SIGN OF THE TIMES
Dreams came true on Wednesday for many state high school football players Riley wildly celebrates recruiting victories
Wednesday was National Signing Day for high school football players. See a complete list of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State's recruits and where other Oklahoma City-area athletes will be playing college football in Sports.
Lincoln Riley’s voice rang throughout the Twitterverse on Wednesday.
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” Riley yelled while pumping his fist and prancing around his office. Think Tiger Woods holing out from the fairway to win the Masters. Riley’s celebration made Jim Valvano look low-key running around The Pit that night in Albuquerque 35 years ago.
Riley erupted when Jeremiah Criddell announced he would sign with the Sooners. If OU beats Alabama next week, there’s no way Riley could be happier
than he was when Criddell, appearing on ESPN2, said, “Oklahoma.”
Riley hugged and highfived his way down the corridor of Sooner headquarters, flush with the signature of a Santa Ana, California, defensive back who must be the second coming of Night Train Lane.
Except Riley, a few hours later, said the celebration wasn’t out of the norm.
“Every time one of these guys commits, it’s not always captured on video, but there’s an extreme level of excitement because we’re competing for the best players in the country,” Riley said. “And it’s competitive. These guys’ve got a lot of places they can choose.
“So when they choose OU … yeah, we get pretty excited. It’s no different than scoring a touchdown or winning a big game.”
Does this look like a coach headed for the NFL? Reports of pro football’s infatuation with Riley have flooded the world wide web since spring, from the Packers to the Browns to any team that could use an offensive wizard. Which is most of them.
But most NFL franchises can’t offer Riley the quality of job that Oklahoma can — job security, long-term money, long-term winning — and the best chip the pros can play is total football.
No recruiting. Except there was Riley, rejoicing over a signature of a kid who, for all we know, can’t cover Tylan Wallace. The rigors of recruiting have run off a lot of successful college coaches. The Thunder is coached by one.
Yet Riley seems to treat recruiting not as a necessary evil, but as a perk of the job.
“I enjoy it,” Riley said. “You’ve got to win your fair share. So we have fun with it. As everyone could see, we put a lot into recruiting. We put our heart and soul into that, too, as much as we do winning games. We know it all matters. Absolutely we get excited when a guy chooses us.”
I don’t know what’s in Riley’s future. For all I know, he’ll be drawing up plays for Aaron Rodgers next September. But it sure seems a longshot.
Eighteen months as the Sooner head coach, and Riley has produced two final four teams, two Heisman Trophy winners, a runaway offense and a reputation for bigtime recruiting. There are no signs he hears the NFL’s siren song.
Of course, players have heard it on the recruiting trail.
“They heard that from plenty other coaches out there that seem to be experts on it,” Riley said. “I think after sitting down and talking with these guys, they’re very confident on where I’m going to be, the direction of this program and where my heart and my mind are at right now.”
Riley’s heart and mind Wednesday, in the middle of National Signing Day and just before a pre-Orange Bowl practice, were on trying to beat Alabama. Next week in Miami, and in the years to come.
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.