FAMILIAR MOVE
OU’s hire of Lincoln Riley is similar to another Sooners decision.
AUSTIN — Lee Horsley, move over. You got company. Lincoln Riley might have to win a game or 200 to replace Horsley as the unofficial mayor of Muleshoe, but the tiny West Texas town off U.S. 84 that’s home to 4,975 folks and a whole lot of sandhill cranes just saw another of its favorite sons hit the big time.
When Riley, 33, succeeded Bob Stoops as the head football coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, he supplanted Horsley — a mustachioed actor best known for his Western roles in “Hateful Eight” and “Django Unchained” and as TV’s “Matt Houston” back in the 1980s — as Muleshoe’s most famous product. Or at least joined him.
“Yeah, a couple hometown buddies are joking they may have to put up a sign next to his,” Riley said last week on the Austin American-Statesman’s “On Second Thought” podcast. Riley’s sure getting noticed. In the blink of an eye, he went from a highly acclaimed, highly sought-after offensive coordinator to the youngest FBS coach in the country.
“He’s so cool and calm about it,” said Joe Castiglione, OU’s meticulous athletic director, who hired him. “It was just clockwork. He’s a ‘Cool Hand Luke’ persona in that moment.”
So maybe Horsley isn’t the only Muleshoe Mule to act out a part. Riley is ready for the biggest role of his life and was deemed ready to assume the position atop one of the most successful programs in college football. It was set in motion a week before Stoops’ shocking June 7 announcement, when the coach with 10 Big 12 titles and one national championship unceremoniously walked into Castiglione’s office on a Thursday afternoon and asked if he had a minute.
In some delicious coincidence, it was also Castiglione who, 18 years ago and
LINCOLN RILEY FILE AGE: 33
AS A COACH: Joined Bob Stoops’ staff at Oklahoma in 2015 as the Sooners’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. His first two OU offenses ranked in the top 10 nationally — in 2015, OU was No. 7 in total offense and No. 4 in scoring (43.5 points a game); in 2016, OU was No. 2 nationally in total offense and No. 3 in scoring (43.9 points a game). Before OU, he spent seven years at Texas Tech, including the final three as the Red Raiders’ wide receivers coach, and was East Carolina’s offensive coordinator from 2010 to 2014. This is Riley’s first head coaching job.
AS A PLAYER: Riley, who was born in Lubbock and played at Muleshoe, was a walk-on quarterback at Texas Tech in 2002, backing up Kliff Kingsbury and B.J. Symons. only five months on the job in Norman, plucked another unproven coordinator for his first head coaching job when he met Stoops, Florida’s 38-year-old defensive boss. Hiring Stoops was a gamble then, and hiring Riley’s a gamble now, but a wellcalculated one.
“I had three people I was going to interview back then. I met with Bob, and that was the end of it,” Castiglione said. “Bob just had that uncanny ability to infuse his players with confidence. The great coaches have that instinct and the guts to act on it. Bob had it. Lincoln has it. And there’s something to be said for continuity.”
Castiglione visited with Stoops again the Monday before the coach’s Wednesday stunner, and then he and university President David Boren sat down with Riley on Tuesday.
Their minds were made up. Riley was their guy. They didn’t want to let him get away.
“It wasn’t until Monday Bob and I had the longest discussion,” Castiglione said. “I could tell then this was real. He was at peace with it, and it wasn’t up for debate.”
Riley said he had a notion that Stoops, 56, might step down; the winningest coach in OU history had told him the week before that he was contemplating resigning.
By the end of the work day June 7, Riley had accepted the job offer, met privately with his players and fielded calls from nearly every fellow coach he’d ever crossed paths with to congratulate him or apply for the vacant position on his staff. “Luckily, I only had one spot to fill,” he said.
Riley just filled that one, symmetrically hiring the coach who had hired him at East Carolina when he named
Ruffin McNeill defensive tackles coach. When Riley wasn’t fielding calls, he was making them — up to 30 that first day to recruits, including Putnam City, Okla., defensive end Ron Tatum, who decommitted from Texas last week and swore his allegiance to OU. By so doing, Riley’s taking on Tom Herman and drawing a line in the sand for perhaps a reincarnation of Stoops vs. Mack Brown.
Attention to detail
He’s more buttoned-down, intense Stoops than he is flamboyant, eccentric Mike Leach, another former Riley boss.
“Mike’s probably one of a kind,” Riley said. “They broke the patent on him.”
Riley was the All-American boy growing up, playing basketball and competing in hurdles and the jumps in track at Class 3A Muleshoe when he wasn’t in football. He’s an avid water skier, and his music tastes range from Garth Brooks to rap.
Castiglione already loves how well-rounded and grounded his newest hire is. Not to mention thorough.
“He watches everything,” Castiglione said. And writes it all down.
Riley’s kept a notebook at all of his coaching stops — “it’s gotten a little bit thicker” — ever since he began his very short coaching odyssey as a 23-year-old graduate assistant in 2006 at Texas Tech, where he coached the wide receivers and in particular Michael Crabtree.
Some have joked that he made Crabtree the two-time All-American he became, but Riley said: “He may have made me. It was a good situation to walk into.”
Sort of like now. Forget his young age. Darrell Royal, you might remember, took the Texas job at 32 and did OK. He just won 184 games and three national titles. And as he once said, “If he bites you as a dog, he will bite you as a pup.”
Riley was probably always a coach in training, even though he showed up in Lubbock as an aspiring quarterback. Alas, one with a severe shoulder injury carried over from his sophomore year in high school that curtailed his dreams of becoming the next Kliff Kingsbury. He did eventually follow Kingsbury, but as a head coach when Leach put Riley on staff early.
“Life works in mysterious ways,” he said. “Honestly, without having my shoulder busted up, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
In demand
He also might not be where he is now if he’d been a little more eager to move on. Purdue, Houston and South Florida all came after him, but Riley stayed put.
One athletic administrator at one of those schools that courted Riley said the coach showed up to the job interview without a tie, plopped down in the seat without a single note and “blew us away.” While every other candidate arrived with a packet or a full video presentation, Riley came armed with nothing but his serious nature and quick mind.
“He had unbelievable poise,” the official said. “He just spoke off the top of his head and blew us away. So polished.”
The school might have hired him on the spot, but the official got the clear indication that Riley was waiting on bigger, better things. Like right where he was in Norman.
It was a wise move because Riley inherits a ready-made staff — part of Stoops’ reasoning to time his resignation when he did, I believe — a Heisman finalist quarterback in Baker Mayfield, a veteran offensive line and a likely top 10-ranked preseason team. Not a bad way to debut. He’ll coach the quarterbacks and call his own plays.
Of course, he’s fully aware of the scrutiny and pressure he faces at a school that has won seven national championships and 46 conference titles. And he knows he has to beat Texas to remain head coach.
“There’s nothing like it,” Riley said of the October clash. “I didn’t really have any idea what I was getting into, and I can’t pretend it’s just another game because it’s not.”
As for his new rival, Herman, Riley said their paths crossed in recruiting years ago and added: “I’m a fan. I think he’s a really, really good coach. He does a great job.”
Riley is at work to do the same. And if he’s half as good as Castiglione and OU think he is, he just might get that sign next to Horsley’s.