Michael Joseph Riley (born July 6, 1953) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League (USFL). 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). He played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 1970s. Early life and playing career 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. 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. 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