Hi guys. Here is an OSU perspective. I've been watching Riley coach since he first arrived at Oregon State. At that time, he ran a modern pro style offense and Banker ran a defense that was successful at stopping those types of offenses. Almost 20 years later they still play that same style of football, unfortunely for them, the rest of college football has moved on.
Riley's major flaw is stubbornness. He's too stubborn to change his offense, he's too stubborn to change assistants, he refuses to adapt his program to what modern college football has become. He uses his best asset, niceness, to cultivate relationships with the media who propagate the theory that he's a great coach. They like him too much to say otherwise. For an example, just check out Ted Millers blog on ESPN this week. If he had the personality of your previous coach, he would have been out of coaching years ago.
Riley gets way too much credit for building the OSU program. In reality, he took a terrible program and got 5 wins, then jumped to the NFL. It took Dennis Ericson coming to Corvallis to build the program into a somewhat respectable organization. When Riley came back the second time, the program started a long slide downward. There were peaks and valleys along the way, but the trajectory was defiantly downward.
In summary, I think Mike Riley was a good coach at one point in time. Unfortunately, he has allowed the game to pass him by. He is unwilling/unable to adjust to the modern game. He has used his great personality to foster relationships with the media who, in turn, help to improve his coaching image. I believe that with Mike Riley as head coach, mediocrity is the best case scenario...