Mike Riley leaves Oregon State to take Nebraska head coaching job

So the Nebraska Cornhuskers have just hired Mike Riley.

Uhh...

Um.

Yeah. I got nothing.

Here's the story.

Nebraska shocked the college football world Thursday, suddenly announcing the hire of longtime Oregon State head coach Mike Riley. Riley replaces Bo Pelini, who was fired after a 67-27 record in seven seasons with the Cornhuskers.

Riley has been with Oregon State since 1997, making eight bowl games in 14 years, with four ranked finishes. Pelini was often criticized for being unable to clear the four-loss hump with the Cornhuskers. Riley has lost four or more games every year in Corvallis since 2003. Pelini was also criticized for being unable to win big games. Riley is 4-21 against top 10 teams and 14-41 against top 25 teams in his career. However, his staff already capably recruits Texas, which is one market Nebraska needs to get back into after moving to the Big Ten.

That 4-21 record doesn't look right to be honest. I'm guessing these results are against teams and their final rankings rather than their rankings when they actually met.

#Huskers, help us welcome Coach Mike Riley to the Big Red family! #GBR

— Nebraska Huskers (@Huskers) December 4, 2014

I don't know why Riley is leaving.  He had a contract in place that pretty much assured he stayed in Corvallis until THE END OF THE DECADE. He leaves a spot where there are absolutely no expectations on him to succeed every year to a place where his current overachieving record in the Pac-12 would get him fired in about three years. The only reason I think he left is that he didn’t think he could  compete against Oregon any longer with his moneyball recruiting.

Who knows, maybe he's just bored with Corvallis and wanted to ride his bike elsewhere.

Only some of Beaver Nation might be absolutely thrilled right now. The sound you hear is Oregon State fans yelling out a huge whoop, because that Mike Riley lifetime contract was insane. Whether they can go out and find an excellent replacement that can start beating Oregon again and competing for Pac-12 North titles is going to be something to watch.

Also, I'm so, so happy we got to beat Mike Riley in our last meeting. Because getting destroyed by him sucked every time. He's a helluva coach. He's also 61. We'll see how this works out.

Thoughts?