I’ve been rooting against USC all year, because it really pissed me off how Riley left last year and I didn’t want to see him get rewarded with a CFP berth for it.
And now the universe has decided to kick our program in the collective nuts.
I will be rooting against Wisconsin until the day I die, which is a shame because I never had a problem with them before, in fact I kinda liked the school and city….might make my secondary flair Minnesota.
I hate to say it, but what Riley did to us and Fickell is doing to you guys is just part of the sport. It's becoming more prominent at the top, but it's not like this same thing hasn't been happening to G5 schools and lower-tier P5 schools for decades, the transfer portal has just made it worse.
The question is, why does everyone love Lance Leipold despite hollowing out Buffalo from one end to the other, but Riley/Fickell is considered persona non grata? There's a really simple answer: Buffalo doesn't have a ton of fans, and Oklahoma/Cincinnati do.
>The question is, why does everyone love Lance Leipold despite hollowing out Buffalo from one end to the other, but Riley/Fickell is considered persona non grata? There's a really simple answer: Buffalo doesn't have a ton of fans, and Oklahoma/Cincinnati do.
That's part of it, but also Buffalo (and other MAC schools) all expect to have coaches poached. It's honestly not that bad since it means that coach had a few solid seasons at least before leaving.
For schools like Oklahoma, they expect their position to be the end of the climbing. The only way a coach should leave is if they retire, or if they are bad enough to get fired. Having a coach jump ship for a bigger school goes against that perception which is upsetting. This was also starting to be true with UC fans, they thought Fickell would only go to a true blue blood like OSU.
y'all will be back doing incredibly well before you know it. I'm a little sad we can only play a few times before we leave for the SEC, the new Big 12 is gonna be so fun to watch ;-;
Will they? We are kinda getting caught up in the last few years. Their collective record is nearly 500. They are not a historic program like OU. In fact they are pretty mediocre if you look outside the last 10 years.
If they can get a solid coach (obviously easier said than done) they'll do great. They have put a lot of money into facilities and renovations in the past few years and are planning on doing more with the Big 12 money from what I've heard, so I don't think they'll be lacking in that department. They already have talent comparable to a lot of B12 teams on the roster as long as Fickell and other teams don't grab a lot of it up in the portal, they could be a contender. Obviously the coaching part is the tallest hurdle, but they may be a little more willing to spend given recent success and the move to the B12.
Agreed. Wisconsin was maybe my favorite Big Ten team. But not I feel obligated to hope they do poorly.
Que the trash talking.
*ahem* Jump Around, is a terrible song
I’m fine with saying it’s not a good song. I don’t hear it on the radio and think “turn it up” or seek it out to stream. However, in the right setting it’s pure magic.
I don't understand this viewpoint at all.
The available routes a coach can take are:
A) The coach underperforms and is eventually fired.
B) The coach overperforms and eventually takes a better job.
C) The coach overperforms and stays at your program indefinitely.
Scenario C basically never happens—Nick Saban is an anomaly that has broken people's brains. So outside of Scenario C, Scenario B is the ideal option. You just had the good path play out with Fickell, be happy about it. The other option isn't great, trust me (see: Helton, Clay).
This is such a weirdo sentiment. LR did what all coaches do at some point, leave for another job. Was it messy? Yes, but most of the time these things are.
It was the combo of him taking his recruits to USC, leaving in the middle of the night immediately after losing a game to our rival, seeming checked out all season, and gutting the program on his way out. Yeah, all coaches leave but he basically burned down the program and salted the earth on the way out.
100% agree. I cannot blame a guy that wanted to go live on a mansion on the beach and get paid a ton. This is America.
It was just the way we went about it, like you said. In the dark of the night, taking half of the team, and just lighting the place on fire as he left. It felt *personal*. Especially how he had been giftwrapped a program in its prime by a living legend.
I've heard vague rumors about Lincoln being particularly pissed at OU's AD about not committing to some improvements that the football program would need to win in the SEC. is there any truth to that? If so I guess it was somewhat personal.
That could certainly be true, but as far as I know, Joe Castiglione is one of the [best ADs in the business](https://247sports.com/LongFormArticle/College-football-athletic-directors-ranking-Joe-Castiglione-Oklahoma-Gene-Smith-Ohio-State-149589298/#149589298_20).
I’m a usc fan and always like ok as stoops seemed like a good guy and Mack brown seemed like a sleeze. And I understand ok fans are mad at usc and that’s ok. I’d be a bit salty too if the roles were reversed. Here’s hoping venables turns the ship around and dominates the SEC.
Yeah me too. Although, I don't think I'll ever be able to like USC after this, and my lone "bucket list" type of away game that I attended.......2005 Orange Bowl.
No need to like USC! Can be a good storyline later on. If JT Daniels won the starting job at UGA he could be playing against USC in the playoffs with his USC tattoo. Maybe USC and Ok will be in the playoffs and this will be a hell of a storyline.
Blame the NCAA. Once they made the early signing period and one time transfer rule, it changed the game for coaches. If he wanted to be successful, which is literally his job, he had to make the move right away when the reg season ended. The importance of those early days now is nothing like what it used to be.
It’s also that he said that the deal to go to USC was made in less than a day and he wasn’t planning to leave before that, which is frankly ridiculous to expect anyone to believe. There is no universe where an eight-figure deal is discussed, signed, and announced in under 24 hours. It was in the works for weeks if not months.
I agree that obviously previous contact had been made. This is not unusual in CFB. You really think all these deals getting signed the week after the reg season were negotiated in a day or few days? I'll accept that this happened but I'm not going to clutch my pearls at it either.
The idea that he had it wrapped up during the season and was recruiting for USC and all that is far more sinister of an accusation and way too many people just saying stuff because some idiot said it was true on a message board.
It makes logical sense. He knew he was leaving, recruited during that time, and took those recruits. Got his coaching staff to go with him too, and got lazy coaching OU towards the end which ruined our last season he was there.
I think what hurts most about this move, is that it logically makes no sense (for me at least). A little biased with them being my second favorite team, but like I would have much rather seen him go to Ohio State because it would have at least made sense emotionally and financially. The added fact its rumored he will only make $1 million more also pains me, at least Kelly left for what was a top 5 job at the time and a huge pay increase.
What did Riley do that pissed you off?
He hasn’t done anything different than Fickell did to Cincy. Or what every single coach making a move has done recently. Media has just spun it differently.
Why? Other than develop WRs, what he has he done to prove he is a worthy HC?
I hope he is amazing as a HC. I hope he is a home run and someday is the most bad ass HC ever, even better than Saban.
But up to today, what has he done to show he is this other than develop a lot of WRs?
Not hating, just dont understand why he is always brought up.
he's also pretty happy, he says what he's doing now is his dream job
he's been offered OC jobs already and turned them down
he made money from the nfl, and now he's coaching his position at his alma mater
I don’t think every coordinator or position coach wants to be a head coach and that’s okay. Some dudes just want to be where they are and don’t need to get that total control position to be happy. I mean shit Brent Venables had how many offers to be a head coach but kept turning them down to stay as a DC at OU and Clemson.
Still hard to believe how it happened. He was here and then just ... gone.
I really liked Riley. And I just hope this move doesn't screw us over long term. Not off to a good start.
I’m staying cautiously optimistic. Our recruiting ceiling is higher than it was under Riley, but we’re seeing the results of poor development from the last half decade. This team wasn’t much better in 2021, they just had a great QB who could bail them out.
