Oklahoma football: With 36 wins to his credit, Lincoln Riley turns 37
By Chip Rouse
Happy Birthday today to Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley, who turns 37.
The Sooner head coach is about to enter his fourth season at the head of the Oklahoma football program and his sixth season in Norman since joining Bob Stoops’ staff from East Carolina in 2015 to become the Sooners’ offensive coordinator replacing Josh Heupel.
Since Riley’s return back to the Southwest part of the country — he had been an assistant at Texas Tech before taking the offensive coordinator job at East Carolina in 2010 — the Sooners’ offense has ranked no worse than seventh best among FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) teams and twice No. 1 in the nation.
You can credit a great deal of that to Riley’s offensive genius along with top talent at all of the offensive skill positions and one of the best offensive lines in college football.
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The Sooners have won the Big 12 championship all five seasons Riley has been on the Oklahoma coaching staff. His biggest moments, however, have come since he was elevated to the head-coaches position upon Stoops’ surprise retirement in June 2017.
In three seasons as head coach of one of college football’s elite programs, Riley has accumulated 36 wins, one fewer than his age, which he can reconcile this season, to go with just six losses. Three of those losses have come in the College Football Playoff, which Riley has led the Sooners to in each of the past three seasons.
Three different quarterbacks have started for Riley in his three seasons as head coach, and a fourth new starter will take the field on Sept. 12, when former five-star recruit Spencer Rattler takes his position behind center in the 2020 season opener against Missouri State.
All the three previous quarterbacks under Riley accomplished was a couple of Heisman Trophies, and in back-to-back years, and a Heisman runner-up last season in Jalen Hurts. Baker Mayfield won the Heisman in 2017, and Kyler Murray followed suit over Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa in 2018.
Both Mayfield and Murray went on to become the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 and 2019 NFL Drafts, respectively. Hurts was a third-round NFL Draft selection in 2020.
About the only thing Riley has not been able to accomplish as the Oklahoma head coach is win a game in the College Football Playoff, which, of course, would give the Sooners a real shot at winning an eighth national championship. The Sooners are 0-3 under Riley in CFP appearances and 0-4 overall.
You can bet that both of those things are on the OU coach’s bucket list. But today its all about his 37th birthday celebration.
Happy Birthday, Coach!