Lincoln Riley has been gone from Oklahoma for almost two weeks.
And former Sooner assistant Brent Venables’ hire on Sunday has instantaneously erased him from the Sooner memory.
One week of mourning seems about right.
Riley did himself no favors by scurrying away in darkness to La La Land.
Less than 12 hours after a Bedlam loss and Riley was out the door.
A sorrowful post-game interview in the locker room at Boone Pickens Stadium, followed by a sleepless night and early morning Zoom call with the good folks at Southern Cal who just happened to come prepared with a job contract and offer in tow for their first visit!
Wink. Wink.
Or 👀 as Riley himself would tweet after a big recruiting win to announce the new addition to the roster.
Oh.
And don’t forget the solid acting job by Riley in the same press conference.
He was asked about the rumors that had overwhelmed Oklahoma Twitter all week that he was taking the LSU job.
Riley slowly raised his downward head, looked straight into the camera, stopped the interviewer mid-sentence and uttered the words all of Sooner Nation wanted to hear:
“I’m not going to be the coach at LSU.”
Ok.
That should’ve been the end of the story.
Except the story wasn’t LSU.
I went to bed disappointed over the loss to OSU but content we’d have our coach in the morning.
Then I woke on Sunday morning checked Twitter and lo and behold there was new action on the Lincoln Riley rumor mill.
Bruce Feldman, a west coast reporter for FOX Sports, tweeted that USC was making a move for Riley.
Sounded like more fake news except Feldman is a connected West Coast reporter.
And sure enough I’d soon get a text announcing Riley’s departure from my same Texas Longhorn friend who broke the Bob Stoops retirement news 4-1/2 years earlier.
Wow.
That sure was fast.
It was less than 24 hours after the LSU denial.
Sure wish that reporter had asked a follow up on “any job”!
So after the first Oklahoma head coach in 75 years chose another college team to leave the Sooners, how we feeling?
Relieved. Enthusiastic. Energized.
Look, Lincoln Riley was a great hire in 2017.
A continuity hire for the Bob Stoops era following 16 solid years restoring the Sooner brand.
Stoops had resurrected the Oklahoma Sooners from a decade of misery that saw probation, scholarship deductions and loss of television appearances.
It was natural that those penalties resulted in zero Big 8/XII championships, three losing seasons and two more non-winning seasons in 10 years.
The worst decade in Sooner football since Bud Wilkinson created the “monster” in 1947 that Barry Switzer so appropriately described.
Big Game Bob won a National Championship his second season and would follow that with three more appearances in the BCS Championship Game in nine years.
Ten Big XII Championships would follow.
The first coach to win each of the BCS New Years Six Bowl Games.
Two Heisman Trophy winners.
Nagurski, Lombardi, Thorpe winners, too.
A slew of NFL draft choices.
A record win streak and a consecutive home game sell-out record that he handed off to the new coach he hand-picked.
Restoring the pride, legacy and history of one of college football’s true Blue Bloods.
So it should’ve surprised no one associated with Oklahoma football the past 20 years to see Bob Stoops at the podium the Monday following Riley’s surprise announcement.
After the school President and Athletic Director had spoken, here was Big Game Bob reassuring the Sooner Nation that all is well in Norman.
A “”bump in the road” as Stoops called it.
Reassuring the current players, their families and recruiting prospects that Oklahoma football is more than one guy.
Not Barry Switzer or Bob Stoops.
And certainly not Lincoln Riley.
And with those reassuring words Bob Stoops stopped the bleeding the surprise Riley announcement had caused to the brand.
Not only had Lincoln Riley jilted the Sooners for the glitz and glamour of the bright lights big city, but he was threatening to take all of the Oklahoma recruits who were ready to sign on December 15.
Decimating a schools recruiting class 17 days before National Signing Day is “death penalty-like.”
And sure enough, just hours after his announcement on Sunday, two 5-star Oklahoma recruits from the 2023 class had de-committed from Oklahoma for USC.
