Jerry Pettibone made it official Wednesday afternoon.

The 51-year old Pettibone, who has been NIU’s head football coach since 1985, officially accepted football head coaching duties at Oregon State University at a press conference held at the Corvallis, Ore. school.

“It’s the opportunity and the challenge,” Pettibone said. “The football program at Oregon State can be successful or I wouldn’t have accepted this position.”

Pettibone, who has been in Oregon since Tuesday, was joined by his wife Susy and Oregon State officials at the 45-minute press conference.

The length of Pettibone’s contract and exact financial terms are still being negotiated by the parties.

“I know there is a challenge in front of us and a lot of hard work involved, but I’ve accepted challenges before and I know how to work hard,” Pettibone said. “My philosophy is that there’s no easy shortcuts to having a successful Division I program.”

Pettibone had been in contact with OSU officials since last week and met with Oregon State athletic director Dutch Baughman last Thursday in Chicago. At the meeting, Pettibone showed Baughman a tape of NIU game film.

Both sides agreed that OSU initiated the wooing of Pettibone to be the Beavers’ new coach after former coach Dave Kragthorpe left the position last month.

Pettibone said the challenge of heading a program that hasn’t had a winning season in 20 years is something he looks forward to.

“A reasonable amount of time to me is five years. I would expect to see improvement before that but I would not want to be judged until a full cycle of recruiting has been completed here,” Pettibone said.

“Jerry Pettibone did a great job with our football program and our student-athletes. All the numbers and the success in recent seasons speak for themselves,” NIU athletic director Gerald O’Dell stated in a press release issued Wednesday.