Lincoln Riley + you name it = best coach/QB combo in college football

Is there really any question that Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley is the best head coach for college quarterbacks right now?

Anyone who doubts that needs only to look at the record: two Heisman Trophy winners and a Heisman runner-up at the position in the past three years. Riley not only knows how to develop talented quarterbacks and put them in the best position to be successful, he knows how to recruit them, as well.

You may have seen the ESPN article by David Hale ranking the best quarterback/coach combos for the 2020 season. I’ll save you the curiosity. Riley is not one of the top five.

You would expect Dabo Sweeney and Trevor Lawrence of Clemson and Ryan Day and Justin Fields of Ohio State to be at or close to the top, and they are, at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. After that it gets interesting and leaves plenty of room for debate, if you ask me.

You can read the article yourself to find out who the rest of the top five are. Riley is mentioned, as of course he deserves to be, but only as a “safe gamble.” This is largely because for the fourth time in as many seasons, Riley is starting the season with a different quarterback.

It’s been Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts, in that order, in each of the last three seasons. This year Riley is expected to hand the quarterback reins to redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler. Rattler is an unknown, although he was rated the No. 1 quarterback in the 2019 recruiting class and was voted the Most Valuable Player at the Elite 11 camp, a prestigious by-invitation-only competition between the best high school quarterbacks in the country.

Rattler played in just three games for the Sooners last season, but he spent the full year becoming acclimated to Riley’s high-powered offense in which quarterback decision-making and execution is paramount.

ESPN’s Hale hedges his bet on the Riley/Rattler combination, writing:

"Having coached four Heisman finalists in the last five seasons, “what are the odds his (Riley’s) next QB, the top-ranked QB recruit in the 2019 class, won’t work out?Pretty slim. Rattler has the talent and Riley has the scheme. If the Sooners’ offense isn’t one of the best in the country again in 2020, it’ll be a compete shock to everyone.”"

And as every Sooner fan by now knows, there is another top-ranked quarterback on the way. The No. 1 dual-threat QB in the 2021 recruiting class committed to Oklahoma on July 4.

So, count ’em — two quarterback Heisman winners, a Heisman runner-up quarterback and two five-star, No. 1 quarterback recruits, all in the span of the last three years.

You can talk about the best quarterback/coach combinations on a per-season basis all you want, but the best college head coach for quarterbacks for all seasons is Lincoln Riley, bar none.