I’ll preface this by saying I’m sure it will end up TL/DR and when compared to the top tier teams the results will seem mediocre, but things should be put in to perspective given the circumstance.

Riley’s dad was the DC at OSU when Riley was in Jr High and HS (where he won two state titles as the QB). He considers Corvallis to be his home, and this is a big reason why he’s stuck around OSU for as long has he has. He has a strong connection to the place.
IIRC Riley is/was the 2nd lowest paid HC among all P5 conference coaches. No doubt this trickled down to the assistant coaches and severely limited his ability to get good assistants.

OSU led by Riley has shown a consistent knack of recruiting overlooked 2-3 star players and improving their ability to the point of allowing them to play in the NFL. The average Scout.com rating for OSU since 2002 is 48th, but players currently in the NFL include Brandin Cooks, Markus Wheaton, Quizz Rodgers, Stephen Paea, Stephen Jackson, Derek Anderson, Matt Moore, and Jordan Poyer among others. Not trying to say that’s Alabama talent, but when compared to the type recruits that are willing to pick OSU, that’s pretty impressive. Riley does a very good job of evaluating talent that’s overlooked by others (because that’s the only chance he had of getting decent players to come to OSU).

OSU as an institution or an athletic department has no desire to be a football school and does not make the financial commitment that is required to be one. When the Pac-10 became the Pac-12 and the TV money started to flow in, OSU made a conscious decision to use the money to pay down debt instead of upgrading facilities. OSU is the only Pac-12 program that hasn’t upgraded their facilities in the past 4 years…further hobbling their ability to get players to come to Corvallis, especially when competing against UO, UW, and the other Pac-12 schools.

When Riley came to OSU in 1997 they were in the midst of a 28 year streak of losing seasons. The previous coach resigned….yes, resigned. How bad do things have to be to make you want to fire yourself? In Riley’s second year they went 5-6, which was their best record in 27 years.

He was at OSU for 2 seasons before the Chargers came knocking, and it was Dennis Erickson that ultimately led OSU to the 2001 Fiesta Bowl curb-stomping of Notre Dame. A big part of that 11-1 season was Erickson hitting his ‘one-time’ twice in the JuCo lottery to get both Chad Ochocinco and TJ Houshmandzadeh (and their baggage), but another big part were all of the other role players on the roster that Riley somehow convinced to attend OSU. The following two seasons Erickson went 5-6 and 8-5 at OSU after the unsustainable JuCo magic wore off. Erickson left after four seasons for his second attempt at the NFL to replace Mariucci as the 49er HC, ending with a two season flameout.

Riley comes back in 2003 and starts 8-5 and 7-5, which likely can be attributed to Erickson’s recruits. The next season (2005), OSU is 5-6, but the following seasons they go 10-4, 9-4, 9-4, and 8-5. Erickson’s players definitely played a role, but at some point it became Riley’s team.

OSU in 2011 hits the skids (3-9), but several promising young players will produce in the next few years with 9-4 and 7-6 seasons (see list of recent NFL players above and sort by year).