While other programs search for a coach, OU savors the security of Lincoln Riley
By Bill Haisten Tulsa World
Nov 26, 2017 Updated 9 hrs ago
NORMAN — Christmas cards would be conventional, but sympathy cards might be more appropriate for fans of Tennessee, Nebraska, Arkansas and Florida.
While the athletic directors at those schools have started the incredibly high-pressure process of identifying a new head football coach, Joe Castiglione’s stress level Saturday was somewhere below none.
By extension, there was no stress for fans of the Oklahoma Sooners.
While high-profile coaching searches are prevalent, and while so many fans are stuck with miserable circumstances, this might be a good time to revisit a summer quote from Castiglione, Oklahoma’s athletic director: “One of the reasons Bob felt confident about his decision was that he felt he was leaving the program in good shape.”
Bob is Bob Stoops, who on June 7 retired from his 18-season hold on OU’s head-coaching position.
The first-year overseer of Sooners football is Lincoln Riley. With a 59-31 thumping of West Virginia in Baker Mayfield’s final run on the Owen Field grass, the 34-year-old Riley has become the first rookie coach in OU history to record 11 victories.
He’ll get a chance for No. 12 next week, when the Sooners are rematched with TCU in the Big 12 Championship game at Arlington, Texas. He should get a chance for a 13th, and maybe a 14th, during the College Football Playoff in January.
When the decision was made to promote Riley from offensive coordinator, no one at the university knew so many A-list jobs would be available this year.
If Stoops had chosen to coach for a few more seasons, Riley still would be a coordinator and probably an in-demand candidate for significant, lucrative jobs.
When Stoops stunned Castiglione and Sooners fans with his retirement decision in June, the timing was right for Stoops — and, as it turns out, right for OU.
You can rest assured Tennessee, Nebraska, Arkansas and Florida would have considered Riley a strong candidate. Maybe the best candidate.
Instead, Riley is locked in as a University of Oklahoma commodity, and the 11-1 Sooners have benefited from a tremendously smooth transition.
As Riley took questions from media members Saturday, Castiglione watched from the back of the room.
“We knew Lincoln Riley was special,” Castiglione said. “Even after his first year (in 2015, when Riley was OU’s new coordinator), a few programs pursued him. After his second year, a few more programs pursued him.
“It was just a matter of time,” Castiglione added, before Riley might be presented with an offer he couldn’t refuse, so the university was compelled to give Riley a big raise and convey to him he was valued at a high level.
There was no coach-in-waiting designation, but, months before Stoops’ retirement, Castiglione and other OU decision-makers were in agreement Riley would become the next Sooners head man.
It was expected to happen eventually.
Not on June 7.
While the returning Mayfield was defined as elite, no sane person would have expected Oklahoma’s 2017 offense to get bigger yardage totals than the 2016 Sooners. Not after having lost two NFL running backs (Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon) and an NFL wide receiver (Dede Westbrook).
It wasn’t that long ago a 600-yard performance was rare. The 2000 Sooners (quarterbacked by Heisman Trophy runner-up Josh Heupel), the 2003 and 2004 Sooners (quarterbacked by Heisman recipient Jason White), and the 2008 Sooners (quarterbacked by Heisman recipient Sam Bradford) played 54 games and recorded 49 victories.
In those 54 games, OU reached the 600-yard mark only six times.
This is what Oklahoma has gotten offensively from a first-year head coach and a transfer quarterback: In advance of the Big 12 Championship assignment, the 2017 Sooners have totaled least 600 yards in seven games.
On Dec. 9, Mayfield will get the 2017 Heisman because his partnership with Riley has resulted in the greatest total-offense season in program history.
The updated OU average: 593.5 yards per game — the best such figure ever at OU.
At No. 2, as was pointed out by OU football historian Mike Brooks on Twitter, is the 1971 wishbone team that averaged 556.8 total yards. It’s amazing the ’71 Sooners have aged so well statistically. They completed only 38 passes all season.
The next three: the 2016 Sooners (554.8-yard average), the 2008 Sooners (547.9) and the 2015 Sooners (530.2).
Riley was the offensive mastermind and play-caller, and Mayfield was his quarterback, for three of the five most productive offenses in OU football history.
“Take a minute,” Castiglione said, “and let that sink in.”