Soon there was Lincoln Riley in photos blasted on Twitter in the home of other 5-Star players he had recruited to Oklahoma.
Flipping their commitment to USC!
Before the ink had dried on his fancy new contract, all five players from the Oklahoma 2023 class would soon flip to Riley and Southern California or announce their decommitment from Oklahoma.
Included on this list was the #2 ranked quarterback in the 2023 class Malachi Nelson from Mater Dei High School in Anaheim, California, who switched his commitment on Sunday of the Riley announcement before Riley had even left for California!
Later on that same Sunday, 5-star receiver Brandon Innis from Fort Lauderdale, Florida also de-committed from Oklahoma.
He was followed on Tuesday by 5-star Athlete Makai Lemon, Nelson’s teammate at nearby Mater Dei, who also de-committed from OU to declare to USC.
Two others would follow Riley’s announcement including Treyaun Webb, a 4-star running back from Jacksonville, Florida.
The following week Bixby, Oklahoma 4-star Tight End Luke Hasz also would de-commit.
So within one week, Lincoln Riley’s coaching decision to leave Oklahoma had also resulted in the loss of 5 of the 7 players who had previously committed to the Sooners Class of 2023 leaving the Sooners with two recruits in the class.
As bad as this news was, the impact to the 2022 class was more urgent with signing day two weeks away.
And sure enough the Riley announcement resulted in 5 more losses in the Class of 2022.
Five-star running back Raleek Brown from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California de-committed on Wednesday and immediately declared for Riley and USC.
Three more 4-stars would also de-commit that first week following Riley’s announcement.
Five-Star Defensive Tackle Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy from Lakeland, Florida, and a Sooner legacy, would de-commit the following week upon news that new Sooner head coach Brent Venables would not retain Calvin Thibodeaux as his line coach.
Dindy committed to Texas A&M.
These five defections left the Sooners with only 12 commits for the 2022 class two weeks prior to signing day.
So that’s 5 losses from the class of 2023 followed by five more from the 2022 class.
Including the #2 ranked quarterback in the 2023 class who was scheduled to take the reigns from current Sooner quarterback Caleb Williams.
Oh yeah.
What about the current players?
For now, Williams the former 5-star, #1 quarterback in the nation, is keeping quiet about his plans.
He’s doing all the right things like attending Venables’ press conference on Monday along with the rest of his teammates wearing Stoops words on his t-shirt “We Are OU!”
He’s also attended all of the Oklahoma men’s basketball teams games the past two weeks with his teammates, as well.
But not the former #1 ranked quarterback from the class of 2019, former starter Spencer Rattler.
The pre-season Heisman Trophy favorite entered the transfer portal on the Monday following Riley’s announcement.
His next school is not determined at this time.
He was soon followed by fellow class of 2019 5-star receivers Jadon Haselwood and Theo Wease.
Haselwood has since signed to play with Arkansas.
Wease has yet to declare.
Tight end Austin Stogner, a 4-star from the Dallas metro, also de-committed and is yet to sign.
So four starters from the class of 2019 all have de-committed following the Lincoln Riley departure.
Others like starting edge rusher, nose guard and redshirt junior linebacker Nik Bonnito, senior Perion Winfrey and junior Brian Asamoah declared for the NFL draft.
So for a tally, here’s the state of Oklahoma football and players who have declared to be leaving early and recruiting de-commits in the wake of Lincoln Riley’s announcement:
Starters
Offense
Spencer Rattler—Quarterback
Theo Wease—Receiver
Jadon Haselwood—Receiver
Austin Stogner—Tight End
Defense
Nik Bonnitto—Edge
Perion Winfrey—Nose Guard
Brian Asamoah—Linebacker
Class of 2022
Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy
Raleek Brown
Derrick Moore
Kobie McKenzie
Demetrius Hunter
Class of 2023
Malachi Nelson
Brandon Innis
Makai Lemon
Treyaun Webb
Luke Hasz
This list does not include seniors who will graduate.
