Riley, Mayfield share special bond
NORMAN — Lincoln Riley started talking about Baker Mayfield. Then Riley stopped.
Ten seconds of silence. Twenty seconds of silence. Thirty seconds of silence. Thirty-three seconds before Riley felt enough in command of his emotions to keep talking.
“No matter how long I go coaching, whatever the rest of my career being like, I don’t know that I’ll ever have a player that’s as special to me as he is,” Riley said, before taking that 33-second respite.
Riley had just announced that Mayfield, the presumptive
Heisman Trophy winner, would not start Saturday against West Virginia and would not serve as captain, penalties for vulgar gestures at Kansas last week. What swirled through Riley’s mind during those 33 seconds?
Chances are, it was about that special bond. Hard to imagine a head coach and quarterback more closely aligned than Riley and Mayfield. Lots of coaches make a quarterback’s career. But this is a quarterback who has lit the fuse to a coach’s career.
Would Riley be the Oklahoma head coach had he landed in Norman 34 months ago and inherited merely a good quarterback, instead of a quarterback for the ages? Would Riley have been the automatic successor to Bob Stoops had Trevor Knight quarterbacked the Sooners in 2015 and 2016?
Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe Stoops doesn’t even retire if there’s not an All-American quarterback to grease the skids for a sharp young coach ready to take over. Most players feel indebted to their coach. But few coaches are as indebted to a player as Riley is to Mayfield.
“We’ve been through a
lot together,” Riley said after those 33 seconds Monday. “He’s a tremendous teammate. He’s the best football player in America. He has a great heart that a lot of people don’t get a chance to see like I do. I’m proud as hell to be his coach.”
No coach wants to hand down the discipline that Riley was forced to hand down. Particularly not to a team leader. Particularly not to a quarterback who has become not just the face of the Sooners, but the face of college football 2017.
But discipline was necessary and all parties know it.
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” Mayfield said about six hours after Riley talked. “You need to handle yourself the right way. For this program going forward, it needs to show that Coach Riley is about doing it the right way. He always has and always will be. It doesn’t matter if you are the starting quarterback. If you don’t act the right way, Coach Riley is going to discipline you. That’s how it needs to be. I hope people on the outside and recruits coming in here know what he’s all about.
“Unfortunately, I put him in a bad spot, but I also think that it’s going to show what he’s about and it’s going to be a positive on that end of
things.”
Riley said he got into coaching because he loves football and he wants to make a positive impact on young people. Both are in his job description, though let’s be real about Riley’s $3 million salary. About $2.9 million of that is to win ballgames and the rest is to build character.
Still, most coaches really do believe they are part Father Flanagan. Really do believe they can take impressionable young men and turn them into impressive young men. And when one of those players stumbles — Mayfield has stumbled more than once — the coach has to take action. Even when it feels like one of those this-hurts-me-morethan-it-hurts-you speeches from childhood.
“I see both sides of it,” Riley said. “I see the side that says it’s inexcusable. It’s not what we want in this program. And it’s not going to be acceptable here. This program has very high standards. This university has very high standards. And when they’re not met, there has to be consequences.
“But at the same time, he’s a young person. When I was his age, I made a lot of mistakes too. I bet everybody in this room did. That’s part of it. There’s a
growing process. He’s owned it like a man. I’m proud of the way that he’s handled it. This darn sure doesn’t in my mind and … shouldn’t in anyone else’s either, taint all the great things he’s accomplished here on and off the field.”
No reason why it should. Riley busted Mayfield not only because of the university’s brand, but because it’s the best thing for Mayfield. Previous punishments, whatever they were, haven’t worked, but hopefully this one hits home with Mayfield. Which would only benefit him.
And no reason why it has to cost him anything more than an unpleasant memory. The Heisman is still his. The College Football Playoff opportunity remains. NFL concerns over Mayfield’s behavior can be alleviated much easier than his 6-foot height.
Still, Riley and Mayfield have a relationship that brought tears to the coach’s eyes and silence to his speech. This decision was easy on the mind, but hard on the heart.