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Lincoln Riley Leaving Oklahoma for USC

The Sooners' head coach said he isn't going to LSU, but he reportedly told his staff Sunday he's taking the job in Los Angeles.

John E. Hoover

Lincoln Riley said Saturday he would not be the next coach at LSU.

He didn’t say anything about USC.

Multiple reports Sunday afternoon have tabbed the Oklahoma coach as the new choice at USC

The news was broken by Yahoo’s Pete Thamel that the Trojans were finalizing a deal to hire Riley, and minutes later, On3’s Matt Zenitz reported on Twitter that Riley actually informed his staff at OU that he’s taking he head coaching job at USC.

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione did not return e

Others close to the program have begun to report on the situation as well, including former Sooner defensive lineman and ESPN commentator Dusty Dvoracek.

The timing of Riley's apparent departure is interesting because a source told SI Sooners last week that Oklahoma was working on a significant raise and contract extension for him, and that was expected to be announced as early as this week. Details of the contract are unknown, but it was believed to also contain additional money for staff and other elements of the program, including recruiting.

Lincoln Riley’s Oklahoma contract  annual salary

  • 2017: $3.1 million
  • 2018: $4.8 million
  • 2019: $6 million
  • 2020: $6.15 million
  • 2021: $8.05 million*
  • 2022: 7.565 million
  • 2023: $8.275 million*
  • 2024: $7.585 million
  • 2025: $7.585 million

Six years, $45.21 million

There have been whispers around the program all season that the team and Riley seemed distracted or somehow disconnected. That's likely why the LSU rumors never died down. Even Saturday night, shortly before the game at OSU kicked off, more rumors that Riley had spoken to his team on Friday and could be introduced in Baton Rouge as early as Sunday. Athletic director Joe Castiglione said "just don't try" to keep all the rumors and reports straight.

Then came USC.

According to college football insider Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, talks between USC and Riley “really escalated late Saturday night and late into Sunday morning,” according to unnamed sources.

Feldman said his sources told him Riley found Los Angeles and its “local recruiting talent” appealing, as well as the idea of trying to rebuild the Trojans’ brand.

Feldman also reported that the OU coaching staff found out about Riley’s decision on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday night after the Sooners lost to the Cowboys, Riley was asked about the LSU job and said, "I'm not going to be the next coach at LSU. Next question."

When pressed for more insight on his relationship between himself and the OU administration, Riley offered this:

"No concerns about our administration, our AD, our president. We’ve been through a lot together. This isn’t our first rodeo together. We always have conversations about the future and certainly with all that’s getting ready to … that’s changing right now in the college landscape, all that’s getting ready to change for us as, at some point here, we transition into a new conference. 

"Those are always conversations that we’re going to have and we would be having those yearly no matter what. All of us are trying to make this place better and make this program better. You don’t do that without working together, conversing with each other. So of course we’re going to continue to do that. We work well together and we’re going to continue to work well together."

It would be a shocking and sudden turn for Riley, 38, who’s 55-10 and finishing up his fifth season at OU following Saturday night’s Bedlam loss in Stillwater.

Riley's greatest achievements in his short time at OU include nearly beating Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinal in his first year in 2017 (Georgia narrowly lost to Alabama for the national championship) and winning four straight Big 12 titles.

Probably his most endearing legacy will be coaching Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray to back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners inn 2017 and 2018 and developing them into No. 1 overall picks in the NFL Draft in 2018 and 2019.

Riley said numerous times the Sooners were "agonizingly close" to winning a national championship, but he never got closer than he did in 2017. OU lost to Alabama in 2018 and to LSU in 2019, and both were lopsided defeats.

The Sooners have regressed the past two seasons, losing back-to-back games last year for the first time since the John Blake era, and then losing two more conference games again this season despite being a trendy pick to win the national title.

The last time OU lost a head coach to another job was in 1973 when Chuck Fairbanks left to take over the New England Patriots. He was succeeded by Barry Switzer, who was forced to resign. Then came Gary Gibbs, Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake, who were all fired. Stoops stepped away into retirement after 18 seasons that put him atop the list of OU coaching victories with 190.

Oklahoma now faces its first real coaching search since Stoops was hired after the 1998 season. 

This story will be updated.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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