Stormin in Norman
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Lincoln Riley already moving up the Sooner record book

By Chip Rouse

COLUMBUS, OH - SEPTEMBER 09: Head coach Lincoln Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners shakes hands with head coach Urban Meyer of the Ohio State Buckeyes after the Sooners defeated the Buckeyes 31-16 at Ohio Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OH - SEPTEMBER 09: Head coach Lincoln Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners shakes hands with head coach Urban Meyer of the Ohio State Buckeyes after the Sooners defeated the Buckeyes 31-16 at Ohio Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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Lincoln Riley won 84 percent of his games as the Oklahoma offensive coordinator, but he’s doing even better, batting a perfect one thousand, as the Sooners’ head coach.

The 34-year-old Oklahoma football headmaster is 3-0 in his first season as a head coach, and he has the Sooners ranked No. 3 in the nation in both of the major human polls (Associated Press and Coaches Poll). That is up four spots from where Oklahoma began the 2017 season.

Riley is one of just five Sooner head football coaches (out of 22 total) to begin their head-coaching careers at Oklahoma by winning their first three games. And the other four might surprise you: V.L. Parrington, Jim Mackenzie, Howard Schnellenberger and Bob Stoops. No Bennie Owen, no Bud Wilkinson and no Barry Switzer, three former Sooner head coaches who each won more than 100 games.

A win over Baylor on Saturday will give Riley a 4-0 record in his first season as the Sooners head coach. Schnellenberger and Stoops both lost in their fourth game (Schnellenberger to Colorado and Stoops to Notre Dame).

Oklahoma Sooners Football
Oklahoma Sooners Football /

Oklahoma Sooners Football

Only Parrington, who was the Sooners second head coach but coached just four seasons (1897-1900), and Mackenzie, who coached just one season (1966), sandwiched between Gomer Jones and Chuck Fairbanks, went 4-0 to begin their OU coaching careers.

Mackenzie, the 15th head coach in the Oklahoma coaching lineage, died of a heart attack after one season. He won his first four games, but lost four of his next six to finish with a 6-4 record.

Parrington holds the school record for the most consecutive wins without a loss to begin his coaching career. Parrington won his first six games as the Sooners’ head coach, but that spanned three seasons. Prior to the turn of the century, teams would play just three to five games in a full season.

Oklahoma plays Baylor this week, followed by Iowa State, the annual Red River Showdown with Texas in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and at Kansas State.

If the Sooners can remain undefeated through that stretch, they would be 7-0, and Riley would stand above every other OU head coach for the most wins without a loss to begin his career as a head coach.

That would be a truly impressive record when you consider the illustrious history of Oklahoma football

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