Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley met with the media on Wednesday for the first time in over a month to discuss the latest with his team in the early stages of the offseason.
One announcement he did reveal was that associate head coach/outside receivers coach Dennis Simmons was being promoted to assistant head coach and passing game coordinator.
“Coach Simmons, we’re going to change his title to add the passing game coordinator title and then also be our assistant head coach,” Riley said. “He’s been tremendous, obviously, for us. His record speaks for itself and he’s absolutely one of the premier receivers coaches in the country.
For me, he’s certainly been a guy I can lean on. Somebody I’ve got a very close relationship with and certainly one of my most trusted confidants as far as the staff, and there are several, this staff is so good. But he’s just been fantastic and a huge key to our success and felt like that was very appropriate.”
Simmons came to the Sooners coaching staff as outside receivers coach nearly six years ago in 2015 and gained the title of associate head coach in 2019. Riley termed it as him now being the “assistant” head coach rather than “associate” which is a difference that may be hard to measure but was certainly being framed as a step up.
Simmons success with Oklahoma receivers is mostly inarguable with the players that have come through since he came to Norman, and he is mostly viewed as a coach that will continue rise up the ladder in the coming years.
The Sooners will begin spring ball in roughly a month and a half from now in late March.
[listicle id=23906]
