Former Oklahoma Sooners football head coach and the current head coach of the USC Trojans, [autotag]Lincoln Riley[/autotag], has lost two major commitments on the defensive side of the ball this week.
First, it was five-star EDGE [autotag]Isaiah Gibson[/autotag], who recommitted from Southern Cal on Tuesday. Gibson was ranked as the number one edge-rusher in the [autotag]2025 recruiting class[/autotag], according to On3. The Georgia native had been committed to Riley and defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn since March.
Wednesday wasn’t better for Riley, as Gibson spoke about his decommittment, saying “I’m looking for a real deal football program that fits me.” Not exactly what a program wants to hear after a player decommits.
The hits kept coming for the Trojans, as five-star defensive lineman Justus Terry would decommit on Wednesday. The number two defensive lineman in the ’25 class per On3, Terry had also been committed to Riley and Lynn since March.
“…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 [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]’ 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.
Oklahoma was a [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag] team three straight times when Riley was the head coach, losing in the semifinals each year. Only in the 2018 Rose Bowl was Oklahoma truly competitive. The following two seasons ended with blowout losses in the semis. The Sooners had the offense to get the job done, but lacked the defense and overall physicality to tangle with the SEC. The next two seasons, OU missed the playoff entirely. They failed to make the conference title game in Riley’s last season.
When Riley left in late 2021, Venables was hired to change that. The Sooners had gotten away from what their DNA had always been. Venables has in no way completed the journey, but is building the team in a much more holistic way.
Offensive talent acquisition hasn’t suffered in any way without Riley in town. [autotag]Jackson Arnold[/autotag], [autotag]Nic Anderson,[/autotag] [autotag]Jayden Gibson[/autotag], [autotag]Gavin Sawchuk[/autotag] and [autotag]Jovantae Barnes[/autotag] are all recruits that never played a snap under the previous regime. They signed to play for Venables and the current regime. [autotag]Andrel Anthony[/autotag] and [autotag]Deion Burks[/autotag] are transfers that were added by this staff as well. Oklahoma is deep at the skill positions on offense, Riley’s specialty.
Defense, however, is where Venables has a clear mismatch over Riley. Oklahoma’s defense wasn’t up to Venables’ standards last season, but it was still the best overall defense the Sooners have had since [autotag]Bob Stoops[/autotag] was leading the charge.
Venables has had his misses. Oklahoma couldn’t land [autotag]David Hicks[/autotag] or [autotag]Williams Nwaneri[/autotag]. But getting [autotag]Damonic Williams[/autotag] in the boat via the [autotag]transfer portal[/autotag] and signing [autotag]David Stone[/autotag] and [autotag]Jayden Jackson[/autotag] among others in the [autotag]2024 recruiting class[/autotag] have been some big hits in recent months for this staff. Those are two moves Riley couldn’t dream of making.
Venables’ unique policy when it comes to a commitment is also paying dividends. He requires players to shut down their recruitment upon commitment, a policy that has faced significant criticism. It was met with raised eyebrows when Venables brought it over with him from his days under Dabo Swinney, but it’s working at OU.
Oklahoma has had a total of seven decommitments in the last three seasons if you remove players that decommitted when Riley jumped ship. According to 247Sports, [autotag]Jaden Nickens[/autotag] is the only current decommit from the 2025 class. [autotag]Dozie Ezukanma[/autotag] and JUCO transfer Danny Saili were the only decommitments from the 2024 cycle. The 2023 class gets a bit murkier, but [autotag]Kaleb Spencer[/autotag], [autotag]Colton Vasek[/autotag], [autotag]Ashton Cozart[/autotag], and [autotag]Anthony Evans[/autotag] all had unique reasons for choosing to play elsewhere.
Since that time, Saili is on his third team since decommitting from the Sooners. Ezukanma got caught up in a numbers game at OU, who signed four receivers in the 2024 class. Cozart, who signed the Oregon Ducks out of high school is now with the SMU Mustangs. Spencer spent one season with Miami. He’s since relocated to Virginia Tech.
Ezukanma, Evans, and Vasek are the only players who have stuck with the school they flipped to from Oklahoma.
At USC, the number of decommitments balloons to 14 players in the last three seasons. Eight of those players were from the defensive side of the ball. This is not a problem specific to USC either, as Riley was known to lose some big commitments at OU, especially in his later days in Norman.
Venables’ policy may not be liked by all, but it does seem to be working better than what Oklahoma’s previous coach was and is doing. It’s impressive, considering Riley is trying to convince players to come to Los Angeles, California, and Venables is trying to convince players to come to Norman, Oklahoma.
We’ve seen what it looks like when a one-dimensional offensive team makes the CFP semifinals. Riley is still trying to overcome the narrative that he can’t field a defense. Though it will continue to take time, Venables is hyper-focused on improving every part of the roster, every year. Oklahoma has averaged more than 39 points per game on offense each of Venables’ first two seasons in Norman. The defense, which lost five starters to the NFL and one as a grad transfer from the 2021 team improved nearly a touchdown a game from 2022 to 2023.
Patience will be important with Venables, but so will results. The staff believes that the program is now trending in the right direction heading into the SEC, after they had to strip it down to the studs in 2022.
It may take longer, but building the roster the right way, focusing on every single position on offense, defense and special teams, will be a better course of action in the long run. Complimentary and holistic offensive and defensive football will be the only way Oklahoma will truly be able to compete for national championships again. Physicality, toughness, and discipline are returning to Owen Field.
Oklahoma had hit a ceiling with the Lincoln Riley method of doing things. He was focused on offense, QBs and putting up 35 points a game. While no one expected Riley’s departure, the Sooners are clearly in a far better position now than they were in the final two years of Riley’s tenure.
As Venables continues to have success on the recruiting trail, college football’s coming to the realization that Oklahoma is better off.
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