Anyone who has studied Lincoln Riley knows that the 2021 college football season, his last at Oklahoma, was not fun for him. His abrupt exit from the Sooners was great for USC, but it undeniably left behind a bitter taste in Norman.
A mixture of pressure, stress, and dissatisfaction led to a decision which might not have been abrupt (Mike Bohn and Brandon Sosna reached out to Riley’s camp long before actually hiring him on November 28, 2021), but was certainly executed abruptly on that late-November weekend.
Kegan Reneau, on The Riley Files, talked about the changes in the way Riley perceived the central meaning and value of loyalty — in relationship to Oklahoma and in relationship to his coaching staff, among other entities.
“He’s loyal to an extent, right? If he was as big a loyalist as I’ve made it seem, he’s probably still the head coach of the university of Oklahoma.
“It’s interesting. I think Lincoln was at a place in his career when he became the head coach at Oklahoma where he felt like he owed it to a lot of people. By the time — or just before — Lincoln left Oklahoma, he kind of felt like Oklahoma owed it to him. When you have that flip of perspective and yet you leave and, within 24 hours of leaving, you’ve told everyone on the Oklahoma staff that if they wanna follow you, you have a job with them.”
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