If the University of Hawai'i football team needs a last-minute speaker for its awards banquet, look no further than Mike Riley.

Riley is Oregon State's head football coach but to hear him rhapsodize about UH, the state and Saturday's game on the Beavers' weekly conference call yesterday was to wonder if UH and the visitor industry aren't missing out on a dynamic spokesman.

Riley praised the scenery, the UH coaches, you name it. He saluted his opposite number, June Jones, as "an excellent coach, a great guy...a great Oregonian." He honored a past that has included local Beavers Rockne Freitas, Skippa Diaz and Joe Francis (father of UH's Ikaika Alama-Francis).

In short, with no indication of a Smith & Wesson pressed to his cranium, Riley lofted compliments around the way UH quarterback Colt Brennan launches passes — often and with passion.

Which made for a refreshing departure from most of the coaches from Bowl Championship Series conference members who whine from liftoff to landing. If not days before.

Clearly, Riley didn't get any of the memos that John L. Smith, formerly of Michigan State, or Purdue's Joe Tiller circulate at the coaching convention.

What in the name of Lou Holtz, Mike Shula and Sark Arslanian and all who have followed in their tear-stained, woe-is-us footsteps do we have here? Somebody auditioning for the next UH opening?

I mean, not so much as a lament about humidity, the travel, the demands of a 13-game schedule, playing a week after beating the in-state rival or the athletic department's budget. No bones to pick with the athletic director about scheduling the game. No setting up excuses in case of a loss. Riley even owned up to approving the game when it was made and expressed an interest in extending the series beyond 2008.

"Fact of the matter is, right now I'm excited about it," Riley said of the opportunity to play a 13th game here. He said the opportunity to play the 24th-ranked Warriors was "invigorating" for the Beavers after their Civil War triumph over Oregon.

And, get this, not a peep about Western Athletic Conference officials, who will work the game. Unlike half the Big Ten, OSU didn't jump up and down and demand their own officials. Of course, he's seen Pac-10 officials on a regular basis.

"I've said before that I think the reasons we wanted to play this game are still good reasons and we are looking forward to playing a very good football team," Riley said, positive to the end.

Now, perhaps, we know why he is so successful at selling Hawai'i recruits on Corvallis, Ore. in winter.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.