By
Denny O'Brien
©2010 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
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Lincoln Riley |
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(ECU SID Photo) |
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Offensive savant.
Quarterback scholar. Jedi of the Air Raid offense. Each description
seems to fit Lincoln Riley, both in age and level of expertise.
Consider that, at 26,
Riley has already achieved a coaching rank that many offensive
assistants can spend an entire career chasing. As the first year
offensive coordinator at East Carolina, he is the textbook definition of
a coaching prodigy, one who is on the fast path to becoming a head
coach.
And he is barely four
years removed from college.
To classify it with
corporate terminology, Riley is the football equivalent of a VP within
the most visible division of a Fortune 500 company. His primary
responsibility? Make sure the new state-of-the-art scoreboard at Dowdy-Ficklen
Stadium displays significant point increases, the type he grew
accustomed to seeing while at Texas Tech.
That’s a major undertaking
for any coach, let alone a young gun who is serving his first full-time
stint as a coordinator. It’s partially why there is a fascination within
the media and the fans over Riley’s youth, yet that semi-obsession isn’t
a source of frustration for the Pirates’ offensive coordinator.
“It really doesn’t bother
me at all,” Riley said. “Sometimes guys say that it doesn’t bother them,
but they are just saying that to look tough, or they are not really
telling the truth. But it really doesn’t bother me.
“I’ve said it before, if
you can get it done, you can get it done. It doesn’t matter how old you
are. You can either get the job done or you can’t get the job done. I’m
glad that I’m still this young because it means I have a lot of years
and a lot of chances to continue to coach. I’d rather be at this point
at my age than maybe at 50-years old.”
There is no denying that
the ceiling is high for Riley. Very high. And after serving a long
apprenticeship as the top offensive lieutenant under former Texas Tech
coach Mike Leach — one that began while he was still in college — now
seems the appropriate time for him to oversee his own offensive
operation.
To help with that
transition, Riley wisely sought an offensive staff that was familiar
with the system he brought with him from west Texas. Aside from inside
receivers coach Donnie Kirkpatrick, the entire offensive staff has
either played or coached in the Air Raid system, if not both.
“I’ve got guys on the
offensive staff who I totally trust,” Riley said. “That makes it a lot
easier. It’s been a pretty easy transition because of the coaches around
me.
“I don’t know that I can
put into words how important that has been. It’s been the key to the
entire spring. We got in a lot more things (this) spring than I
anticipated, than I ever thought we would. That had a lot to do with
these guys around me. I didn’t have to spend a lot of my time, like a
lot of new coordinators do, coaching the coaches and then coaching the
players. We could just jump in and start coaching these players.”
That was paramount to the
Pirates’ offensive transition this spring, as they shifted from a
multiple offense that emphasized ball control to a spread attack that
keeps the ball airborne. It’s a philosophy that includes many short,
safe passes but also is packaged with its share of risks.
So don’t assume that 3rd
and short will automatically be met by a zone dive, screen, or a quick
slant to a slot receiver.
“I think there is a little
risk in anything you do,” Riley said. “We try to get to the point in
this offense where we aren’t worried about the risk as much. We have
enough confidence and belief in what we are doing that we aren’t scared
to take chances.
“We’re not scared to throw
it deep on 3rd and 1 or to run it on 3rd and 15. You get to a point I
think in this offense, and we aren’t there yet but we are well on our
way, where you have the mentality that you are going to go out and play
well every day. The expectations get so high that even if you didn’t
have a good day, you put up 30 points and 500 yards of offense.“
Those expectations won’t
be much different for East Carolina. Riley didn’t go so far as to say
that 30 and 500 are the new offensive Mendoza lines for the Pirates, but
he did mention that the standards have changed significantly. The 400
and 450 yard outbursts that ECU recently celebrated won’t be greeted
with the same enthusiasm anymore.
If you spend much time
with Riley, it becomes fairly clear that he demands excellence from
himself and his staff, as well as his players. Perhaps that explains the
20-minute pow-wow he held with his quarterbacks following the spring
game, an afternoon on which the trio of Pirates passers completed 40 of
71 attempts for 354 yards and three scores.
You might say there is a
new offensive sheriff in town for ECU, one who is smart, young and
confident. And though it’s too early to predict how successful Riley
will be, there is certainly a buzz about him and the offensive system he
is implementing.
Yet you wouldn’t know it
from talking to Riley. Like any good Jedi, his focus is firmly on the
task ahead.
