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Mr. P

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Riley takes path of less resistance (and lies about it, too): https://www.normantranscript.com/sports/horning-departing-sooners-riley-takes-path-of-less-resistance-and-lies-about-it-too/article_44c468fe-50a6-11ec-9393-8344cb4882b9.html

Almost midnight, Lincoln Riley on his postgame Zoom call, the Pokes having taken Bedlam 37-33, SoonerScoop’s Carey Murdock preambled his postgame question. Riley jumped in, the actual question not yet offered.

“I am not going to be the next head coach at LSU,” he said, leaving one now to wonder many things.

Fearing the question, Riley jumped in with an answer he knew to be the truth, that he would not be home shopping in Baton Rouge. But did he say it to get through the moment or to be clever, relishing its misleadingness, reveling in his triangulation?

He had no such issues when it came to answering Murdock’s follow-up, about his ongoing relationship with his superiors, athletic director Joe Castiglione and university leadership, led by OU president Joseph Harroz.

Unless the Southern Cal job came to Riley in a dream before he woke Sunday, he flat-out lied to Murdock, other media on the call, his players, his assistant coaches and anybody else who might have watched or read one of the postgame accounts that included it.

Not even 24 hours old, the quote’s pretty breathtaking to type into the world on an early Sunday evening.

“No concerns about our administration. We’ve been through a lot together. This isn’t our first rodeo together. So we always have conversations about the future and certainly with all that’s changing right now on the college landscape, all that’s getting ready to change. For us, at some point here, we transition into a new conference. Those are always conversations that we’re going to have, and we will be having those yearly, no matter what. All of us are trying to make this place better, make this program better, and so you don’t do that without working together and conversing with each other. So of course we’re gonna continue to do that. We work well together, and we’re going to keep working well together.”

 . . . 

Still, the guy this whole episode speaks volumes about more than any other is Riley himself.

One, he could have told some version of the truth Saturday night, even one that left Southern Cal out of it, that still didn’t make him the latest coaching Pinocchio.

“I will not be the next head coach at LSU. Should I ever go somewhere else, I’ll be the first to let everybody know,” he might have said, pushing the shock to Sunday morning.

Two, Riley likes winning, likes playing the hero, likes to be loved, because all of those things stand a much better chance of happening in LA than in the difficult waters the Sooners are bound to encounter in the SEC.

It seems like OU’s administration might have thought about that before choosing to bolt. Not in deference to Riley, but in deference to the program’s fantastic history, which is unlikely to repeat itself quickly under anybody’s direction where it’s headed, but that’s another column.

The only thing I ever thought I might understand about Riley more than most is that his ambition is astronomical. It wasn’t enough to be OU’s head coach, he had to be offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, too. It wasn’t enough to do that and chase championships, he had to reinvent the recruiting process, the spring game and signing day, too.

He doesn’t want to spin one plate higher, straighter and better than everybody else, he wants to spin all of them higher, straighter and better than everybody else. He wants to succeed wildly and he wants to do it entirely on his own terms.

On the radio Sunday, Murdock wished he hadn’t let Riley off the hook with his LSU denial, saying he should have followed up asking if he’d still be OU’s head coach next season. He also said, and there’s no reason not to believe him because the guy’s plugged in, that administration had balked at some of Riley’s wishes to conduct his job on his terms.

So he had to go.

He didn’t love his chances in the Sooners’ coming conference and may have liked them even less not getting to call every shot he wanted to call.

Where he’s going, all he must do first to get the key to the city is win more than he loses. Plus, the Trojans are a sleeping giant. Riley almost can’t lose there.

So he’s gone.

But did he have to lie to everybody? Did he have to play coy? Did he have to invoke his future with the program one day before he’d be leaving it?

He did not.

Good riddance.

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1 hour ago, JohnnyFootball said:

Is Riley one of the best, though? He was handed an already-made program and won a lot of games against a conference that was largely down for the last few years. But when they got into the playoffs, the games weren't even close, other than that one Georgia game (which was literally the first year after Stoops was gone, so it was a team that he had built). 

Look no further than the QB's he's been able to recruit and rebuild their careers. Murray, Mayfield, Hurts. All had been beat out and he resurrected their careers. His defenses held him back from the National Championship games, but they have been a Top 3 program since he's been Coach. 

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15 minutes ago, Valhalla said:

I kind of feel like that one was coming even with Riley not leaving.

Williams is the one that will truly bum me out about this. I really want to believe he's the kinda "ride or die" guy for the program... 

And again: if he's my son, I'd tell him to just hang tight and see who the OU admin hires. If it turns out that the university leadership is going the "Boren" route, well, holla.

But if we're gonna go hardcore and start playing big boy football (from the top on down), then "ride or die."

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1 minute ago, Valhalla said:

Rumor is that Brent Venables will be announced as the HC at the 3:00 PM press conference today.

Adequate stopgap, if true...  won't bring all the 'croots back, but it might slow the bleeding. 

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4 hours ago, LOL said:

I'm not gonna diminish what Riley did at OU, but let's face it: he was "gifted" three-straight NFL starting QBs.

Say what you want about Mayfield, but the dude has done nothing but prove people wrong his whole career. Murray is a damn cheat code, and Hurts will out-work anyone and everyone.

Rattler was Riley's first recruited QB. He was the guy Riley chose and has groomed for the QB1 role. I think that says plenty about both of them. 

Williams came here because of the Riley's reputation as a developer of NFL signal-callers and Heisman candidates. But in looking back over this season, it's obvious that Riley doesn't really understand his game or how best to use his skillset. If I'm in Caleb's ear, I tell him to hang tight to see who OU hires, but I do not encourage him to follow Riley.

It's obvious (now) that he won't be straight with Williams, Rattler, or anyone. 

I was just thinking about this as I read your post. Rattler was the first Riley QB. First to be groomed, and coached solely by Lincoln himself. Mayfield had Kingsbury/Stoops, on top of being the fiercest (I hate his guts and liver) competitor I've seen in a while. Murray I can assure you had the best coaching money could buy, way before he every stepped foot on A&M/OU's campus, and even then, he was a developed SR. Hurts... I mean come on. Start your college development and play with Lane Kiffin/Nick Saban, develop against the fiercest defenses in college football, then move to OU and a struggling Big 12 your SR year.

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