Colin Cowherd’s obsessed with Lincoln Riley (the college version of Sean McVay, who at 36 is actually younger than the 38-year old Riley)
Colin Cowherd — “People in southern California really don’t care about Oklahoma football. They really don’t. I’m sure they respect it, the people who love football, but Oklahoma football is now kind of obsessed because of the way Lincoln Riley left, departed.
“They think USC had their clutches on him weeks before. They didn’t. I know. I had talked to the Athletic Director (Mike Bohn) for three months during the process, and one of the top trustees. They didn’t know a week out. They had it down to seven different coaches. They knew they were gonna land one of them. The Athletic article on Lincoln Riley points that out.
“Lincoln Riley never ‘felt’ like Oklahoma. He felt, to be honest, like the NFL, and USC in college football is the closest thing to the NFL. The Coliseum’s had the Olympics. They’ve played baseball and NFL games there. Lincoln Riley can succeed at both Oklahoma and USC. And he may (eventually) leave USC for the NFL and that’ll be okay because at USC, that’s how it works (John McKay, John Robinson, Pete Carroll).
“Nobody was outraged (when Pete left). It’s how the game works on the coasts. We’re not into the ‘loyalty thing’. We’re into the ‘upgrading thing’. And my guess is Lincoln Riley will spend 5, 6, or 7 years here and win a couple of national titles, Oh, he will I’m sorry to inform you. And he’ll probably pivot to the Dallas Cowboys or something, and nobody here will be bothered.
“I never once thought that Oklahoma was where it’s gonna end for Lincoln Riley. I think Bob Stoops, deep down, also knew that Lincoln Riley wouldn’t stay at Oklahoma. There were rumors for years Riley was going to go to the NFL after two years coaching (at OU). Nobody thought Pete Carroll was gonna stay forever at USC. And nobody thinks Lincoln Riley’s gonna stay forever at USC. It would be great if he did, but he’s big picture, offensive, aspirational.
“I talked to an NFL general GM when Riley got hired at SC, and he said he was only two coaches, Jim Harbaugh was the other, that he would hire in the NFL. “Riley has never been ‘just Oklahoma.’ It’s not the way he left. No, it’s not. It doesn’t matter how you leave, it’s that you leave.
“Lincoln Riley is a better fit in Los Angeles. He’s simply a better fit. He feels like more L.A. than he does Oklahoma football. He feels about quarterbacks, and wide receivers, and clever offensive schemes. I had another NFL executive tell me Riley feels like the college version of Sean McVay. Culture, offense, growing, progressive, holistic thinker. That’s not anti-Oklahoma. But it feels very right in Los Angeles at USC.”
________
I’d be happy just getting to the conference championship game. I’m more than willing to take things in baby steps. This is what happens when you live under a Helton regime.
The new recruiting rules say that any team can recruit as many players as they need to reach the 85 limit, each year. Coaches can cut players (which we already know with what LR has done) and rebuild his roster each year. This really seems like the wild west on steroids to me. Players can come from either the portal or high school/juco ranks. I look forward to seeing Riley building with the high school recruits as the recruiting wars are sure not what they used to be and are going to be getting tougher.
Gentlemen, start your engines……….the expectations just grew again. I don’t know how many games we will win but this team should be scoring points. My long time Trojan alum friend who lives in Marin county said he just bought 10 tickets for the Stanford game on the Farm for Sept 10 game. He has bought in and this is going to be the turning point game of the season.
David Shaw, the man who finally broke the chains tying USC and The Cat together, is gonna be in for a rude awakening. I think STAN is toast. USC is already a big fave if I’m not mistaken, but not sure about that.
As of today, USC is 28/1 to be in the CFP. What a difference from the last 6 years. Happy days are here again. I think expectations are going sky high with the addition of Addison.
Former ND QB Brady Quinn (the QB who lost the Bush Push game) just said, “Anything short of a playoff appearance for Lincoln Riley in his first season would be a disappointment.”
Brady we are a long ways from November. Lets take one step at a time. For sure, SC is loaded on offense. A fairly good defense may be enough. Conference champs is certainly a possibility. Anything after that is extra gravy for me.
It’s only May and Pac-12 champs seems like what more and more Trojans actually expect from LR in year one.
There’s just been so darn much consistent good news, week after week, that’s it hard not to think USC should win it with this radical player/coach switchover, in part just because the Pac-12 is really viewed as so weak by those outside the conference.
Amazing, isn’t it? And LR has completely changed SC football. I still find it hard to believe. Allen calls it Helton PTSD. Moving from the worst HC in Power 5 to the best is just too much to take in!
Clay Helton tortured us with his total ineptitude and feebleness, for years.
Eventually, I could barely stand to ever watch, or listen, to his sometimes hilarious Trojan football rehab speeches, or about his love affair with certain players.
