How Lincoln Riley, USC struggles validated Oklahoma fan base, what it means for Brent Venables

After a couple of seasons with Lincoln Riley in Southern California, Oklahoma faithful are feeling a bit better about their former coach leaving the program.

In the latest episode of Andy Staples On3 with Andy Staples, Sooner Scoop’s Eddie Radosevich and Georgia Stoia III joined the program to discuss whether Sooners’ fans should feel validated after comparing Riley’s time at USC to the Brent Venables era in Norman.

“I think because of what happened in Los Angeles this year, there was a certain validation for everybody that was screaming from the mountain tops when Lincoln left, that not only was this program going to be better, but because of everything that we’d seen, from the end of ’18 and ’19 and then obviously into ’20 and ’21, that things were starting to crumble a little bit,” Radosevich explained. “You saw recruiting classes that would bring 25 guys in, and then all of a sudden you looked up and there were four left from that class. I think there was a little bit of validation from the Oklahoma fanbase, but that’s not to say that everything in their own home is in order.

“They have to continue to make those steps and make that progress in the areas that they lacked over the last two years.”

With Riley struggling in Southern California, even with an all-time great college football quarterback in Caleb Williams, Stoia III agreed with Radosevich, elaborating on why the future is bright with Venables leading the Sooners.

“I think the biggest thing is they saw what happened with Lincoln at USC, and kind of the trajectory of the program and said, ‘Okay, their definitely needed to probably be a change of scenery,’ but I think there’s also, at the same time, still maybe some skepticism around what Brent Venables is building,” Stoia III added. “I think most OU fans would say they believe in the vision, they believe that they took a big step forward, but you also look, they still had some issues last year, in terms of game management, and how things were handled.

“They’re recruiting well, but all of it has to come together at some point, and I think that there’s still some fans that are skeptical of, ‘Is Brent really going to be able to do this, and how difficult is this turning around a program, while also going into the best conference in football, while college football’s all changing, and are they embracing NIL enough, are they embracing the transfer portal enough?’ I think all of those questions still remain, while they also still believe, ‘Okay, Lincoln Riley was never going to be the ultimate answer.’ I think that they also just don’t know yet if Brent Venables is the answer.”

Oklahoma fans will always have their eye on Lincoln Riley, but it’s easy to see why Brent Venables is easing the loss of a once fan-favorite coach. We’ll see what the future holds for both programs.