Danny Ford offers advice to Lincoln Riley
Danny Ford wanted to know Lincoln Riley’s birthday. “When does he turn 34?” Ford asked. “I hope he doesn’t beat my record.”
Ford was kidding. And Ford is safe. Riley turns 34 next week. He will be a 33-year-old head coach for only one game, Saturday on Owen Field against Texas-El Paso.
Thus Ford will remain the youngest head coach to win a national championship.
Riley’s age has been a hot topic since June 7, when Bob Stoops retired and handed the kingdom’s keys to Riley, who is closer in age to his quarterback than to most of his coaching staff.
“I’ll be ready for that to not be the narrative, because at the end of the day, if we win, it’s not gonna be because I’m 33 or 34, and if we’re not successful it’s not gonna be because I’m 33 or 34,” Riley said.
Truth is, successful coaches come in all forms. Included those hired young.
Bud Wilkinson was 30 when promoted to OU head coach and 33 when he coached a bunch of 25-year-old war veterans in 1949. Bear Bryant was 31 when hired by Maryland. Frank Broyles was 32 when hired at Missouri and 33 when he got the Arkansas job a year later. Darrell Royal was 29 when hired at Mississippi State and 32 when hired by Texas.
And Danny Ford was 30 when Clemson coach Charley Pell took the Florida job, and Clemson promoted Ford to head coach. His first game was a 17-15 victory over Ohio State in the 1978 Gator Bowl — yep, Woody Hayes’ final game with the Buckeyes — and three years later, Clemson beat Nebraska in the Orange Bowl to win the 1981 national title.
Hence the phone call this week to Ford, 28 years gone from coaching Clemson and 20 years removed from coaching at all. Ford works his farm just outside Pendleton, S.C., eight miles from the Clemson campus. He was looking for a cow when he took my call. “Hope she’s not in the creek,” Ford said.
He has followed Riley’s career. Recalls that Clemson considered hiring away Riley from East Carolina few years ago. Ford calls him “the young man.” Takes one to know one.
Ford played for Bear Bryant at Alabama, coached for him in 1973 and eventually landed at Clemson as offensive line coach in 1977.
Ford says he works with his 31-year-old son on the farm and shakes his head that anyone could have been a head coach so young.
“I guess you learn on the run,” Ford said. “I’m a lot smarter now than I was then. I certainly didn’t know what I was getting into.”
Ford says his credentials weren’t nearly as good as Riley’s. “He’s been an offensive coordinator,” Ford said. “He came up under a good system. He’s got the papers, you know.”
But Ford had some advice for Riley.
Hire an experienced confidant, which Riley already has, in former East Carolina head coach Ruffin McNeill. Ford said Clemson’s program turned around when he hired Tom Harper as defensive coordinator. Harper had been head coach at Wake Forest.
“He came in, didn’t get rattled from week to week like I did,” Ford said. “We certainly didn’t have a plan that we were going to stick with. I didn’t really know that. Nobody on our staff was strong enough to make me realize that. I was a hardheaded boy at 31.”
Ford said he’s “heard a lot of good things” about Riley, and “I’m sure he’s an offensive genius. But it’s going to be too much to be the head coach and offensive coordinator, too. Turn that over. He will be a better head coach.”
Then Ford is quick to dismiss his own advice.
“I certainly don’t have the right answers on anything,” Ford said. “I just know what I’ve learned, watching ballgames on Saturdays, remembering back when I was coaching. I’d do a lot of things different.”
But Ford had enough answers to turn Clemson into a powerhouse by his third season, and he was on top of the mountain at 33. A record that Lincoln Riley will not break.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok.com/berrytramel.