A guy who's never been a head coach at the college or NFL level took his team to the super bowl last year.
That guy had a coaching staff and a DC to help him even stay in that game.
That's, basically, using an exception as the rule to validate Riley as a SB worthy HC?
I am not taking the angle "he's never done it; therefore, he cannot do it" but I do look at the HC's that got back to the college level as fast as they could. It's not just football at the NFL level.
The undeniable fact is that it is different coaching millionaires on a team of 53 vs 80 and 60 active on game days. The recruiting vs drafting is as much a struggle as well because talent gets better distributed in the NFL, the playing field is more level. I believe it was last year when I was watching an OU game that they mentioned there was only one OK player recruited on the team. That's the type of team he inherited, a NFL wannabe magnet just like Saban, Swinney, Orgeron and Smart built and Day inherited. That's why the balance of power in college is so lopsided and a HC has to catch lightning in a bottle.