Oklahoma football: Lincoln Riley is transforming OU into Quarterback U

For years, decades even, Oklahoma football was best known as an explosive, run-oriented, offensive powerhouse featuring some of the best running backs in college football.

Consider the likes of Billy Vessels, Steve Owens, Joe Washington, Greg Pruitt and Billy Sims, All-Americans all and three were Heisman Trophy winners. And those are just a handful of the outstanding running backs that made their mark blistering the ground for the Sooners.

Since Bob Stoops arrived on the scene, in 1999, to rescue a Sooner football program that had endured three consecutive losing seasons — and more recently Lincoln Riley — quarterback play, particularly putting the ball in the air, has taken over the spotlight.

Stoops brought in Mike Leach as offensive coordinator in his inaugural season as OU head coach. Leach, a disciple in the Hal Mumme coaching tree, introduced a pass-oriented offense that came to be called the Air Raid and completely transormed Oklahoma’s approach to football offense.

The late Darrell Royal, himself a former Oklahoma quarterback but better known as the legendary head coach and athletic director at Texas, once said:

"“Three things can happen when you pass, and two of ’em are bad.”"

If that were the case, the Sooners probably would not have played in four BCS National Championship games and three College Football Playoffs, fielded four Heisman-winning quarterbacks and led the nation in total offense — with a different starting quarterback — the past two seasons.

Stoops recruited two Heisman winners at the quarterback position (Jason White in 2003 and Sam Bradford in 2008) and a third QB who was a Heisman runner-up (Josh Heupel). That, in itself, was truly noteworthy, because the three previous Oklahoma Heisman winners were running backs. And the best was yet to come.

It’s not that the Sooners have not had outstanding quarterback play prior to the 2000s. It’s just that the quarterback skillset was much different in the Split-T offense under Bud Wilkinson and later the triple-option Wishbone offense run by Barry Switzer’s great Oklahoma teams.

Riley joined Stoops’ coaching staff in 2015 as offensive coordinator. Ironically, that was the same season that Mayfield, a former walk-on who started at quarterback his freshman season at Texas Tech, made his Oklahoma debut at QB after transferring to play at OU. Ironically, Mayfield also walked on at OU.

Mayfield and the Sooners thrived in Riley’s Air Raid offense. He was a three-time Heisman finalest, winning it in 2017, and a two-time Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. His final season at OU, in 2017, he was a unanimous First-Team All-American, led the nation in completion percentage (.705), yards per pass attempt (11.6), points responsible for (296) and set a new Football Bowl Subdivision record in passing efficiency (198.9).

After the 2015 season, another promising QB prospect, Kyler Murray, decided to leave Texas A&M after his freshman season and transferred to Oklahoma. He had to sit out the 2016 season because of the NCAA transfer rule. He backed up Mayfield in 2017, and finally got his chance as the starting quarterback at OU in 2018.

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Everyone knew about Murray’s speed and the threat he posed as a run-pass quarterback, but no one expected to put up the same kind of passing numbers — even better than — as Mayfield. No one that is, than Riley, who had been working with the dual-sport star for three years. The rest is well-documented history.

Like his predecessor, Murray was Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, succeeded Mayfield as an All-American and Heisman Trophy winner and as the first overall player selected in the NFL Draft.

With Mayfield and Murray both gone to the NFL, the big question was who was going to take the OU quarterback reins in the 2019 season and beyond. No returning starter at QB in Norman…no problem.

Last December, the Sooners landed Spencer Rattler, the No. 1 QB recruit in the country, and less than 30 days later Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts elected to go into the  so-called transfer portal and chose to come to Oklahoma for his final season of eligibility.

Why wouldn’t Hurts choose Oklahoma, given what has happened with Mayfield and Murray and all the talented weapons the Sooners have on offense? I’m sure that was foremost in Rattler’s decision to come to OU as well.

It couldn’t have worked out any better for the Sooners. Rattler will be able to learn and grow behind Hurts, who is probably the most experienced quarterback in college football this coming season, having played in three consecutive national championship games with Alabama and won it all in 2017.

The common denominator in all the success Oklahoma has had at quarterback the past four years is Lincoln Riley. That parallels the time he has been at OU, two years as offensive coordinator and the last two as head coach. Riley’s reputation as one of the best and brightest young offensive minds in college football preceded him to Oklahoma. The Sooners’ offensive dominance during his time at OU only confirms that.

Riley’s presence at Oklahoma has coincided with outstanding quarterback play and a recruiting pipeline that continues to attract top talent nationwide.

This week, Oklahoma reeled in another five-star QB. Brock Vandergriff, out of Georgia, is the top quarterback prospect in the 2021 class, and he has committed to Riley and Oklahoma. Vandergriff had offers from at least 20 other programs, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida State, Michigan and Penn State.

Riley is more than the head coach and the offensive architect of the Oklahoma Sooners: On a national scale, he has become the pre-eminent quarterback whisperer.