Hundreds of thousands of Americans will tune in to watch the No. 5 Oklahoma Sooners play against the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus on Saturday, September 9. Not just because it’s going to be a great game and it’s on prime-time TV (7:30pm on ABC), but to also see how the nation’s youngest major college football coach will fare. Oklahoma’s head coach is Lincoln Riley who just turned 34 on Tuesday. Riley was hired as offensive coordinator in 2015 by Oklahoma’s then head coach Bob Stoops who retired this June.
While Riley has “zero head coaching experience,” he’s bringing experience with him. He hired his old boss, former East Carolina head coach Ruffin McNeill as the Sooners defensive tackles coach. McNeill, who’s 58, reassured critics of Riley by saying, “Don’t worry about how old he is. I got enough gray for he and I. You’ll see.” McNeill played as a defensive back for the East Carolina Pirates before earning a master’s degree in counseling at Clemson. He started coaching at the high school level in 1980 then joined the coaching staffs at a number of colleges including Clemson, Appalachian State, UNLV (1997-1998), Fresno State, Texas Tech (2000-2009), and East Carolina (2010-2015).
Sooner Nation welcome home Coach Ruffin McNeill! So proud to have this great man as a part of our staff #OUDNA #ChampU pic.twitter.com/ta3uMNyH8E
— Lincoln Riley (@LincolnRiley) June 14, 2017
