Michigan’s Moore, TCU’s Riley lead CFP teams
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — TCU’s Garrett Riley seemed destined to follow his older brother into coaching when he walked onto the Texas Tech football team as a player.
Michigan’s Sherrone Moore’s path to the profession wasn’t so easy, but when she finished playing, she was confident that coaching was her calling.
Both offensive coordinators are rising stars as they square off in the Fiesta Bowl in a College Football Playoff semifinal Saturday between No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 TCU. A pair of millennials with old souls, Moore and Riley appear to be on a fast track to head coaching jobs, eventually.
“When the time comes, the time comes, but I’m in no rush to leave this place, this great university, these students and coach (Jim) Harbaugh,” Moore, 36, said this week.
Riley, the 33-year-old younger brother of USC coach Lincoln Riley, is also trying to live in the moment.
“I think the approach I’ve always had is, man, you’re in the big time wherever you are,” he said.
Moore didn’t start playing soccer until his junior year of high school, when he realized the 6-foot-4 forward didn’t have much of a future in basketball.
He played in college before landing at Oklahoma and playing two seasons under coach Bob Stoops in 2006 and ’07. It was during this time that he began to consider a career as a coach.
“I wanted to influence young people. I wanted to see them grow up. I wanted to be a part of their lives forever,” Moore said. “That was my main goal. And I love the game.”
He started as a graduate assistant at Louisville and when Charlie Strong took over as head coach there, Moore quickly earned the trust of offensive coordinator Shawn Watson.
“Sharrone was unique from the beginning because she was so eager to learn,” said Watson, a Power Five assistant who is now the head coach at Wofford.
Working for Watson and offensive line coach David Borbely, Moore was promoted to tight ends coach and his role quickly expanded to also handle pass protection during game planning.
When Strong left for Texas, Moore was not among the coaches who moved to Austin. He spent the next four years at Central Michigan. The opportunity to join Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan in 2018 came out of nowhere.
Dan Enos, the former head coach at Central Michigan, had agreed to take a spot on Harbaugh’s staff at the end of 2017 as receivers coach. Six weeks later, Enos took the Alabama job and recommended Moore to Harbaugh.
Since then, Moore and Harbaugh have become family.
“The connection that we have is very strong, the bond that we have is very strong. I love him with all my heart,” Moore said.
When offensive coordinator Josh Gattis left Michigan to take the same job in Miami after last season’s playoff run for the Wolverines, Harbaugh promoted Moore from tight ends coach to co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
Michigan won the Joe Moore Award for the nation’s top offensive lineman for the second year in a row. Michigan is third in the nation in rushing at 5.64 yards per carry, and Moore’s vision and experience with personnel-heavy groups using multiple tight ends has given the Wolverines the explosive, run-heavy offense that Harbaugh has always championed .
Harbaugh spoke of Moore, saying he was “like a brother.”
“They don’t get better,” Harbaugh said. “He is a great teacher. Tremendous passion for the game and for our players, Bleeds blue like no other. intelligent wicked smart In every way, a Michigan man. He’s not afraid of any challenge.”
TCU coach Sonny Dykes does the same when he talks about Riley, who has quickly earned a reputation, like his older brother, as one of the best players in college football.
“I think he’s patient,” Dykes said. “I can remember my first time as a punter, I wanted to score a touchdown on every play. And sometimes that’s good and sometimes that can be really, really bad. And I think Garrett is a lot more patient, a lot more mature, his approach is what I was in the beginning as a gamer.”
TCU ranks 10th in the nation in yards per play at 6.84 and senior quarterback Max Duggan became a Heisman Trophy finalist under Riley’s tutelage.
Hailing from the small West Texas town of Muleshoe, Riley was a quarterback at Texas Tech when Mike Leach was the head coach and Lincoln Riley was the receivers coach.
Like so many who played and worked for Leach, who died suddenly at the age of 61 earlier this month, Riley was captivated by the aerial attack and what appeared to be a cutting-edge approach to football.
“I was very fortunate to be around a great group of guys at that time and it was an exciting time in college football, so that’s probably when it started for me was in college.” , Riley said.
Ruffin McNeill, Leach’s longtime defensive coordinator at Texas Tech, gave Garrett Riley his entrance into college coaching. McNeill was the head coach at East Carolina when he brought Riley in as a graduate assistant and then made him receivers coach.
McNeill, now a special assistant at North Carolina State, said Garrett Riley had the same “twinkle” in his eye as Lincoln: smart and confident, but humble enough to do the grunt work.
“They didn’t mind starting from the ground up, which is very much appreciated by old-school guys these days. They were not given a silver spoon,” McNeill said.
After a rough few years at Kansas and a stellar season as Appalachian State’s offensive coordinator, Garrett Riley joined Dykes, another Leach protégé, at SMU.
Lincoln Riley was hired as head coach at Oklahoma at age 33. Garrett probably won’t match that, but there have been suitors for his services.
“When he was 33, he probably would have taken advantage of some of the opportunities that Garrett had the opportunity to take, but again, I think it just shows his maturity,” Dykes said. “I think he has a real focus and a real understanding of what the next move has to be for him.”
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