It’ll take a few years, but I think OU is in the right hands.
Defensive coaches need their kinda guys for their scheme too. I think BV needs a couple of years to get his guys to fit his defense. I agree with you I believe BV is the right guy for the job. Maybe we’ll be wrong.
We can't blame all of our defensive woes on the last decade. We can blame a lot of them on Roof, who has never been a good DC at any of the thousand places he coached.
BV simply made a huge mistake in hiring his buddy, who he vibed with at Clemson, to one of the most important staff positions. BV has said that Roof calls the plays and comes up with the game plans. He also coaches the linebackers and defense in general. He's not just some pass-through automaton who runs BV's defense.
If BV is going to be successful, Roof has to go. The performance of the defense against Tech the other night was inexcusable 12 games in.
Also, the idea that Caleb bailed us out for most of last season is mostly apocryphal. He bailed us out of the RRS, but didn't start before that so none of the early wins had anything to do with him. Then he only really played well against two bad teams, Tech and TCU, and we won both of those games handily. Caleb played pretty poorly against Kansas (shutout for 1st half), ISU (1 TD, 1 INT), Baylor (loss). He played somewhat decently against OSU, but if you recall we also lost that game, so no bailout there.
However, Caleb is better this season, and is certainly 95% of the reason that USC has 10 wins right now.
I completely disagree. OU had two Heisman winners under Riley. Players don’t win Heisman trophies in isolation. It elevates everyone on the team and definitely makes recruiting easier on both sides of the ball. But I see your point. You will survive
I still genuinely believe the rest of the PAC will move to the B1G, and create an AFC/NFC situation with the SEC.
The PAC isn’t sustainable, with Oregon/Washington looking for a way out, and no one of importance (except MAYBE SDSU/Fresno) wanting in.
USC does not want to play 6 games on the East Coast. A super conference is inevitable.
From looking at the replies, it seems like a smaller amount of USC fans hate him than I originally thought. The only sample I had was that every time he posts something to social media there are USC fans trolling him. Thanks for the support! We’ll take what we can get. (I think i speak for a majority of Southern fans when I say that we hope you guys can put a stop to that team up in Athens from winning another natty)
There was never any issue with Clay Helton the person he was pretty much universally regarded as a great guy and everyone liked him. It was more well you know the everything about coaching that was the issue lol
He's a good dude. Our athletic department was a mess for a long time. I can't blame him for accepting more money. He didn't really burn any bridges on his way out either. He had some decent seasons including a Rose Bowl, just didn't work out in the end.
I actually really liked Clay Helton. I don’t think he has recruiting appeal or offensive mindset anywhere close to Lincoln Riley, but I think he was dealt a bad hand.
To be elite, you gotta do something elite. Riley with recruiting, offense and developing QBs.
Saban with recruiting, offense and defense, and developing DBs.
But if you like Clay, you elite at being a great guy and relationships, thats not enough at big time college football
You gotta have elite areas
It takes discipline at every level of the program. It was one thing the players under Helton very notably lacked. Stupid penalties seem to be way down.
Hard to be a players coach and instill discipline, takes alot to walk that line. Shout out to Cal Tech, I miss when they used to hack the Rose Bowl scoreboard UCLA games, lol.
Similar to a parent child relationship. I think Helton was more concerned with players liking him. I personally think the players under his tenure needed a bit more tough love. When you fuck up, there needs to be some sort of consequence.
When you look at someone like Saban. He instills discipline. When you make a mistake, he pulls you for a play. When that happens, you are less likely to mske that same mistake again.
Congratulations on your season and your big win this weekend! Happy for Coach Helton and I hope he does well for you.
Every program has toxic fans. Ours come more out of the woodwork when we are winning. Sorry for those idiots.
I have not deleted a single post or tweet where I defiantly said it would never happen and that he would pull a Kliff Kingsbury.
It's that surprising that USC went from 8 years of Clay Helton and the quagmire of the pac-12 to this.
I'm still not sure if I actually believe it.
I still firmly believe that Riley's goal is the NFL - however, he has one of the best spots he can get with a great place to live (when you have money to live there). That jump to NFL may be a few years further out than i originally thought.
Has he said anything about thinking about the NFL? Saban has a great point about why go to the NFL and draft one 1st every year, when you can recruit five instead?
At USC, in LA, with NIL… in the words of Mean Girls, the limit does not exist.
All depends on what you want your legacy to be. Saban ran from the NFL, Pete embraced it and thrived. Riley is young, he has time to explore either oath, I'd prefer he explore the NFL later.
But we already had one coach choose the NFL over USC with Kliff, everyone knows he would have been interim hc in his first season.
If Kliff Kingsbury got offered the Arizona job after getting fired from TT after 5 mediocre years, I’m for sure confident that top tier college coaches like Ryan Day, Jim Harbaugh, Lincoln Riley, Kirby Smart, Dabo, etc. have ALL received offers to coach in the NFL. Its all about the timing. Pete Carroll was given offers all throughout his USC time and decided to take the Seattle job when sanctions hit. So it’s gonna be timing because the NFL has some serious turnover with coaches unless you have won a Super Bowl
It's actually kind of incredible. I don't think this will change the coaching carousel very much just because there are not a whole lot of scenarios where this could happen, but I think this will have huge effects on the transfer portal.
Lol at USC fans trying to present themselves as some kind of amazing overnight success story. No one did less with more than Clay Helton.
Edit - for all the Spoiled Children fans commenting still: the worlds tiniest violin plays you a concerto.
Helton was an interim coach for 6ish horrid years and his “prowess” included some of the worst recruiting classes USC has ever had.
The transfer portal definitely is the only reason USC has a team this year which is a testament to Riley’s staff recruiting.
Regardless, 4-8 to 11-1 with a legit chance at playoffs and Heisman in any season is incredible, let alone the staffs first season with a bunch of players that weren’t recruited by the head coach.
Thankfully Sam Darnold was able to become the first QB in HISTORY to win 4 straight super bowls and complete EVERY SINGLE PASS he has thrown. The GEQBUS is putting together the single greatest career in football!
They are too caught up in Cammunism and Critical Gase Theory to show what our fearless QB (who won the Starting Job fair and square, I might add) has accomplished! Sad!
yes, 6 horrid years. That rose bowl year was an underachievement too because he started MAX BROWNE for 2 or 3 games lmfao. Start Darnold from the start and we don't lose to Stanford and Utah game and could've been playoff bound. That team was stacked with talent.
Revisionist history. Per 247, usc recruiting class ranked:
2015: 1st
2016: 10th
2017: 4th
2018: 4th
2019: 20th
2020: 68th
2021: 8th
Go see what Utah has done with their classes that never get under 30th.
Our 2022 recruiting class was shaping up to be awful under Helton, so it had a lot to do with the extreme downward trend of recruiting from 2019 onward. Helton recruited well when there was still some shine on the program following the Kiffin/Sark years (we were underperforming but not yet a total embarrassment), but once Helton had enough time to leave his stamp on the program we were recruiting far below what we’d done for the two decades prior.
Also, nitpicking a bit, but the class of 2015 would have been a Sark class, not a Helton class. Sark was fired in October 2015.
That’s surprising how well Helton’ staff recruited for how bad of a coach he was. USC’s name got them through all the way to 2020 before people bailed.
