[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz7cqqgxy50qwt player_id=none image=https://soonerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
And just like that, he was gone.
Seemingly, in the blink of an eye, the Oklahoma Sooners went from being eliminated from Big 12 and playoff contention to losing their head coach to the USC Trojans. We here at the Sooners Wire were continuing our Bedlam coverage when the news that shocked the college football world came through.
A matter of hours after losing to Bedlam, the USC Trojans and Lincoln Riley had a deal in place to lure him away from the Oklahoma Sooners. There’s no way a deal with Lincoln Riley could have come together as quickly as it did without discussions behind the scenes. And that’s what happens.
Per a Los Angeles Times Story from J. Brady McCollough and Ryan Kartje, representation for Lincoln Riley had been in discussions with USC Athletic Director Mike Bohn for months.
Conversations with representation for Riley and other candidates carried on throughout the season, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions who were not authorized to speak on the record. Bohn and Sosna had once before considered Riley, then-Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator, when conducting their last coaching search at Cincinnati, but ultimately landed on Luke Fickell, whose name was also regularly connected to USC’s search. – McCollough and Kartje, L.A. Times
Though Riley might not have been directly involved in those conversations throughout the Oklahoma Sooners season, it’s clear now that he was considering a move while the Sooners were fighting for their Big 12 and College Football Playoff lives.
There’s zero chance his representation talks with USC without Riley’s permission and there’s zero chance his representation doesn’t relay the information back to Riley.
Which makes this move all the more difficult to swallow. Whether he realizes it or not, Riley was distracted. His team rarely looked right. And while some of that was on execution, it’s up to the coaching staff to help their players execute and play sound football. The Sooners struggled to do that this year.
Consciously or subconsciously, Lincoln Riley wasn’t locked in on 2021. He might have been coaching the Sooners as well as he could, but he was having an emotional affair with the USC Trojans along the way. His flirtations, through his representation, are a betrayal that won’t quickly be forgotten in Oklahoma and across Sooners Nation.
For a guy who was coaching at East Carolina before getting the Oklahoma Sooners offensive coordinator job and then handed the keys to the OU kingdom by Bob Stoops, his lack of loyalty is as disappointing as his performance as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners in 2021.
Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.