Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley has quickly gained a reputation as one of the best coaches in football. But he has a younger brother, Garrett, who is slowly but surely making a name for himself as well. Now it appears that the younger Riley brother has reached a pretty high rung in the college coaching ladder.
According to ESPN, Garrett Riley is taking over as offensive coordinator at SMU. He spent the 2019 season as a running backs assistant at Appalachian State under Eliah Drinkwitz.
His work at Appalachian State was fortuitous, as the Mountaineers went 13-1 and outrushed opponents by over 100 yards per game. They finished the year with the nation’s No. 9 scoring offense, averaging over 38 points per game.
Afterwards, Drinkwitz left to become head coach of Missouri, but Garrett was retained.
The team even saw fit to promote him to offensive coordinator under new head coach Shawn Clark.
But Garrett apparently has his eyes set on a different boss. At SMU, he has the chance to work under Sonny Dykes – one of Lincoln’s mentors at Texas Tech.
As you can see, Garrett Riley is almost a dead ringer for his brother:
Prior to his short stint with the Mountaineers, Garrett had coaching stints with Texas Tech, East Carolina and Kansas.
SMU and Oklahoma won’t play each other in the regular season any time soon. But the Riley brothers are now just a few hours drive away from each other if they ever want to pay a visit.
Will Garrett eventually follow in Lincoln’s footsteps by becoming a head coach?