Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans have had quite the interesting week. Just ahead of Friday night’s matchup against Northwestern, CBS Sports college football analyst Josh Pate dropped a bombshell (or a grenade, as he mimicked) on Bussin’ with the Boys as he mentioned Riley as a candidate to “keep an eye on”, whether that was in connection to jobs like Florida, Auburn, or LSU, or simply with USC moving on. So, after his Trojans trounced the Wildcats, he was forced to address the rumors. Namely, he denied them, saying, “You guys know what I sacrificed to be here. I’m where I need to be.”
With USC sitting with two losses and still and outside shot at sneaking into the College Football Playoff, that’s what Trojans fans certainly want to hear. At the same time, Oklahoma Sooners fans should be quick to remind their now sworn enemies of what it looked like when Riley made his exit from Norman for Los Angeles back in 2021.
Because if you look a bit deeper at that, Riley’s declaration about the Trojans is quite similar to something he said before he made his Oklahoma exit that left the Sooners fanbase feeling eternally betrayed.
Lincoln Riley also denied coaching rumors before leaving Oklahoma
Near the end of the 2021 season after the Sooners lost Bedlam to rival Oklahoma State and lost their chance at playing for a Big 12 championship, Riley was a hot-button name floated to be the next coach of the LSU Tigers. So after the loss, he was asked about them and made it unmistakable that he wouldn’t be heading to Baton Rouge…