It’s been 58 days since Bob Stoops retired and dropped off the OU football keys to Lincoln Riley. It’s been long enough for most of the firsts to take place for Riley as the head coach at the University of Oklahoma.

First Big 12 Media Days, first recruiting BBQ, first preseason press conference, first Meet the Sooners day and first preseason camp.

Considering the shocking nature of the changeover, Riley hasn’t shown any hints of being overwhelmed.

Oklahoma’s new head coach has been graceful, collected and seemingly at ease.

Maybe it’s an act? Or maybe this is the only way Oklahoma’s newest head coach knows how to take the next step up the coaching ladder.

Riley’s career was born in much more chaos than what he experienced June 7, when Stoops announced he was stepping down.

When Mike Leach was fired by Texas Tech just days before the 2010 Valero Alamo Bowl. Riley’s life changed immediately and drastically. Tech made Ruffin McNeill their interim head coach immediately and he promoted the 26-year old Riley to be his offensive coordinator.

Riley’s ascension came because of some unusual, and eventually fortunate circumstances.

In 2009, Texas Tech was going through a bit of a transitional period within their offensive staff. In 2007, Sonny Dykes had been hired away by Mike Stoops at Arizona. In 2008, Dana Holgorsen had been hired away by Kevin Sumlin at Houston.

Riley ended up taking over a lot of Holgorsen’s roles heading into the 2009 season.

“Dana Holgorsen was Mike’s eye in the sky (in the pressbox) until he left for the University of Houston and Dana was as good at that as anybody I’ve ever been around and he’s obviously gone on to bigger and better things,” explained Chris Level, who was doing the pregame show the day of the Alamo Bowl for the Texas Tech radio network.

Riley became Leach’s ‘eye in the sky’ after Holgorsen’s departure.

Level has been the sideline reporter for the Texas Tech’s radio broadcast team since 2010 and he’s been the host or co-host of Texas Tech’s head coach’s radio show since 2007. He knows the history of Leach’s Texas Tech program as well as anyone.

According to Level, McNeill had just two choices to take over the offense heading into the bowl game. Riley, or first-year coach Sonny Cumbie, who Leach hired to replace Holgorsen.

Cumbie was coming off an Arena League career and spent 2008 as part of the Texas Tech radio network as a color analyst for Red Raider football games.

Even though Cumbie didn’t have the coaching experience, he had the name everyone recognized.

Level said most Tech fans didn’t even know who Riley was.

“Back then Lincoln was, he still is a pup, but he was much more so back then,” Level recalled. “He wasn’t the face (of the offense) and a lot of people weren’t sure who he was. He wasn’t a wheel in the cog by any means at that point.”

McNeill made the call and gave the playcalling duties to Riley.

“(Cumbie) was late to the party so Lincoln had some years on him from a coaching standpoint,” said Level of the decision.

Cumbie would serve as Riley's eye in the sky up in the pressbox during the Alamo Bowl. And Riley and Cumbie couldn’t have taken over the reins to a bigger circus if they tried.

Leach had been fired because he locked the son of Craig James in an electrical closet because he was complaining of concussion symptoms. James, oddly enough, was scheduled to call the Alamo Bowl along with Mike Patrick.

Leach himself, went on a media blitz to scream foul to anyone who would listen.

“Mike was doing hits on ESPN from either San Antonio and then he flew out to Crested Butte, Colo., and he was doing media hits at 11 and midnight back to ESPN telling his side of the story and everything,” Level explained. “And they were like, ‘Live via satellite, here’s Mike Leach from his condo in Colorado!’”

It was a cauldron of football crazy that dominated more than just the sports world.

“I didn’t do it, but I was asked to go on CNN that week. CNN!” recalled Level when remembering the ridiculousness of that bowl week. “Think about that. I’m in a hotel room in San Antonio and I’m just trying to run our website and do radio back in Lubbock and CNN was like, ‘Hey, can you come on live via Satellite and drive down to our station?’”

Leach versus Craig James was all over the news. Michigan State even had their own controversy. That December they suspended 14 of their players following a campus brawl.

And here’s 26-year old Lincoln Riley trying to take over an offense for the first time.

“Because it was such a media circus around there, all I did was go to practice and then go stay in my hotel room the whole time,” said Riley of that week. “I never left.”

McNeill gave Riley his first gig as an offensive coordinator that week and the next year at East Carolina.

But what McNeill did for that young offensive staff in the days leading up to the Alamo Bowl, might have been what allowed Riley to get his legs under him for the first time.

McNeill played the part of ringmaster in the three ring circus the Alamo Bowl became.

“Ruffin shielded everybody and took the brunt of all of the duties and answering the tough questions and nobody else really had to deal with anything,” recalled Level. “Ruffin, as you’re getting to find out, is as good of people as you’ll ever be around. He’s just awesome.

“He handled it extremely gracefully that week. It was very emotional.”

Eventually gameday arrived. And Craig James was replaced by Bob Davie in the ESPN broadcast booth.

Level said he remembers the players taking the field arm-in-arm when they came out of the tunnel. They didn’t burst out of the tunnel running, they slowly walked onto the field together showing solidarity.

Texas Tech beat a Michigan State team with Kirk Cousins at quarterback. Lincoln Riley’s offense rolled up 579 yards of offense in the 41-31 win.

Eventually Texas Tech chose Tommy Tubberville to be their next head coach instead of McNeill.

But it was that night in San Antonio and handling the madness surrounding his program that cemented Riley's future in college football.

“The guy in the box was the next guy to be offensive coordinator,” said McNeill. “So when Linc started calling the plays that night, he was ready for it. I knew it.”

Riley made a similar impression on Bob Stoops after arriving at Oklahoma. He must have seen it just as much as McNeill saw it that night in San Antonio.

Riley was ready to become a head coach.

Riley has an ease about him that makes you believe it too. He’s made this transition look seamless. Maybe that’s because he’s already been through worse.

“Believe it or not it was,” answered Riley when asked if his Alamo Bowl experience was a tougher transition than this one. “It was kind of out of left field like this one was too. Doing it at a bowl game just a few days before a game and then both of us being thrust into roles that we had never been in, it was a lot different feeling when your head coach retires because he wants to go live his life and your head coach is fired just immediately.

”That’s a different feeling because you’re coaching that game and then you’re wondering what you’re going to do next year, how am I going to take care of my family next year? There was a lot going on at that point.”

Riley has had time to adjust. With McNeill back by his side, he certainly seems like a man capable of handling any difficult situation to come.