Lincoln Riley May Find Oklahoma HC Is No Dream Job After Succeeding Bob Stoops

Take a long look, everyone. We will never see this again.      

A megastar coach who's walking away from a superpower college football program on his terms three months from beginning a season with an uber-talented roster primed with national championship dreams.

Bob Stoops explained his shocking decision to leave Oklahoma after 18 successful seasons in simple terms in the press conference announcing his retirement. "I didn't want to miss the right opportunity to be able to step away," he said. Such opportunities come so rarely in the win-or-walk world of coaching college football.

Then the talk on a sleepy summer afternoon in Norman turned to what they say will be a smooth transition. The president and athletic director are onboard, and the new coach sliding into the big chair says it's a dream come true. 

Nice and neat with a Crimson and Cream bow tied to the top.

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

"This came together so quickly, but I feel prepared," 33-year-old Lincoln Riley said in the press conference introducing him as head coach.

Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly felt prepared, too.

So did Brady Hoke and Mark Helfrich and Lane Kiffin three different times.

Everyone thinks they have the answers—until they don't win enough or can't recruit enough or the NCAA comes knocking.

So you want this job? You got it, and everything that goes with it.

And despite what we heard Wednesday in Norman, it won't all be nice and neat with bows on top.

"I don't think people realize how rare this is in our business—how Bob is leaving on his terms with that program at its peak," one Power 5 coach told Bleacher Report on Wednesday.

Then the warning: "The wolf is always at the door."

And there's no way to avoid it.

The big-money contracts and the deep-pocket boosters. The constant grind of begging 17- and 18-year-olds to play for you. The unavoidable weight of expectations. The high school coaches and the third-party handlers, and those who just want to be around Johnny 5-star because they know what's best for him—and always have their hand out. The sure NFL first-rounder who's tanking games to protect himself, and the bitter backup infecting team chemistry. And one more thing:

A matchup with Ohio State in Week 2.

Carroll left USC before the NCAA sheriff came calling, and Kelly left Eugene with an NCAA show-cause order in his pocket. Kiffin was fired at 4 a.m. on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport after USC gave up 62 points to Arizona State, and Helfrich was fired two years after leading Oregon to the national championship game.

Hoke could recruit and was a perfect ambassador for the Michigan program but was fired because he couldn't win Big Ten games. Charlie Strong lasted three years at Texas, and Mark Richt was forced out at Georgia after averaging nearly 10 wins a season.

Welcome to the club, Lincoln Riley.

Jackson Laizure/Getty Images

"If anyone has the temperament to be successful with all that coaches have to deal with, it's Lincoln," said Ruffin McNeill, who was head coach at ECU in 2010 when he hired a 26-year-old Riley as his offensive coordinator.

The same McNeill who won 42 games in six years at ECU, and was dumped after a 5-7 season and now coaches linebackers at Virginia. The same McNeill who hired Riley in 2003 as a student assistant while coordinating defenses for then-Texas Tech coach Mike Leach.

When Leach was fired after the 2009 season—a year after the Red Raiders were one loss from potentially playing in the BCS National Championship Game (see a trend here?)—McNeill was Tech's interim coach in the Alamo Bowl and had Riley, a 25-year-old wide receivers coach, coordinate the offense and call plays in a 41-31 victory over Michigan State.

Three weeks later, when McNeill took the ECU job, he made Riley the youngest coordinator in FBS. Over the next five seasons, Riley developed one of the most dangerous offenses in the game before Stoops came calling in 2015 to revive a stale OU offense.

"Lincoln had four other offers while he was with me and turned them all down—and he could've doubled or tripled his salary," McNeill said. "Lincoln has earned everything in his [coaching] life. Nothing has been given to him."

Maybe that's why Riley stood tall and sounded so confident when sharing a stage with the winningest coach in OU history, who just happened to be retiring that day. In fact, the only time he looked shaky was when he was thanking Stoops for taking a chance on him two years earlier. He had to pause for nearly a minute to compose himself.

"It's a huge deal to this state and university," Riley said of the enormity of OU football. "We're in this together."

Nearly two decades ago, Oklahoma hired a 38-year-old defensive coordinator from Florida to change the fortunes of a program that had lost its way. The three coaches before Stoops who tried to replace legendary Barry Switzer combined to win 61 games in 10 seasons and were all fired (sound familiar?).

J. PAT CARTER/Associated Press

Stoops then won a national title in his second season and raised the expectations bar to unthinkable heights. Not even 10 Big 12 championships in 18 years were enough to avoid criticism, including former players who chirped on social media not so long ago about Stoops' inability to win it all.

This is the meatgrinder Riley willfully joined. The Sooners have a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback, and a team that can win it all.

They just moved into a standalone, state-of-the-art football facility, and renovations on Owen Field will be complete this summer. They'll spend nearly $370 million on the projects.

Translation: There's no reason to lose.

"Lincoln has all the characteristics necessary to be a great leader," Stoops said. "The right guy is here now. Let's take advantage of the opportunity."

Take a long look, everyone. Who knows how long it will last.

Matt Hayes covers college football for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.