USC football is going through a rough time. Other fan bases and analysts across the country are making note of it. You can imagine what Oklahoma football fans and bloggers are saying right now about Lincoln Riley and the Trojans, but they’re also noting how Brent Venables and his recruiting strategy stand in contrast to what Riley is doing in Los Angeles.
Sooners Wire wrote this earlier in the week:
“I can’t imagine that there could be a setting that we could build a better roster than we can here,” Riley said just months after leaving Norman for L.A.
Two days, two losses for USC. This is also coming on the heels of the cancellation of their future home-and-home series with Ole Miss. A few weeks ago, a report from Saturday Down South revealed Riley and the Trojans tried for months to get their series with the LSU Tigers canceled. That certainly didn’t quiet the “Lincoln Riley is afraid of the SEC” narrative.
What this week’s developments do for Oklahoma fans is highlight the successes of Brent Venables’ recruiting strategy. Venables is focused on and committed to building up the entire program, not just the offense. His predecessor was, and still is, among the best in the business at recruiting quarterbacks and wide receivers. But Riley has never been able to see his teams consistently play complimentary football for long stretches of the season.
Riley has to show his skeptics — at Oklahoma and elsewhere — that he and the USC program really have changed. USC just has to channel its anger and frustration at LSU and the other 11 opponents it will face in the fall. There’s no time to get angry at Oklahoma writers. It’s not as though skepticism isn’t warranted to a certain degree at USC. The Trojans have to prove they are different. That’s just the way it is.
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