By Rock Westfall
Last Monday, history was made in Norman, Oklahoma. It was the first official day of Oklahoma’s new membership in the SEC, and athletic director Joe Castiglione made the most of it. Castiglione made an appearance on the SEC Network to celebrate the momentous occasion and did not hold back.
Castiglione is in the conversation for being the best athletic director in college sports, perhaps ever. With that status comes the confidence and power to say what is on his mind. And on this day, former Oklahoma head football coach Lincoln Riley was front and center.
Castiglione revealed how his coaches reacted to Oklahoma’s move from the Big 12 to the SEC.
"I will tell you without reservation," Castiglione said, "every (OU) coach we talked to was excited. And, you know what? The ones that weren't aren't here anymore."
As the SEC Network cast ate it up, OU president Joe Harroz took it one step further.
“We call that a mic drop," Harroz said.
"You've either got to accept it or not," Castiglione added. "This is Oklahoma. Get with it or get on with it."
The Life of Riley No More
On November 27, 2021, the Oklahoma Sooners led the host Oklahoma State Cowboys 33-24 heading into the fourth quarter. But, as was the case far too often in the Riley era, the Sooners blew the lead and lost to the Pokes 37-33. It was the last game that Lincoln Riley ever coached at the University of Oklahoma. The game epitomized the Riley era—plenty of offense, little in defense, and too soft to close.
Losing Bedlam is never acceptable to Oklahoma, who historically dominated the series that is now on hold. But what rubbed salt in the wounds was that the next morning, Riley cut and ran for Hollywood and the USC Trojans. Defecting with Riley were eventual Heisman Trophy -winning quarterback Caleb Williams , other key players, top assistants, and some OU support staff.
Riley’s move was taken as a stab in the back. And it reeked of Riley being a descendant of the famed, fictional Beverley Hillbillies star Jed Clampett, striking riches by accident and taking his wealth to Beverley Hills. But unlike the late great Uncle Jed, Riley is mushy enough to fit right in with haughty and pretentious La-La Land.
In Oklahoma, he came off as a traitor and sneak. Most importantly, fans saw Riley as a gutless coward who was too scared to stay and lead the Sooners into the SEC.
To this day, Riley whines about how difficult it was to leave Oklahoma. He wrote a letter to Sooner Nation, which was rejected with scorn and ridicule. Even the Oklahoma governor weighed in with cutting remarks.
A No Loss Guarantee
Since Lincoln Riley left OU, the Sooners have shown improvement defensively with better recruiting. Brent Venables enters his third year with the support of Sooner Nation, who can see the emphasis on complimentary football and physicality.
Ironically, much as he tried, Riley has not escaped a tougher league. USC is moving to the Big Ten with the other top programs from the virtually defunct Pac-12 . Washington, Oregon, and UCLA join USC in a new league that includes Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, and an emerging Nebraska program that looks ready to take off. Good luck with that, Lincoln.
In his first two seasons with USC in the Pac-12, Riley went 11-3 in his maiden voyage followed by a disastrous 8-5 mark in 2023. In his first season, Riley took the Trojans to the Cotton Bowl, where they were humiliated in a loss to the Tulane Green Wave. USC is never supposed to lose to Tulane, at least per its bizarre, Texas-like culture of arrogance and entitlement. USC’s weaknesses were exposed for all to see. The game served as an alarming portent.
Last year, USC started 6-0 and climbed to 9 th in the polls, but it was a house of cards. The roof fell on the Trojans in their seventh game when Notre Dame disemboweled USC 48-20 to begin a streak of five losses in six games. Riley was forced to fire defensive coordinator Alex Grinch during the season. But the blame belongs to Riley.
USC is a self-privileged program, living off a history that grows more distant by the day and in defiance of today’s realities. Since Pete Carroll led the Trojans to a final AP ranking of 3 rd in 2009, USC has only two final rankings in the Top 10, with its last in 2016. Former coach Clay Helton was mercilessly tormented and never accepted by the Trojan faithful, but is looking better by the hour. Helton won a Pac-12 championship, three division crowns, and a Rose Bowl . Riley has not come close to those benchmarks.
As Riley enters his third season at USC, he is taking a finesse team to a power, brute force league. Players will tell you that they hurt all week following a Big Ten matchup. The physicality wears down all programs in the conference, including the best ones.
Riley coaches in a state that doesn’t share the passion for football that Oklahoma has. In fact, California is a state where the sport is being de-emphasized by the sunshine soldiers who run it. Additionally, California is an excessively expensive, high-tax state for assistant coaches, let alone prospects who will see their NIL payments cut almost in half by the government.
By contrast, in Oklahoma, coaches and players can live like kings. Oklahoma offers wide open spaces, good people who love the state, and a much higher quality of life for a lot less money. Oh, and you don't have to waste three hours in traffic for a run to the grocery store while suffering from a far higher cost of living than in other states.
As Oklahoma joins the SEC with a program on the rise, it turns out that Lincon Riley’s departure could be the best thing that has ever happened to OU football. Riley’s pampered program culture would have been mauled in the man-eating SEC.
Lincoln Riley proved to be no loss at all. His departure has proven to be a Sooner triumph.
Boomer!
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