Passing on Riley
Riley, Patterson square off in rare matchup of play callers
Gary Patterson of TCU didn’t offer Lincoln Riley a scholarship back in the day.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Maybe Gary Patterson could’ve prevented the headache he’ll have to deal with Saturday, when No. 9 Oklahoma travels to face Patterson’s TCU squad.
Way back when Lincoln Riley was a young but lightly recruited quarterback at Muleshoe (Texas) High, Patterson’s defensive assistants talked to Riley about potentially playing safety for the Horned Frogs.
“Needless to say, it didn’t turn out so I guess I didn’t impress them enough,” Riley said.
Maybe Riley would’ve developed into a great defensive mind under Patterson’s tutelage. Instead, he walked on as a quarterback to Mike Leach’s team at Texas Tech and developed quickly into one of college football’s best offensive minds.
Saturday, the pair square off at Amon G. Carter Stadium (11 a.m., ABC) in one of the few games nationally where head coaches will go against each other as play callers.
Riley calls the Sooners’ offense and has them humming along at a historic pace behind quarterback Kyler Murray.
Patterson is one of the few college coaches — Tennessee’s Jeremy Pruitt is another — that call their own plays on the defensive side.
“I’ve loved it,” Riley said of matching wits with Patterson. “It feels like we play each other every other week. It’s the third time in how many games is it now? Eight or nine probably? (It’s 12) I’ve always enjoyed those opportunities to go against the best. He’s certainly one of them. It’s fun.”
While plenty of head coaches eventually give up play-calling duties — Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason and Missouri’s Barry Odom recently relinquished defensive play-calling responsibilities while West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen did the same offensively — Patterson was been steady as the defensive leader for the Horned Frogs.
Riley had to answer plenty of questions last season about how he would handle balancing his new duties as a head coach with keeping full control of the offense, and the Sooners’ offense didn’t slip as Baker Mayfield became the Heisman Trophy winner.
This season, the Sooners haven’t lost a beat with Murray behind center.
Patterson downplayed the matchup at first, then came back to admitting he relished such a matchup.
“Oh no,” Patterson started when asked if there was any extra juice in preparing to square off with an offensive mind like Riley’s. “Yes and no. ... You have to be able to give the kids a chance. Again, with the personnel group that they have with the athletic ability, you’ve got to give them some new wrinkles, otherwise they can tee off on you.”
Of course, Patterson won’t be the only one with a problem to deal with Saturday.
The Horned Frogs’ defense is the best in the Big 12, and Patterson has built his reputation as a defensive-minded coach in what has been the most offensive league in college football.
“They are one of the models across the country of really good defense for a long time, without a doubt,” Riley said. “There are a lot of things that, before I became the head coach, of ways they do defense and having a system that they believe in, I hope that we are able to do offensively. There’s no doubt that’s the kind of consistency that we want to have and we expect on that side.”