This weekend Lincoln Riley made the remarkable decision to leave Oklahoma and become the head football coach at USC.
One main factor went into Riley’s decisions, but the financial incentivization that was provided obviously didn’t hurt.
Among the perks that were reportedly offered:
Nobody can really blame Riley for his decision to ditch the Sooners, but the way he went about it definitely left something to be desired. His manner of handling himself is why this one-word sign went up at Oklahoma after his exit, not the fact that he left.
On Tuesday Riley began making his media rounds. Along the way, he awkwardly got busted in a lie during an interview with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt.
“Very early Sunday morning,” Riley said, when pressed on when he first spoke to the Trojans. “USC engaged with some interest and wanted to have a conversation and honestly Scott, that’s the first conversation at any point in my time at Oklahoma that I’d ever had with another football team.”
But then “Sunday” became “Saturday.”
“To be honest, it was a little bit of a blur,” Riley said.
“We got home, played Saturday night, early Sunday morning. And got the information from USC that there was some real interest.
“So I talked a little bit about it early that morning, slept a couple hours. Got a chance to jump on a Zoom with some of our university leadership and kind of talked through what this might be. It came together quickly. And to be honest in this day and age in college football it kind of has to. That’s just the way of the world right now.”
Obviously Riley isn’t the first coach to depart his program in a dubious way. There’s a fair case to be made that Brian Kelly’s move from Notre Dame to LSU was handled even more dishonestly.
But people don’t forget. And when you get that Urban Meyer-esque smarmy reputation, it’s hard to shake.
Will Riley ultimately come to regret how he handled this entire situation? Time will tell.
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