Stoops confident Riley ready to lead Sooners

NORMAN, Okla. — Just three years ago, Lincoln Riley was the offensive coordinator at East Carolina.

Now he has the reins at Oklahoma, one of the most powerful programs in college football.

Riley was promoted Wednesday when Bob Stoops announced his retirement. The 33-yearold became the youngest head coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

“As a young guy, as a coach, when you decide you’re going to do this, these are things you just dream about,” Riley said at a joint press conference with Stoops on Wednesday. “I feel like I’m honestly living a dream right now.”

Though he is young, he is experienced and has had remarkable success with his offenses. His teams set numerous records at East Carolina, and his success continued at Oklahoma.

In 2015, he helped the Sooners rank fourth nationally in scoring and seventh in total offense. Quarterback Baker Mayfield finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting, Riley won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach and Oklahoma reached the College Football Playoff.

Last season, the Sooners set an FBS record for passing efficiency and ranked second in total offense and third in scoring. Mayfield finished third and wide receiver Dede Westbrook fourth in Heisman voting and Westbrook won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s outstanding receiver.

“In Lincoln’s case, he’s far more prepared than maybe some that are 43, just by the nature of the special opportunities that came to him very early, at a very early age,” Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said.

Riley was considered a top coaching prospect nationally. Just last month, Oklahoma gave him a three-year contract extension worth $1.3 million per year, making him one of the highest-paid coordinators in the country. The transition to head coach happened so abruptly, Riley’s parents weren’t able to make it to the press conference Wednesday.

“Right person at the right time,” Castiglione said. “Maybe the good fortune of the stars aligning for him being a person that we had attracted to the University of Oklahoma through Coach Stoops.”

Riley has massive shoes to fill. Stoops, 56, went 190-48 (.798) in his 18 seasons at Oklahoma, and he was the longest-tenured active coach in major college football.

In just two years, Riley showed Stoops enough to make the coach believe the right successor was in place. Stoops said he wouldn’t have retired if he didn’t believe the program would be in good hands, and the list of reasons he gave explaining why Riley was prepared to take over was lengthy.