The college football world was shaken up last Sunday afternoon after Oklahoma Sooners head coach, Lincoln Riley, announced that he will be the head coach at the University of Southern California next season. After last weekend’s loss to the Sooners’ rival, Oklahoma State, Riley was asked to comment on the many rumors that he was set to become the next head coach at Louisiana State University. Before the inquiring reporter could even finish his question, Riley stopped him and said, “Let me stop you right there, I’m not going to be the next coach at LSU.” Oklahoma’s loss last weekend was their first loss to Oklahoma State since 2014 and the Sooners will be missing the Big 12 championship game for the first time since 2003. Although this was a devastating loss for Oklahoma, Riley’s postgame interview gave the Sooners’ fans hope that their successful young coach would be staying in Norman. Unfortunately for them, Riley had other plans. He didn’t lie to his team and his fans at Oklahoma in his postgame interview, he just didn’t tell them the whole truth. 

What does Riley’s departure mean for Oklahoma? Riley was handpicked by former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops to succeed him, and the offensive guru lived up to the standard that Stoops set from the moment the hire was announced. The Sooner fan base was very pleased by the smooth transition of the head coach position, everyone wanted to keep Riley for the long haul. For the last twenty years, the Sooners have been a model of sustained excellence, the last five of which have had Lincoln Riley at the helm. In his five seasons at Oklahoma, Riley had a 55-10 record, won five Big 12 titles, and developed two number one overall picks in the NFL Draft at quarterback. He was also able to make three appearances in the College Football Playoff. Instead of taking a long contract extension that Oklahoma was bound to offer him, Riley decided to take on the challenge of bringing back the USC Trojans football program.

What does this hire mean for USC? Riley fits everyone’s assessment of a home-run hire and has proven that he can successfully recruit players from the west coast. He brought former five-star quarterback Spencer Rattler to Oklahoma all the way from Arizona. It will definitely be an interesting thing to watch how quickly Riley can turn around a USC football program that has been struggling to bring their program back to the level that it was once at. The Trojans were a dynasty in the early 2000s under head coach Pete Carroll. In the Carroll era at USC, the Trojans won six conference titles and two national championships. Since Carroll’s departure into the NFL, USC has only one conference title and no national championships. USC has a rich history of winning in college football, going all the way back to the 16 years between 1960 and 1975, when John McKay was the head coach. McKay really got the winning culture at USC started, winning four national championships during his time as a Trojan. USC is tied for the sixth most national championships in college football history with nine national championship titles in their program’s history. 

Although the hiring of Lincoln Riley came as a surprise to many people, the hiring just makes sense in a lot of ways. Riley is a young, superstar head football coach in college football and for him to go out to California to coach one of the most successful programs in college football history is really a good move for both USC and Riley. The USC Trojan fanbase is hopeful that Riley will bring USC football back to what it always has been.