MULESHOE, TEXAS — There are 62 individual pictures of former players hanging on the light gray walls of the Muleshoe High School football locker room. Above those pictures the words "Wall of Fame" are painted in black. On the top row, seventh from the right, is a picture of a young man wearing shoulder pads too big for his body, sporting the No. 12.
That young man is Lincoln Riley — Oklahoma’s new head football coach.
“He’s always been this kid that believed in himself,” Muleshoe head football coach David Wood said. “Everyone’s a hero in a small town. And that’s what Lincoln was.”
Fast forward 15 years.
Now, he’s the youngest head coach in college football, leading one of the most prominent football programs in the country. But even in his new role, Riley hasn’t forgotten his roots.
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Growing up in a town of just over 5,000 people, Riley quickly became a known figure around town with his confident, but humble personality. He was a solid athlete, but the classroom is where Riley really excelled.
“He wouldn’t sometimes do all his homework, but he didn’t have to — he was bored with it,” Wood said. “He was not a bookworm — he was just so brilliant, and he could just see it. Listen to a lecture in class and take the test and ace it.”
Riley continued his classroom excellence in high school, and became a promising football player making the varsity team as a defensive end his sophomore year. He made the transition to quarterback his junior year, and led Muleshoe to its first ever state semi-finals appearance, helping turn around a program that hadn’t seen a winning season in years.
“He wasn’t a blue-chipper, but for us he was very good,” Wood said. “He was a big part of that transition, and that team put Muleshoe on the map as far as football goes.”
But Riley was also still just a “good ole country boy,” according to Wood. After beating their rival Friona, he and a couple teammates spray painted the score of the game on the town’s water tower.
Riley had become an embodiment of Muleshoe. He was unselfish and had a quickness for including others in his success. Young kids around town flocked to Riley, hanging on him and asking questions after each game. Riley started new traditions at Muleshoe, like taking blades of grass from the opponent’s end zone after an away victory.
“It’s growing up in that close-knit environment in a town where just about everybody knew everybody,” Riley said. “There was just a sense of community, and I think a lot of my values came from that. I’ve said a lot that I’m thankful for the place I grew up.”
When it was time to leave the small town that built him, Riley had a decision to make. He could go to a small school and play, or follow his dreams and walk-on at a Division I school. He chose the latter and walked-on at Texas Tech, 68 miles from Muleshoe.
With a roster full of quarterbacks, Riley quickly found out he would never see the field in a Tech uniform. Then-coach Mike Leach offered him a student coaching job, seeing his potential. Riley traded his helmet for a headset and never looked back.
“I thought he would (become a good coach),” Leach told The Daily after Riley was hired as Oklahoma’s head coach. “He’s a smart guy, eager to learn, and willing to use common sense and independent thinking along the way.”
Wood recalls watching Texas Tech on TV and seeing Riley right next to Leach the entire game.
“Every time you saw Leach, Lincoln was right beside him on the sideline just following him, just soaking it all in and bouncing ideas off of him,” Wood said.
When Muleshoe decided to switch to a spread offense in 2006, Wood went to Leach hoping to learn his offensive wizardry. But when Wood arrived, he soon found out Riley had become a mastermind himself.
Leach had been talking to Wood for five minutes when he turned to Wood and his staff and said, “You know what, I’m just going to let Lincoln talk to you guys, he knows this stuff better than I do.” Wood thought Leach was blowing him off, but quickly realized Riley knew what he was talking about.
The student had become the teacher.
Riley grew during his time at Tech, and when Leach was let go in 2009, he was given an opportunity to show he was ready for the big stage. Interim head coach Ruffin McNeill — now Riley’s new defensive line coach — promoted 26-year-old Riley to offensive coordinator for the Alamo Bowl, setting Riley up with the audition of a lifetime. Riley’s offense exploded in a 41-31 victory over Michigan State, giving him the chance to take the next step in his career.
Now a proven offensive coordinator, Riley followed McNeill to East Carolina where he broke record after record. During his five years at ECU, Riley’s offense set more than 50 team or individual records, including recording the top five passing seasons in school history. Big schools took notice and began calling Riley, hoping to hire the young offensive genius.
At the time, Oklahoma was in desperate need of a spark, coming off a dismal 8-5 season with an offense that hadn’t been the same since offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson’s departure in 2010. Oklahoma went straight to Riley, hiring him as their offensive coordinator in 2015.
Now three years later, the good ole country boy who painted his rival high school’s water tower is the head coach of one the all-time greatest college football programs.
“We sure are proud of him here, and people sure are in awe of what he’s accomplished,” Wood said.
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Riley has a big task in front of him — trying to replace the program’s all-time winningest coach in Bob Stoops — but he says he feels ready. He’s had plenty of people in his life help him prepare for this moment, including his high school coaches.
“I think in a young man’s life, the high school coaches were so influential and so important,” Riley said. “I was so fortunate to have a ton of great ones. They made a great impression on me.”
From Muleshoe to Lubbock, then Greenville, and now Norman — many can’t believe the quick jump Riley has made in the coaching ranks. But the people of Muleshoe always knew Riley was going to do special things.
“I knew he would be successful with whatever avenue he took. With a mind like him, he could have gone and done anything, he really could have,” Wood said. “Engineering, science, NASA, astronaut — you name it, he could have done anything like that, and I knew he would have been good at it.”
