Don’t you wonder how he does it? How coach Mike Riley can look an in-state recruit in the eye and urge the young man to do the ”right thing” by not leaving Oregon and signing on with Riley’s football program at Oregon State?

After all, Riley was an Oregon high school star in his day, the quarterback who led Corvallis High to a state championship in 1970, only to decline an opportunity to play college ball right in his own hometown.

Of course, the school where Riley chose to play his college football WAS Alabama. And the head coach there at the time WAS a certain legend named Paul ”Bear” Bryant.

”And remember,” a smiling Riley recalled in Bend this week, ”I didn’t exactly go off and have a stellar career. Perennial backup was more like it.”

And, after all, he DID end up at Oregon State. Twice.

Riley was in Central Oregon this past week, featured guest of the local OSU booster group for a gathering Thursday evening at Seventh Mountain Resort. Looking ahead to what will be the fourth season of his second tour as Oregon State football’s head man, the coach reviewed his latest recruiting class for High Desert Beaver Believers.

Before he did, though, I chatted with him some about his recruiting philosophy. Programs like to boast about the blue-chip, can’t-miss, prep-all-Americans and junior-college phenoms they bring in – and the alumni love to hear it. But they also like a winning team, which requires not only top-flight players but enough other sound, productive players to round out the offensive, defensive and special teams.

”I think for us, the first priority is getting good players,” Riley explained. ”But we also try to fill our needs. We look at all the slots (positions) and look at where we need guys, and we try to fill that up.

”But we’re not married to that,” the coach continued. ”No matter what we need, we’re still going to take a Gabe Miller.”

—–

Miller, as you may know, is the all-state standout from Lake Oswego High School, the prize of Riley’s 2006 recruiting class. The Oregon Class 4A defensive player of the year, Miller is considered one of the top linebacker prospects in the country.

But the Beavers, in Riley’s estimation, are relatively flush with linebackers, including a couple of JC transfers to join Andy Darkins, who was a starter last season as a sophomore. So the Beavs are looking at Miller – who stands 6 feet 3, weighs 220 pounds and played a variety of positions in high school – at tight end.

If this strategy sounds familiar, it should. Remember that two years ago Riley successfully courted the state’s 4A OFFENSIVE player of the year, Matt Sieverson of Bend. Remember, too, that OSU promptly moved Sieverson – who was a record-setting running back at Bend High – to defense, where he’s currently trying to work his way up the depth chart at a safety position.

It’s all about getting the best football players possible, Riley explained, and fitting them into positions where they will best serve the team.

—–

It’s also about getting the best locally grown talent.

”We want to win the state,” Riley said of the home-turf recruiting war, ”so we really focus on that.”

Getting the cream of the Oregon crop to stick around when it comes to college selection isn’t the challenge it was, say, a generation ago, when neither OSU nor the University of Oregon had much to brag about when it came to football.

Times have changed, said Riley.

”I don’t fault guys for looking around,” he said. ”But right now, our in-state programs are both strong and worth looking at.”

Of course, coaches in Oregon would hope that local kids will grow up wanting to be a Beaver (or a Duck) and will want to stay home and play ball where their family and friends can watch them on a regular basis.

Last week, when UO assistant coach Steve Greatwood was in town, I asked him about what sells recruits these days.

A lot of it, he said, is what has sold recruits for years.

”The tradition of your program is one thing,” said Greatwood. ”The success of your program, your facilities, the strength of your academic reputation, and your community. All that will help you get in the door.

”But I still think,” he added, ”that the No. 1 thing is proximity to home.”

Greatwood should know. Thirty-odd years ago, he was recruited out of Eugene’s Churchill High School to play offensive tackle for the Ducks.

”We know it’s important to get Oregon kids,” Greatwood insisted. ”So we cover the whole state. And because it’s Oregon, no matter where a kid is, if he’s good enough, we’re gonna go there.”

Even to Burns, where not so long ago they landed a pretty fair country-kid quarterback named Kellen Clemens.

—–

As relatively successful as the OSU and UO programs have been lately, they dare not just assume that the local prep stars will opt to stay home, allowing the Beavers and Ducks to focus their recruiting resources on population hubs elsewhere in the West.

And while out-of-state players (Californians in particular) still far outnumber in-state players on the rosters at both Oregon State and Oregon, home-grown players have made major impacts – perhaps most notably at OSU.

Riley likes to point out that in recent seasons the Beaver football record book has been practically rewritten by home-state products: quarterback Derek Anderson out of Scappoose, walk-on receiver Mike Hass of Portland’s Jesuit High, defensive end Bill Swancutt of Salem’s Sprague High School, and safety Mitch Meeuwsen from Forest Grove.

”All those guys – they’re all Oregon kids,” Riley beamed. ”We’ve had such good success with in-state guys. … That’s probably why I’ll always take a closer look at Oregon kids.”

I say good for him. That’s how it ought to be.

Now, if he can just get the Beavers back into a bowl game …