Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley is the seventh-best college coach in 2020, according to a poll by 247Sports.
All 130 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) head coaches were considered in the poll. “Put simply, games or no games, everybody on this list is the best in the game,” wrote 247Sports staff writer Joal Ryan, who authored the article on college football’s 50 Best Coaches of 2020.
The editors at 247Sports considered a couple of other sources in compiling their coaches’ ranking: a 2020 Power Five Coaches ranking by CBS Sports and a 1-130 ranking of 2020 FBS coaches put together by Sporting News.
Ironically, Riley fared better in the two rankings 247Sports consulted in producing its top-50 coaches’ ranking. CBS Sports, which is a sister organization of 247Sports, had Riley at No. 3, behind Nick Saban of Alabama and Dabo Swinney of Clemson. Sporting News ranked the Oklahoma head coach No. 4 out of 130.
Oklahoma Sooners Football
The six head coaches who ranked ahead of Riley in the 247Sports 2020 Top-50 poll were fairly predictable at the very top, with Saban and Swinney commanding the top two spots. Ed Orgeron of LSU is No. 3, followed by Kirby Smart of Georgia, Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M and Ryan Day of Ohio State.
If you ask me, Riley is ranked lower than he deserves. Orgeron gets a big boost because he led LSU to the national championship last season and soundly defeated Riley and OU in the process, but neither Smart nor Fisher got their team into the College Football Playoff last season. Moreover, Georgia’s 12-2 overall record last season was no better than the Sooners, and A&M was just 8-5.
Neither Smart (36-7) nor Fisher (17-9 in two seasons at Texas A&M and 7-6 at Florida State) has a better record over the past three seasons than Riley (36-6), and between the two of them, their teams have made just one appearance in the last three College Football Playoff to three by the Sooners.
And as for Ryan Day of Ohio State, last season was his first as a head coach, but he did manage to get his team to the College Playoff, where the Buckeyes lost to Clemson.
Perhaps Riley is rated so low because 247Sports left out half of his accomplishments in the text provided with the article announcing the 2020 Best 50 College Football Coaches.
Here is what was written about Riley:
"“In his first three years at Oklahoma, all Lincoln Riley has done is go 36-6, lead the Sooners to the 2017 College Football Playoff and provide showcases for Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield and 2020 first-round NFL Draft pick CeeDee Lamb.”"
How shortsighted is that? What about Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall NFL Draft selection Kyler Murray in 2018 and 2019 Heisman runner-up and second-round NFL Draft pick Jalen Hurts. not to mention three consecutive College Football Playoff appearances.
Be that as it may, there is no real question that Lincoln Riley is deserving of recognition as one of the top-five head coaches in college football. The record speaks for itself.