Short wait time: Riley era begins at Oklahoma
The new head coach’s office at the University of Oklahoma measures a cozy 1,800 square feet. Which is probably why Oklahoma’s new head coach jokes, “There’s a lot of room for growth.”
The palatial space features an arched entryway, 20-foot ceilings and windows almost as tall. Depending on the arrangement, there are three or maybe four sitting areas and perhaps two dozen chairs or sofas. Lincoln Riley calls the office “fitting ” — and then quickly explains.
“It represents the program and the history and the magni- tude of it,” he says. “So I think it’s very fitting — not for me but for the program.”
Whether Riley will be a fit for one of the premier jobs in college football is a question that can’t yet be answered. He was elevated this month from offen-
sive coordinator after Bob Stoops’ sudden retirement. Though Stoops’ exit was shocking, Riley’s promotion wasn’t a surprise for anyone who had been paying attention. Though there wasn’t a formal arrangement, Riley was clearly the Sooners’ coach-inwaiting. But everyone expected there to be at least a little more of the, you know, waiting.
Instead, at 33, Riley is the youngest head coach in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision. And if you’re still wrapping your mind around the entire situation, it might not really sink in for Riley, either, until practice starts and the season kicks off.
He’ll turn 34 on Sept. 5. That’s three days after Oklahoma’s opener against Texas-El Paso and four days before a significant non-conference test at Ohio State. Go ahead, consider the matchup: Riley, in his second game, matching wits with Urban Meyer, the most accomplished active coach not named Nick Saban.
But that’s where we get back to that new office, one of the most impressive pieces of a $160 million upgrade to the south end zone of Gaylord Family- Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. After occupying temporary quarters across the street during construction, the Sooners have only just moved into the 130,000-squarefoot facility. Workers continue to apply the finishing touches, which are expected to be complete by late July.
“It’s going to be just fantastic. ... The bones are up now, and it’s functional,” Riley says, “but it doesn’t have the shine it’s gonna have here pretty quickly.”
As he suggests, the entire facility fits the program’s historic status — and reflects its current strength. With a talent-loaded roster, Oklahoma is a preseason favorite to win the Big 12 — again — and a decent bet to reach the College Football Playoff for the second time in three seasons.
HIGH EXPECTATIONS Where most first-time head coaches of any age — most new head coaches, never mind their previous experience — find themselves inhabiting a fixer-upper in need of significant renovations, Riley has been handed the keys to a palace.
There aren’t many close comparisons, especially if we restrict them to internal promotions. Mark Helfrich at Oregon, maybe. Rick Neuheisel at Colorado, two decades back. Helfrich lasted four seasons and was fired. Neuheisel stayed five and moved to Washington. While both inherited programs in very good shape, neither place is Oklahoma.
Perhaps more than any other first-time head coach in recent memory, Riley is set up for immediate success.
“No question,” he says. “That’s part of being at a place like this. There’s always the setup to succeed here.”
He’s right. But there’s a whole lot more to this.
You only have to look back to when Stoops arrived, in December 1998, to know the current situation is unusual. When Stoops, a hot young defensive coordinator who’d made his name at Kansas State and Florida, became Oklahoma’s coach, he inherited a program in disarray. Since the ouster of Barry Switzer amid scandal, the Sooners had stumbled through nearly a decade of disappointment and failure. Stoops’ first team went 7-5, including a loss in the Independence Bowl, and the fans were happy because they were in a bowl for the first time in five seasons.
The next season Oklahoma won the Bowl Championship Series national title. In Stoops’ 18 seasons, the Sooners played for three more national titles and won a total of 10 Big 12 crowns. Those are the baseline expectations for any new coach.
Just to add a little pressure, Riley is following the winningest coach in school history. Stoops’ 190 wins (against 48 losses, a .798 winning percentage) were more than those by Barry Switzer or Bud Wilkinson. College sports history is littered with guys who followed legends, and they rarely succeed to the same level.
“Whether I coached after Bob Stoops or some guy nobody’s ever heard of, the same expectations that I feel … are the same expectations for this program (are) to continue to win championships,” Riley says. “Those aren’t going anywhere.”
