Oklahoma football: Four intriguing story lines for OU-Texas Tech
By Chip Rouse
Lincoln Riley and Kliff Kingsbury back together, but on opposite sidelines
When Lincoln Riley walked on as a quarterback at Texas Tech in 2002, the starting quarterback for the Red Raiders was senior Kliff Kingsbury. The following year, Kingsbury moved on to the NFL, and Riley made the transition from player to coaching, taking a job as a student assistant under Mike Leach on the Texas Tech coaching staff.
Riley served on the Texas Tech coaching staff for seven seasons, the final three of which were as wide receivers coach (2007-09). In 2010 he left to become offensive coordinator at East Carolina, where worked for former Texas Tech assistant coach Ruffin McNeill. Riley was there for five seasons, when Bob Stoops asked him to come to Oklahoma in 2015 as the offensive coordinator.
At the age of 34, in 2013, Kingsbury was named head coach at his alma mater, replacing Tommy Tuberville.
When Riley arrived in Norman, he was reunited with a couple of Sooner assistant coaches who were at Texas Tech when he was there. Oklahoma offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh was on the Red Raiders’ staff under Leach from 2000-06, and OU outside receivers coach Dennis Simmons was on Leach’s Texas Tech staff from 2000-09.
Bedenbaugh has been a member of the Oklahoma coaching staff since 2013, and Simmons is in his thirds season as an OU assistant.
Earlier this year, Riley became the 22nd head football coach at the University of Oklahoma, following Bob Stoops, who in June announced his retirement after 18 seasons as the Sooners head coach. One of Riley’s first actions as the OU head coach was to bring in McNeill, his coach at East Carolina and coaching college at Texas Tech.
Kingsbury, now 38, is in his fifth season as head coach at Texas Tech. Riley is the youngest coach in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision. At 34, Riley is the same age that Kingsbury was when he took the latter became the head coach at Texas Tech.
Next: Sooners seeking sixth straight win over Texas Tech
On Saturday, Riley and Kingsbury, two Texas Tech alums, will be on opposite sidelines coaching against each other in the 25th all-time meeting between the Sooners and the Red Raiders.