If Clemson has the best head coach in college football for 2015, Oklahoma has the best assistant.
If Dabo Swinney deserves to be the 2015 Coach of the Year in the FBS, Lincoln Riley deserves to be the recipient of the 2015 Broyles Award, given to the top assistant in the sport.
As is the case with the coach of the year race, the Broyles competition involves a North Carolina coach. Dabo narrowly outpaced UNC boss Larry Fedora (among others). In the Broyles race, UNC defensive coordinator Gene Chizik authored a substantial turnaround in Chapel Hill, enabling Fedora to unlock the Tar Heels’ potential. Brent Venables of Clemson also deserves to be in the mix for the Broyles, but if you take the view that his head coach is the best in the nation, Venables should settle for second or third place and be happy about it. In light of Saturday’s inadequate performance by North Carolina’s defense, Riley is the last man standing for this award, beating out Chizik and Venables.
While game results and team fortunes must (unavoidably) be cited as central reasons for elevating Riley to the top spot, the larger context surrounding his ascendancy in the coaching business also supports his Broyles case.
In order to truly appreciate why Lincoln Riley deserves this honor, you need to refer to the school where Chizik once worked as a defensive coordinator and won a national title: Texas.
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Why are the Texas Longhorns — despite their win over Oklahoma this season — in such profound trouble? Recruiting is the first answer, but the offensive coordinator spot is second. Jay Norvell wasn’t a complete failure as the interim coordinator this season. On some days, Texas’s offense was extremely productive. One problem, however, is that the Longhorns couldn’t easily replicate that production from week to week. On some Saturdays — as was the case at Iowa State — the well ran completely dry. Texas needs a big-league offensive coordinator (hello, Sonny Cumbie of TCU) to return to national prominence. The lack of that elite play-caller has been exposed in Austin.
At the University of Oklahoma, one can see just how important it is to have quality coordinators in place. While Mark Richt hired Brian Schottenheimer as his offensive coordinator in the 2015 offseason, OU’s Bob Stoops brought in Riley to revamp the Sooners’ offense. One could simply end this piece by noting where each head coach stands today: Richt is no longer at Georgia, having been pushed out after a disappointing season. Stoops is in the College Football Playoff, his career resurrected (again).
Big Game Bob has certainly been helped by brother Mike Stoops on the defensive side of the ball. However, Riley is the one whose offensive scheme has enabled Baker Mayfield to become a likely Heisman Trophy finalist. The Sooners have been able to become explosive yet balanced in their attack, potent yet not entirely predictable. Oklahoma used to have soft offenses based largely if not entirely on speed and finesse — see the 2012 team which got hammered by Notre Dame at home. Now, OU still attacks with noticeable swiftness, but there’s an iron fist underneath the velvet glove.
Riley, only 31 years of age when hired by Stoops, has been everything his boss — and the Oklahoma program — could have hoped for… and more.
Riley deserves particular credit for joining the rest of the coaching staff in forging a pivotal moment during the middle of the season. After the humiliating loss to Texas, Oklahoma could have wilted. The team could have come apart at the seams. When a flight to Manhattan, Kansas, for a game against Kansas State got delayed by several hours, the Sooners seemed to be set up to fail. Instead, the OU offense played one of its best games of the season, and in many ways, it hasn’t looked back since.
Riley took his worst day — his worst performance — from the 2015 season and turned it into a positive moment of transformation. Now 32 years old, Riley shows a level of wisdom that’s far beyond his years. He could not have handled adversity any better than he did.
As a result, the Sooners are once again Big 12 champions. They’re once again where they expect to be. Bob Stoops’s legacy has been lifted to yet a higher plateau.
The Life of Riley is better than good right now. It can improve even more if the Broyles Award lands in his hands in the coming days.
