Well, this doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact… I mentioned it as a possibility three weeks ago on my little blog here when all this LSU bullshit started surfacing. Why would a young guy like Lincoln Riley put his coaching career in a coaching career meat grinder when the USC job hadn’t been filled all this time since the dismissal of Clay Helton.
I like Lincoln. I think for the most part he did an excellent job minus this season. And now it all makes sense why the team looked so ill-prepared for both Baylor and Oklahoma State with so many penalties and mental errors. Lincoln had his mind elsewhere.
I’m excited for Lincoln and I’m excited to see who the longterm replacement is Joe C is going to hire at OU. Maybe Bob will coach a year or two and hire Joe Brady as his coordinator with the thought Joe could be a head coach at some point. Kind of like the process went with Lincoln.
If I understand this correctly Bob Stoops will immediately become the interim coach and I think that’s awesome because Bob is too young to be retired from my perspective. Maybe Bob at some point will replace Joe C as the athletic director.
It was Joe C and Bob who actually together made the Lincoln Riley hire and in a sense forced Sooner favorite son Josh Heupel to become a head coach elsewhere.
If you study the history of OU head football coaches they usually come from coordinators making their first splash as a head coach.
Bud Wilkinson came here as an assistant. Chuck Fairbanks came here as an assistant. Same with Barry Switzer. Gary Gibbs was Switzer’s defensive coordinator. Bob Stoops came to OU after being defensive coordinator at both K State and Florida. Lincoln was Bob’s last offensive coordinator.
OU is heading to the SEC in two years and they just lost their quarterback coach, offensive coordinator, and head coach. Not a good look for recruits.
But the not the end of the world either for a program like OU.
Here’s a name which could possibly make sense…Joe Brady. Beyond my list of Dave Aranda, Matt Campbell, and Shane Beamer let’s add Joe Brady to out list. Coach Brady is the former LSU offensive coordinator for the Joe Burrow national championship team which destroyed OU two years ago in the national semi-finals.
He’s now the offensive coordinator for former Baylor coach Matt Ruhle with the Carolina Panthers. Very interesting..
That’s a thought which needs a little more research.
This is why I didn’t post Lincoln’s presser last night. It didn’t seem right when Kerry Murdoch asked Lincoln that sequence of questions related to Lincoln leaving for the LSU job.
I’m not saying Lincoln just openly purjured himelf, but you could tell there was something there…just not at LSU.
Kind of like when Inspector Clouseau asked the innkeeper if his dog bites and the owner said no.
Then of course Clouseau tried to pet the dog and the dog mauled Clouseau’s hand.
Clouseau screamed, “I thought you said your dog doesn’t bite?”
Then the owner cooly replied, “He’s not my dog.”
That’s what Lincoln Riley just did.
It’ll be interesting to see at Lincoln’s presser if Willie Beamon is heading to USC with him.
I never booed Kevin Durant and I certainly will never talk down about Lincoln. If I had two young kids and made that kind of money…Southern California wouldn’t be a bad place to coach.