QB Reilly named an All-American
CWU gets new coach
Kalispell native Mike Reilly lived up to the hype of an NCAA first-team All-American quarterback.
The 6-foot-4, 212-pound junior at Central Washington University was honored Sunday by D2football.com, with input from coaches and sports information directors from around the country. He was named to the 2007 All-American team.
He was a preseason All-American team selection as well.
Riley is the only quarterback on the post-season first team, which also boasts college football's all-time leading rusher in Chadron State running back Danny Woodhead.
Reilly completed 62.3 percent of his passes for 3,386 yards and 30 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. He also rushed for 478 yards and three touchdowns.
He led the Wildcats to the program's first two NCAA Division II playoff victories before losing to perennial powerhouse Grand Valley State in the national quarterfinals.
But, after the season, Reilly and CWU hit a major road bump.
Head coach Beau Baldwin, the master of the spread-offense attack that Reilly used to garner All-American status, bolted for the head coaching position at Eastern Washington University.
On Friday, CWU filled their vacant coaching position by introducing Blaine Bennett, 43, as its new head coach.
Bennett brings six years of head coaching experience at the D-II level, having coached at Western Oregon in the late 1990s. He was also an assistant coach at both Michigan State and Purdue. Last season, he coached high school football in Indiana. His father was the head coach at CWU.
Bennett was one of three candidates and the last to be interviewed among Bruce Walker and Timm Rosenbach. And Reilly was a member of the search committee responsible for interviewing the candidates.
"We'd already had two very good candidates to select from and I was thinking, 'Why are we even bringing in a third guy?'" Reilly told the Yakima Herald-Republic. "Then when (Bennett) walked in and sat down, he gave us all the sense that as much success as we had last year, we'd have even more success next year. I was kind of blown away by some of the things he said."
Reilly has experience with Bennett. He attended Western Oregon's football camps while going to Flathead High School.
"I hadn't talked to (Bennett) in six years," Reilly said. "By the time I was done I felt like I'd been playing for him the last three years."
Bennett is a passing game guru who helped engineer Purdue's prolific passing program, which manufactured the NCAA career receptions leader.
"(We will) throw it first, run it second, and the quarterback is the guy making all the decisions," Bennett said at his press conference Friday.
Reilly and CWU will bring their game to Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Sept. 27.
Reilly finished his prep career in 2002 with the second-best passing season in Flathead history. He was bumped to No. 3 in FHS history a year later when Clay Lindsay became the Braves' all-time leader with 3,043 yards. Brock Osweiler then surpassed Reilly's total twice, with 2,454 yards in 2006 and 2,938 yards this past season.
Reilly, a mechanical engineering major, has a 3.49 GPA.