What makes Lincoln Riley college football’s ‘quarterback whisperer’

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“If you happen to don’t have requisite quarterback play in faculty soccer, you’re not going to be an incredible staff.”

That’s Joel Klatt’s take with regards to measuring the parallels between QB play and wins in faculty soccer. And nobody has confirmed that time to be extra correct than USC coach Lincoln Riley.

Riley, who led the Trojans to an 11-2 regular-season report in his first 12 months at USC, is about to finish his sixth season as a school soccer head coach. He spent his first 5 years at Oklahoma, guiding the Sooners to a mixed 55-10 mark, which included three convention titles, three journeys to the School Soccer Playoff and a top-10 rating within the remaining AP Ballot all 5 seasons.

However as exceptional as these numbers are, one might make the argument that Riley’s biggest measure of success as a coach has been the play of his quarterbacks.

Since Riley grew to become a head coach at Oklahoma again in 2017, he has had 5 beginning quarterbacks, 4 of which have been Heisman Trophy finalists, and three of which have received the Heisman.

“That’s a staggering thought,” Klatt stated on a latest episode of his podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show.” “What Lincoln Riley is doing with quarterbacks is completely unprecedented. We’ve by no means seen one thing like this earlier than.”

USC’s Caleb Williams wins the Heisman Trophy, Lincoln Riley’s QB system

Joel Klatt reacts to Caleb Williams successful the 2022 Heisman and speaks on Lincoln Riley producing three Heisman winners within the final six years.

The quarterbacks to play beneath Riley are as follows: Baker Mayfield (2017), Kyler Murray (2018), Jalen Hurts (2019), Spencer Rattler (2020-21) and Caleb Williams (2021-22).

Mayfield received the Heisman in 2017, Murray received it in 2018, Hurts was a finalist in 2019, and Williams received it this season.

“Once you have a look at these guys, this isn’t the very same participant,” Klatt stated. “They aren’t minimize from the very same mildew. They don’t play the sport the very same means. They’ve strengths, they’ve weaknesses, and they’re all very completely different.”

Whereas each beginning quarterback to play beneath Riley did possess their very own distinctive traits, additionally they had loads in frequent. They had been all extraordinarily correct passers, all of them took care of the soccer, and most significantly, all of them received a number of soccer video games.

From 2017-22, Riley’s groups mixed to complete 66-12 (85% successful proportion), with a 45-8 mark in convention video games.

“It is a man that understands what he has in entrance of him and the way to achieve success,” Klatt stated of Riley. “If I’m a QB on the market, there are solely a handful of locations I’m actually taking a tough have a look at, and precisely the place they’re at.

“Alabama is doing a pleasant job, Ohio State does an incredible job with quarterbacks, and Lincoln Riley does an incredible job with quarterbacks.”

However with regards to teaching the quarterback place, there’s one trait of Riley’s that stands out to Klatt above the remaining.

“He doesn’t coach the creativity out of them,” Klatt stated. “A whole lot of instances, coaches get so involved with errors that they flip gamers into robots, and so they lose what made them actually good.

“There’s a sure degree of creativeness and inventive nature to the quarterback place, and you can’t play it like a robotic. One of the best ones have a magnificence about the way in which that they play.”

That features Williams, who barring any kind of unexpected change, will probably be again beneath middle in Riley’s offense subsequent season. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner is ineligible to enter the 2023 NFL Draft, being solely two years faraway from highschool.

The considered these two pairing up for an additional season in Los Angeles needs to be scary for the remainder of the school soccer universe.

“Lincoln Riley has confirmed out now in his brief time as a head soccer coach that he’s gonna enable his quarterbacks to flourish in his offense,” Klatt stated. “And the quarterbacks are.”

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Every week, FOX Sports activities faculty soccer analyst Joel Klatt dives into his Prime 10 groups, solutions questions and discusses the largest storylines in faculty soccer on his podcast. Download “The Joel Klatt Show” here.