We joined our friend Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football for a special Big Ten media days review segment. It’s not a full show, just a 13-minute hit on Big Ten media days and what we learned from it. The big epiphany for me, personally, was that national media personalities in the college football world seem to distrust Lincoln Riley on a deeper, more reflexive level. It’s not that they don’t know Riley hired some really promising and credentialed new defensive coaches. They’re aware of that. They simply don’t trust that with Riley in charge of the whole operation, there will be ultimate accountability at the end of the process.
Translation: National college football commentators think, broadly speaking, that Lincoln Riley can hire as many defensive coaches as he wants to. It won’t matter, because Lincoln Riley has historically not gotten results out of his defenses at Oklahoma and USC. Never mind the fact that Alex Grinch is responsible for nearly all of those bad defenses; national media aren’t convinced that pivoting away from Grinch will even matter.
Here’s our full segment at The Voice of College Football:
Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire. Follow our newest sites, UW Huskies Wire and UCLA Wire.
Check out more NFL draft coverage with the USA TODAY Sports NFL Draft Hub.