UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas– Garrett Riley joked that he had been in Dallas for no more than five seconds before he hit the recruiting trail. In a new job, new offense and in a new program, the freshly minted SMU offensive coordinator ironically found a sanctuary from the chaos inside the bevy of Texas high school football programs he visited each day.
The reason for this was simple: he had been in those meeting rooms and coaches offices his entire life. Growing up in Texas, playing at Texas Tech and Stephan F. Austin as a quarterback and, finally, entering the coaching ranks, Riley has always been entrenched in Dallas high school football.