Quote Originally Posted by PhiAlpha View Post
Serious question and I’m not trying to be condescending but did you ever play football?

After the last two seasons (immediately after we lost Bedlam game and prior to Riley leaving), you would be hard pressed to find an OU fan that still considered him an offensive genius and QB whisperer. I had arguments with several friends and family members who hilariously wanted Riley fired after the season because of how bad the offense was. Obviously that talk was ridiculous but to act like he was revered until he left is just disingenuous.

His ability to develop QBs became a question mark last season but was seriously in question by the Texas game this year. He had a lot of success with transfer QBs but has yet to show he could recruit and develop his own guys. Rattler went from being the hiesman favorite to being benched halfway through the season. CW played well during his first two games and against TT but inexplicably struggled against KU then really struggled down the stretch against the better defenses in BU, ISU and OSU. Some of the QB issues could be explained by deteriorating O Line play (Which was on Riley at the end of the day…his schemes were too complicated and not in line with what the NFL typically runs), but clearly things weren’t necessarily progressing with either QB under Riley.

As far as being an offensive genius… his offenses, with a few exceptions, got statistically worse by nearly every measure every season after he took over for Stoops. The team had at best plateaued recordwise but the final season results got worse each season after he took over:

2017 - B12 Championship, Playoff loss in double OT, Heisman Trophy
2018 - B12 Championship, Playoff loss (first half blow out but closed the gap after the game was effectively over and lost by 11), Heisman Winner
2019 - B12 Championship, Playoff loss (blown out from start to finish by 35 pts), Heisman Runner up
2020 - B12 Championship, NY6 Bowl win (blow out over a depleted Florida team)
2020 - Finished 3rd in the B12, had to stage the largest compact in RRS history to beat the worst Texas team in 50 years, had to replace starting QB, likely would’ve lost to KU without CW’s miracle heads up play, lost Bedlam.

That isn’t bad enough to call for his head but things certainly were not going in the right direction. His teams looked like they weren’t ready to play when they stepped on the field multiple times over the last two seasons. The offense this year often looked inept at times against often far inferior competition (talent wise). The better defenses essentially rushed three guys and dropped 8 into coverage and Riley couldn’t figure it out. He often gave up on the run game far too quickly when we had the larger and supposedly better OLine and a very good RB I’m Kennedy Brooks. It became painfully obvious how important the run game was in setting up the passing game for both QBs when opposing defenses showed such little respect for it. Riley was by no means a bad coach but he has been far from the elite offensive guru we thought we had over the last two years.

He may do great things at USC but it’s tough to envision him just instantly killing it out there when he’s taking over such a dumpster fire of a roster. He took over an 11-2 team with the entire coaching staff built and intact here and they got progressively worse with each of the following seasons. He’s taking over a 4-7 team that hasn’t been relevant since most of the kids he’ll be recruiting were in diapers, building a coach staff from scratch snd installing a completely new offense and defense. It will be a challenge.
Absolute!