Oklahoma football: Five best things we learned from Big 12 Media Days
By Chip Rouse
The Sooners should hardly miss a beat in the 2017 season, at least not from a coaching standpoint.
Stoops has left the Oklahoma football program in outstanding shape, with a good number of the core players in place from back-to-back conference championship teams and a top-10-ranked recruiting class. Typically this is not the case when a head coach steps aside.
So Riley is stepping into his new job with an excellent safety cushion in his inaugural year at the helm. Stiil OU football standards and fan expectations always run extremely high, and the road to a third consecutive Big 12 crown will have quite a few competitive challenges, including road games against a couple of the league’s projected top contenders in the coming season (Kansas State and Oklahoma State).
One of the chief reasons, the Sooners’ new head coach’s transition should be easier than most is the strong relationship he had built with the players in his two seasons at offensive coordinator.
“He’s very relatable. He’s definitely a players’ coach,” said All-Big 12 offensive lineman Orlando Brown told reporters at Big 12 Media Days.
“That’s why (Riley) is the best thing for this program,” Baker Mayfield added, “not just because he’s a great coach. He cares about us as players, yes, but he cares about developing us as men, too.”