OU VS. UTEP
How Lincoln Riley can learn from former OU coaches’ debut games
When: 2:30 p.m. Saturday Where: Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
More coverage of OU football begins on Page
Just before 2:30 Saturday afternoon, Lincoln Riley will walk down the halls of the Switzer Center, treading on gray and white carpet past shrines to the successes of previous Oklahoma teams, players and coaches.
He’ll pass by quotes from Bud Wilkinson, lists of championships and bowls and collages of moments in Sooner football history before he’ll come to a set of double doors.
He might stop and take a deep breath. Or two. He might look up at the “Play like a Champion Today!’ crimson and cream sign.
When Riley finally leans on the door, he’ll be greeted with the roar of more than 86,000 fans, all clamoring to see just what the 33-year-old offensive whiz will do with his first team as a head coach.
He’ll have just a few more feet of privacy as he walks under the thick canvas tunnel to the steel-barred gate stamped with a giant interlocking OU, catching glimpses of the green field and crimson fans through the vertical bars.
When he’s ready, the 22nd head coach of the Oklahoma football team will step out into din and formally introduce himself to the OU faithful.
The ones who’ve crossed this threshold — or some iteration of it — before him have an idea of what he’ll experience.
Not everyone’s coaching debuts went smoothly.
But their memories can clue us into what to expect from Riley’s first game and how it could affect the rest of his tenure. Boomer brawl
For Wilkinson, the nerves before his debut manifested in a forlorn scene before OU’s eventual 24-20 win at the University of Detroit in 1947.
“Bud and Gomer (Jones) were sitting together on a wooden bench off to one side of the dressing room, staring gloomily at the floor while they waited the call to battle on the rough, poorly mowed field,” wrote Oklahoma historian Harold Keith in his Wilkinson era book, FortySeven Straight.
Wilkinson’s opener was eventful as Buddy Burris, Keith wrote, punched a Detroit player three times. Wilkinson pulled him out of the game, only to apologize later when game film showed the Detroit player instigated it.
“The Detroit game showed what Wilkinson’s sideline behavior would be for the next 17 seasons,” Keith wrote. “The new Sooner mentor paced the sidelines tirelessly, staying on top of the action.” Baylor beatdown
Ten years after Wilkinson prowled the sideline, Barry
Switzer took over as the Sooners’ head coach after six seasons as an assistant.
OU thumped Baylor 42-14 in Norman that day in 1973, but it came at a cost as starting halfback Grant Burget got hurt.
“He was a good player, tore his knee up and was out for a season,” Switzer said.
“But I knew we would win the ballgame. We were a talented, good football team.”
Of all the former OU head coaches, Switzer might have the best idea of what Riley will experience Saturday.
When he succeeded Chuck Fairbanks following the 1972 season, he was taking on a team that had gone 22-2 in the previous two seasons using his wishbone
offense.
Similar to Switzer, Riley inherits a team with a 22-4 record since 2015 and a strong offensive identity crafted by Riley himself. The last first time Bob Stoops was the last coach to make his debut at Owen Field, his coming on Sept. 11, 1999. Like Riley, it would not only be his first game as OU’s head coach, but it would be his first game as a head coach anywhere.
In typical Stoops form, he didn’t outwardly admit to any nerves.
“I guess I look at it as having been in a bunch of games, hopefully will be in a lot more, so it’s just one of many,” he said before the 49-0 win against Indiana
State. “I guess being the first one as a head coach makes it special, I’d like to think this entire year, as you go through, there’ll be a lot of those times.
“I’m not one to make too much of anything, really.” Riley’s reign
In the days before his first game, Riley’s taken a similar approach to that of his predecessor.
It’s his first game as a head coach — as the head coach, but he says it’s mostly like any other game.
And on Saturday, he’ll walk through the Switzer Center and into the tunnel.
He’ll pause, take a deep breath, and emerge from the shadows.
The Lincoln Riley era will begin.