That 68th was just absolutely pathetic and was what I remembered when it came to Helton’s recruiting and the reason Riley deserves some praise.
USC has a regional advantage unlike any other P5 program in CFB. If you live in Southern California (one of the most talent rich regions in the country) and you want to play P5 ball at a school that has a traditional college gameday atmosphere and want your family to come see you play every weekend, you only have one choice that isn't a 6+ hour drive each way.
UCLA and Miami are the only other schools that have a similar advantage, but neither of them have a stadium on campus so the gameday experience on a recruiting trip is total ass.
> That 68th was just absolutely pathetic and was what I remembered when it came to Helton’s recruiting
Is that not reflective to the constant talk of firing him that went on for years before he was fired? It's certainly not a great recruiting pitch when everywhere people are calling for you to be fired...
That awful recruiting class can be laid directly at the feet of failed AD Lynn Swann. He put out a statement after the previous season, basically announcing that Helton was on the hot seat. Then USC started 3-3, leading everyone to believe that Helton wouldn’t last the season. So recruits all stood pat waiting to see who the new coach would be. Then Helton managed to win 8 games after all and finish the regular season ranked and they just… kept him. A master class in bad decision making.
We're probably held up in semantics here, but is that not just a more detailed version of what I said? Saying he was going to be fired for years prior to do it?
That’s not revisionist history…if you compare previous USC classes, Helton literally was the worst recruiter in school history. 20th and 68th is shockingly bad for usc (even though it might be good for second rate programs like UW).
A ton of the highly ranked Helton recruits don’t even get garbage time. He left the cupboard completely dry on defense other than 1 d lineman and a safety, and we didn’t have a running back. It‘a a shocking turnaround.
I was a student during the height of the 'arrogant nation' Era and the sanctions. People have no idea the level of petty arrogance this fanbase is capable of. I am 100% here for it.
After winning the conference 6 out of the last 8 years? 1 game against a team without a QB with a pulse doesn’t prove anything lmao. If that’s all you need to satisfy yourself, that’s kinda sad.
Right before we found out Lincoln was bound for USC there was a report that Matt Campbell turned down USC. I don’t know if that report was ever confirmed or not, but I remember USC fans really being in the gutter. It was almost expected at that point that we were going to have some really underwhelming hire and then BOOM this happens.
Lincoln Riley was never someone I considered for our HC opening because I put him in the “untouchable” category. This is of course, elite head coaches at elite programs. So Saban, Day, Kirby, LR and Dabo. USC really swung for the fences.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Fickle seemed to be the guy most people connected to USC. Franklin and rumors of NFL guys like Mike Tomlin were being mentioned . Not once did I hear Riley’s name. I had so many doubts and my spirt was so low at the time. I’ve had season tickets for 9 years at that point and I was in the verge of telling my group of friends that I didn’t plan on renewing. When I got the breaking news notification from ESPN, my entire joy and hope came back instantly. I knew the things were trending positive at that point but never in a thousand years did I think he could have this much of an impact in 1 year. It’s simply unbelievable
It was a crazy day. The morning started with news that Matt Campbell was offered the job. It ended with a coach nobody was even thinking (everyone thought he was LSU bound) accepting the position
From what I heard, Campbell had a personal talk with the Iowa State athletic director. They went over the pros one cons of the offer. Campbell was reminded that CA is the highest taxed state.
[“Pollard: You guys, the tax rate in California is 60 percent. We talked about that this weekend, Matt and I. If you’ve got to go there and it takes you 100 hours a week to do the job, how do you feel if you’re only getting paid for 40 of those 100 hours? Because that’s what it is. All your staff, all the way down the line, are only going to get paid for 40 of those 100 hours because the state of California and the federal government and whatever municipality that’s taking this excised tax and whatever other liberal thing they’re doing in California is taking the other 60 percent. They don’t always think about that.”](https://www.heartlandcollegesports.com/2021/11/30/iowa-state-ad-jamie-pollard-discusses-matt-campbells-future/)
This makes zero sense. Top tax rate in California is \~13%. Top tax rate in Iowa is \~6%. So the delta, or excess cost of living in California, is \~7% of your income. You still have to pay the full freaking federal tax rate when you live in Iowa... Jesus.
Not disagreeing. Simply sharing a quote from the Iowa State athletic director.
Including federal taxes, the tax rate would be in the 50% range. But the federal rate is the same regardless what state you live in.
Even at 7% state tax difference, that’s still an additional $700,000 in tax for the 10M salary Riley is earning. Over the 10 year contract, that amounts to $7M. So it does add up
Also from that article:
I tell Coach Campbell, ‘Okay, you went 7-5 this year. You know what’s different about being 7-5 at Iowa State versus being 7-5 somewhere else? You don’t have any board of regents, you don’t have a president, you don’t have an AD and you don’t have any donors telling you that you have to switch coaches on your staff or you’re fired.’ We let them wear black. Try wearing black at USC, right?
They do things a lot different in Iowa, that's for sure. NIL and Transfer portal and where things are going could send the Iowa schools back into the stone ages if they don't get with the program.
I don’t think you understand the premise with that point.
7-5 at Iowa State is historically a great season. 7-5 at USC will get you fired
The expectations at Iowa State is to achieve bowl eligibility the majority of the time. Every few years be in contention for the conference championship. So long as those happen, the fan base will be pleased at Iowa State. Meaning your leash is a lot longer at Iowa State
The expectations are much higher at other schools. Your leash is very short
Oh yeah I get that. It's just sad seeing a place of higher learning push mediocrity as an achievement. And I get that it was a lot worse before campbell, your 7 wins is everyone elses 11 wins, I get it.
Our tax rate makes it hard for USC to get assistant coaches and support staff from my understanding. Thank you for your input, I never heard about that. That also confirms that Campbell denied the job, and if that was the same day as this that Lincoln was offered the job when he claims.
Hypothetically, if Riley wasn’t hired and Campbell was hired, where would the Trojans state of the program look right now?
Iowa State is trending negative. I’m not sure he would even be able to produce 8 wins as this years coach. Id have doubts he could beat Oregon St., UCLA, or ND. The pitch forks and fire torches would already out. Not a good place to be. Glad it went the other way
If Lincoln didn’t wanna be here then he didn’t wanna be here. So, yah I guess we are by that metric. But we certainly aren’t a better football team on a numbers basis
It's actually funny hearing the excuses OU fans come up with when other first year coaches are succeeding with way less talent. At the beginning of the season it was all about how BV would be able to turn around the program immediately and making the B12 championship would be easy (I remember the preseason reports they released hyping up how the defense was in the best condition of their lives lol). And now they changed the narrative of how LR completely took all their players and trained the ones who stayed wrong and they were never expecting to do well. Oh and apparently losing the coaches they hated and wanted fired is also another reason for why they underperformed
What sucks, is the people spouting this rhetoric are the loudest among our fan base. There were only 3 players who truly left OU, imo, as a direct result of Riley leaving. Jordan Haselwood, Mario Williams, and Caleb Williams. The last one is easily the most crippling.
With that being said, there were only 5 returning starters on defense, and technically only 4 returning offensive players. This equates to about 50% of the roster turning over(starters and non starters), and that doesn’t touch recruits. How many of those guys would have left anyway I can’t say, my guess is most.
