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Film Study: Lincoln Riley Is The The Sooners’ Secret Weapon

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The Oklahoma Sooners have one of the most explosive offenses in all of college football. Through 11 games, OU is tied for first in the nation in points per game at 45.3. And behind all the success is second-year offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley.

Riley, who comes from the air raid coaching tree of Mike Leach (and, by association, Hal Mumme), is one of the brightest young offensive minds in the FBS. Riley still runs all the staples of the air raid, but he has thrown in a number of additional wrinkles and concepts to make it his own.

Riley often uses misdirection alongside his concepts, especially in the screen game. He’ll frequently pair it with other series, like the outside zone:

fk_oz_tunnel

Or jet motion:

pa_jet_tunnel

He also uses a number of gadgets. In his time with the Sooners, Riley has frequently dialed up creative trick plays, like this halfback pass against Kansas State:

ctr_hb_pass

Or this creative waggle pass to an eligible receiver aligned at right tackle in last year’s game against Clemson:

y_over_back_view

Finally, Riley has a lot of talent at his disposal and he knows how to use it. He frequently uses a split backfield to harness the talents of both Joe Mixon and Semanje Perine:

split_trey_ctr_triple

And many of his RPOs (run-pass options) utilize Baker Mayfield’s feet:

swing_qb_trey_keep

When it comes to the true passing game, Mayfield is the best when he’s on the move, and a good amount of the Sooners’ passing game is in their bootleg or waggle series.

Riley is unique in the way that he uses multiple passing plays with his bootlegs. Most teams just pair their boot passes with a flood to the boot side — the standard bootleg pattern. And while OU does that, Riley uses a number of other patterns to attack different spots on the field.

He uses the smash pattern to attack the perimeter:

boot_smash

Crossers to attack the deep corner:

boot_crossers

And even a slot divide/split route in the middle of the field to capitalize on a defense that flows too much to the boot side:

boot_sl_divide

The Sooners have plenty of talent, but Riley is the mind that makes everything go. Facing a good offensive coordinator is tough because you can’t scout for weaknesses like you can with a player. So why is this important?

Well, if you look at the recent history of Bedlam, strategy has often been the difference maker (2010 with OU’s bear front, 2011 with OSU’s speed sweep wrinkle, 2012 with Belldozer, etc.) We know that Riley & Co. will have a quality game plan for Bedlam. The question is, will the Cowboys?

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