Lincoln Riley

[glevans22]

Despite our struggles vs Clemson I'm really happy with what he brought to the table in his first year as OC at OU. He was definitely an upgrade from Heupel and helped give our guys a swagger finally. What does everyone else think? Disappointed? Satisfied? I hope we get to keep the guy a few years

 

[LongTimeSooner]

I think our struggles vs Clemson had 0% to do with our OC.

If this year is any measure, OU is going to put up the points while he's running things. I'm a big fan of the guy!

 

[SSS!!!]

I have been thinking about that also lately.

Yes, i think Riley was a great hire for Oklahoma.

HOWEVER .... I don't think we've seem much of what he wants to bring to the table because he came in and did what he could with what we had.

The future is bright.

 

[coeSooner81]

I think our struggles vs Clemson had 0% to do with our OC.

If this year is any measure, OU is going to put up the points while he's running things. I'm a big fan of the guy!

After watching the Bama game, and the way the TE was always open. Mark Andrews was having a nice first half of football, dont think he caught a pass in the 2nd half.

 

[csregor]

Coe - while watching the game on Monday night a friend asked me if I thought Riley was watching the way Bama was freeing up their TE. My response was that Bama's O Line was giving their QB more time to hit the TE than OU's O Line was giving Baker.

 

[coeSooner81]

Bama gave up 5 sacks, Ou gave up 6, so both lines were getting beat by Clemson. When Andrews scored it was on a quick a quick out and he made a guy miss. What really hurt Riley (IMO) was having Mixon out. Mixon usually had 4-5 short passes that he would turn into good gains. Mayfield throws that one pass in the endzone 3 inches higher we had a wide open player there, score would have been 31-24.

 

[Rob Lewis_rivals]

Despite our struggles vs Clemson I'm really happy with what he brought to the table in his first year as OC at OU. He was definitely an upgrade from Heupel and helped give our guys a swagger finally. What does everyone else think? Disappointed? Satisfied? I hope we get to keep the guy a few years

Riley was a very good hire, but I wonder how Heupel might have done with Mayfield. Mayfield makes any OC look better.
I only say this because the quarterback situation was not nearly as good with Knight and Bell during Heupel's last two years in 2013-14...with the exception of the Sugar Bowl win over Alabama and a few moments vs Notre Dame and OSU in 2013.

 

[Raysor]

After watching the Bama game, and the way the TE was always open. Mark Andrews was having a nice first half of football, dont think he caught a pass in the 2nd half.

A lot of that was because Clemson was paying so much attention to the Heisman winner that they left guys to cover Howard that were mostly thinking run stop 1st, 2nd and 3rd. They also had a very complex scheme to get it done, but lost their best DB pretty early. After he left, Howard had a field day. Didnt do much before that.

It was not like the complaints about BV when he was at OU. Very complex can be awesome. But when you use a backup, assignments get blown. There are not too many college defenses ever that could stop that Bama offense, missing their best two defensive players. Pretty big difference before when they had both and in the 2nd half when both could not go. Howard did bot have a TD catch for 14 games. So it is not like the TE was a big part of Kiffins offense.

 

[Raysor]

Bama gave up 5 sacks, Ou gave up 6, so both lines were getting beat by Clemson. When Andrews scored it was on a quick a quick out and he made a guy miss. What really hurt Riley (IMO) was having Mixon out. Mixon usually had 4-5 short passes that he would turn into good gains. Mayfield throws that one pass in the endzone 3 inches higher we had a wide open player there, score would have been 31-24.

True in the first half when Clemson had their guys. Did not get nearly the pressure after intermission.

 

[JB4AU]

Riley was a very good hire, but I wonder how Heupel might have done with Mayfield. Mayfield makes any OC look better.
I only say this because the quarterback situation was not nearly as good with Knight and Bell during Heupel's last two years in 2013-14...with the exception of the Sugar Bowl win over Alabama and a few moments vs Notre Dame and OSU in 2013.

Gotta remember though that the QB situation at OU was entirely on Heupel's shoulders. He recruited the kids that were on scholarship. If not for Baker just deciding on his own to walk on, then Riley wouldn't have had much to work with. Heupel turned out to be utterly horrible at QB evaluation.

 

[coeSooner81]

A lot of that was because Clemson was paying so much attention to the Heisman winner that they left guys to cover Howard that were mostly thinking run stop 1st, 2nd and 3rd. They also had a very complex scheme to get it done, but lost their best DB pretty early. After he left, Howard had a field day. Didnt do much before that.