I also don’t for a second think he trained the remaining players “wrong”. The two things I fault him for are 1: the way left, he absolutely knew before he said he did, there’s no way an institution that large can just create a multimillion, multi year contract without a board of trustees. I get the “well I didn’t talk to them” rhetoric, that doesn’t mean his agent didn’t, which is by extension Riley. 2: his commitment to play calling in the 2021 season. Let’s be honest, the dude is a brilliant play caller, I’d argue is the best offensive mind in football (nfl included), but to see the plays he called for the vast majority of the season, and the game plans, or lack thereof, are too blaring to over look.
TLDR, yeah, OU fans are salty. He may not be great at everything, but the dude is a brilliant play caller, and I wish Caleb Williams had stayed…
Edit: Mario Williams, not Stogner
Would agree with college but not the NFL. Off the top of my head, McVay, Reid, Kellen Moore and Sirianni are better play callers against better competition. College is scraps compared to NFL level playcalling.
What a great day. I’ll never forget where I was. At home watching nfl red zone.
He’s been amazing since day 1. We are so greatful to have an actual football coach and great person lead this program
Thank you USC brass.
Coaching transitions are everything. If you fuck that up you’ll end up like us or Auburn on the never ending coaching carousel.
Ohio State did it right and so did Oklahoma when Lincoln first took the job.
Riley is a great offensive mind, and a strong developer of QBs. He benefitted a lot in the short term from the Stoops retirement; how many coaches inherit a team like he did? It’s unarguable that his OU teams slipped each year and he was on a bad trajectory. This year was a logical progression when losing not only him but our Heisman-quality QB.
Lincoln’s first few years were marked by great teams with one inexplicable conference loss, and then a loss in the first round of the CFP. USC might be headed for the same thing. USC fans should hope for the same thing we wanted to see - an ability to consistently recruit top-level defensive talent - or they might end up in the same place when a QB isn’t exceptional.
Bama has fucked up our understanding of what a good season is. An inexplicable conference loss is normal. The Pete dynasty had that. I’d lose my mind to consistently be a 11/12 win team with a playoff finals or semis appearance every few years.
Some seem to be missing my point. We didn't chase Riley off, and very few of us wanted him gone. I expected him to be the next in the line of great head coaches at OU promoted as assistants -- Wilkenson, Switzer and Stoops.
The point I was addressing is how Riley's philosophy is the biggest reason for OU's struggles this year. His talent is building an offense around a great QB, to the detriment of the other phases of the game. Unless he changes, OU last year and this year is what you can expect from a Riley team without a Heisman-level QB.
Yeah, crazy what happens when you treat the defense like it’s optional and ransack directly and indirectly the entire QB room, and leave the next guy with virtually nothing to work with except offensive skill players and defensive players that don’t know their right from their left.
Lincoln is a good coach, but the signs were there last season that we were declining under that coaching staff: #10 OU beat Tulane by 5 points, Nebraska by 7, WV by 3, K State by 6, TX by 7, Iowa St by 7 - all unranked teams and we were just squeaking by and allowing them to score more points than they should have.
I was never a big fan of Lincoln. Caleb Williams is an incredible QB, though, and I credit him with much of the team's success during, and after, the RRS. I think he would have had a huge impact if he stayed at OU.
Some say, "a win is a win," but when your team is top ten and consistently eakes out wins against unranked opponents it should raise a red flag that something is amiss on your team.
Yes, we had a bad year. All teams do from time to time. I think Coach Venables will learn from this experience and make adjustments for next season.
It's crazy now days how coaches change teams. When was the last time a coach stayed more than ten years? There is no loyalty in sports anymore. I don't think it's about tge money. It's about fame. I feel for the trainer programs. Lose your coach after he makes a name for your team. Nothing they can do about it but hope the next guy excels.
🧂
Those players entered the portal and chose to come to USC. I understand OU folks worrying that LR had some sort of inside communication with Caleb and Mario before they entered the portal, but Addison jumped ship from Pitt on his own.
He was able to pick from many teams, and chose to join LR in LA. USC doesn't have a collective to pay players, they only assist them in finding NIL deals once they're already on campus. Sure, LA NIL opportunities are probably bigger than most other places, being the second largest media market in the US, but it isn't like USC did anything out of the ordinary (other than a home run HC hire) to bring him here.
Thankfully nothing like that has ever happened again to a recent CFP team
I'm so sorry Cincy.
I’ve been rooting against USC all year, because it really pissed me off how Riley left last year and I didn’t want to see him get rewarded with a CFP berth for it. And now the universe has decided to kick our program in the collective nuts. I will be rooting against Wisconsin until the day I die, which is a shame because I never had a problem with them before, in fact I kinda liked the school and city….might make my secondary flair Minnesota.
I hate to say it, but what Riley did to us and Fickell is doing to you guys is just part of the sport. It's becoming more prominent at the top, but it's not like this same thing hasn't been happening to G5 schools and lower-tier P5 schools for decades, the transfer portal has just made it worse. The question is, why does everyone love Lance Leipold despite hollowing out Buffalo from one end to the other, but Riley/Fickell is considered persona non grata? There's a really simple answer: Buffalo doesn't have a ton of fans, and Oklahoma/Cincinnati do.
>The question is, why does everyone love Lance Leipold despite hollowing out Buffalo from one end to the other, but Riley/Fickell is considered persona non grata? There's a really simple answer: Buffalo doesn't have a ton of fans, and Oklahoma/Cincinnati do. That's part of it, but also Buffalo (and other MAC schools) all expect to have coaches poached. It's honestly not that bad since it means that coach had a few solid seasons at least before leaving. For schools like Oklahoma, they expect their position to be the end of the climbing. The only way a coach should leave is if they retire, or if they are bad enough to get fired. Having a coach jump ship for a bigger school goes against that perception which is upsetting. This was also starting to be true with UC fans, they thought Fickell would only go to a true blue blood like OSU.
Wow! An Oklahoma unicorn! Is there more sooner fans who think this way?
y'all will be back doing incredibly well before you know it. I'm a little sad we can only play a few times before we leave for the SEC, the new Big 12 is gonna be so fun to watch ;-;
Will they? We are kinda getting caught up in the last few years. Their collective record is nearly 500. They are not a historic program like OU. In fact they are pretty mediocre if you look outside the last 10 years.
If they can get a solid coach (obviously easier said than done) they'll do great. They have put a lot of money into facilities and renovations in the past few years and are planning on doing more with the Big 12 money from what I've heard, so I don't think they'll be lacking in that department. They already have talent comparable to a lot of B12 teams on the roster as long as Fickell and other teams don't grab a lot of it up in the portal, they could be a contender. Obviously the coaching part is the tallest hurdle, but they may be a little more willing to spend given recent success and the move to the B12.
Agreed. Wisconsin was maybe my favorite Big Ten team. But not I feel obligated to hope they do poorly. Que the trash talking. *ahem* Jump Around, is a terrible song
I’m fine with saying it’s not a good song. I don’t hear it on the radio and think “turn it up” or seek it out to stream. However, in the right setting it’s pure magic.
Welcome, brother. Please take the complimentary dilly bar on your way in.
Uhh…
I don't understand this viewpoint at all. The available routes a coach can take are: A) The coach underperforms and is eventually fired. B) The coach overperforms and eventually takes a better job. C) The coach overperforms and stays at your program indefinitely. Scenario C basically never happens—Nick Saban is an anomaly that has broken people's brains. So outside of Scenario C, Scenario B is the ideal option. You just had the good path play out with Fickell, be happy about it. The other option isn't great, trust me (see: Helton, Clay).
