College Notes: USC coach headed to Oregon St.

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

Oregon State's new football coach will be Mike Riley, the offensive coordinator at Southern California, according to The Oregonian.

Sources close to the program told The Oregonian that Riley met with university President Paul Risser on Monday and agreed to contract terms.

An announcement could come as early as today.

Reports out of Los Angeles said Riley already informed the USC staff that he had accepted the job at Oregon State.

Tim Tessalone, sports information director at Southern Cal, said Monday night that he knew Riley was a finalist for the OSU job, but he had not heard whether any decision had been made.

Oregon State athletic director Dutch Baughman could not be reached for comment.

Riley succeeds Jerry Pettibone, who resigned Nov. 25 after six seasons with the Beavers.

Riley, 43, who would become the 26th football coach at Oregon State, has family ties to Oregon State. His father, Bud Riley, was an assistant coach with the Beavers from 1965-74 under coach Dee Andros.

Riley went to high school in Corvallis and played on the state prep championship team in 1970.

He played as a defensive back at Alabama under coach Bear Bryant when the Crimson Tide won a national championship in 1973.

* MINNESOTA WAITS: The University of Minnesota apparently will hire a new president before it selects a head football coach. "We won't make any effort to hire a coach until the new president is named, as expected, on Friday," McKinley Boston, vice president for student affairs and athletics, said Monday. The announcement comes after Bob Stoops turned the Gophers down for the head coaching job. Stoops, the defensive coordinator at No. 3 Florida, interviewed at Minnesota and toured the football facilities Sunday. Stoops is believed to have turned down a contract that would have paid up to $600,000 a season, including incentives. The position was vacated when Jim Wacker resigned at the end of the season.