re: Can Someone Please Explain the Lincoln Riley Fascination?

He wins, he develops QB, he a great recruiter even with the struggles of in state talent at Oklahoma, and he’s only 38 with room to grow as a coach.

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Lincoln Riley has shown he can put an offense on the field every year, I dont think its he can't field a defense, its that any defensive player he has to get has to come from out of state ,mostly Texas. That would be like asking an lsu coach to field a defense without not one player from the state of LA.

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Most of his offensive players come from out of state also. I don't know why he can't field a defense that can withstand a half. I have a couple of theories:

1. Riley isn't really uber-experienced as a head coach. Like anyone inexperienced he naturally stays in his comfort zone with what he knows- offense. So in this theory he doesn't know enough about defense to go get the right defensive staff. He doesn't know how to recognize them. And if he could hire better defensive staff, they'd recruit better defensive players.

2. You see many of these super duper offensive minds have horrible defenses. Nationwide... so it isn't a recruiting issue. Chip Kelly's defenses at Oregon couldn't stop a Stanford RB or TE to save their life. Petrino at Arky seemed to only want drug lookouts as DBs; and practicing against the likes of Joe Adams didn't help either.

There's got to be a common thread in that with these type head coaches. And I think it is focus + practice. These guys don't know how to practice defense. In fact they probably only use their defense, in practices, to work on their offense. It is simply a very lopsided devotion of time/resources to what they hang their hat on in practices.

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He hasn’t had much luck in the playoffs but he has also ran into nothing but super teams every year. It’s not like he is getting there and then losing to an inferior team.

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well, that's the trick of it isn't it.

If that D is going to get you bumped from the playoffs every year it is a real, and recurring, issue. And of course you will run into super teams in the playoffs. And winning there is THE goal.

I think the real issue is how the defense performs against these super teams, as in in what manner are they getting beat. And they aren't getting manhandled early in games. But they look unprepared (early) and just get shredded. To put it bluntly and specifically: It looks like they are not prepared and copy/paste a Big XII defensive game plan to go face a playoff opponent and then we all laugh at their shocked face when tOSU has 5 play 80 yd. drives, twice, in the first quarter.

Did their staff not know Justin Jefferson will use leverage on you; he doesn't need to be "open", just the right leverage? Did they not know Clemson will use Watson and the RPO to draw your LBs in?

It seems like every playoff game their defensive staff is surprised that their opponent does what they did all year and they were caught off guard when that gameplan from the Kansas St. game didn't work well.

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Most of his offensive players come from out of state also. I don't know why he can't field a defense that can withstand a half. I have a couple of theories:

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I think it's easier to field a great offense if you can always get an absolute stud qb first and foremost.

That doesn't exactly work for the defensive side of the ball. You really need to stack depth on defense. OU can pull a few big time recruits on the defensive side, but it's still a challenge to get as many as say an LSU can.

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When you said Stoops blueprint, I laughed at the ignorance.

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uh, he can answer for himself, but I think your ignorance is on full display here. He isn't talking about their coaching abilities, at all. Reread what he typed:

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Riley is a "trust fund kid" living off the blueprint and foundation that Stoops established

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This is exactly what LR is. Stoops hand-picked him. Brought him in and auditioned him for 2 years, then turned over the blueprint and foundation that is OK football to him.

By that you are talking about booster access, school traditions, political connections, recruitment strongholds, etc. The very things that build an elite school, Not the gameday coaching decision.

Because even if you are insinuating that LR is a better coach than Stoops, remember this. Stoops won the NC in his 2nd year at OK. LR hasn't even won a single playoff game in Year 5. Stoops also won 50% of his OK bowl games, Riley has won 25%.

It has not translated into appreciable advantage. In Stoops last 2 years he was 11-2 in both seasons .Riley's record is pretty much the same. He has not found defense either.