I always would laugh when I would hear him talk about how much he understood and embraced USC’s tradition, and winning requirements. He made himself and his family pretty well-off at USC. He needs to send holiday greetings cards to Lynn Swann for the rest of his life, into perpetuity.
I think of Toa and still shake my head.
Might be accurate in how overall less competitive the PAC-12 has been in football and the non-conference games this season are winnable. Most all sports reporting is pointing to the same thing; it’s about the weakness of the Trojan defense that will determine how USC will compete with the better teams for the conference championship & playoff. I don’t know what more LR & staff can do if the better defensive players don’t go Portal like offensive have. With the depth situation being more severe on the D-side, the coaching staff is going to have to pin their ears back… Read more »
Also, my point was that it was Brady Quinn who said this, the same guy who never beat USC, I’m pretty sure, and who has also come out publicly against LR for taking (or allegedly paying for) Jordan Addison from PITT.
I’d say things must be frosty between Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Quinn, unless I’m making way too much of all these scathing NIL critiques from those whose agenda is taking a hit.
Jordan Addison statement:
It’s official! Addison is headed to USC! Ya, baby!
WeAreSC
Lincoln bleeping Riley! My expectations for this year are over the top. If we get Lole, I think we are in the playoff. Barring injury, 10 wins will be a given. Fight on!
For some reason I never had a doubt. The combination of a great QB, GREAT HC, some NIL influence, the beach, and the babes was just to much for Sark to overcome.
Grouchy Nick Saban would say USC just bought Addison. How much of that is, or isn’t true, we’ll probably never know. A complicated mix of things — which Lincoln Riley has obviously completely figured out from his new semi-guru perch high on everyone’s interest gauge.
Within the confines of a few fuzzy rules, every top 10-15 program is trying to “buy” the best players they can. If they aren’t then very soon they won’t be top 10. Saban at 70 is old school and probably slow to adapt. His time is soon passing.
put Jimbo and Saban in a ring, let them fight it out.
From Yahoo Sports ( https://sports.yahoo.com/nick-saban-takes-shot-across-the-bow-of-historic-proportions-134948303.html ) Last winter, a message board poster named “Sliced Bread” wrote that Texas A&M’s No. 1 ranked recruiting class was, at least in part, a product of the school doling out some $30 million to prospects via name, image and likeness deals. No proof was offered. No credibility existed. The actual figure was wildly outside the market rate and thus made no sense. It didn’t matter. In the modern media world of aggregation, it was turned into a story and went viral from there. It was repeated so often A&M coach Jimbo Fisher felt compelled… Read more »
John, If Saban is complaining about the NIL money, you know it is a problem for AL and my guess is that we are going to see a federal fix sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, let the Portal chaos work in USC’s favor!
What a great advantage for us to have this re-starting with LR.
Saban is most likely indirectly complaining about LR. LR is probably the best HC in the country in the combination of coaching ability & talent, personality, and location (SC) for this new world of collegiate football. The hiring of LR was pure magic. We went from the worst HC in Power 5 to the best overnight. And, make no mistake, LR is the best HC in the nation at this new game. If it is not changed, SC will dominate collegiate football just like AL has the last decade. TN and A&M are major concerns in his conference; when Texas… Read more »
Here’s one strange, unusual question for you: How much would you attribute USC’s getting LR to “pure luck”? I would say that had OU beaten OKS that day, USC would never have ended up with LR. Not happening. USC deserves about 20% credit, and it’s well-deserved. Bohn’s my hero. But USC getting LR was 80% pure luck, or serendipity, or a gift from the gods, IMO. Sometimes, I still can’t believe it. USC football is so much radically better and upgraded from where it stood dead in the water just six short months ago. It feels so different to see… Read more »
Allen, Divine Providence. SC was prepared when the window opened; and without the preparation and commitment, the window would have closed. Remember the only reason OK lost was because the OK punt returner fumbled on I think the OK 10 yard line late in the game. Without that fumble, LR would not be at SC.
Saban has really stepped in it here, as well as with Deion Sanders. IMO, he feels his stranglehold grasp on CFB NCs is hugely threatened by NIL, and rightfully so.
But he picked on the wrong guy in Jimbo Fisher, who coached under Saban at LSU in 2000 and knows where some of the bodies are. Can’t wait to see how Saban responds to Fisher. I suspect Saban will back down, because I just don’t see an aggressive winning strategy for him. But he could easily surprise me.
