Lincoln Riley's QB Count Keeps Climbing

Lincoln Riley has gained plenty of acclaim for tutoring three starting quarterbacks in the NFL.

But now the Oklahoma head coach has taken it to a new level.

Riley now also has three starters in college football as well.

Former Sooner Tanner Mordecai was named the starter — and a captain — at SMU on Monday. Then on Tuesday, Louisiana Tech announced the news that former Sooner Austin Kendall had won the starting job in Ruston.

Combined with OU starter Spencer Rattler, that’s three starters at the FBS level in college, and, with Baker Mayfield in Cleveland, Kyler Murray in Arizona and Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia, three starters in the NFL.

It’s nearly incomprehensible — and yet, incontrovertible: Lincoln Riley teaches quarterbacks better than anybody out there.

It’s why Caleb Williams — SI All-American’s No. 1 overall player in the 2021 class and one of the most highly rated high school quarterbacks of all time — says he was willing to walk on at OU even though Riley had a verbal commitment from Brock Vandagriff, who quickly decommitted and is now at Georgia.

It’s why Malachi Nelson, the No. 1 (or 2) quarterback in the 2023 recruiting class, decided to commit to the Sooners this summer two years early when he had offers from major college blue bloods across the country.

It’s why Hurts — a two-year starter and national champion at Alabama — decided to come to OU in 2019 as a graduate transfer after enduring four quarterback coaches and four offensive coordinators in his first three years in Tuscaloosa.

Of course, it was the excellence of Hurts and Rattler that ultimately forced Kendall and Mordecai into the transfer portal.

After coming in second to Hurts, Kendall initially tried to carve a space at West Virginia — and temporarily won the starting job in Morgantown before losing it to Jarrett Doege last season and then deciding to finish his career at La Tech.

Mordecai did what he could to push Rattler for the OU job in 2020, and he actually steadied the Sooner offense nicely when Rattler was benched in the first half against Texas before ultimately deciding to pursue more playing time in Dallas.

It’s all an undeniable commentary that Riley just has a way with quarterbacks.

Yes, Riley’s offense is quarterback-friendly. It helped turn Mayfield from a brash, two-time walk-on with an unyielding underdog mentality into the Heisman Trophy winner and the No. 1 overall pick. And it helped turn Murray from a millionaire baseball player fighting against a height stigma into — well, the Heisman Trophy winner and the No. 1 overall pick.

But more than just Riley’s scheme, it’s his way of communicating with quarterbacks — his method of teaching, his secret of uplifting and supporting them throughout their growth process, his technique for getting them to believe more in themselves than they ever thought — that truly elevates them to another level.

Riley is the quarterback whisperer, and as he continues to populate NFL rosters with his players (don’t be surprised to see Kendall and Mordecai get a solid NFL shot), his unique talent for developing their skills will become more and more in demand at the pro level.

That doesn’t mean he’ll leave any time soon. Sitting on the throne at a place like Oklahoma creates an enduring legacy — the kind of legacy that being just another rote NFL head coach never could. At OU, Riley is a monarch.

And the way he’s pumping out quarterbacks, he’ll go down in football history as a kingmaker.

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