All Sooners

Lincoln Riley Says People Tried to Break Into His House Following Departure From Oklahoma

The Sooners' former head coach claims he was worried about his family's safety after alleged break-in attempts at the Riley residence.

Ross Lovelace

Lincoln Riley Says People Tried to Break Into His House Following Departure From Oklahoma
Lincoln Riley Says People Tried to Break Into His House Following Departure From Oklahoma /
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Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma to take the job at Southern California in 2021 — and it’s still, somehow, a topic of conversation.

This time, Riley claims threats from OU fans and personal space intrusion.

In an interview conducted in June but aired Wednesday on YouTube, Riley spoke to Graham Bensinger on "In Depth with Graham Bensinger" about the concerns he had for his family after he said there were “multiple” break-in attempts at his Oklahoma residence.

"Yeah, I had multiple, had a lot of different people trying to break into the house the days after it happened," Riley claimed. "And 95 percent of the fans and people out there at Oklahoma or anybody else are great. You typically always have that percentage that at times take it too far. Obviously, this was one of those instances.”

The Norman Police Department says no police reports were filed for break-ins or other criminal activity, but two incidents were called in from Riley’s residence on Dec  17 and Dec  19. Those incident reports were first reported by SoonerScoop’s George Stoia.

"I didn't care about the house. I didn't care about anything else, just their safety," Riley said. "We wanted the girls to be able to finish out school, because the semester was almost over. And as that stuff transpired we said, 'No, we gotta get them the hell out of here as fast as we can.'"

From Riley’s comments, it appears his original plan was to have his daughters finish out the fall semester at their school before moving the family to Los Angeles. After the supposed threats, though, that plan shifted to sooner rather than later.

Riley announced his decision to leave Oklahoma and join USC on Nov. 28, 2021. The Sooners lost to in-state rival Oklahoma State the day before on Nov. 27. Riley has gone back-and-forth on when he decided to leave and when he began communicating with the USC athletic department. 

In addition to Riley’s departure less than 24 hours after a regular season loss, Oklahoma fans were up in arms about the players leaving to Southern California with their head coach. In the sit down interview, however, Riley claimed he encouraged all of his ex-players to stay at Oklahoma.

“As far as with the players and players that come with you, it’s a difficult decision” Riley said. “I mean, it’s like, you put yourself in the position of, ‘Do I want players to leave the place that I was at?’ Absolutely not. One of the things I told the players when I stood up there is, ‘I think every one of you should stay here and do it.’

“Behind the scenes, people probably wouldn’t believe it now, we helped keep a lot of players there that are still there,” Riley said. “But if you have a player that you recruited, knew their family, you’ve been in there with and he says, ‘Coach, I wanna go with you.’ Do you say no? Do you say, ‘You were good enough to come with me to this place, but now I won’t take you here?’ It’s not easy.”

Corner Latrell McCutchin, wide receiver Mario Williams, and most notably, quarterback Caleb Williams all followed Riley to USC. Williams would go on to win the 2022 Heisman Trophy and USC went from a 4-8 team to a 10-win team last year.

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Ross Lovelace
ROSS LOVELACE

Experience Ross is a young, up-and-coming sports reporter who has covered the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Oklahoma Sooners over the past six years. He's made guest appearances on various radio stations and has helped out with the All Sooners podcast whenever he gets the chance. Ross enjoys public speaking and has done so at multiple churches and high schools across the OKC metro area. In addition to writing, Ross has been the Play-by-Play announcer for Crossings’ basketball and football programs since 2020. In high school, Ross worked for self-starter blogs and latched onto Thunder Digest, where he discovered his passion for writing. From there, he worked for the OU Daily as a women's basketball reporter and was hired by All Sooners. Ross landed an internship with Sports Illustrated's Inside the Thunder and has since become a full-time contributor. One day, Ross hopes to work in the NBA. Work History Education Ross holds a bachelor's degree in Public Relations and a minor in Communication from the University of Oklahoma. Personal Born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Ross played basketball and wrote for his own Thunder blog at Crossings High School in OKC, OK. He enjoys reading, New York Jets football and a week at the beach. Ross is engaged to be married at the end of the year. His Twitter handle is @Rosslovelace.

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