PHOENIX, ARIZ. – A few gray hairs sprinkled into the beard emerging on TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley provide evidence that his roots back in Muleshoe, Texas are further in the rear-view mirror than maybe the 33-year-old architect of the sixth-best scoring offense in the nation would like to admit. 

But one quick mention of an infamous story seemingly lifted straight from the cutting floor of a Friday Night Lights episode made it feel like yesterday, even as his third-seeded Horned Frogs prepare for a national semifinal game against Michigan. 

The year is 2007 and a young Garrett Riley is driving the 77 miles from Muleshoe to Tulia with a friend to return a helmet he stole from an opponent’s locker room after a victory the previous Friday. Riley, the star quarterback and eventual Offensive MVP of District 2-2A, noticed that the Tulia equipment room was nestled behind a loose gate in the traveling locker room.

“I forget how exactly how it got in our bag, but it got in our bag and ended up back at Muleshoe,” Riley admits. “The coaches found out, so me and a buddy had to hop in our truck and drive all the way back to Tulia to take that helmet back and do the walk of shame.” 

There are rumors that another helmet or two from other opponent locker rooms mysteriously made their way back to Muleshoe and eventually into a bonfire on an unnamed ranch, but Riley decided to plead the fifth when questioned outside of the team hotel in Phoenix 48 hours before the Fiesta Bowl. 

His focus now on scoring rather than stealing. And the Horned Frogs do that as well as almost anyone in the nation, averaging 40.3 points per game on the season – the first with Riley in the charge. He followed Sonny Dykes to Fort Worth from SMU after two seasons heading up an explosive offense in Dallas. 

Quarterback Max Duggan threw for 3,321 yards and 30 touchdowns to just four interceptions. He also ran for 472 yards and five more scores on the ground, earning an invite to New York City for the Heisman Trophy presentation. Duggan finished second behind USC quarterback Caleb Williams. Williams’ coach is Garrett’s older brother, Lincoln, who has already built a reputation as one of, if not the, best offensive mind in modern college football. He’s coached NFL draft picks such as Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, and Baker Mayfield – all current starters. 

Not bad for two kids from Muleshoe, population of 5,160 as of 2020. The enrollment at Muleshoe High School was 371 when Garrett was in school. Lincoln is six years older, so there wasn’t much of a sibling rivalry.  

“I was sitting on the couch watching the Heisman Trophy presentation and I said, ‘Isn’t that something?’” remembered David Wood, who was the head coach at Muleshoe when both Riley brothers came through the system. “You have two guys from Muleshoe that you coached, and they go 1-2 in the Heisman. Not too many people can say that.”

Football put Muleshoe on the map, according to Wood. The path from Muleshoe to offensive savant might be hard to see at first, but it becomes clear with a squint. Timing is everything in the Air Raid offense, and so it was for the Riley’s. 

There was a football revolution taking place in West Texas in the early 2000’s and Garrett was perfectly situated to benefit. Hal Mumme was the head coach at McMurry University in Abilene, which is about three hours from Muleshoe. Mike Leach and his Texas Tech Red Raiders were only an hour away, and Lincoln had already traded his helmet for a coaching whistle as a GA by the time Garrett was ready to be the starting quarterback back home. 

“We went to the spread offense because of Garrett,” Wood said. “We went and visited Leach and Lincoln at Tech and decided to copy some of those concepts because no one could stop it at the college level. Garrett led us for two years and broke all the school records at the time.” 

Garrett eventually phased into a coaching career while in college, just like his older brother. Garrett was a volunteer assistant coach at Lubbock Roosevelt as he finished up his degree at Texas Tech. Greg Poynor, the defensive coordinator at Muleshoe back when Garrett was in school, was now the head man at Lubbock and an Air Raid convert. He brought in his former quarterback, and starting safety, to help with his quarterbacks and to provide some insider trading knowledge of how Leach and Mumme taught the Gospel. 

“We felt like we had a leg up because we weren’t just seeing the drills and trying to copy them, we had an inside connection to the guys who taught it through Garrett,” Poynor, now the head coach at Seminole, said. “I don’t think we’ve had one QB in last 13 years that wasn’t District MVP, Off MVP, or first-team all-district. That goes back to Leach and Humme and the Riley boys.”

The Riley boys aren’t just the toast of the town. They’re the next generation of the tree built by Humme and Leach. Dykes is also part of that tree. And he’s allowing Garrett to evolve the Air Raid into the modern era with the use of tight ends and multiple formations and even more tempo that previous iterations. Leach famously remained unchanged and that’s why he’s revered in coaching communities. Dykes, who decided that he needed to run the ball more after a failed stint at Cal, saw Garrett as a way to evolve. The last name and the ties to Leach and Texas Tech didn’t hurt, either. 

“Garrett is much more patient and much more mature in his approach than I was as a first-time play caller,” Dykes said. “I wanted to hire someone who was comfortable running the football. My expertise is in the passing game, so it was important to go find a coordinator who saw the game a little differently than I did.” 

That blend helped propel the Horned Frogs to the College Football Playoff. TCU averaged 5.2 yards a rush and accounted for 33 rushing touchdowns. The offense ran the ball 497 times and attempted 402 passes. Evolution.

“The goal was to mesh the two concepts and two identities together to come up with an offense that we’ve come up with,” Dykes said. “He’s got a very confident, systematic approach to calling plays.” 

Saturday night provides Garrett with something new – his own stage. Little brothers are always dealing with shadows. His older brother was hired by Bob Stoops to be offensive coordinator at Oklahoma in 2015. He led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff and earned the Broyes Award as the nation’s top assistant coach in his first season. 

Garrett won that award and is in the CFP in his first year at TCU. Beat Michigan and he won’t be referred to as Lincoln’s little brother. He’ll be the play caller in a national championship game – something older brother hasn’t done. Even if they don’t like to compare each other, it is fun for the rest of us. 

“Garrett was a much better athlete than Lincoln, so he always had that over him,’ Poynor said. “I’m sure there is still some sibling rivalry there and Garrett always trying to catch his brother. I know he’s trying to catch up salary wise.”

Garrett is on the cusp of running his own program. He was in the conversation to become the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M and the head coach at North Texas. It is not a matter of if Garrett eventually joins Lincoln as a fellow head coach in college football, but when. And no one from back home is surprised that the two are among the great minds in the sport. 

“It just doesn’t surprise me. Those guys are super unique,” Poynor said. “If they had been lawyers, they’d be great lawyers. Had they gone and worked from NASA, they were going to be good there, too. They were going to be successful no matter what.”

That may be true, but instead, they grew up in West Texas as Mumme and Leach changed the football landscape. And now it is their turn.