The new Covid-rules granted an extra year of eligibility to players following the 2020 season.
And the NCAA extended recruiting scholarships to 32 in 2022.
So until players announce their intentions, it’s hard to project who is leaving and who is staying.
But seniors and starters like offensive lineman Tyrese Robinson, Marquis Hayes, Erik Swenson, Robert Congel and Chris Murray have decisions to make.
As do defensive starters senior linebacker Dashaun White, redshirt senior safety Justin Broiles, redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Jalen Redmond, senior safeties Delarrin Turner-Yell and Pat Fields and senior defensive tackles Isaiah Thomas and Laron Stokes.
All are eligible to leave for the NFL draft or the transfer portal.
Or they could all choose to take their “Covid Year” and return for the Sooners.
All the other current roster players are staying…so far.
That could all change with further coaching announcements and approaches by other teams.
Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in with the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness agreements.
College football players are basically free agents and can choose to leave a program who invested so much into their recruitment and development at the drop of a hat.
Or a head coach who recruited them who decides to leave in the darkness of dawn along with two assistant coaches, the strength and conditioning coach and 34-year tenured Oklahoma employee as director of football operations.
That’s a lot for an 18 or 19 or 20 year old college kid to grasp.
A lot of mentorship who they have placed their trust in to develop their football potential.
Not to say the trust of the parents of those kids who trusted those folks to take care of their kids in college.
That’s why it was no surprise that Oklahoma officials spent so much time talking about trust and loyalty in the opening press conference announcing new head coach Brent Venables.
Even Venables stressed his loyalty to two programs the past 23 years.
He also talked about building relationships and love.
Venables said he was gonna coach them hard but love them more.
That’s encouraging words from the new head coach that was reassuring to all Sooner players, commits and future recruits as well as their parents.
Time will tell how impactful Venables message will be once signing day rolls around next week.
And if any other current Sooners decide to declare for the NFL draft or leave for the portal.
I will say that as someone who has watched Oklahoma football the past 50-some years, I was moved by the story as it unfolded to where it is today.
Yes, surprise and hurt at first that Lincoln Riley would look a gift horse in the mouth and leave for Southern California.
I get it.
Bright lights big city, L.A. star power, front row seats to Dodger and Laker games.
Rubbing elbows with Magic and Jack, the ocean breezes and the ever present sunshine.
The PAC 12 vs. the SEC.
I don’t hold any ill will toward Lincoln Riley.
Sure I wish he would’ve handled his departure better but as Bob Stoops said, there is no easy way to do this for a head coach.
I’m also not gonna spend any more time wondering why?
Just take him at his word that it was a new and unique challenge that drew him to Los Angeles.
As the days turn into weeks we may learn more about what factored into his decision.
Maybe it was the Sooners move to The SEC?
Maybe it was the impending changes to his staff that OU leadership were recommending to prepare for the SEC?
I don’t think it was any coincidence that Riley took his strength and conditioning guy and defensive coordinator along with him to California.
So after we dissected the Riley decision our emotions shifted.
To excitement, enthusiasm and reenergized passion for Oklahoma football after watching our leadership turn out and hit the road finding our guy and reaching out to our players and recruits.
Thank God for President Joseph Harroz, Athletic Director Joe Castiglione, former Head Coach Bob Stoops, all OU assistant coaches and all the support staff who joined ranks these past two weeks.
They were preaching to the choir in some cases but the story I heard also resonated with the rest of the country, as well.
And thank God for Brent Venables.
I watched live as the events of Sunday night at the airport and Monday morning on the OU campus unfolded in Norman.
I have never been more proud to be a Sooner!
We’ll soon see if his message also resonated with the current Sooner team and recruits.
Good days ahead for Oklahoma football.
The Brent Venables Era has begun!
Boomer!
