College Football: 25 greatest head coaches of the 21st century
By Dakota Cox
Best college football coaches of 21st century: 14. Lincoln Riley
- Oklahoma Sooners (2017-Present)
It sounds weird that a coach with only a few years of experience as the head coach would make this list, but Lincoln Riley has done more in his brief tenure than some do in their entire careers. In the offensive-driven Big 12, he creates game plans that simply tears defenses apart. There is no other way to put it. Riley is an offensive genius.
He adopted a strong team in his first season, so it would make sense for expectations to be high. However, he did things that even Bob Stoops couldn’t do with the Sooners.
He maximized the potential of his players. Baker Mayfield went into his senior season with little hope of being drafted in the first round. After a year with Riley as his head coach, Mayfield graduated with a Heisman trophy and went first overall in the 2018 NFL Draft to the Cleveland Browns.
Riley was able to get even more production out of Kyler Murray. Murray was expected to play baseball after his final season with the Sooners, but he won a Heisman as well. After a record-breaking year, Murray was also the first overall draft selection in the 2019 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals.
Two straight 12-2 seasons to start a head coaching career is fantastic. One knock on him is that he lost both of his bowl games, but the Sooners were going against elite defenses in Georgia and Alabama in the College Football Playoff, however, he still has yet to win a College Football Playoff game.
If a program had to pick any active coach to lead their team to victory, Riley would be near the top of their list. If he stays with Oklahoma for a decade, he could break a lot of records. The only reason he might not shoot up these rankings over time would be if he went to the NFL to coach. Nonetheless, he’s a Sooner now, and he is doing an amazing job.