Mike Riley (American football)

Michael Joseph Riley (born July 6, 1953) is an American football coach who was most recently the head coach of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League (USFL).

The family of four, now with middle brother Ed, moved from Wallace down to Lewiston in 1959, where Bud was the head coach at Lewiston High School for three seasons.

They moved up to Moscow in 1962, when Bud became a collegiate assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Idaho, under new head coach Dee Andros.

Youngest brother Pete was born while the family lived in Moscow.

After three seasons on the Palouse, Andros was hired at Oregon State in 1965 and Bud joined his first staff in Corvallis and stayed for eight seasons, first as the secondary coach and later as defensive coordinator.

Bud went on to become a head coach in the CFL.

Riley had a peripatetic youth and spent his first 11+ years in northern Idaho, but considers Corvallis his hometown.

He arrived in the spring of 1965, near the end of sixth grade, and stayed through high school.

Riley was a hometown hero in Corvallis from his athletic days at Corvallis High School, where he led the Spartans as the starting quarterback to consecutive state title games in 1969 and 1970, both played in Corvallis at OSU's Parker Stadium.

Corvallis High School had narrowly won the early season matchup in 1969, but came up well short against Medford in the A-1 state championship, 27–0.

They avenged the loss to the Black Tornado the following year in the regular season 28–14, and again in the AAA state final, 21–10, with left-handed option quarterback Riley throwing two touchdown passes in the second quarter to build a 21–3 lead at halftime.

He completed five of nine passes for 76 yards; prior to the final, Riley had thrown only 41 times in 11 games, with 23 completions (and ten wins).

He was a three-sport athlete at CHS, also lettering in basketball and baseball.

He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 1970s.

Born in Wallace, Idaho, Riley is the eldest of three sons of Bud and Mary (Shumaker) Riley.

Bud was from western Alabama, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and had played college football at the University of Idaho in Moscow under head coach Dixie Howell, a hall of famer as a player at Alabama.

After graduation, Bud worked for a mining company in Wallace and was asked by town leaders to coach at the high school; Mary was from nearby Mullan, where her parents, Mike and Mary Shumaker, ran a hotel.

He had family connections to the state and school: his father was born and raised in Guin and his uncle, Hayden Riley, was Alabama's assistant athletic director, head baseball coach (1970–79), and the former head basketball coach (1960–68).

(Mike's cousin, Major Ogilvie, became a star running back for the Tide in the late 1970s; Ogilvie's mother Peggy was one of Bud Riley's five sisters.) In his four seasons at Alabama as a reserve defensive back, the Tide won four Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles and the 1973 UPI (Coaches Poll) national championship, though they lost the 1973 Sugar Bowl to Notre Dame on New Year's Eve.

Riley graduated from CHS in 1971 and opted not to play his college football in the Pac-8, but for the Alabama Crimson Tide in the SEC under head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.

Until 1974, the final Coaches Poll was released before the bowl games.

Riley began his coaching career immediately after his playing days ended, first as a graduate assistant at California in 1975, and then as a graduate assistant at Whitworth in Spokane, where he received his master's in physical education.

In 1977, he was hired as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

During his stay at Linfield he assisted head coach Ad Rutschman's Wildcats to a six-year record of 52–7–1, which included five conference titles and an undefeated NAIA Division II championship season in 1982.

Riley was hired as an assistant coach in the Canadian Football League in 1983 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and was a part of their 1984 Grey Cup championship team.

Hired as the Bombers' head coach at age 33, Riley reportedly became the youngest head coach in CFL history in 1987 at Winnipeg but in fact was three years older than Bud Grant, who was 29 when he was hired as Winnipeg's head coach in January 1957 (Grant had turned 30 by the time he coached his first game that summer).

Riley led the Blue Bombers from 1987 to 1990 and won two Grey Cups during his tenure.

He also coached the San Antonio Riders of the defunct WLAF.

He was intended to stay on as the Riders attempted to transition to the CFL (as the San Antonio Texans) for the 1993 CFL season, but the team folded before it could begin playing as a CFL team.

Riley returned to the college ranks in 1993 when USC head coach John Robinson offered him the position of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; he later became assistant head coach.

The Mesa Tribune named him the league's top assistant coach in 1993 after leading the Trojan offense to record setting numbers.

USC quarterback Rob Johnson set numerous Pac-10 and NCAA records under Riley's tutelage and later became a fourth-round NFL Draft pick.

"He's a player's coach, who gets the most out of you by treating you like normal", Johnson later said.

Riley remained at USC through the 1996 season, helping the Trojans to post-season victories in the Freedom, Cotton, and Rose Bowls.

USC won an outright league title, shared another, and finished second once.

He has previously served as the head coach of two college football programs: Oregon State (1997–1998, 2003–2014) and Nebraska (2015–2017).

Riley has also been the head coach of teams in four different professional leagues: the Canadian Football League (CFL), World League of American Football (WLAF), National Football League (NFL), and Alliance of American Football (AAF).

Riley was hired as the head coach at Oregon State in 1997 to replace Jerry Pettibone, who had resigned at the end of the 1996 season.

Riley's initial contract was a five-year deal at $185,000 per year.

In the Beavers first season under Riley, they posted a record of 3–8.