FootballScoop is proud to announce that Garrett Riley (TCU) is the 2022 FootballScoop Offensive Coordinator of the Year presented by AstroTurf as selected by prior winners.
In retrospect, all the pieces were there. Max Duggan was there, playing the strings. Kendre Miller and Emeri Demercado were there too, playing the bass. Quentin Johnston was in the woodwinds, and Taye Barber and Derius Davis in the percussion section. In 2021, those pieces combined to be a perfectly average offense -- 28.7 points per game, 65th in FBS -- on a 5-7 team.
It took Garrett Riley becoming their constructor for the Frogs to produce beautiful music.
With almost an entirely identical group of skill players, TCU added 12 points per game, jumping 60 spots nationally to fifth in the nation.
The Frogs generated points by consistently generating explosive plays. Heading into a College Football Playoff semifinal against Michigan, TCU leads the nation with 19 plays of 50-plus yards; the Frogs are among the top six nationally at every yardage point from 20-to-60 yards.
As such, TCU is one of four teams to rank among the top 10 in yards per attempt (min.: 100 attempts) and the top 20 in yards per carry, averaging 8.8 yards per pass and 5.23 yards per carry.
Oklahoma transfer Chandler Morris won the starting quarterback job out of camp, but sprained his knee in the Frogs' opener against Colorado. Duggan, the former starter, came off the bench and played his way to New York City as a Heisman Trophy finalist.
Duggan played career-best ball, posting career highs in completion percentage (64.9), yards per attempt (9.0) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (30-to-4). His 165.48 rating is a career high, placing him eighth nationally.
Duggan distributed the ball to one of the nation's deepest receiving corps. The group is headlined by Quentin Johnston, a projected first-round pick with 53 catches for 903 yards and five touchdowns, while fellow receivers Barber, Davis and Savion Williams also have at least 29 catches to date. In all, 10 Frogs have caught at least 10 passes and 10 different Frogs have grabbed touchdown passes. That group has hit 13 passes of at least 50 yards (tied for second nationally) and four gains of at least 70 yards (tied for first).
And while defenses fretted about defending the TCU passing attack sideline to sideline and goal line to goal line, Riley's offense was all too happy to run the ball right down their throat.
Junior Kendre Miller exploded for 1,342 yards and 17 touchdowns, highlighted by a string of seven 100-yard games in eight outings and an ongoing string of 13 straight games with at least one touchdown. Behind him, Demercado added 472 yards and five touchdowns, and Duggan pitched in 404 yards and six scores.
Duggan collected a slew of awards in piloting the Frogs to an undefeated regular season: the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's top quarterback as well as the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. He was an AP Second Team All-American and led the All-Big 12 First Team, where he was joined by Miller, Johnston, and offensive linemen Alan Ali and Steve Avila.
In his first year at TCU, Riley joined head coach Sonny Dykes after two years with him at SMU. The Texas Tech graduate started coaching high school football while an undergrad, His first college job came as the running backs coach at Augustana College in 2012, and subsequent travels took him to East Carolina, Kansas, and Appalachian State. Riley also won the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant.
“I think he’s just so creative,” Duggan told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “He’s confident in what he does and what he calls. He puts everybody in the best position. He takes our strength and uses it in his scheme and what he thinks is best for us.”
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by AstroTurf are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The finalists (Kenny Dillingham [Oregon], Alex Golesh [Tennessee], Andy Kotelnicki [Kansas], Todd Monken [Georgia] and Riley) were selected based off of nominations by coaches, athletic directors, and athletic department personnel. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Previous winners of the Offensive Coordinator of the Year award are Kevin Wilson (Oklahoma, 2008), Bryan Harsin (Boise State, 2009), Gus Malzahn (Auburn, 2010), Kliff Kingsbury (Houston, 2011 and Texas A&M, 2012), Philip Montgomery (Baylor, 2013), Tom Herman (Ohio State, 2014), Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma, 2015), Lane Kiffin (Alabama, 2016), Josh Heupel (Missouri, 2017), Mike Locksley (Alabama, 2018), Joe Brady/Steve Ensminger (LSU, 2019), Steve Sarkisian (Alabama, 2020), and Jeff Grimes (Baylor, 2021).
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