Lincoln Riley took his first non-graduate-assistant coaching job in 2007 as the wide receiver coach at Texas Tech under Mike Leach. Riley has therefore had non-GA coaching positions in college football for over a decade and a half. He has been in the coaching industry for quite a while. This is his life. This is his career. Riley is only 40 years old, and yet he has made a lot of stops in the coaching business, going from Texas Tech to East Carolina to Oklahoma to USC. He has made the steady jump from position coach to coordinator to head coach. He has been around the block.
Yet, in many ways, his journey is just beginning.
Riley hired D’Anton Lynn as his new defensive coordinator, and then followed that up by bringing in North Dakota State head coach Matt Entz as linebacker coach and a defensive assistant who will work with Lynn in the transformation of USC’s defense. These are new, bold moves from Riley, who has heard so much (deserved and appropriate) criticism about Alex Grinch for several years. People wondered if Riley could ditch Grinch and show a new side of himself. That new side is beginning to be seen.
Will it continue to develop?
Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.