Gary Anderson leaves Wisconsin to replace Mike Riley at Oregon State

[knapplc]

From the Portland Tribune:

Gary Andersen, coach at Wisconsin since December 2012, will be the new head football coach at Oregon State, replacing Mike Riley.Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen has been selected as the successor to Mike Riley as Oregon State's football coach.

Andersen, head coach of the Badgers for the last two years, was chosen from a group of five finalists.

Andersen, 50, will be introduced at a press conference in Corvallis on Friday afternoon.

He was to meet with his Wisconsin players Wednesday afternoon to announce his decision to move to Corvallis. The Big Ten Badgers (10-3) are scheduled to play Auburn in the Jan. 1 Outback Bowl at Tampa, Fla.

 

[Mavric]

Maybe they've got the wrong guy.

 

[QMany]

Wait, what?

 

[Mavric]

Adam Rittenberg ‏@ESPNRittenberg now4 seconds ago
Gary Andersen takes Oregon State job. Unreal RT @BadgerFootball: Statement on #Badgers head coach

 

[huskerfan92]

Woah this is completely out of left field. What is happening over at Wisconsin?

 

[knapplc]

Adam Rittenberg ‏@ESPNRittenberg

Wisconsin’s academic policies for getting players in had to play huge part in Andersen’s decision. Had been extremely frustrated.

 

[Omaha-Husker]

Astonishing.

 

[QMany]

He got a raise this year from Wisconsin to bump his pay to $2.2M, and I have to think he was in line for more winning the division. I wonder how much OSU is shelling out here.

 

[Huskertrapper]

WTF???

 

[QMany]

This has to be one of the most dumbfounding coaching changes I can remember.

 

[NUinID]

Wow, that makes no sense at all to me. But, a lot less pressure, and he is a west coast guy.

 

[tailspin]

I did not see that one coming.....

 

[Landlord]

This is at least 2x as out of nowhere as Riley to Nebraska.

Holy sh#t.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I am shocked.

This is also bad for the Big Ten. We need good coaches in this conference.

I would love to know the time line with this. Oregon State obviously just knew they needed a new coach less than a week ago. So....Did Anderson jump at the chance and contact them immediately saying he wanted out of Wisconsin? And why does he want to leave?