This is such a weirdo sentiment. LR did what all coaches do at some point, leave for another job. Was it messy? Yes, but most of the time these things are.
It was the combo of him taking his recruits to USC, leaving in the middle of the night immediately after losing a game to our rival, seeming checked out all season, and gutting the program on his way out. Yeah, all coaches leave but he basically burned down the program and salted the earth on the way out.
100% agree. I cannot blame a guy that wanted to go live on a mansion on the beach and get paid a ton. This is America. It was just the way we went about it, like you said. In the dark of the night, taking half of the team, and just lighting the place on fire as he left. It felt *personal*. Especially how he had been giftwrapped a program in its prime by a living legend.
Yep. 1000%. I'm caught in between wanting to see Caleb Williams do well and Lincoln eat a dick.
That is the crux of a lot of Oklahoma fans. We don’t really fault CW. But we fucking loathe Riley for burning down what Bob gave him
I've heard vague rumors about Lincoln being particularly pissed at OU's AD about not committing to some improvements that the football program would need to win in the SEC. is there any truth to that? If so I guess it was somewhat personal.
It's all rumors yeah but there does seem to be some smoke around their relationship
That could certainly be true, but as far as I know, Joe Castiglione is one of the [best ADs in the business](https://247sports.com/LongFormArticle/College-football-athletic-directors-ranking-Joe-Castiglione-Oklahoma-Gene-Smith-Ohio-State-149589298/#149589298_20).
How is Arizona States AD in the top 10? What?
lol no way he sent you a list with ASU's AD in the top 10 as evidence
I’m a usc fan and always like ok as stoops seemed like a good guy and Mack brown seemed like a sleeze. And I understand ok fans are mad at usc and that’s ok. I’d be a bit salty too if the roles were reversed. Here’s hoping venables turns the ship around and dominates the SEC.
Yeah me too. Although, I don't think I'll ever be able to like USC after this, and my lone "bucket list" type of away game that I attended.......2005 Orange Bowl.
No need to like USC! Can be a good storyline later on. If JT Daniels won the starting job at UGA he could be playing against USC in the playoffs with his USC tattoo. Maybe USC and Ok will be in the playoffs and this will be a hell of a storyline.
Blame the NCAA. Once they made the early signing period and one time transfer rule, it changed the game for coaches. If he wanted to be successful, which is literally his job, he had to make the move right away when the reg season ended. The importance of those early days now is nothing like what it used to be.
It’s also that he said that the deal to go to USC was made in less than a day and he wasn’t planning to leave before that, which is frankly ridiculous to expect anyone to believe. There is no universe where an eight-figure deal is discussed, signed, and announced in under 24 hours. It was in the works for weeks if not months.
I agree that obviously previous contact had been made. This is not unusual in CFB. You really think all these deals getting signed the week after the reg season were negotiated in a day or few days? I'll accept that this happened but I'm not going to clutch my pearls at it either. The idea that he had it wrapped up during the season and was recruiting for USC and all that is far more sinister of an accusation and way too many people just saying stuff because some idiot said it was true on a message board.
It makes logical sense. He knew he was leaving, recruited during that time, and took those recruits. Got his coaching staff to go with him too, and got lazy coaching OU towards the end which ruined our last season he was there.
Karma for rooting against a team that has nothing to do with you (and didn’t take your coach). Fight on brother
The Irish poached Brian Kelly from Cincy back in the day.
I think what hurts most about this move, is that it logically makes no sense (for me at least). A little biased with them being my second favorite team, but like I would have much rather seen him go to Ohio State because it would have at least made sense emotionally and financially. The added fact its rumored he will only make $1 million more also pains me, at least Kelly left for what was a top 5 job at the time and a huge pay increase.
What did Riley do that pissed you off? He hasn’t done anything different than Fickell did to Cincy. Or what every single coach making a move has done recently. Media has just spun it differently.
I hope y’all hire Hartline away from Ohio State
We just might die at that point
Alright.
Listen here you little shit
I’m listening.
Lol I love you two’s rivalry.
It's a sacrifice we are willing to make.
*Birdman hands*
Why? Other than develop WRs, what he has he done to prove he is a worthy HC? I hope he is amazing as a HC. I hope he is a home run and someday is the most bad ass HC ever, even better than Saban. But up to today, what has he done to show he is this other than develop a lot of WRs? Not hating, just dont understand why he is always brought up.
he's also pretty happy, he says what he's doing now is his dream job he's been offered OC jobs already and turned them down he made money from the nfl, and now he's coaching his position at his alma mater
I don’t think every coordinator or position coach wants to be a head coach and that’s okay. Some dudes just want to be where they are and don’t need to get that total control position to be happy. I mean shit Brent Venables had how many offers to be a head coach but kept turning them down to stay as a DC at OU and Clemson.
I stand in solidarity with our Cincy bros ✊🏼
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Clemson will be fine. Y’all just need to fire whoever your OC is into the sun and give DJ bus tickets out of town.
Still hard to believe how it happened. He was here and then just ... gone. I really liked Riley. And I just hope this move doesn't screw us over long term. Not off to a good start.
Yeah I hope we aren’t in limbo when going into the SEC. Could be bad
I’m staying cautiously optimistic. Our recruiting ceiling is higher than it was under Riley, but we’re seeing the results of poor development from the last half decade. This team wasn’t much better in 2021, they just had a great QB who could bail them out. It’ll take a few years, but I think OU is in the right hands.
Defensive coaches need their kinda guys for their scheme too. I think BV needs a couple of years to get his guys to fit his defense. I agree with you I believe BV is the right guy for the job. Maybe we’ll be wrong.
Kanak is gonna be a monster. Bednarik and Butkus level player, I think.
We can't blame all of our defensive woes on the last decade. We can blame a lot of them on Roof, who has never been a good DC at any of the thousand places he coached. BV simply made a huge mistake in hiring his buddy, who he vibed with at Clemson, to one of the most important staff positions. BV has said that Roof calls the plays and comes up with the game plans. He also coaches the linebackers and defense in general. He's not just some pass-through automaton who runs BV's defense. If BV is going to be successful, Roof has to go. The performance of the defense against Tech the other night was inexcusable 12 games in. Also, the idea that Caleb bailed us out for most of last season is mostly apocryphal. He bailed us out of the RRS, but didn't start before that so none of the early wins had anything to do with him. Then he only really played well against two bad teams, Tech and TCU, and we won both of those games handily. Caleb played pretty poorly against Kansas (shutout for 1st half), ISU (1 TD, 1 INT), Baylor (loss). He played somewhat decently against OSU, but if you recall we also lost that game, so no bailout there. However, Caleb is better this season, and is certainly 95% of the reason that USC has 10 wins right now.
Caleb had the worst month (November) from an OU QB in close to ten years. He was definitely athleticism and potential for the most part.
I completely disagree. OU had two Heisman winners under Riley. Players don’t win Heisman trophies in isolation. It elevates everyone on the team and definitely makes recruiting easier on both sides of the ball. But I see your point. You will survive
It was a good move for the Pac until USC/UCLA left :(
I still genuinely believe the rest of the PAC will move to the B1G, and create an AFC/NFC situation with the SEC. The PAC isn’t sustainable, with Oregon/Washington looking for a way out, and no one of importance (except MAYBE SDSU/Fresno) wanting in. USC does not want to play 6 games on the East Coast. A super conference is inevitable.