It was not like the complaints about BV when he was at OU. Very complex can be awesome. But when you use a backup, assignments get blown. There are not too many college defenses ever that could stop that Bama offense, missing their best two defensive players. Pretty big difference before when they had both and in the 2nd half when both could not go. Howard did bot have a TD catch for 14 games. So it is not like the TE was a big part of Kiffins offense.

Could be that Saban and Kiffin are really good coaches and saw something on film throughout the year, or even during the OU game. I know losing a starting corner hurt them, about as much as losing a MLB hurt us.

 

[LongTimeSooner]

It cracks me up when opinions on coaches are absolute, but the circumstances leading up to that opinion are based on subjection.

 

[Rob Lewis_rivals]

Gotta remember though that the QB situation at OU was entirely on Heupel's shoulders. He recruited the kids that were on scholarship. If not for Baker just deciding on his own to walk on, then Riley wouldn't have had much to work with. Heupel turned out to be utterly horrible at QB evaluation.

Heupel did not do that bad in the recruitment of Sam Bradford and Landry Jones.

 

[JB4AU]

Heupel did not do that bad in the recruitment of Sam Bradford and Landry Jones.

If I remember right, wasn't it Chuck Long that was Bradford's lone supporter in the program that lead to his recruitment?? But you are correct that Heupel's crowning achievement and lone success story in the QB department was Landry Jones. It was really the only quality QB he recruited.

 

[bdshull2001]

Heupel did not do that bad in the recruitment of Sam Bradford and Landry Jones.

I read where Mizzou is paying him 700,000 dollars per year, the highest paid OC in the country (maybe SEC?). Sorry, no link. Looks like he has some respect from the money people. Not so much on this board. I wish him well.

 

[BUDDY G_rivals25215]

Gotta remember though that the QB situation at OU was entirely on Heupel's shoulders. He recruited the kids that were on scholarship. If not for Baker just deciding on his own to walk on, then Riley wouldn't have had much to work with. Heupel turned out to be utterly horrible at QB evaluation.

Heupel deserves a ton of credit for developing Bradford and Jones, two highly successful QBs.

Trevor and Bell were both highly sought after recruits along with current back up Thomas. Bell out grew his position and Trevor was recruited to run an offense that doesn't match what Heupel wants to run. Nothing in me believes it was Josh's idea to switch to a QB read option offense.

My only nag on Josh was his overwhelming tendency to run sideline routes and ignore between the hashes.

 

[JB4AU]

Heupel deserves a ton of credit for developing Bradford and Jones, two highly successful QBs.

Trevor and Bell were both highly sought after recruits along with current back up Thomas. Bell out grew his position and Trevor was recruited to run an offense that doesn't match what Heupel wants to run. Nothing in me believes it was Josh's idea to switch to a QB read option offense.

My only nag on Josh was his overwhelming tendency to run sideline routes and ignore between the hashes.

I don't doubt what a great job Heupel did developing QBs when he was the QB coach. And his development of Bradford was his crowning achievement. But once he got promoted to OC duties on top of that, either he got lazy or couldn't handle both jobs at once. Because QB development flatlined. Landry made great improvement from 2009-2010. Then after that he really just seemed to play at the same level the rest of his career. The kid was a great QB, but his nagging issues just stuck with him till the end. Heupel really is the QB coach version of Norvell. Bringing in highly touted kids, but then not developing them. So it's either an evaluation issue, or a development issue.

And Bell didn't outgrow his position. He was guy that busted as a QB and he was lucky enough to have the body size to switch over to the TE position. And I'm glad he did and his story has a damn good ending with him being on an NFL roster. He was smart enough to make a switch, and not let Josh "the QB Savant" Heupel ruin his chances at getting to the NFL.

 

[John Otterstedt]

It cracks me up when opinions on coaches are absolute, but the circumstances leading up to that opinion are based on subjection.

Uhh?? Subjectivity?

 

[LongTimeSooner]

Uhh?? Subjectivity?

Yeah, that works better!

Sometimes my brain makes up important sounding words. I call it 'Vocabularium'.

 

[John Otterstedt]

Yeah, that works better!

Sometimes my brain makes up important sounding words. I call it 'Vocabularium'.

I was trying to think of a funny way of rewording it as you wrote it (subjection), but I couldn't.