That may be the general lay of the land among the elite programs in college football, but it has not been the case at Oklahoma, where the top three head football coaches in the school’s history have all been young when they assumed the head coach’s post and all came from the coordinators’ role or the position of assistant coach.
Last Wednesday, when Bob Stoops announced he was stepping down as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners after 18 of the most successful seasons in OU football history, 33-year-old Lincoln Riley became the successor to one of the premier head-coaching positions in college football.