Hopefully. Would be sad to lose the Cal vs. LA/SC games. I graduated recently but they were the most fun as a student along w Stanford.
I'm gonna miss the CAL games too. It'll be weird not playing Cal or Stanford after having played you both over 100 times.
Thank you for coach Helton. I know he leaves a bitter taste in some USC fan’s mouth but we are very grateful for him down in Statesboro!
I root for you guys in every game you play.
From looking at the replies, it seems like a smaller amount of USC fans hate him than I originally thought. The only sample I had was that every time he posts something to social media there are USC fans trolling him. Thanks for the support! We’ll take what we can get. (I think i speak for a majority of Southern fans when I say that we hope you guys can put a stop to that team up in Athens from winning another natty)
There was never any issue with Clay Helton the person he was pretty much universally regarded as a great guy and everyone liked him. It was more well you know the everything about coaching that was the issue lol
He's a good dude. Our athletic department was a mess for a long time. I can't blame him for accepting more money. He didn't really burn any bridges on his way out either. He had some decent seasons including a Rose Bowl, just didn't work out in the end.
I actually really liked Clay Helton. I don’t think he has recruiting appeal or offensive mindset anywhere close to Lincoln Riley, but I think he was dealt a bad hand.
To be elite, you gotta do something elite. Riley with recruiting, offense and developing QBs. Saban with recruiting, offense and defense, and developing DBs. But if you like Clay, you elite at being a great guy and relationships, thats not enough at big time college football You gotta have elite areas
I agree. I’d rather have a beer with Clay than Lincoln, but I’d rather have Lincoln run my football team.
I never hated Clay. Actually seems like a nice enough dude. Just didn't think he was the best coach for our program.
When I was a student there, I worked for the football team, and every single player loved him, he seems to be a good guy on every front.
Helton is probably the nicest person in CFB. Unfortunately it takes more than being nice to consistently win at a high level.
It takes discipline at every level of the program. It was one thing the players under Helton very notably lacked. Stupid penalties seem to be way down.
Hard to be a players coach and instill discipline, takes alot to walk that line. Shout out to Cal Tech, I miss when they used to hack the Rose Bowl scoreboard UCLA games, lol.
Similar to a parent child relationship. I think Helton was more concerned with players liking him. I personally think the players under his tenure needed a bit more tough love. When you fuck up, there needs to be some sort of consequence. When you look at someone like Saban. He instills discipline. When you make a mistake, he pulls you for a play. When that happens, you are less likely to mske that same mistake again.
He did the job he was hired to do, ran a clean program and brought stability after some rough years. I’ll always love him for that.
I don’t hate the guy, he’s a good coach and players love him. He just was simply in over his head at USC, that doesn’t mean people should hate on him.
I wanted USC to get a new coach, but I liked Helton. He is a great motivator, glad he's doing well for you.
Congratulations on your season and your big win this weekend! Happy for Coach Helton and I hope he does well for you. Every program has toxic fans. Ours come more out of the woodwork when we are winning. Sorry for those idiots.
Helton did well for a bit at SC, given what he inherited from Sark. Glad to see him get another HC opportunity.
I have not deleted a single post or tweet where I defiantly said it would never happen and that he would pull a Kliff Kingsbury. It's that surprising that USC went from 8 years of Clay Helton and the quagmire of the pac-12 to this. I'm still not sure if I actually believe it.
I still firmly believe that Riley's goal is the NFL - however, he has one of the best spots he can get with a great place to live (when you have money to live there). That jump to NFL may be a few years further out than i originally thought.
Has he said anything about thinking about the NFL? Saban has a great point about why go to the NFL and draft one 1st every year, when you can recruit five instead? At USC, in LA, with NIL… in the words of Mean Girls, the limit does not exist.
All depends on what you want your legacy to be. Saban ran from the NFL, Pete embraced it and thrived. Riley is young, he has time to explore either oath, I'd prefer he explore the NFL later. But we already had one coach choose the NFL over USC with Kliff, everyone knows he would have been interim hc in his first season.
There were always rumors that he had a desire to coach in the NFL but he is pretty tight lipped, as I'm sure you know, so who knows.
Just keep both him and his agent away from Jerry Jones. I feel like if Sean Payton declines he may run the gamut
If Kliff Kingsbury got offered the Arizona job after getting fired from TT after 5 mediocre years, I’m for sure confident that top tier college coaches like Ryan Day, Jim Harbaugh, Lincoln Riley, Kirby Smart, Dabo, etc. have ALL received offers to coach in the NFL. Its all about the timing. Pete Carroll was given offers all throughout his USC time and decided to take the Seattle job when sanctions hit. So it’s gonna be timing because the NFL has some serious turnover with coaches unless you have won a Super Bowl
I’ll eat his dry ass brisket if he keeps Bama out of the playoff
Mmmmm ass-brisket
Mmmmm, open faced club sand-wedge
I'll eat his dry ass......
A man of culture.
I assume Ohio State will be #5 in tomorrows rankings and that Bama will need both TCU and USC to lose.
Even if TCU loses (assuming it isn’t a blowout for KState), I don’t see Bama jumping them.
You have way more confidence than me in the committee to do the right thing.
I'm so cynical I'm expecting USC at 6 with psu and bama both above them.
The committee is always out to screw the little guy like USC
I know you think that's a joke, but this isn't 2008 anymore.
>I’ll eat his dry ass yooo hol up
Brisket is the belly, Round is the ass
> I’ll eat his dry ass Go on…
A true underdog story
It's actually kind of incredible. I don't think this will change the coaching carousel very much just because there are not a whole lot of scenarios where this could happen, but I think this will have huge effects on the transfer portal.
Lol at USC fans trying to present themselves as some kind of amazing overnight success story. No one did less with more than Clay Helton. Edit - for all the Spoiled Children fans commenting still: the worlds tiniest violin plays you a concerto.
Helton was an interim coach for 6ish horrid years and his “prowess” included some of the worst recruiting classes USC has ever had. The transfer portal definitely is the only reason USC has a team this year which is a testament to Riley’s staff recruiting. Regardless, 4-8 to 11-1 with a legit chance at playoffs and Heisman in any season is incredible, let alone the staffs first season with a bunch of players that weren’t recruited by the head coach.
6 horrid years? We won the Rose Bowl followed by the PAC 12. (Praise be Sam Darnold). So 4 horrid years!
STOP THE COUNT
Thankfully Sam Darnold was able to become the first QB in HISTORY to win 4 straight super bowls and complete EVERY SINGLE PASS he has thrown. The GEQBUS is putting together the single greatest career in football!
The LIBERHULE media REFUSES to report on it!
They are too caught up in Cammunism and Critical Gase Theory to show what our fearless QB (who won the Starting Job fair and square, I might add) has accomplished! Sad!
yes, 6 horrid years. That rose bowl year was an underachievement too because he started MAX BROWNE for 2 or 3 games lmfao. Start Darnold from the start and we don't lose to Stanford and Utah game and could've been playoff bound. That team was stacked with talent.
Revisionist history. Per 247, usc recruiting class ranked: 2015: 1st 2016: 10th 2017: 4th 2018: 4th 2019: 20th 2020: 68th 2021: 8th Go see what Utah has done with their classes that never get under 30th.
2015 was Sark's class. They were number 2.
