People who look at every quote from a coach at the start of the early signing period — or on national signing day in February — are often eager to assign a great and important meaning to each quote.
Oh, that quote was for Ohio State. Oh, that quote was directed at Tennessee or Georgia. You know the drill.
On Wednesday, Lincoln Riley made a comment which could very easily be construed as a subtweet and a pointed poke at a rival coach, but in reality, it’s simply a case of a coach reiterating a regular theme.
Lincoln Riley is a big-picture-oriented coach. All of the different processes that go into the larger pursuit of victory are important, but they’re important in connection to winning. They aren’t end goals in and of themselves. They serve the larger goal of winning. Riley isn’t dismissive of the various components of a program; he’s merely emphasizing that they serve the ultimate goal: championships.
Same message he had last year at this time. https://t.co/6xA5jUMHGR
— Shotgun Spratling (@ShotgunSpr) December 21, 2022
When Riley talks about winning titles and not signing day, he’s not subtweeting Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, who was the big winner on December 21; he’s merely saying something he said a year ago.
It’s just Riley reiterating his mantras and points of emphasis. It’s not a dig or a jab or playing politics.
Sorry, conspiracy theorists.
[mm-video type=video id=01gm9qwfp301nx1fxmsa playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gm9qwfp301nx1fxmsa/01gm9qwfp301nx1fxmsa-5f1ce800029f353b16aab280fdc8f9aa.jpg]
[listicle id=54551]