Lincoln Riley: How he got to USC and its incredibly shady.
I think we can all agree that Lincoln Riley’s word is as valuable as a winter coat in July. So please excuse me when I call bullshit on his claim that USC officials reached out to him only after Oklahoma’s loss in Bedlam. I want to prefix this that the piece for which you are about to read is purely hypothetical, however I have come to believe that USC officials reached out to Riley in January of 2021 and a deal was struck by September at the latest. Below are some important dates to keep in mind.
06/10/2020: USC ends disassociation with Reggie Bush, thus ending the last of the sanctions from the USC recruiting scandal.
12/18/2020: USC loses the Pac-12 championship at home to Oregon
12/30/2020: Oklahoma defeats Florida to give Lincoln Riley his first bowl win in the Cotton Bowl
06/15/2021: The state of California reopens stadiums for full capacity
07/30/2021: Texas and Oklahoma announce plans to move to the SEC, agree to play 75-80 million to Big 12 in buyout
09/11/2021: USC loses to Stanford
09/12/2021: Clay Helton is fired, given 12 million dollar buyout
11/27/2021: Oklahoma loses to Oklahoma State ending any possibility of playoff appearance of New Years Six bowl game.
11/28/2021: Riley introduced as new Head Coach of USC
I think its fair to say that Lincoln Riley’s contract at USC will be within the range of 95-110 million dollars. Comparable to the deals received by Mel Tucker, James Franklin, Ed Orgeron and Dabo Swinney. However no institution proposes and finalizes a deal of that magnitude over night. Below will be a breakdown of how the Riley deal went down from my perspective and why USC needs to be investigated for tampering.
Rumors about USC moving on from Clay Helton have been surfacing since at least 2018. Helton’s lack luster season and loss to Iowa in the Holiday Bowl in 2019 stocked the flames calling for his time to end in southern California. Helton has lacked an ability to win both on the field and with recruiting. Top prospects from California have fled to the powerhouses that are Alabama and Ohio State. USC quite frankly have been middle of the pact for sometime. However Helton was given one last shot but losing the Pac-12 title to Oregon was the final straw in my opinion. USC was ready for change. There were a few issues. USC wasn’t a popular destination, bigger jobs had opened up and quite frankly there wasn’t a lot of great candidates to choose from. The biggest moves was Texas hiring Steve Sarkisian, Auburn hiring Bryan Harsin and Boise State hiring Andy Avalos. As you can see, there wasn’t a lot of options for USC that would be a significant step up from Helton.
Thus I believe USC sent out feelers to a bunch of different coaches. I suspect they inquired with Riley, Kliff Kingsbury as he had been the OC at USC for a brief moment before getting the Arizona Cardinals job, Chris Petersen due to his success in Washington, Harsin who was offered a better job at Auburn and Urban Meyer who would take the Jacksonville Jaguar job. I believe Petersen had no interest in coaching so Riley was the best and only option left. Riley who was coming off of the Cotton Bowl win was riding on a high. Everyone was predicting a national championship for Oklahoma and yet another Heisman quarterback in Spencer Rattler. However Oklahoma lost a lot of talent in the offseason. Rhamondre Stevenson, Ronnie Perkins, Adrian Ealy, Creed Humphrey, Tre Brown and Tre Norwood would all leave for the NFL and wide receiver Charleston Rambo would depart for the Miami Hurricanes. It was okay as Oklahoma typically faces a cupcake schedule and Riley with another successful season could negotiate his own huge extension. USC was an after thought at this point. Riley was in prime position to negotiate an extension. He had three playoff appearances and four Big 12 titles. Then the bombshell announcement dropped. Oklahoma was heading to the SEC and with the move went Riley’s hopes of a massive extension. Until that SEC money hits the Sooners account, Oklahoma was gonna be out a lot of money. There was no extension coming anytime soon. Fast forward to the beginning of the season, Oklahoma was No. 2 in the country. However the hidden cracks soon became exposed at the hands of Tulane. A poor performance with a shocking revelation. He doesn’t have his receivers anymore. Yes he had Marvin Mims but his other guy in Rambo was gone. Riley always had at least two threats. Sterling Shepard and Dede Westbrook or Westbrook and Mark Andrews. Hollywood Brown and CeeDee Lamb. Now there was only one and that might remain a constant having to compete against the SEC in recruiting.
