After Oklahoma lost 55-24 to TCU this past Saturday, there was quite a lot of discussion on social media about Brent Venables not being a very good coach and Lincoln Riley having had the last laugh. The chatter was predictable, but like a lot of instant takes, it is exaggerated and overdone and lacks context.
It’s impossible to not wonder what life would be like for Lincoln Riley this year had he remained at Oklahoma. Is there anything we can gather from a comparison of Oklahoma and USC, and from Brent Venables’ job performance measured against Riley’s through five weeks in 2022?
Let’s make a few specific observations:
RILEY IS FOCUSED
If you listened to our Riley Files series, one of the central insights of the special project was that Riley wasn’t fully focused in 2021 at Oklahoma. He was thinking about leaving. He was dissatisfied with aspects of his situation. There was political intrigue behind the scenes. Riley was not at his sharpest because he was conflicted and distracted.
Any discussion of Riley at Oklahoma has to accout for this reality. If he was coaching at OU in 2022, one has to ask if Riley would have ironed out his problems with Sooner AD Joe Castiglione. If he did, he probably wouldn’t be a distracted coach. Riley is focused at USC, and the clarity of coaching is showing in the Trojans’ results.
CALEB WILLIAMS
Caleb Williams is a lot better than Dillon Gabriel. We can’t separate that point from any evaluation of 2022 Oklahoma. Riley coming to USC obviously mattered in and of itself, but Riley bringing Caleb to the Trojans, away from Oklahoma, is another reason for the divergent fortunes of these two programs.
MARIO WILLIAMS
Mario Williams has been very good for USC. Oklahoma not having him hurts the Sooners as well. If Riley stayed at OU, Mario Williams would have stayed as well.
ALEX…
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