Jonathan Smith has bounced between two hotels since returning to the Willamette Valley on Nov. 29 as Oregon State head football coach, living out of a suitcase when not on the road recruiting.
His wife, Candice, and three children -- Robert, 9; Bella, 7; and Charles, 3 -- are back in Seattle where they lived the past four years while Smith was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Washington. When exactly they will be able to find a home in or around Corvallis remains uncertain.
But amid the chaos of taking the lead job at his alma mater while navigating a new early signing period that starts Dec. 20, Smith announced the return of a familiar face Thursday in the hiring of Mike Riley as an assistant head coach.
"I felt comfortable and confident that this is a home run thing for me," Smith said Friday in a phone interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Riley's role heading into the 2018 season remains loosely defined, with the Oregon State announcement saying, "assignment TBD." Smith also announced the hiring of associate head coach and offensive line coach Jim Michalczik from Arizona and co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Lindgren from Colorado, along with three other staff decisions.
Smith still needs to bring in other offensive coaches and fully assemble a defensive staff. Smith did not put a timeframe on those decisions, saying he primarily wanted to take the necessary time to make the correct decisions.
But he did express that Riley will have a very hands-on role with the team, highlighting his recruiting ties throughout California.
"The schematics, the game planning, the recruiting, the (talent) evaluation, that's going to be 85 percent of his job," Smith said. "I think 15 percent will be if I'm not certain on an approach, him and Jim (Michalczik) will be the ones I turn to."
Smith, 38, has stepped into his first head coaching role, which is why he said he made prior head coaching and Pac-12 experience a particular focus in making his first staff decisions.
He said he is excited about the versatility he will get in Riley, who returns after a three-year stint away from OSU as the Nebraska head coach. Riley had a reputation for developing quarterbacks at Oregon State, has been an offensive coordinator at USC and coached defense with the New Orleans Saints and in the Canadian Football League.
The decision to bring Riley back has not been without some controversy within the Oregon State fan base.
Riley went 93-80 in 14 seasons at Oregon State (1997-98, 2003-14), compiling more victories than any coach in program history. But a vocal faction of fans were ready for a change by the time Riley shocked the college football world by leaving for Nebraska, where he went 19-19 in three seasons and was fired on Nov. 25.
But Smith, who said he has not gone online to gauge overall reaction to his decision, said the feedback he has received -- from high school coaches to recruits -- has been uniformly positive and he was "very confident" Riley would open up doors from a recruiting perspective.
"The value he brings outweighs a small distraction," Smith said. "... This allows me some flexibility to really go after some elite people and coaches, knowing that he can fit on both sides of the ball."
On the defensive side of the ball, Smith said he and former interim head coach Cory Hall have spoken in the week since Smith's arrival. Smith called the conversation "a good back and forth" and that they were staying in touch as Hall explores other opportunities, but that Hall was not recruiting for the Beavers while Smith determined his next defensive coordinator.
"It was explained to Cory that I'm going to hire a defensive coordinator and he's going to have some input on who he surrounds himself with," Smith said. "That's kind of where we left it."
The Riley reunion comes 20 years after he gave Smith the chance to come to Oregon State as a walk-on quarterback as part of his first recruiting class. Riley departed for the San Diego Chargers after two seasons and returned to OSU when Smith was a second-year graduate assistant.
They coached against each other at the 2013 Hawaii Bowl and when Washington beat OSU in 2014. Due to busy schedules, Smith said a year could pass between conversations and that they didn't speak during the 2017 season.
Now that they are back on the same team, Smith hopes Riley will help him create a blueprint similar to what Chris Petersen built at Boise State and Washington.
"I don't know what I don't know," Smith said. "And so going through it, I'm going to find out some things and I've got a guy who's sat in the seat before."
-- Danny Moran