When discipline, stubbornness, and accountability clash for a college football coach
Lincoln Riley is evolving as a football coach. Our Riley Files series last summer with Kegan Reneau explored the good, the bad, and the complicated with Riley.
One very complicated story — which involved protectiveness of players (a good thing), a lack of reasonable transparency (a bad thing), and stubornness (a layered and nuanced thing) — shows how much of a struggle it can be to strike the right balance as a college football coach.
Being protective has its merits, but not always, as Reneau illustrated from his days covering Riley at the University of Oklahoma:
“There were things that we knew. We understood there were times when you should be answering those questions (about the inner workings of a team, etc.),” Reneau said. “He did it to protect his players — that would be his reasoning. I respect that as a former athlete and as a guy who respects the jobs these guys do, but there’s also some small things. There’s just no reason for it. To give an example: Ronnie Perkins is suspended at the beginning of 2020. He attends a game in Ames, Iowa, if you remember this story. Ronnie Perkins is suspended. They thought his appeal was gonna get approved that day. It did not. But Lincoln Riley had told the media he was up in Ames for moral support, because he was one of the leaders of the team, which Ronnie Perkins was.
“So Oklahoma went down and played Texas either the next week or two weeks later. Ronnie Perkins wasn’t at the game. I had asked Lincoln the following week and I had said, ‘Ronnie Perkins, you had mentioned he was in Ames for moral support and as a leader. He wasn’t there for OU’s biggest game of the year. What was the reasoning behind that?’ You know exactly the reason why I set that question up the way that I did. While I started asking that question, it’s a great GIF. Lincoln starts rolling his eyes while I’m asking the question.
“I’ve got it. It’s on my social media account, it’s on my Twitter account. It mentions the Ronnie Perkins saga, whenever I write my book one day, it will have its own chapter. So again, just another instance (in which) he set himself up to be asked that question. As I’ve said this entire episode, he didn’t answer that question. He ignored it and he’s really, really, really, really good at that if you didn’t catch that after the 2021 Bedlam game (against Oklahoma State).”
