The people who covered Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma in the Big 12 knew which coaches gave Riley’s OU offenses problems.
On our Riley Files series, Oklahoma expert Kegan Reneau cited Kansas State and Iowa State as teams whose defenses were able to challenge Riley and slow down the Sooners to a degree.
“Chris Klieman worries me for Lincoln,” Reneau said. “Not that Matt Campbell has won anything of huge note at Iowa state, but they’re much better than they’ve ever been in the history of the program. Those coaches that either — one — have the pedigree, or two, have been in these moments that know how to put a sound disciplined football team on the field every single week” will give Lincoln Riley’s offenses problems. “A coach that is willing to be a little bit different,” according to Reneau, could thwart the USC offense.
If we were to shift to the Big Ten and find a coach or defensive coordinator in a similar vein, the most obvious example is Iowa. Michigan and Ohio State have defenses which struggled against high-end opposition last season. Iowa might actually have the best defensive formula for USC, especially when you realize that the Iowa secondary is one of the two or three best in the country according to some experts.
Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker and head coach Kirk Ferentz have a strong track record of developing tough, well-schooled defenses. This does not figure to be an easy matchup for USC next year, when the Hawkeyes visit the Los Angeles Coliseum.
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