He’s the $6 million-dollar man, and now it’s his program. The message was delivered as strong as possible by the University of Oklahoma athletic department that it wants head football coach Lincoln Riley around in Norman for a long time.
On pace to make $5 million per year before the 2018 season, the university upped that mark to an average of $6 million through the 2023 season with an extension agreed upon and approved in January.
Despite Riley repeatedly shooting down rumors of him leaving for the NFL, there’s no doubt that thought being put out in the world could do a number on OU’s recruiting efforts. It was imperative to make the statement, and the university responded.
“We were focusing on doing what makes Oklahoma the best,” athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “We really didn’t look at it like we were in competition with anybody else. We were putting our best foot forward, we were being proactive.
“Obviously, we landed on a great place and we’re happy. He’s happy and we’re going forward to try and make our program even more successful.”
Riley is 24-4 in his first two seasons running the show, earning Big 12 championships in each and back-to-back appearances in the college football playoff.
As much as Riley will forever be grateful to former coach Bob Stoops, this is the time for Riley to completely cement the program as his own.
Riley said it time and time again about how it was paramount to him to not rock the boat after taking over when Stoops retired in June 2017. Riley liked the coaching staff in place and rode with them as long as he could.
He straddled that line beautifully of honoring the legacy of Stoops and trying to help the program progress, but the time had come.
Slowly but surely, little things were being done before the hiring of three new defensive coaches in January let everybody know it’s a new day in Norman as spring practice gets underway this week.
This is Riley’s vision. He wanted Alex Grinch as the defensive coordinator and made him the highest-paid assistant in OU history at $1.4 million per year to make it happen.
As Stoops let Riley pick his guys to run the offense as offensive coordinator before the 2015 season, now Riley has done the same in letting Grinch turn toward familiar faces Roy Manning (cornerbacks) and Brian Odom (inside linebackers) to call some of the shots.
The support is there, now beginning the journey to seeing how it all plays out.
“That’s one of the big reasons that somebody in this business wants to stay in a place like this where there are other options out there is that you feel like you’ve got great people in the trenches with you and people that support you and give you what you need to be successful,” Riley said. “Oklahoma’s always done that personally for me. They’ve always done that for this football program, it means a ton and I think a lot of people believe in the direction and trajectory of this program right now.”
The goal is obvious. The Sooners have had a world-class offense since Riley arrived in 2015, guiding quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray to back-to-back Heisman Trophy Awards.
However, defensively has left a lot to be desired, especially in the last two seasons. There’s no doubt it wasn’t easy parting ways with Mike Stoops. Kerry Cooks, a dynamic recruiter, simply hadn’t gotten the results from the secondary the last two seasons, including finishing an FBS-worst No. 129 in pass defense last season.
“The most important thing was hiring the right head coach,” Castiglione said. “Then the very next thing that I have on that scale of importance is surrounding yourself with the right people. A little different in Lincoln's case than Bob Stoops because he was coming in with a staff already there.
“I want coaches to feel like they can put the best possible people around them and it's vitally important no different than any leader. You want to have the best people around you. If you're going to hire the right people and the best people to begin with, then you're going to have to be prepared to do the things to retain them.”
Trying to get top-tier defensive coaches against the Big 12 didn’t sound like an enviable task, but Riley has his guys and pulled it off.
“The sell is, one, this place,” Riley said. “It doesn’t matter what position you play, you’re coming to play at one of the elite programs. Great facilities, great people working with you, everything that you could want in a great university.
“The sell specifically on the field is, not the sell – the truth is we just got done winning four straight Big 12 championships, we’ve been in the playoffs three of the last four years. We’ve been right on the doorstep of winning this whole thing and we’re close to getting it done.”
The first chapter of Riley’s time at OU is in the books. Starting now? The next installment.
