Blogging The Boys
Here is what you need to know about Conor Riley.
The Cowboys took a major step towards completing their first coaching staff under head coach Brian Schottenheimer when they filled the offensive line coaching spot. To do so, they landed a coach from the college ranks: Kansas State offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Conor Riley.
Before anyone asks, this Riley has no relation to USC head coach Lincoln Riley, though that Riley does have a coaching brother who runs the offense for Clemson. Conor Riley, on the other hand, has made a name for himself as one of the best offensive line coaches in college football and just wrapped up his first season as a play-caller.
Riley was one of many coaches who followed Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman from North Dakota State, where Klieman went 69-6 and won four national titles. Since coming to Manhattan, Riley has helped the Wildcats consistently feature elite offensive lines while the team as a whole has gone 48-28 in six seasons, with 9+ wins each of the last three years.
In his six seasons coaching the offensive line for Kansas State, Riley has seen eight of his players earn All-Big 12 honors and has had at least one all-conference lineman each season. Last season, Kansas State was one of three finalists for the Joe Moore Award, given annually to the top offensive line. By far the most notable player Riley coached is current Cowboys center Cooper Beebe, who played multiple positions under Riley and excelled at all of them.
For as much as Riley has established himself as a phenomenal offensive line coach, his schematic background is perhaps what makes this hire so exciting. It’s not often that offensive line coaches get promoted to coordinator, and even less so that they actually get to call plays. New Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams is proof of just that.
After the 2023 season, though, Kansas State lost offensive coordinator Collin Klein to the same job at Texas A&M. Klieman opted to promote Riley, pairing him with a co-offensive coordinator in Matt Wells, the former Texas Tech head coach who brought a strong track record of developing quarterbacks.
Riley was given play-calling duties, though, largely to retain the structure of the offense from Klein. That offense was a fairly run-heavy one that was heavily based around the unique blocking schemes that Riley helped to install with his offensive line. This past year, Kansas State finished 11th in rushing yards per game, an impressive feat considering three of the teams ahead of them were triple-option offenses.
Two aspects of that run game that became signatures of the offense under both Klein and Riley were the heavy use of pulling blockers - making significant use of gap schemes and various ways of running counter - and the varied utilization of tight ends. Both coordinators frequently deployed their tight ends, lining them up both in-line and out wide, to threaten defenses with their receiving ability but also...
