Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator hire follows Lincoln Riley blueprint

Oklahoma hired an extraordinarily young offensive coordinator from West Texas. 

Again. 

Ten years ago, it was Lincoln Riley On Monday, the school announced the addition of Ben Arbuckle, who served in the same role at Washington State.

Riley, 31 when hired, replaced former Oklahoma national championship quarterback Josh Heupel. Arbuckle, 29, is replacing one of Heupel’s teammates from that 2000 team, former Sooner fullback Seth Littrell, who was fired midseason. 

Without rehashing how things ended with Riley, we can all agree that he was a superb offensive coordinator for the Sooners. Who knows if Oklahoma coach Brent Venables’ choice of Arbuckle will be the home run that Riley was for Bob Stoops, but the similarities from a biographical standpoint are striking. 

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Arbuckle grew up in Canadian, Texas — 200 miles northeast of Riley’s hometown of Muleshoe. Amarillo is smack dab in between. Arbuckle played college football at West Texas A&M in Canyon, just south of Amarillo. Further down I-27 is Lubbock, where Riley went to Texas Tech. 

At Canadian High School, Arbuckle was teammates with former Sooners backup quarterback Tanner Schafer, a favorite of Riley’s in the quarterback room. 

Arbuckle’s first college coaching job was as a quality control assistant under Zach Kittley at Houston Baptist. Arbuckle followed Kittley to Western Kentucky. 

Kittley got his coaching start at Texas Tech, learning under Kliff Kingsbury and Sonny Cumbie, a couple of Mike Leach’s quarterbacks. Kingsbury and Cumbie are contemporaries of Riley — all branches of Leach’s coaching tree. Just as Riley was mentored by Leach, Arbuckle was a protege of Kingsbury’s. 

Arbuckle, coincidentally, spent the last two seasons as offensive coordinator at Washington State, where the late Leach coached from 2012-19. As Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator, Arbuckle is in the same role Leach held in 1999. 

Under Arbuckle’s direction, Washington State ranked 14th this season in yards per play (6.65). Oklahoma’s offense ranked 126th (4.78). Washington State averaged 36.8 points per game compared to 24.3 for the Sooners. 

No telling how Arbuckle’s offense will fare in the SEC, but Venables’ future as Oklahoma’s head coach will hinge in large part on his hiring of Arbuckle. 

If Arbuckle is anything like the last whiz kid the Sooners hired from West Texas, their offense is about to take off.