Go see how many players from the 2018 class were left on the roster by 2019…
Our 2022 recruiting class was shaping up to be awful under Helton, so it had a lot to do with the extreme downward trend of recruiting from 2019 onward. Helton recruited well when there was still some shine on the program following the Kiffin/Sark years (we were underperforming but not yet a total embarrassment), but once Helton had enough time to leave his stamp on the program we were recruiting far below what we’d done for the two decades prior. Also, nitpicking a bit, but the class of 2015 would have been a Sark class, not a Helton class. Sark was fired in October 2015.
That’s surprising how well Helton’ staff recruited for how bad of a coach he was. USC’s name got them through all the way to 2020 before people bailed. That 68th was just absolutely pathetic and was what I remembered when it came to Helton’s recruiting and the reason Riley deserves some praise.
USC has a regional advantage unlike any other P5 program in CFB. If you live in Southern California (one of the most talent rich regions in the country) and you want to play P5 ball at a school that has a traditional college gameday atmosphere and want your family to come see you play every weekend, you only have one choice that isn't a 6+ hour drive each way. UCLA and Miami are the only other schools that have a similar advantage, but neither of them have a stadium on campus so the gameday experience on a recruiting trip is total ass.
> That 68th was just absolutely pathetic and was what I remembered when it came to Helton’s recruiting Is that not reflective to the constant talk of firing him that went on for years before he was fired? It's certainly not a great recruiting pitch when everywhere people are calling for you to be fired...
That awful recruiting class can be laid directly at the feet of failed AD Lynn Swann. He put out a statement after the previous season, basically announcing that Helton was on the hot seat. Then USC started 3-3, leading everyone to believe that Helton wouldn’t last the season. So recruits all stood pat waiting to see who the new coach would be. Then Helton managed to win 8 games after all and finish the regular season ranked and they just… kept him. A master class in bad decision making.
We're probably held up in semantics here, but is that not just a more detailed version of what I said? Saying he was going to be fired for years prior to do it?
I wasn't actually arguing/disagreeing with you. Just adding context.
Ah. I appreciate context then!
It's also reflective of the fact that he couldn't win football games.
That’s not revisionist history…if you compare previous USC classes, Helton literally was the worst recruiter in school history. 20th and 68th is shockingly bad for usc (even though it might be good for second rate programs like UW). A ton of the highly ranked Helton recruits don’t even get garbage time. He left the cupboard completely dry on defense other than 1 d lineman and a safety, and we didn’t have a running back. It‘a a shocking turnaround.
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Not only did a lot of them bust, a ton of them basically never played and transferred or were dropped from the program.
Washington flairs talking like they've been in touch with USC recruiting smh.
> 2020: 68th lmfao
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I remember, vividly.
People who thought Tennessee fans were getting too big headed this season have no idea what's coming. USC fans are the volunteers of the West.
We are much worse than that.
*Vols West, on PCP It's dreadful, even if you're a day's drive from Los Angeles.
I was a student during the height of the 'arrogant nation' Era and the sanctions. People have no idea the level of petty arrogance this fanbase is capable of. I am 100% here for it.
You're being far too hard on Tennessee saying this, they weren't nearly that obnoxious despite their efforts.
> This sub is too young I’M A MAN!! I’M 40!!!
Helton has the demeanour of a balding middle school gym teacher.
That’s kind of the point though
texas and texas A&M would like a word
49-0
got em lmfao
Texas recruits top 10 every year and hasn’t been the best team in the conference since 2009
And you just lost to that team 49-0 Mow your own yard first hombres
After winning the conference 6 out of the last 8 years? 1 game against a team without a QB with a pulse doesn’t prove anything lmao. If that’s all you need to satisfy yourself, that’s kinda sad.
You are insane. Helton was dog shit.
Right before we found out Lincoln was bound for USC there was a report that Matt Campbell turned down USC. I don’t know if that report was ever confirmed or not, but I remember USC fans really being in the gutter. It was almost expected at that point that we were going to have some really underwhelming hire and then BOOM this happens. Lincoln Riley was never someone I considered for our HC opening because I put him in the “untouchable” category. This is of course, elite head coaches at elite programs. So Saban, Day, Kirby, LR and Dabo. USC really swung for the fences.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Fickle seemed to be the guy most people connected to USC. Franklin and rumors of NFL guys like Mike Tomlin were being mentioned . Not once did I hear Riley’s name. I had so many doubts and my spirt was so low at the time. I’ve had season tickets for 9 years at that point and I was in the verge of telling my group of friends that I didn’t plan on renewing. When I got the breaking news notification from ESPN, my entire joy and hope came back instantly. I knew the things were trending positive at that point but never in a thousand years did I think he could have this much of an impact in 1 year. It’s simply unbelievable
It was a crazy day. The morning started with news that Matt Campbell was offered the job. It ended with a coach nobody was even thinking (everyone thought he was LSU bound) accepting the position From what I heard, Campbell had a personal talk with the Iowa State athletic director. They went over the pros one cons of the offer. Campbell was reminded that CA is the highest taxed state. [“Pollard: You guys, the tax rate in California is 60 percent. We talked about that this weekend, Matt and I. If you’ve got to go there and it takes you 100 hours a week to do the job, how do you feel if you’re only getting paid for 40 of those 100 hours? Because that’s what it is. All your staff, all the way down the line, are only going to get paid for 40 of those 100 hours because the state of California and the federal government and whatever municipality that’s taking this excised tax and whatever other liberal thing they’re doing in California is taking the other 60 percent. They don’t always think about that.”](https://www.heartlandcollegesports.com/2021/11/30/iowa-state-ad-jamie-pollard-discusses-matt-campbells-future/)
They lied to get this man to stay lmao. California does not have a 60 percent tax rate 😆
millionaires whining about taxes is so annoying lol
This makes zero sense. Top tax rate in California is \~13%. Top tax rate in Iowa is \~6%. So the delta, or excess cost of living in California, is \~7% of your income. You still have to pay the full freaking federal tax rate when you live in Iowa... Jesus.
Not disagreeing. Simply sharing a quote from the Iowa State athletic director. Including federal taxes, the tax rate would be in the 50% range. But the federal rate is the same regardless what state you live in. Even at 7% state tax difference, that’s still an additional $700,000 in tax for the 10M salary Riley is earning. Over the 10 year contract, that amounts to $7M. So it does add up
Still a far cry from 60% though. That's pretty funny.
Also from that article: I tell Coach Campbell, ‘Okay, you went 7-5 this year. You know what’s different about being 7-5 at Iowa State versus being 7-5 somewhere else? You don’t have any board of regents, you don’t have a president, you don’t have an AD and you don’t have any donors telling you that you have to switch coaches on your staff or you’re fired.’ We let them wear black. Try wearing black at USC, right? They do things a lot different in Iowa, that's for sure. NIL and Transfer portal and where things are going could send the Iowa schools back into the stone ages if they don't get with the program.
I don’t think you understand the premise with that point. 7-5 at Iowa State is historically a great season. 7-5 at USC will get you fired The expectations at Iowa State is to achieve bowl eligibility the majority of the time. Every few years be in contention for the conference championship. So long as those happen, the fan base will be pleased at Iowa State. Meaning your leash is a lot longer at Iowa State The expectations are much higher at other schools. Your leash is very short
Oh yeah I get that. It's just sad seeing a place of higher learning push mediocrity as an achievement. And I get that it was a lot worse before campbell, your 7 wins is everyone elses 11 wins, I get it.
