Rod Perry meets the press.

New Oregon State DB coach Rod Perry met with the local media Tuesday afternoon. Coach Mike Riley introduced him.

“Rod is a great teacher, a great person and handles people well,” Riley said. “He’s a great addition to our coaching staff. We are very, very proud to have Rod. He adds a ton to our coaching staff with experience and he’ll be a tremendous mentor to the young men in our program.”

Read my previous blog for background on him.

Read my story that will be in Wednesday’s GT that came out of his press conference.

Check out the first few comments Perry had at his introductory press conference in the above video.

Riley said at some point in his search he realized Perry was available after being let go by the Colts. So he took a run at him and was pleasantly surprised Perry was interested after the first conversation.

There was a selling of coming back to college after 22 years in the NFL, but Perry felt it was the right time. Plus, his daughter will be a senior in high school. He’ll be able to be close to her. There’s already talk about her attending OSU.

“What I liked about coach Riley is he’s a great teacher and a very loyal person,” Perry said. “He’s very trustworthy. And he does an exceptional job of coaching football, getting guys ready to play. It was a family atmosphere in San Diego and it’s a family atmosphere here with coach (Mark) Banker, (Bruce) Read. There’s a closeness to work hard and get it down the right way.”

There was plenty of NFL talk, Super Bowl stories and more. Perry came across down-to-earth and soft-spoken.

And for those who think he’ll tell Banker what to do, he won’t. Perry said what OSU does in scheme is what he has done in the NFL. He just has to learn the new terminology.

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