Today, the youngest head coach in Oklahoma history turns 34. The man behind the high-flying, uptempo, brilliant offense, and what looks to be a talented defense, faces a daunting task week two. But first, lets take a look at who he was before he became “The Man.”
Riley went to the Texas Tech University, where he played as a quarterback. He was buried on the depth chart and decided to take a job as a graduate assistant. From there, things just went up for Riley. He ended up as the offensive coordinator for East Carolina where he led prolific offenses. From there, he was hired to be the offensive cooridinator at the University of Oklahoma. In the first season he led the Sooners to the #7 offense in the country. Last season, Riley even won the Broyles award for the top assistant coach.
The offensive minded coach won his first game this past Saturday to make his record officially 1-0. He had this to say about his debut: “It was fun. Not because it was my debut. Just because it was a great moment for our team. The whole team, the whole program’s been through a lot these last few months, so to finally just get out there and do what we love to do and get a chance to go compete together, it was fun. We enjoy winning here, and we don’t take it for granted. Wins are hard. They’re all hard, and we appreciate this one very much.”
The Sooners will travel to Columbus, Ohio to face the Buckeyes in the matchup of the year. This game looks to be significantly more difficult than last. Riley is calm as can be as he said, “Regardless of who we play next I think we know more about our team now and get a chance to get back and study the tape, seeing what we’re going to become and seeing the start of that.”
Lincoln Riley is calm, cool, and collected. At his age, that is something to marvel at. Lincoln Riley will no doubt be an all-time great. We will see if he can start his legacy next week in a win most coaches would be lucky to get in their lifetime.
Happy Birthday, Lincoln.
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