CORVALLIS, Ore., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Milk Riley was officially named football coach at Oregon State late Wednesday, succeeding Mike Erickson.
He will be introduced at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
He surprised the school by taking a similar post with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers earlier this month.
The Corvallis Gazette-Times said Riley and Oregon State Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis reportedly agreed to a five-year contract, loaded with incentives, with a base salary of $700,000. The paper also said the contract includes a hefty buyout clause to reassure program supporters in case Riley again decides to bolt for another job after several seasons.
He will meet with his new team before the news conference, and will become only the second coach to have two tenures at the school.
"I'm absolutely excited," Bob Foreman of Salem, President of the Old Beaver Club during Riley's earlier stint at OSU, told the paper. "And I would be disappointed if people were disappointed (with Riley) because Mike served us well. An opportunity came up for him to get to another level. We all do this in the workplace, and if you don't accept challenges or never take them, you will never know. I admire his fortitude to come back. Bob (De Carolis) made a good choice, and we're going to be OK with it. I think we have to give Mike credit for recruiting many of the troops who went 11-1 on OSU's 2000 Pacific-10 co-championship team. I hope he stays here for a long time, and I think he will."
For Riley, it is literally a return engagement.
In his first stint at Oregon State, Riley, 49, posted an 8-14 record in 1997-98, but recruited many of the players who went on to enjoy greater success under Erickson.
Following the 1998 season, Riley was lured to the NFL and spent three years as coach of the San Diego Chargers. Last year, he served as the associate coach of the New Orleans Saints.
In 1997, Riley inherited an Oregon State program that had won three games combined the previous two seasons. He posted a 5-6 record in 1998, the Beavers' best mark since 1971.
Riley got his first head-coaching position in 1987 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, and led them to a pair of Grey Cup titles.
He began his coaching career in 1975 at California as a graduate assistant, and spent the '76 season in a similar capacity at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash. He landed a full-time position as defensive coordinator at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., from 1977-82.
Riley moved to the professional level in 1983 as the secondary coach for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL, where he stayed until 1985. In 1986, he returned to the college ranks as defensive coordinator at Northern Colorado.
Riley played college football at Alabama, where he was a four-year letterman as a defensive back under Paul "Bear" Bryant. During his playing career (1971-74), the Crimson Tide won four SEC titles and the 1973 national championship.
His father, Bud, was an assistant at Oregon State from 1965-72, and again in 1979.