Alabama has a few big time boosters, and collectively they have a huge monetary foundation to build a very competitive NIL program, which I would assume they already have. I do not like the direction college ball is going, and yes I am old school. The love of money is destroying what was at one time the greatest sport in America. Now it is becoming business, just like the nfl, and I forsee a future with players as paid employees and a labor union issuing strikes if they are not compensated to their satisfaction. What’s next, NIL for high school… Read more »
Steve, I feel the same way about the way collegiate football is going. But, to be honest, it has been big business for the last few decades. It will always have a special place in my heart, but the coaches make a fortune off it, the media makes a fortune off it, and the kids who graduate get an education off it. But, it is really a business. The kids are the major programs for the most part are in NFL apprentice program. I really do not know why colleges do not admit that is the case. If kids can… Read more »
Wow, a degree in Football Science. With a minor in baseball or track. The biggest problem I see is not every player is nfl material and because of that the NIL is pretty nil for them. Perhaps the millennials care about what the players endorse, but our age bracket is not very impressed Somehow I think when the whistle blows and the game begins, all money falls by the wayside, it’s winning time.
You may not have known!
The Dodgers’ Justin Turner, who is from Long Beach and played baseball at CSF, is a big-time USC football fan and is rooting hard for LR to bring the Trojans back:
“Obviously you’d like to see them improve and get back to their dominating ways and being able to keep blue-chip high school recruits right here in Southern California,” Turner told DodgerBlue.com. “That’s (hiring Riley) obviously a good step to that…”
2021-22 NBA All-Rookie teams:
First team: Scottie Barnes, Evan Mobley, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Franz Wagner
Second team: Ayo Dosunmu, Chris Duarte, Josh Giddey, Bones Hyland, Herbert Jones
I’ve searched around, far and wide, for any info clarifying when #1 portal target WR Jordan Addison might decide between USC and TEXAS. He entered the Portal on May 3. Generally speaking, USC remains a vague favorite, probably because Caleb Williams followed Lincoln Riley to USC, and Williams is the best QB that Addison could hook up with for the 2022 season. The Trojans started out #1 in the Addison chase. ALA fell by the wayside by all accounts, and TEXAS couldn’t close the deal while Addison was recently in Austin despite pulling out all the stops. When will this… Read more »
Since USC and LR both contend that absolutely nothing was discussed between both parties until after the Sooners lost to OKS, thereby missing the Big 12 championship game (eventually won by BAY) for the first time under Riley, he would seemingly not be on that original Magnificent Seven list, or he would have been mentioned much earlier, and frequently, as a serious USC candidate. I think this entire USC/LR marriage for $100 mil-plus had as much to do with serendipity, the football gods, perfect timing, and the crazy luck of OU losing to OKS more than anything USC planned on.… Read more »
Much like the NFL draft, Bohn and Sosna had their dream list and LR could very well had been on it. They had all their material ready and ready to fly anywhere in the country. OU beats OKS and Cinnicinati stumbles Fickell would be our guy, or Baylor loses and Aranda is it. You have your contingencies and are ready to go depending on who falls in your lap. Amazingly, it went perfectly for USC.
I’ll never forget Bohn’s giddy face and antics when he introduced LR on top of the Coliseum as USC’s new HC. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a beaming school official happier and more exhilarated to be standing next to a new football coach. It’s just a hunch, but I don’t think Bohn had any inkling he even had a shot at LR until LR unexpectedly lost to OKS. Bohn seemed also in shock to be next to Riley, along with sudden heroes Folt and Caruso, all beaming because of a perilous venture which landed better than we all could… Read more »
Wish we could find out who those supposed 6-coaches Bohn was interested in. But probably that is a close secret the way coaches want to deal behind everyone’s back.
Think about the names we heard and read in the media. Aranda, Fickell, Campbell, Christobol, Franklin, Fleck, Kiffen, etc. The only name they didn’t think of was Riley.
Other names we kicked around were Quinn, Hugh Jackson, Brian Kelly, Beineme, Obrien, Ruhle, Fisher, and of course Del Rio.
Stewart Mandel and Antonio Morales could have easily included the all-important names of those Magnificent Seven coaches USC was supposedly fixated on and had vetted, but they purposively didn’t, so we have no idea if Lincoln Riley was actually in the original Magnificent Seven or not.
Chief of Staff Brian Sosna said, “It was like, we’re not going to miss on all of them. We’re going get one of these seven.”
I don’t want to see it. I’m sure all seven pale in comparison to Riley.
Pac-12 Announces Change To Football Championship Game Format SAN FRANCISCO (Pac-12.com) — “The Pac-12 conference today announced a change to how it will determine the teams that qualify for the Pac-12 Football Championship Game, presented by 76. “Starting in 2022, the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage will face off in the championship game. This change would have resulted in a different Pac-12 Football Championship matchup in 5 of the past 11 years. “The measure passed with unanimous support from the league’s head football coaches, athletic directors and board of directors. “The current Pac-12 conference football schedule, based upon… Read more »
Seeing as how the 2022 schedule is already out no sense changing it. This will sometimes boil down to a disputed championship, but perhaps it will help the Pac12 create a better viewing audience. I hope they get rid of the Friday night championship game and play it on Saturday, but I know that day is pretty tied up right now with games on TV. It is great to see the new commissioner willing to make wholesale changes in the way the league operates. I am sure other conferences will follow suit eventually.