Lincoln Riley on Joe Castiglione comments regarding SEC move : 'I'm not getting into that'

When Oklahoma officially joined the SEC on July 1, the Sooners threw a party in Norman to celebrate the occasion. This gave the folks behind the scenes of the move a chance to speak on the process, including Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione. At one point, Castiglione appeared to take a shot at former head coach Lincoln Riley.

“I will tell you, without reservation — every coach that we talked to was excited,” Castiglione said on the SEC move. “And you know what, the ones that weren’t aren’t here anymore… You either got to accept it or not. This is Oklahoma. Get with it or get on with it.”

Riley was given the opportunity to respond to Castiglione on Wednesday at Big Ten Media Days. He declined to make a real comment though, wanting to move on to a different question.

“I’m not getting into that,” the former Sooners head coach said. “Next question”

Oklahoma’s move to the SEC was reported on during 2021 SEC Media Days and made official just a few weeks later. That just happened to be Riley’s final season with the Sooners, one where the team fell short of getting back to the College Football Playoff after losing in two of the final three games of the regular season.

Coaching rumors surrounded Riley following the Oklahoma State loss. Ironically, the main topic of conversation was around an SEC program, LSU. Riley directly stated he would not be leaving for Baton Rouge and while he technically told the truth, USC was hiring him just a few hours later.

Ironically, there will be some SEC competition for Riley to deal with. USC opens the season against — once again, ironically — LSU in Las Vegas, setting up to be one of the best nonconference showdowns in college football this season.

From there, Riley will deal with a normal step up in competition than what he was expecting in the Pac-12. USC is moving to the Big Ten alongside crosstown rival UCLA, a move one year after Riley was put in charge of the Trojans. Oregon and Washington followed suit later on.

The feud between Riley and anybody involved with Oklahoma rages on, whether or not the former wants to. Maybe one day, the Sooners and Trojans will face each other in some capacity. No love will be lost and the entire matchup could be made quite personal, especially if the trash talking continues.