STOOPS GIVES HIS BLESSING And in contrast to the situation Stoops found, Riley inherits a talented team including Baker Mayfield, a returning Heisman Trophy finalist, and one of the nation’s best and deepest offensive lines. The Sooners are 22-4 in the last two seasons, coinciding with Riley’s tenure as offensive coordinator. When Stoops hired Riley from East Carolina after the 2014 season, the charge was to rejuvenate the offense, returning it to its Air Raid roots. The result was a return to the national spotlight.
And while there was never anything in writing, Oklahoma officials already had identified Riley as someone they wanted to keep around as long as possible, with an eye on the future. They gave him a $1.3 million salary last spring in hopes of keeping him from leaving for a head coaching opportunity, or at least making it a more difficult decision. If he were to leave, they hoped to lure him back if and when Stoops retired.
If and when came sooner than anyone expected, including Riley, who says Stoops first broached the possibility about a week before the announcement. And though it didn’t seem like a real possibility, the idea grew as they talked several more times before Stoops came to his decision and walked away, ushering Riley into that huge office with a hearty endorsement.
“The right guy is right here, right now,” Stoops said at the news conference announcing his retirement and Riley’s hiring.
Riley’s first office, by the way, was literally a closet in Texas Tech’s football facility.
“It was a bigger closet than you would think,” Mike Leach says, but he also adds that Riley shared it with two or three others.
Then Texas Tech’s coach, Leach had seen something he liked in a wannabe quarterback. After he talked the freshman from nearby Muleshoe, Texas, out of walking on and into becoming a student assistant, Riley spent most of the next few years pinned to Leach’s side. The head coach bounced ideas off the student assistant and describes Riley as “a good sounding board … because he wasn’t afraid to think independently.”
RILEY SETTLING INTO JOB Riley is the youngest head coach in FBS? OK — but he was only 23 when Leach made him a full-time assistant, and only 26 when Ruffin McNeill hired him to be East Carolina’s offensive coordinator.
“For whatever reason, whatever job I’ve had I’ve been the youngest,” Riley says. “I think that’s something people can talk about because it’s the offseason, there’s nothing else to talk about. But when you get into it, I mean, you either get the job done or you don’t at the end of the day. So I don’t think I or anybody in this program is going to be judged by (age). I think we’ll be judged by the same thing we’re always judged on, so I kind of shrug my shoulders and move on.”
Leach, who recommended Stoops hire Riley as offensive coordinator, is one of many who say Riley always has carried himself as someone older, or more mature, than his age. He also notes that Riley is more conservative offensively than he is. Riley says although Leach is “definitely an extreme” in considering unorthodox approaches, he taught him to challenge the status quo.
“It was definitely a good lesson for a young coach,” he says, “learning that you don’t always have to do it like everybody else.”
He took notes as McNeill built relationships with players, producing positive performances as a result (this month, Riley hired McNeill as Oklahoma’s assistant head coach, coaching defensive tackles). And in the last two years at Oklahoma, he watched Stoops in the role as CEO of a large operation, somehow keeping “the pulse of the players” while remaining focused only on important things.
“I felt like there was very little wasted movement with him,” Riley says of Stoops.
Now, sooner than anyone expected, it’s his turn to try running a program.
“There’s no real preparation to become a head coach,” Leach says. “It’s like getting married. You can talk about it all you want, think about it all you want, do all the stuff, but nothing prepares you. It’s a very unique and different job than being a position coach or coordinator, either one.”
Riley plans to keep doing both of those jobs, by the way. He will retain duties as Oklahoma’s playcaller and quarterbacks coach and says he knows time management will be a challenge. Even during these first few days on the job, in the slowest part of a college football coach’s calendar, he’s still figuring out how to streamline the entire process.
Riley spends at least part of his day at one end of his new office, working at the desk that once belonged to Stoops. But he doesn’t stay there. On the other end, way over there by the fireplace, a laptop sits open on a coffee table. And at times, he finds himself sitting somewhere in between, at a smaller table near those huge windows.
“I’ve got to move around a little bit,” he says.
But if Riley is still settling into the very large space that, until a few weeks ago, seemed destined to be occupied by someone else for at least a few years — well, that much isn’t a surprise. We’ll all see how he grows into it.
“There’s every opportunity to succeed here,” he says. “We won’t back away from that.”