Lincoln Riley brings new flavor to caravan stop
Sherri Coale’s been doing the end-of-summer Oklahoma City caravan stops with the OU athletics program for more than two decades.
And for 18 years, the women's basketball coach sat next to Bob Stoops on the stage.
This year, however, was a little different when Lincoln Riley sat down beside her.
And it wasn’t just the person that was different.
“This is the first sport coat I’ve ever seen on stage,” she joked. “I’m going to have to up my game apparently.”
Riley’s attire isn’t the only thing that’s changing about the football program.
While Bob Stoops wasn’t as risky with his play-calling in recent years, Riley drew a bigtime applause from the crowd when he was asked if he’d go for it on fourthand-2 from midfield.
“Oh, you know we're going for it,” he said with a grin.
Even though Riley’s a new coach with a new style, he’s still got some old school methods.
Host Toby Rowland begged to know if there were any new, young players to keep an eye on.
“Yes,” Riley deadpanned.
The crowd laughed, but Riley didn’t elaborate much further.
“That’s one area, despite how young I look, that I
say that I’m a little bit old school,” Riley said. You’ve got to go prove it first. This is Oklahoma.”
Riley stayed true to his word, not giving out much more information, other than that the young wide receivers and defensive backs looked pretty good.
He’ll also likely have a better read on all of that after Saturday morning’s scrimmage to wrap up the fall camp.
“We’re 16 or 17 practices in right now,” he said. “Our guys will start school Monday morning, and then we’ll start moving from good-ongood work and start the transition to scout teams and start to prepare for UTEP and other upcoming opponents.”
But before prepping for the upcoming season, he took the time to celebrate OU’s numerous national championships won in the past year with the crowd gathered at the Bricktown Events Center.
Along with Riley and Coale, three other OU coaches showed up to sign autographs and talk with Rowland on stage.
“We’re going to have to report ourselves to the NCAA for championship selfishness,” OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said, eliciting a big laugh from the crowd.
Softball coach Patty Gasso, fresh off her fourth national championship, made her first appearance at the summer-end event in a long time, and she was met with a thunderous applause and a standing ovation.
Usually, the traditional caravan stop coincides with her post-recruiting period vacation. This time, however, the Night of Champions was pushed back a week and she was able to make it.
“I’m excited,” she said of the upcoming season. “We’re going to be really good. I don’t say that very often, but I know that, so I can say it.”
Men’s golf coach Ryan Hybl, men’s tennis coach Nick Crowell — both of who coached national champions last year — also participated in the event.