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Gary Andersen will bring the Oregon State Beavers back to prominence

By Brenton Lillie

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Will Gary Andersen be the one to bring sustainable success to the Oregon State University football program?

When Mike Riley left to take the head coaching job at the University of Nebraska, it seemed to be an odd move. After all, the Oregon State Beavers were not exactly at the top of the conference and Nebraska has a proud football tradition. With the news that former Wisconsin Badgers head coach Gary Andersen had been hired to take over the football program, Beavers’ fans had to wonder if Riley leaving was actually a blessing in disguise.

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Under Riley, the team was mostly competitive, but the team won 10 games just once in his 12 years at the helm, and never won an outright conference championship or played in the Pac-12 championship game. In fact, in four of the 12 years, Riley’s squad did not even win six games nor qualify for a bowl. Oregon State has a losing conference record during Riley’s tenure at 58-63, and despite his having the most wins as a head coach in school history, he has accomplished little of note in Corvalis.

Which is what made the decision by the Cornhuskers to hire him to lead their program so bizarre. Could it be simply that the professional and respected Riley is the exact opposite of the fiery and often controversial Bo Pelini?

Could that the be the same reason that Riley was hired on at Oregon State after the departure of the undisciplined and controversial Dennis Erickson?

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Riley is hardly controversial and his teams have never been known to take cheap shots. It is very likely that Nebraska just wanted someone to bring some pride back to their program after the Pelini years in Nebraska.

Nevertheless, Riley did leave and in came Gary Andersen from Wisconsin. In his two years in Madison, Andersen went 19-7 overall and 13-3 in the Big Ten. Prior to that he led Utah State to an 11-2 record and a Western Athletic Conference title in his fourth and final year there.

He is clearly a good coach, and one whose career is on an upward trajectory. The Beavers seem to have almost fallen into a great coaching situation purely by accident. If Riley had not taken the Nebraska job, Oregon State would still be looking at a coach whose team was destined to finish in the bottom third of the conference with no one outside the state of Oregon talking much about their program.

Now, with Andersen, there is a different vibe to Beaver football. Andersen is known for leading a powerful running attack at Wisconsin, where running back Melvin Gordon III ran for the second most yards in a single season ever. His spread offense and commitment to the run are a far cry from the pass happy and pro-style offense of Riley.

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While there are sure to be some growing pains in year one at the helm of the team, especially with a trio of freshman competing for the starting quarterback job, you can bet that Andersen will have this program relevant again in short order. He has a history of success and has shown recruits that he can showcase their talents for the NFL. Gordon, after all, was a first round draft pick in 2015.

Saturday Blitz already picked Oregon State as the best bet to win more games than Vegas has predicted, four wins, and there is an outside chance this team could even compete for a bowl berth this year. If not this year, then next year is an almost certainty. Just look at what Andersen has done in the past with a freshman quarterback, via Anne M. Peterson of NCAA.com:

"Andersen has introduced a true freshman quarterback before: He was coach at Utah State when Chuckie Keeton made a splash in his first year.Keeton, now a redshirt senior for the Aggies, started in eight games his freshman year, throwing for 1,200 yards with 11 touchdowns, while Utah State went 7-6. But the next season Keeton threw for 3,373 yards and 27 touchdowns, and the Aggies went 11-2.So Andersen realizes it’s a process.“You’re going to go through some growing pains. As you move through that, you have to be patient, but you also have to have expectations,” Andersen said. “You have to be careful that you put the young man in a position to do things that he can do. Don’t expect him to be a junior quarterback that is in the spread offense and has done some wonderful things throughout his career.”"

7-6 would be a dream season for the Beavers this year, but is it really that difficult to achieve?

After all, there are two easy wins with Weber State and San Jose State on the schedule early. After that, there are four games against teams expected to be near the bottom of the conference in Washington State, Colorado, California, and Washington.

If the beavers were to simply sweep those games, they would end the season a respectable 6-6, with a bowl appearance pending. Of course, the Beavers have also been known to surprise some southern teams in the rainy cold of the Pacific Northwest come November, so that November 7th home game against UCLA looms as a wild card in the Beaver’s bowl hopes.

Even without a bowl appearance in 2015, there is no question that Andersen was the best coach this program could have hoped to hire after the unexpected departure of Riley.

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