— And we continue our coach debate with USC vs. UCLA, but these guys made their reputations elsewhere.
The case for Riley:
Riley is 66-13 as a head coach, with five of the 13 losses coming in the postseason. He’s as good an offensive mind as the game has had in the past decade and has the uncanny ability to get the most out of all of his quarterbacks. Because of that, he’s arguably the best quarterback recruiter in the country at this point as well, having pulled in five-stars Spencer Rattler, Caleb Williams, and Malachi Nelson in the last four years alone.
The case against Riley:
He’s apparently completely given up on trying to have any semblance of a defense, as he continues to employ Alex Grinch as his defensive coordinator despite diminishing results every season. And given some of the postseason letdowns we’ve seen from his teams, including just this past season against Tulane in the Cotton Bowl, it doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in his teams.
The case for Kelly:
Kelly completely revolutionized college football in the early 2010s with his offenses at Oregon. And while it’s taken him a minute to get re-acclimated with the college game since he arrived in Westwood, he’s back to where he left off in terms of offensive ingenuity and ability to put his players in place to succeed. Add on to that the fact that he’s starting to pull in truly elite talent like Dante Moore, and you’ve got the recipe for success.
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The case against Kelly:
Like Riley, Kelly has struggled at times in the postseason and has had inopportune defensive lapses. Additionally, for as much of an offensive genius as he is, he has never embraced all the facets of recruiting as well as Riley has.
The verdict:
This is closer than most people think, partially because I have a great deal of respect for Chip Kelly, but also because Riley has not shown the ability to really grow a ton and learn from his mistakes so far in his young career. That being said, you can’t argue with his results both in terms of win-loss record as well as on the recruiting trail. So it’s Riley for now… but not by much.