On the other side, USC had a less than impressive win against San Jose State University. That’s when it was agreed to reach out to Riley again. I truly believe that on September 11th, after Oklahoma blew out Western Carolina and USC lost to Stanford at home, USC called their booster club to raise money for Riley while agreeing to fire Helton. If they didn’t have a plan in place and they just wanted to get rid of Helton, USC should’ve fired him on Sunday but they waited till Monday. Here’s where things get hypothetical but this is what I believe. USC and Riley had a verbal agreement on Saturday night, ensuring Riley would be the head coach of the trojans once Oklahoma was eliminated from playoff contention. On Sunday, USC officials met to figure out Helton’s buyout clause while Riley met with his staff for which he would plan to take with him to USC. Riley held a backdoor meeting with his top officials to get their contracts in order, to get their recruits to switch to USC and to plan out their escape in order for his men to get their home lives in order as far as housing and schooling for their children.
On Monday, Helton is fired. If we took anything away from the LSU hiring search is that its loud and speculative. Yet USC, one of the biggest brands in college football, a team in the heart of Los Angeles, in one of the biggest media markets of the world says nothing. The job got barely any media coverage. The media had three jobs on a silver platter to debate about. LSU, Florida and Miami. Who’s getting fired, who’s getting hired? We heard every name attached to LSU. Riley, Jimbo Fisher, Dave Aranda, Billy Napier, etc. Crickets at USC. I think USC used their media connections to keep the job quiet, to ensure Riley’s name never got brought up so no one could block the move. Think about it, what names came up for USC? Jeff Fisher? Lane Kiffin? Names with no chance and no traction. The week after their blowout win, Oklahoma played like trash against Nebraska, only coming out with a one score game in a tightly fought contest. I would call it a fluke if they didn’t have similar experiences against Kansas State, West Virginia, Texas, Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State and a loss to Baylor. USC traveled up to Washington State that week. What team fires a coach on a Monday, knowing they have to fly out five days later? Oklahoma played the opening game of the weekend. I see USC sending their officials who typically stay back on road trips to Norman to finalize contracts that night with Riley and fly back before anyone started asking questions. Then when Oklahoma lost Bedlam, it was time to execute their plan. Riley was out before the sun rose.
To compound this claim, reports of Oklahoma assistant coach Roy Manning recruiting on behalf of USC have come out over the weekend. A slue of Oklahoma commits from the west coast have recommitted to USC, just in time for early signing day on December 15. Here’s how I see it. Riley wanted money and Oklahoma spent it to join the SEC. Riley had no guarantees heading into the most challenging portion of his career. USC just got rid of the black cloud that has overshadowed the trojan program for about two decades. The Pac-12 is vulnerable with Oregon being shaky at best and Utah having to replace retiring head coach Kyle Whittingham. USC provides big money, big recruiting and a easy road to the playoffs. Riley provides the buzz that fills seats and the pedigree that fills win columns. At the first sight of trouble, Riley dipped. At least ask yourself this if you’re doubtful. Why would USC tolerate Clay Helton after all this time, give him endless opportunities just to fire him after two games for which he won one? Helton needed to be gone so Riley could come as soon as Oklahoma’s season was over and USC didn’t know when that was gonna be.
Whether you like it or not, he left. I believe every person should be able to choose where they want to go and to go after opportunities to advance their life and the lives of their families. However young men and their families pledged the next four years of their lives to Lincoln and to not even have the curtesy to be a man, to look these young men in the eye and tell them the truth. To skip town with the riches made of the back of those men, to have Bob Stoops who gave up his dream so his school could keep you have to clean up your messes. It is disturbingly sad. Perhaps USC will be back under Riley but his reputation is rubbish and as a lover of football. A lover of college football, both USC and Riley need to be investigated because I don’t feel I’m far off from the truth and it sickens me. I guess some people never change their stripes, they just do a really good job at hiding them. Boomer Sooner.
