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Sport in Seriousness
Former Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley seemed like a possible contender for the LSU job that eventually went to Brian Kelly. Or was he?
Riley, now at USC, is scheduled to face the Tigers in Las Vegas on Sunday, bringing back a memory of the night in the 2021 season after the Sooners lost to in-state rival Oklahoma State. The game ended hours before he accepted the job with the Trojans.
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There was speculation that Riley might be in the running for the high-profile SEC job that became vacant after LSU fired Ed Orgeron midseason. But as we now know, Riley was set on the USC job. That same night, LSU reporters had traveled to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to ask Riley about the LSU rumors. Riley was even asked after the game if he would take the LSU job.
At the time, Riley was considered one of the best college football coaches in the country, having led the Sooners to three College Football Playoff appearances and coaching two Heisman Trophy winners.
Here’s a look back at the rumors about Riley’s transfer to LSU and how he ended up at USC:
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Lincoln Riley and the rumors about LSU, revisited
Leading up to Oklahoma’s loss to Oklahoma State in the final game of the regular season, rumors of Riley transferring to LSU increased and eventually led to him being asked about his possible interest in the job.
“No, I will not be the next head coach of LSU,” Riley said.
Technically, Riley didn’t lie, but he didn’t necessarily tell the truth about his next move, as it was reported that Riley would take the job at USC the next morning.
The reporter asked Riley a follow-up question about the future of Oklahoma government.
“Don’t worry about our administration, our AD, our president,” Riley said. “We’ve been through a lot together. This isn’t our first rodeo together. So we’re always having conversations about the future and of course all the things that are changing right now in the higher education landscape, all of that is preparing for change.”
“For us, that means transitioning to a new conference at some point. We’re always going to have conversations about that, and we’re going to have them every year, no matter what. We’re all trying to make this place and this program better, and that can’t be done without working together and sharing. So of course we’re going to continue to do that. We work well together and we’ll continue to work well together.”
The week before the game, Riley was asked about his job in his weekly press conference.
“There’s nothing to do,” Riley said. “It’s simple. I coach the University of Oklahoma football team. You know how I feel about this place and this program. We’ve all been down this road many times. You know where I stand on this, and that hasn’t changed.”
Riley maintained that his decision to leave Oklahoma and go to USC came in the hours after Bedlam this season, noting it in writing in The Player’s Tribune. He said he had no contact with USC until after the game, which ended around midnight Sunday morning.
“Everything that happened next was a blur,” Riley wrote. “I spoke with USC officials via Zoom, informed our athletic director Joe Castiglione of my decision, and then, in one of the most difficult moments of my life and career, I stood in front of our Oklahoma team to tell them I was leaving. I saw the immediate consequences of my decision on the faces of our players.”
“I was truly appalled at the timing as our team had just suffered a tough loss, but recent college football rule changes impacting the recruiting cycle certainly affected the timeline and made a difficult transition even more difficult. Shortly after that meeting, USC announced the news and my family and I headed to Los Angeles.”
Lincoln Riley tried to avoid a duel with LSU
Now Riley faces LSU and USC, one of the top matchups in Week 1 of the college football season. But it almost didn’t happen.
Earlier in the offseason, Saturday Down South reported that USC had been trying to pull out of the game against the Tigers for nearly two years because Riley didn’t want to play. The USC administration tried to pull out of the game even after hiring former Washington athletic director Jen Cohen, the report added.
Another source told Saturday Down South that “more than 10 games” would have to be changed to accommodate USC’s wishes. The report also added that Riley, who is represented by the same agent as Kelly, even asked him to convince Kelly for LSU to cancel the game for another opponent.
