR additional programs in that conference made it almost impossible. Notice how his decline with OSU started during the same time Stanford, Ucla, ASU, and UA improved? The addition of Utah was the KO because they are now the new Oregon St.

The man was exhausted and despite being a great evaluator and developer, its definitely nice to have more "ready made" guys. I believe this is a perfect fit. If he maintains the same type of talent at Nebraska going forward, Nebraska at worst, will overachieve. If he out recruits the former regime, then Nebraska will be a force.

 
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The first time the Trojans offered the job, Chargers president Dean Spanos told Riley that he'd be fired if he even interviewed with the Trojans, so he declined to risk his job. He then turned down Alabama, thinking that he'd get the UCLA job.

http://www.cornnation.com/2014/12/4/7335055/so-who-did-nebraska-hire-when-eichorst-picked-mike-reilly

"I turned down Alabama waiting for UCLA," Riley said. When the Bruins' job went to Karl Dorrell, Riley says he felt "like I'd been kicked in the stomach." At that point, Riley was more than discouraged. "I don't want to sound too dramatic about lost faith and all that, but I have to admit to thinking, ‘Whoa, what's going on here?'"

http://espn.go.com/blog/colleges/usc/post/_/id/18834/usc-will-have-hands-full-with-former-trojans-coaching-candidate-mike-riley

 
Damn, sounds like the radio hosts didn't know all that much. thanks for the post. Well I think that my last paragraph is relevant then.

 
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I posted this somewhere else, but it answers the Alabama question:

What no one seems to remember is that Alabama was a dumpster fire at the time. Mike Dubose was one game over .500 for four years. Franchione then came in and went 7-5 and then 10-3. Franchione bailed on Alabama after he said he was definitely staying. The reason is he found out that Alabama would be losing 21 scholarships, two year ban on bowl games and the SEC championship plus serving five years probation. Franchione literally left town and never came back. He told his players and staff through a remote broadcast.

So it wasn't like Riley was turning down an offer to coach a Nick Saban type Alabama that was ruling college football. It was an Alabama team that was 41-31 in its last six years and going to be crippled for the next three or four and had their head coach unexpectedly walk out...

...and on an unrelated trivia note, the guy who DID get the Alabama job that Riley turned down was Mike Price. He had the dubious distinction of being fired before he coached a single game at Alabama, due to problems with bars, strip clubs, and women not named Mrs. Price signing for room service in his hotel rooms while he was "recruiting talent".
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Bowfin said:
I posted this somewhere else, but it answers the Alabama question:

...and on an unrelated trivia note, the guy who DID get the Alabama job that Riley turned down was Mike Price. He had the dubious distinction of being fired before he coached a single game at Alabama, due to problems with bars, strip clubs, and women not named Mrs. Price signing for room service in his hotel rooms while he was "recruiting talent".
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I still maintain he was simply trying to understand the college athletes he was recruiting better.
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saw a video on pac12.com that Wisconsin talked to him as well. "recently"

 
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Well all of this is good news. After sleeping off the Tressel hangover, I'm pleased. I'm not expecting great things yet but I am getting excited to see what the guy can do with major support and resources. GBR.

 
Interesting Wisconsin may have spoken to him "recently"... was this decision an Alvarez one too? Wonder why/how talks may have broken down between Coach Riley and Wiskey?

 
Simple answer one job was in Alabama and the other two were in LA. Who would want to take their family to either?

T_O_B

 
I was pondering this last night and before reading any of the above I chalked it up to " if he is this great nice guy maybe he didn't want to sell his soul to the devil to recruit in SEC country"

 
Riley is from Corvallis and felt at home there. But over the past three years, he's gotten stale. Obviously with this move, OSU became stale to Riley as well. At least that's my opinion based on reports over the years.

 
Trojans everywhere are still counting their lucky stars.

Riley was offered the USC job (first choice from Mike Garrett AD) but turned it down.

Then Pete Carroll got the job and the rest is history.

 
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