Lincoln Riley knows when he is being challenged at a high level, and when he knows he needs to do something special as a coach, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
Consider this anecdote from Kegan Reneau on The Riley Files, our summer podcast series from last year:
“Oklahoma versus Iowa state, 2018, there’s a minute and 30 or a minute-40 on the clock in the first half,” Reneau began. “Oklahoma has all three timeouts remaining. They’re going up against an Iowa State team that is built to slow down their vertical passing game and their explosive running game. Oklahoma had three timeouts.
“They took six to eight plays. The drive took a minute-10 off the clock with Kyler Murray. They didn’t use a single timeout. It was scripted perfectly. They scored on that drive right before halftime in 2018. I was up in the press box in Ames (Iowa, on the Iowa State campus) for that game. I have never seen Lincoln Riley show that much emotion on the field. I haven’t during the middle of a midseason game.
“Why was that? It’s because he knew how challenging it was to have to go into what they did on that drive. He took that challenge and he showed emotion that I have still never seen from him.”
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