SEC Fans May Call Riley a Coward, But No One Can Call Him a Liar

Careful wording by former Oklahoma coach over weekend was nothing short of magic

For Arkansas fans it took a moment to register.

Did that bright red “Breaking News” down in the crawl of Sunday afternoon’s Arkansas vs. Penn basketball game really say what we all thought it said?

The announcement that Lincoln Riley was bolting Norman, Oklahoma, for the bright lights of Los Angeles was one of at least two moments where Razorback fans had to pause and rewind to confirm what they just saw.

The other was when ESPN threw up a chryon that indicated Penn had a sharp shooter named “Player Name” who had dropped 21 on the home team.

It certainly took a moment to process.

As someone who lives in an area heavily populated by OU fans, I can tell you Sooner nation rates Riley just below Jesus and a hair above their own mothers.

If Oklahomans saw someone walking across the surface in the middle of Lake Eufaula, they would wait on the shores for a few minutes to confirm it actually was the Good Lord, and not Bob Stoops’s chosen one.

However, it didn’t take long for the shock to wear off and reason to set in.

The heavy smoke surrounding the Riley to LSU rumors indicated he could be the next Mardis Gras king down in Baton Rouge this February if he wanted, but he went out of his way to assure Oklahoma fans he would not leave them for LSU.

“I’m not going to be the next head coach at LSU,” Riley told the press following the Sooner’s heart-breaking loss to Oklahoma State at Bedlam.

It was a loss that ended the Sooner’s hopes of sneaking into the College Football Playoffs, and, according to The Oklahoman’s Justin Martinez in a postgame story that also ran in USA Today,

“The coaching carousel is a ride that stops for no one. Apparently Lincoln Riley is ready to step off the ride." 

Fans could sleep peacefully knowing they had lost the game, but weren’t losing their coach.

Fourteen hours later, while Razorback fans found hope in seeing a starting line-up made up primarily of returning players from last year’s Elite 8 run demonstrate to the rest of the team that it’s not against the rules to pass the ball to a teammate, word began leaking out that someone else would lead Oklahoma into the Southeastern Conference.

OU message boards were sprinkled with posts from fans who felt Riley had lied to them earlier this week.

However, college coaches are essentially politicians, and the term journalists learn in high school when they study Watergate, the concept of a non-denial denial, was fully in play.

Riley never once lied. He made factual statements and allowed the brains of loyal fans to plug in their own intent.

"There's nothing to handle," Riley said in his press conference last Tuesday. "It's pretty easy. I coach the University of Oklahoma football team. You guys know how I feel about this place and this program. We've all been down this road many times before. You guys know where I stand on that, and that hasn't changed."

Break that down.

At the time there was nothing to handle. If an agreement was made, other people were handling the details.

His job was to prepare for Oklahoma State. He was correct in stating he was the coach of the University of Oklahoma football team.

The media most likely was aware of how he feels about the OU program and that particular team. Riley and the local media have been down that road before, particularly when the Dallas Cowboys fired Jason Garrett a couple of years ago.

His stance was that he is the Sooners football coach, and at the moment, that hadn’t changed. Everything was true on Tuesday.

Everything was true Saturday night when he said he wasn’t going to be the coach at LSU.

However, at no point did he say he wouldn’t leave Oklahoma. It’s a notion Riley has probably been craftily dancing around since July when the move to the SEC became official.

He continued to be judicious with his words during his first interaction with the press in L.A. Monday night.

ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt asked when the opportunity to go to USC became real enough to have to ponder whether to consider it.

During the long pause, it’s easy to see the wheels turning in Riley’s head as he figures how to tell the truth without telling the truth.

“Sunday morning USC engaged with some interest and wanted to have a conversation,” Riley said. “Honestly, Scott, that’s the first conversation at any point in my time at Oklahoma that I’d ever had with with another football team.”

The man is so magical with words that it’s hard not to respect the game. Each word is so perfectly chosen.

There is little reason to doubt Sunday morning was the first time Riley physically talked to someone from USC. Discussions would have been funneled through his agent.

Technically, based on the wording, someone from USC could have e-mailed or texted, but that seems unlikely since Riley coaches at a state school, making him potentially subject to open records requests.

The sentence is so well crafted that it even leaves room for anyone who isn’t specifically a USC coach or a player to have spoken to Riley about the job and he still be telling the truth.

In the end, all the verbal acrobatics were probably worth it.

Riley wanted out of OU and away from the lurking menace that is the SEC so bad that reports have since come out about Stoops having to talk Riley into taking the briefest of moments to say goodbye to his team and might not have directly told his administrators.

But who can blame Riley?

It’s hard to walk on water in the turbulent rapids of the SEC. It’s a conference where egos go to die.

The peaceful glassy lakes of the Pac 12 will make it much easier for Riley to walk on water once again. 

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