Mike Riley gets ready to spend some money Saturday. Photo from @Coach_Riley

The crew at the In-N-Out Burger on East Ajo Way better get ready for a late-night rush on Saturday.

That location will on the way as the Oregon State Beavers head from a game at Arizona Stadium to Tucson International Airport. The kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

An Oregon State win will be bad for the Wildcats but good for business.

Coach Mike Riley tweeted that he treated the entire team to 200 double-double and fries after the Beavers upset UCLA 27-20 last Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

He told Oregon State reporters Sunday night that he figures to do the same thing this week in Tucson.

“Whatever that ingredient is, I’ll do it every week if we have to,” he said.

The hamburger franchise has expanded from California to four other states, starting with Nevada 20 years ago. The first In-N-Out in Arizona opened in 2000, and Tucson got the first of its six area locations in 2007.

Recent years have brought expansion to Utah and Texas … but those in Oregon are still out of luck.

Which is why it was such a cool deal for the Beavers on Saturday, also helping cement Riley’s reputation as one of the nicest guys in college football.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats can enjoy the burgers — Animal Style? — any time they want. They’ll be trying to keep Oregon State’s postgame meal limited to boxed sandwiches while sending the buses straight to the airport.

Oregon State is 2-0 and ranked 18th nationally after wins over Wisconsin and UCLA. Arizona (3-1) is coming off a 49-0 loss at Oregon.

Mike Riley’s Oregon State team upset UCLA 27-20 on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

By Jeffrey Martin, USA TODAY Sports

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Etched on a small block on Mike Riley’s desk is a quotation: “That which we manifest is before us.” It’s from Garth Stein’s book “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” and it obviously resonates with the Oregon State football coach.

He grew up here. He won a state title as a quarterback at Corvallis High. After leaving for four years in the NFL in the late 1990s — including a stint as head coach of the San Diego Chargers — he was re-hired to coach the hometown Beavers in 2003. He’s resisted opportunities to leave again.

In the ever-changing Pac-12, which features four new head coaches this year, Riley has the longest tenure, in his 12th season.

Riley, 59, appreciates his life at Oregon State.

“This is something bigger than a team or a game,” he said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “That’s why I fight, claw and scratch to stay here. I’ve been around the block — I want to fight like heck to make this my last job, to make this place as good as it can be and win a championship.”

Win a championship? Such talk, especially following a brutal 2011 in which the Beavers finished 3-9, would normally prompt rolling of the eyes. But Riley isn’t prone to bravado.

The truth is, he doesn’t believe his team is too far away. According to senior wide receiver Markus Wheaton, Oregon State’s 10-7 upset of then-No. 13 Wisconsin on Sept. 8 at Reser Stadium wasn’t totally unexpected, but much more will be learned about the Beavers after Saturday’s Pac-12 opener at No. 19 UCLA (3-0).

Riley refuses to offer excuses for his program’s recent shortcomings. Back-to-back losing seasons?
“We should go to a bowl game every year,” he says. “We played two years in a row to go to the Rose Bowl, and that’s where we want to go. I think we can make that run from time to time. That’s our goal.”

The Beavers’ slide coincided with the rise of in-state rival Oregon, which claimed not only its third consecutive conference crown last season but also the Rose Bowl.

“Chip (Kelly) has done a great job there, and they’re good. They’re really good,” Riley says. “But we want to beat them.”

As he tends to say, it’s the cycle of life.

Oregon State (1-0) endured 26 consecutive losing seasons before Riley arrived in 1997, and the streak grew to 28 after his first two years. But his successes — six bowl games in the past nine seasons — have elevated the program to the point where a couple of seemingly substandard seasons can lead to questions about job security. His record at OSU is 73-63, and with one more victory, he’ll tie Lon Stiner as the school’s winningest coach.

Riley is paid $1.3 million a year, per 2011 figures obtained by USA TODAY Sports. Each time the Beavers reach a bowl, his contract is automatically rolled over an additional season.

“I believe Mike has eight years left on (his) contract,” Oregon State athletics director Bob De Carolis wrote in an e-mail. “I think that says how we feel about him as our coach.”

He’s doing what he set out to do. His inspiration? His father, Edward “Bud” Riley, who died Aug. 4 at age 86.

The son notes with pride how he followed in his father’s footsteps on two occasions. Bud Riley joined Oregon State as assistant in the 1960s and in the ’70s was head coach of the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers, where Mike Riley did two stints, including as head coach from 1987-90.

Riley continues to cling to a coaching lesson he learned from his dad.

“He said players see through phonies,” Riley says. “When we win, I’m praised for my personality. But when we lose, I’m not tough enough. I’ve come to the belief that I’m going to be who I am. I’m going to teach our kids, coach them, and not compromise any of that.

“He taught me to be myself.”

He’s built a reputation as one of college football’s good guys, a model of decorum — Oregon State football hasn’t been hit with any major infractions under Riley — in a business that brims with scandal and controversy. Oregon State President Ed Ray, chair of the NCAA executive committee who in the aftermath of the Penn State case said every school should examine the balance between the culture of athletics and the overall academic mission, described Riley as “the real deal, very special.”

Wheaton, the team’s leading receiver, calls Riley a “father figure.” De Carolis says he’s “the right guy for our situation.”

“We’ve invested a lot of energy as that program that people have described as doing it right,” Riley says. “That’s what we’re trying to do. We don’t always get it right, but I expect us to evaluate it and get better … I think we have a great environment here.”

Could Mike Riley use a safety named Mike Stoops? Photo by Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

Matt Minkus and Victor Rodriguez, hosts of the 110 Sports Podcast, talked with Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops for this week’s episode and asked him this:

“Which other Pac-12 coach would you want to play for?”

Stoops began his answer with, “There are a lot of good ones …,” which sounded like the beginning of a non-answer answer. But he quickly picked just one.

“Mike Riley is one of my favorites,” Stoops said. “He’s a great person. He just does so many good things, and he’s so genuine.”

No doubt, Riley’s reputation is as one of the nicest guys in coaching, always quotable, continually thoughtful. And, of course, his coaching acumen is such that Oregon State won an average of nine games per season from 2006 to 2009.

We’ve gotten so used to Oregon State being good, even challenging for Rose Bowls, that it’s sometimes easy to forget the magnitude of his accomplishments.

“He can be a silent killer,” Stoops said. “You don’t want to be lulled to sleep. His teams are always very well prepared, and he always comes up with a great game plan.

“He’s a neat guy. He’s always been very supportive of me and what we’ve been doing here at Arizona. He’s one of my favorites.”

Check out the full Stoops interview at 110 Sports Podcast, and you can check out the archives of their big-time interviews at that site or at their TucsonCitizen.com page, where they have been blogging for about two years.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fifth installment of our 24 Hours of Arizona Football Blogging — one post at the top of every hour. Keep checking back at TucsonCitizen.com through Friday at 11 a.m. or follow the entire series with the “24 hours of blogging” tag.