BYU football: Mendenhall, Riley have crossed paths

PROVO — Thirteen years ago, Mike Riley had a chance to hire Bronco Mendenhall as an assistant coach.

Mendenhall was a 29-year-old defensive coordinator at Oregon State at the time under coach Jerry Pettibone, who was fired at the end of the 1996 season. Riley replaced Pettibone as the Beavers' head coach and conducted a brief interview with Mendenhall, who would go on to coach at Louisiana Tech in 1997.

"He was a classy, sharp guy. I knew that," Riley recalled this week of that meeting with Mendenhall. "Obviously, I made a big mistake in not hiring him at the time. I didn't know him very well."

On Dec. 22, Riley's Oregon State team and Mendenhall's BYU squad will square off in the Las Vegas Bowl (6 p.m., ESPN).

Mendenhall shrugs off that encounter with Riley.

"I certainly wasn't very worthy of being hired at that point," he said. "There are no ill feelings."

In fact, BYU's coach has great respect for Riley. The two have become good friends after spending time together on Nike-sponsored coaches trips the past several years.

"He is very understated, down-to-earth, humble, and just a solid person at the core. There aren't any hidden agendas," Mendenhall said of Riley. "He coaches for the players' development. He's not in it for himself, and I think everyone around him understands that. He's just a perfect fit for Oregon State, having grown up there and being a coach's son."

The admiration is mutual.

"We just sort of gravitated toward one another," Riley said. "There's some similar backgrounds and similar views on life, on coaching."

What's more, their wives have become good friends, too, as Holly Mendenhall and Dee Riley also enjoy spending time together.

Mendenhall respects what Riley has accomplished during his time at Mendenhall's alma mater, Oregon State, and Riley is impressed with the job Mendenhall has done at BYU, with four straight seasons of double-digit victories.

"They are like a machine, very well-coached," Riley said. "You watch the film, and you say, 'This is just a solid program.' And they've been so consistent through the years."

This marks Riley's second tour of duty as the Oregon State head coach. He left in 1999 to become the head coach of the San Diego Chargers. Riley returned to Corvallis in 2003.