Lincoln Riley reveals advantage from Oklahoma tenure

Lincoln Riley took the college football world by storm this week, when he left a very stable job at Oklahoma for a far less stable one at USC. Sure, USC has a history of winning at the biggest stage, perhaps even a greater history than that of Oklahoma. But turning around the USC Trojans will be no easy task.

USC has struggled in recent years. The Trojans have not eclipsed eight wins since 2017, when they went 11-3, and their last season with 12 or more victories came in Pete Carroll’s penultimate season at the helm in 2008. It’ll take some rebuilding, but Riley thinks the potential is there, given both the prestige of the program and the investment from the USC brass.

Riley also comes to USC with some valuable experience at Oklahoma. He made it to the College Football Playoff in three of the last four years at the helm of the Sooners, and though they never won the national championship, the experience of building a winning culture can certainly translate to the west coast. But perhaps most importantly, of all things he could bring with him, Riley brought Oklahoma’s verbal commits. He has basically turned around USC’s program immediately, flipping a number of former Oklahoma commits, some of whom are from California to begin with, to the Trojans.

“The respect for the talent out here, the respect for the way these guys are coached and developed out here — and there’s a comfort level recruiting out here,” Riley said, who had a history of dipping into Los Angeles’ football talent for recruiting at Oklahoma. “We’ve always had success recruiting in this area, recruiting on the west coast. I love the kids, not only recruiting them, but being able to bring them into our programs and develop. We’ve had a high success rate with not only signing them, but them becoming very successful and doing very well. So, it feels very comfortable.”

Riley’s level of comfort with the Los Angeles recruiting scene will only help his case at USC. Plus, his track record of Los Angeles players at Oklahoma will only help his case.

Lincoln Riley reveals what drew him to USC from Oklahoma

Riley brought a number of assistants with him to USC, including defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, co-offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh and wide receivers coach Dennis Simmons. In his absence, Oklahoma took a step back, plucking legendary head coach Bob Stoops out of retirement to be named interim head coach.

Riley was emotional in his opening press conference at USC, explaining that the decision to leave Oklahoma wasn’t an easy one. But ultimately, Riley said his decision was influenced by the stature and history of USC.

“(The history) was a huge part,” Riley said to Joel Klatt on FOX Sports’ Breaking the Huddle. “Because it’s been done here (at USC), and it can be done here. I think when you start to think about the possibilities, it’s potential versus current investment. And if you have the big possibilities, the big potential, which USC clearly has — you can argue maybe more so than any other program in the country — that’s great. But if that’s all that you’re relying on, then you’re probably going to get some results that you’ve had there over the last several years.

“If there’s a complete buy in and investment and a hunger about all the people that support this program or are a part of this program to do everything possible to get it where it needs to be, that combination is dangerous,” Riley said. “That combination is what ultimately drove us to making the decision to come here.”

Following his interview with Riley, Klatt made an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd and made a significant proclamation, suggesting that Riley has the chance to change the landscape in the Pac-12.

“Here’s the bottom line,” Klatt said. This conference has been somewhat irrelevant for the better part of a decade outside a couple of years where Mariota was great, or Petersen made a run at Washington, but other than that it hasn’t been great. This makes, not only USC, but the entire conference footprint relevant. And I think the dominoes that we see from this over the next couple of years are going to be substantial.”