"I love Oregon State; loved my time there," said Bray, an all-Pac-10 linebacker at OSU who coached linebackers for the Beavers from 2012-14. "But everything is on a bigger scale here. The facilities, the fan base, the stadium -- everything, along with your ability to recruit and reach into places you couldn't reach at Oregon State. That part has been fun and interesting."
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But Bray believes that the Nebraska job "has re-energized Coach Riley. Whenever you stay somewhere 14 years, you get comfortable. Being here has lit that spark again. It's been fun to be around and see that from him."
Read has noticed another thing about his boss.
"Mike has tried to become knowledgeable on everything about Nebraska," Read says. "He dove in head first to learn all about the tradition and history and to connect with the alumni. It's important to him that this staff is perceived well in the public and alumni's eye, and that people are glad to have us here and that we're open to what they have going on."
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Riley's offense will maintain its pro-style base but will be more multi-dimensional to take advantage of the running talents of Armstrong, who ran Pellini's spread offense.
"We'll run a lot of the concepts we ran at Oregon State, but will look a lot like (spread) teams, with more shotgun, some zone reads with the quarterback," Riley says. "You have to coach to the skill set of your team, particularly at quarterback.
"I like this team. Talent-wise, we'll be competitive with anybody. I like the players."