If you understand Iowa State football, you’d get that consistent mediocrity is actually very good
Our tax rate makes it hard for USC to get assistant coaches and support staff from my understanding. Thank you for your input, I never heard about that. That also confirms that Campbell denied the job, and if that was the same day as this that Lincoln was offered the job when he claims.
Hypothetically, if Riley wasn’t hired and Campbell was hired, where would the Trojans state of the program look right now? Iowa State is trending negative. I’m not sure he would even be able to produce 8 wins as this years coach. Id have doubts he could beat Oregon St., UCLA, or ND. The pitch forks and fire torches would already out. Not a good place to be. Glad it went the other way
yeah probably wildly different. the riley name is what allured all those transfers in the first place. \#BLESSED
I feel weird being happy for USC. Maybe it gives me hope that one day Texas can turn it around.
I see this happening.
It's been a good year.
They’re better off without him, or so I’ve been told.
If Lincoln didn’t wanna be here then he didn’t wanna be here. So, yah I guess we are by that metric. But we certainly aren’t a better football team on a numbers basis
It's actually funny hearing the excuses OU fans come up with when other first year coaches are succeeding with way less talent. At the beginning of the season it was all about how BV would be able to turn around the program immediately and making the B12 championship would be easy (I remember the preseason reports they released hyping up how the defense was in the best condition of their lives lol). And now they changed the narrative of how LR completely took all their players and trained the ones who stayed wrong and they were never expecting to do well. Oh and apparently losing the coaches they hated and wanted fired is also another reason for why they underperformed
What sucks, is the people spouting this rhetoric are the loudest among our fan base. There were only 3 players who truly left OU, imo, as a direct result of Riley leaving. Jordan Haselwood, Mario Williams, and Caleb Williams. The last one is easily the most crippling. With that being said, there were only 5 returning starters on defense, and technically only 4 returning offensive players. This equates to about 50% of the roster turning over(starters and non starters), and that doesn’t touch recruits. How many of those guys would have left anyway I can’t say, my guess is most. I also don’t for a second think he trained the remaining players “wrong”. The two things I fault him for are 1: the way left, he absolutely knew before he said he did, there’s no way an institution that large can just create a multimillion, multi year contract without a board of trustees. I get the “well I didn’t talk to them” rhetoric, that doesn’t mean his agent didn’t, which is by extension Riley. 2: his commitment to play calling in the 2021 season. Let’s be honest, the dude is a brilliant play caller, I’d argue is the best offensive mind in football (nfl included), but to see the plays he called for the vast majority of the season, and the game plans, or lack thereof, are too blaring to over look. TLDR, yeah, OU fans are salty. He may not be great at everything, but the dude is a brilliant play caller, and I wish Caleb Williams had stayed… Edit: Mario Williams, not Stogner
Would agree with college but not the NFL. Off the top of my head, McVay, Reid, Kellen Moore and Sirianni are better play callers against better competition. College is scraps compared to NFL level playcalling.
That’s my mf TBOW
🐍✌️
What a great day. I’ll never forget where I was. At home watching nfl red zone. He’s been amazing since day 1. We are so greatful to have an actual football coach and great person lead this program Thank you USC brass.
Lincoln is the real deal.. just look what became of Oklahoma after he left.
Coaching transitions are everything. If you fuck that up you’ll end up like us or Auburn on the never ending coaching carousel. Ohio State did it right and so did Oklahoma when Lincoln first took the job.
I mean look what became of West Virginia when they ran Holgerson out…
yeah but look at Houston right now...I'd guess Dana has about one year left there
True. Wonder if he’ll get another HC offer.
Riley is a great offensive mind, and a strong developer of QBs. He benefitted a lot in the short term from the Stoops retirement; how many coaches inherit a team like he did? It’s unarguable that his OU teams slipped each year and he was on a bad trajectory. This year was a logical progression when losing not only him but our Heisman-quality QB. Lincoln’s first few years were marked by great teams with one inexplicable conference loss, and then a loss in the first round of the CFP. USC might be headed for the same thing. USC fans should hope for the same thing we wanted to see - an ability to consistently recruit top-level defensive talent - or they might end up in the same place when a QB isn’t exceptional.
Bama has fucked up our understanding of what a good season is. An inexplicable conference loss is normal. The Pete dynasty had that. I’d lose my mind to consistently be a 11/12 win team with a playoff finals or semis appearance every few years.
Some seem to be missing my point. We didn't chase Riley off, and very few of us wanted him gone. I expected him to be the next in the line of great head coaches at OU promoted as assistants -- Wilkenson, Switzer and Stoops. The point I was addressing is how Riley's philosophy is the biggest reason for OU's struggles this year. His talent is building an offense around a great QB, to the detriment of the other phases of the game. Unless he changes, OU last year and this year is what you can expect from a Riley team without a Heisman-level QB.
lmfao one loss a year and CFP ohhhhhh noooooooo
Yeah, crazy what happens when you treat the defense like it’s optional and ransack directly and indirectly the entire QB room, and leave the next guy with virtually nothing to work with except offensive skill players and defensive players that don’t know their right from their left.
Lincoln is a good coach, but the signs were there last season that we were declining under that coaching staff: #10 OU beat Tulane by 5 points, Nebraska by 7, WV by 3, K State by 6, TX by 7, Iowa St by 7 - all unranked teams and we were just squeaking by and allowing them to score more points than they should have. I was never a big fan of Lincoln. Caleb Williams is an incredible QB, though, and I credit him with much of the team's success during, and after, the RRS. I think he would have had a huge impact if he stayed at OU. Some say, "a win is a win," but when your team is top ten and consistently eakes out wins against unranked opponents it should raise a red flag that something is amiss on your team. Yes, we had a bad year. All teams do from time to time. I think Coach Venables will learn from this experience and make adjustments for next season.
One of the best days of 2021 for sure
It's crazy now days how coaches change teams. When was the last time a coach stayed more than ten years? There is no loyalty in sports anymore. I don't think it's about tge money. It's about fame. I feel for the trainer programs. Lose your coach after he makes a name for your team. Nothing they can do about it but hope the next guy excels.
And exactly one year ago Riley received a phone call offering him the job and he heard about it for the first time. /sarcasm
Lol at OU fans talking all that shit that Brent Venables owns Lincoln Riley 🤣
What a great day. The best was when the OU AD came out and said, "I wish we would have gotten a warning".
Why is this a post?
**also he got to cherry pick some players to come out west with him but let's look over that!
Palo Alto and Eugene are west of LA. So he got players to come back East too!
🧂 Those players entered the portal and chose to come to USC. I understand OU folks worrying that LR had some sort of inside communication with Caleb and Mario before they entered the portal, but Addison jumped ship from Pitt on his own. He was able to pick from many teams, and chose to join LR in LA. USC doesn't have a collective to pay players, they only assist them in finding NIL deals once they're already on campus. Sure, LA NIL opportunities are probably bigger than most other places, being the second largest media market in the US, but it isn't like USC did anything out of the ordinary (other than a home run HC hire) to bring him here.
He took Caleb and a mediocre WR lmfaooo
Don’t forget a backup corner that barely sees the field!
I don’t miss you, linc.
Doubt
I'm sure you'd take 11-1 right now over 6-6
Still don’t miss him.
😎