Bob Stoops retired from his position as head Oklahoma football coach today after 18 seasons, ten Big 12 titles, and one National Championship. Offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley has been promoted to take his place.
Offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley will succeed Bob Stoops as the head coach at Oklahoma. https://t.co/xz3vLFwv7f pic.twitter.com/ISEV7rMFuj
— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) June 7, 2017
Riley, 33, is now the youngest head coach in the FBS. Nebraska coach Mike Riley (no relation) has been coaching for eight years longer than Lincoln Riley has been alive. So where did this young blood come from? Who is Lincoln Riley?
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Riley was a walk on quarterback at Texas Tech behind Kliff Kingsbury and BJ Symons, but he never saw the field. "He threw it sidearm, and he couldn’t throw it very far," Mike Leach said of Riley, "sort of pushed the ball, and so I wasn’t interested in playing him at quarterback."
So he became student assistant under Leach before he was promoted to wide receivers coach, where he worked with Michael Crabtree and Danny Amendola. He called plays for Tech in the 2010 Alamo Bowl after Leach was fired, then jumped over to East Carolina, where he served as offensive coordinator for five seasons.
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He brought the Air Raid offense with him. In the three years before Riley came on as offensive coordinator, East Carolina never ranked higher than 44th in scoring offense, 58th in passing offense, or 40th in yards per play. Here's how they did while he was there:
| Year | Points per Game (Rank) | Pass Yards (Rank) | Yards per Play (Rank) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 36.8 (15) | 318.7 (10) | 5.7 (45) |
| 2011 | 26.3 (66) | 286.1 (20) | 5.1 (85) |
| 2012 | 31.5 (45) | 273.2 (36) | 5.6 (68) |
| 2013 | 36.2 (11) | 328.1 (11) | 5.9 (44) |
| 2014 | 35.8 (22) | 371.9 (3) | 6.5 (18) |
He came over to Oklahoma in 2015, and after two successful seasons, signed the biggest assistant coach salary in the FBS: $1.3 million per year. He'll never see a dime of that money, since he'll move up before it takes effect. In fact, he'll see a lot more money. Oklahoma head coach money.
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