Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley won’t be leaving Norman for the NFL in the near future.
Every year it feels like Lincoln Riley gets linked to a few head coaching jobs in the NFL. It makes sense, as he’s one of the best head coaches in college football and at just 36, he’s one of the youngest to run a team.
Well, Riley won’t be linked to another NFL head coaching job any time soon – at least not seriously – because he and the Oklahoma Sooners have agreed to terms on a six-year deal (two-year extension) that keeps Riley in Norman through 2025.
According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Riley won’t receive a raise in 2020 but will be among the top six highest-paid coaches in college football and the deal is expected to provide added security and benefits for his assistants.
This isn’t a surprising move for either side.
Fans figured Riley wasn’t interested in moving on from his job at Oklahoma after the Dallas Cowboys’ head coaching job opened up this offseason and he didn’t end up interviewing for it. It also could have made sense for Riley to take the Cleveland Browns job due to them having his former quarterback in Baker Mayfield.
Lincoln Riley would be foolish to leave the Oklahoma Sooners.
Riley was in a good spot, as Bob Stoops unexpectedly stepped down as the head coach prior to the 2017 season and named Riley his replacement. Riley didn’t miss a beat and lead the Sooners to a 12-2 record and College Football Playoff appearance. They fell to the Georgia Bulldogs in the Rose Bowl that year.
The Sooners have gone 12-2 every year under Riley and that isn’t expected to change any time soon. What’s even more impressive is that Oklahoma has been an offensive-heavy team under Riley and has had a different quarterback in each of his three seasons (Mayfield in 2017, Kyler Murray in 2018, and Jalen Hurts in 2019). He’ll have Spencer Rattler as his quarterback this year and that’ll be his fourth quarterback in four years.
Riley’s ability to churn out two No. 1 overall picks at the quarterback position and constantly lead his team to 12 wins and a College Football Playoff spot is something that will keep him in Oklahoma as long as he wants to stay there.
The Sooners obviously recognize this too and that’s why they’ve locked up their talented head coach for the foreseeable future.
For NFL teams, this is a bummer obviously because it means Riley won’t be on the market anytime soon. If he were going to leave Norman, it would have been this past season to go coach either his old quarterback in Cleveland or to be the Cowboys head coach.
With neither of those coming to fruition, other teams will have to move on from the idea of hiring Lincoln Riley in the near future.
For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.