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All eyes on Brian Kelly, Lincoln Riley heading into 2022

It wasn’t that long ago many thought then Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley could be Baton Rouge bound. During the Bedlam game against Oklahoma State, the Cowboys even played “Callin’ Baton Rouge” during a timeout to troll their rivals. Following the game, Riley emphatically denied the rumors he was taking the LSU job.

He was right. Riley was heading to Los Angeles to take the USC Trojans head coaching gig. Shortly after the announcement, it was reported LSU was hiring Brian Kelly as its next head coach. It was an unprecedented moment in college football for both schools.

The two head coaches left top 10 head coaching gigs for arguably top five head coaching gigs. We hadn’t seen coaches leave top jobs such as Oklahoma and Notre Dame for other jobs. These schools weren’t seen as stepping stones, but the two coaches who led their teams to multiple College Football Playoff appearances left for what they believed were greener pastures.

Whether fair or not, Riley and Kelly will be connected. They are even going to face each other. USC and LSU are set to play each other in 2024 in Las Vegas to kick off the season. While that is down the road, the two coaches are among the top storylines for the 2022 season. Bill Connelly of ESPN (subscription required) listed the duo among his top storylines.

We’ll probably see a few more moves like this in the coming years, as the coaching carousel continues to trend wackier and the universe adapts to a sudden and ridiculous increase in already ridiculous salaries for coaches. But while we wait to see what other moves come about, we’ll actually watch a Riley USC team and a Kelly LSU squad in action soon. Riley is overseeing some massive turnover on the USC depth chart — to such a degree that it will be hard to set expectations for quite a while — while Kelly is in charge of an LSU team fighting major attrition. Who finds his footing faster? Who maybe finds himself under early pressure when his massive new salary doesn’t immediately procure massive results?

Both coaches have gone about building their teams in a similar fashion, they have the No. 1 (LSU) and No. 2 (USC) ranked teams in the transfer portal. The Tigers have added 11 players through the portal while the Trojans have added 12. LSU has 13 high school commits to USC’s eight. Joining late in the process for the 2022 class, both head coaches realized the path to competing this year would be through a loaded transfer portal.

Watching both situations will be must-watch television in 2022.

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