We arrived at the realization during our recording of The Riley Files that Lincoln Riley is a lot like Steve Spurrier — not so much in the front-facing personality, but certainly in terms of the methods and thought processes which inform gameday coaching and decisions.
It is obviously true that Spurrier was brash and cocky, whereas Lincoln Riley is a lot more reserved and introverted. Spurrier never met a wisecrack he didn’t like. He would poke the ribs of his rivals with barbs such as “You can’t spell Citrus without U-T,” a reference to how his great Florida teams consistently relegated Peyton Manning’s Vols to the Citrus Bowl while Florida played for the national championship in the mid-1990s.
Lincoln Riley doesn’t say those things.
However, Riley and Spurrier are united in that they both believe in working smarter and being clever, thinking about football in ways most other coaches don’t. That has propelled both men in the football world.
We talked about the Riley-Spurrier comparison with Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football. The discussion branched into an exploration of coaches and innovators in football, and how we understand the sport. The central point to underscore is that Riley’s career is so young that he hasn’t yet merited inclusion in the top tier of the sport’s icons, alongside Spurrier and one of Riley’s fellow Texans, a man named Tom Landry. Being included with the very best coaches in football history is something which can only occur with the accumulation of time … and championships.
If Lincoln Riley wins three or more national titles at USC, he will be regarded as one of the all-time greats, but not until then.
Here’s our discussion with Mark Rogers:
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