It was three years ago this week (June 7, 2017) when Oklahoma officially handed the keys to Lincoln Riley to drive the Sooners football bus.

All this week, SoonerScoop.com is going to be a reflection of ‘Riley at 3 years,’ highlighting some of his important moments on and off the field and what’s to come in year No. 4 and beyond.

Riley at 3 years – The Recruiting Machine

Five years ago, a tweet with just the eyes emoji didn’t mean much to OU fans. But now? You bet any OU recruiting fan knows exactly what that means. OU is about to get a commitment from some prospect.

If you’re trying to dissect what Riley’s initial three years as head coach at OU have been about, you cannot ignore the recruiting aspect.

It goes a bit too far to say Bob Stoops was behind with the times in the last few years in this department, but there was definitely a sense of a charged-up approach with recruiting from the very day Riley took over.

Heck, you could argue one of the photos that epitomize what the transition was like was showing Riley in the new head coach’s office, working the phones that first night.

He hasn’t slowed down since, and the results speak for themselves.

Riley inherited a 2018 class that was in shambles. A nice summer combined with a huge fall push toward signing day saw the Sooners finish eighth in Rivals rankings.

Already a fixture in offensive recruiting, Riley thrust himself into the thick of things defensively. The old ways of thinking it was just a position coach doing the heavy lifting and the head coach as a closer are completely outdated to land a top prospect.

It’s a team effort the whole way, and that includes Riley doing anything he possibly can to help with all recruits.

That continued with the 2019 class, ranked fifth by Rivals, that included four five-star offensive prospects (quarterback Spencer Rattler, wide receivers Jadon Haselwood, Theo Wease and Trejan Bridges).

OU fell a bit to No. 15 for the 2020 class, but as OU looks to redefine its defensive identity, everybody knew it would be a work in progress.

“It’s always interesting. Everybody wants to judge classes when they sign, which is the absolute worst time you can judge a class,” said Riley in February. “That’s always yet to be seen. I would say in this class we had more, on both sides of the ball, guys that for whatever reason weren’t highly ranked by recruiting services that we were absolutely thrilled with when the committed and signed with us.

“Some years go like that. You’ve got to be confident and very assured in what you’re looking for and target. There’s a lot of guys that we signed that we wouldn’t trade with anybody.”

Whenever possible, Riley has made recruiting a huge focal point. Not many schools were treating the spring game as a big opportunity, but Riley and staff have attempted to make that the biggest weekend of the year.

The #ChampUBBQ, that had its initial year under Stoops, has been taken to another level with Riley calling the shots.

Even during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, OU has found a way to find the recruiting edge via its virtual visits. The goal remains how to show recruits the ways OU separates itself, and these personalized virtual visits have hit the mark.

The 2021 class is No. 37 currently, but if you dig a little deeper, you see OU is No. 6 right now in terms of star average per recruit. And if you truly believe there are some major fireworks in OU’s future, then you know everything will have a way of working itself out.

It’s not perfect. There have been some misses along the way, but there’s a strong sentiment that this version of OU is the one that can get back to the mountain top. Riley has lived and learn, and now has found his staff.

A clear defensive identity with Alex Grinch combined with Riley still being the offensive guru and a young, passionate staff that’s ready to make their mark.

As the name, image and likeness issue steps to the forefront here soon, it’s another manner if which the Sooners should be able to capitalize on the trail.

“Everybody has seen just the content that we’ve done, both recruiting and with our current team, that we’ve been on the cutting edge of that,” Riley said. “We’ve also worked hard to educate our guys on it. A thing for us is how do we educate them about their brand so they can maximize that and understand what it means and the ways they need to represent themselves, how important that is, but also do it within the team concept.

“The individual stuff is great, but we try to educate our guys that if your brand is about the things you need to do well and also about how well you work with others and what a team-first guy you are, what company, what entity anywhere in the world wouldn’t be attracted to that. It fits what we want here too. We want guys to have individual goals but the team comes first.”

Everybody stands up and takes notice when an offensive offer is made by the Sooners. The goal remains to make it the same for defense. It’s getting there. Taking some time, but the goal of narrowing the gap is within reach.

New initiatives, a fully-formed recruiting staff that clicks on all cylinders. This is the OU recruiting machine, with Riley leading the way. The first three years have netted positive results, but no doubt everybody is ready for what’s to come.