Fred Riley Jr. was born March 28, 1960 in Birmingham, Alabama. Riley played quarterback at Minor High School where he was named team captain. As a senior he was named to the Birmingham News Super 11 team. Riley was a catcher on the baseball team and played in the East-West All-Star game.

Riley played two years at Copiah-Lincoln Junior College in Mississippi before transferring to North Alabama. While playing quarterback in college he was again named team captain. In 1980 Riley led the football team to a 10-2 record, a Gulf South Conference Championship and a Division II playoff berth.

In 1981, Riley was an All-Conference selection, leading UNA to an 8-2 mark. He still holds some passing records at the school, including the highest career completion percentage (54.3%). In two years at UNA, Riley completed 140 of 258 passes for 2,372 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Riley received his Bachelors degree in 1982 from North Alabama and later his Masters in Education degree in 1992.

After graduating from college, Riley served as a graduate assistant at Auburn, working with the quarterbacks in 1982. His first full-time coaching job came in 1983 as the quarterbacks coach for Jacksonville State.

The next year he served as the recruiting coordinator and quarterback coach at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. After four years Riley spent the 1988 season as the offensive coordinator at Southern Illinois. After a year (1989) coaching running backs at Miami of Ohio, Riley entered the high school coaching ranks.

In 1990, Coach Riley accepted the head coaching position at Lenoir City, Tennessee where he stayed for two seasons with a 16-6 record. His team won a region title in 1991 and he was named East Tennessee Coach of the Year.

In 1992, Riley took over at Coffee High School in Florence for two years before moving to Baldwin County and accepting the head coaching job at Robertsdale in 1994. He also served as the athletic director for the Golden Bears.

Ensley came calling in 2000 and Coach Riley stayed for one season before coming to Mobile where he served as the defensive coordinator at Davidson, under Coach Glen Vickery, for two years.

The 2003 season found Riley as the offensive coordinator at Maryville College in Tennessee for one season. When Glenn Vickery moved across the bay to Daphne, Riley returned to the Mobile area, accepting the position of athletic director and head football coach at Davidson High School in the spring of 2004.

He coached the Warriors for fourteen years and led them to a 110-50 record. All but four of his teams have made the playoffs while three won region titles.

Coach Riley says his father had a major influence in his life. Fred Riley Sr. was a hard working, self-sacrificing coal miner in Birmingham.

Riley was named Baldwin County Coach of the year at Robertsdale and the 2010 Mobile Optimist Club coach of the year at Davidson. He served as the head coach for the South all-star team in 2009 and was the AHSAA Making a Difference winner in 2011 for Class 6A.