I mean, Brent inherited a program that had not lost more than two games in years, had 6 future NFL players on offense in his first year, and had made the playoff in 3 of 5 years under his predecessor. Riley inherited a strong program, no doubt, but his offense was a main reason it was in good shape. I mean, think how bad the offense was before Riley was hired as OC. For Stoops to fire one of his favorite former players tells you all you need to know. Our program was heading the wrong way till that change.
Now for all of you who can’t stand to hear anything remotely positive about Riley, please pay attention to this part. I don’t think Riley was an especially good head coach. He was great at one thing and pretty bad at everything else. Which is exactly how I feel about Brent. They are both guys who should be coordinators. The difference I see so far is that Riley’s offense while he was here was truly elite. Historically great, both in talent and production. Brent’s defense, on the other hand, is good but not great, let alone elite. Maybe he can get it there, but it took Riley almost no time to get his offense to that level.