So it's been a wild day. I woke up this morning after going to bed around 4am and had texts from everyone. Maybe a phone call or two. I left my phone in the living room and didn't charge it last night.
The texts were because of Feldman and Thamel's reports that USC was targeting Lincoln Riley.
Then around 2:30 I got a call that let me know Lincoln was taking the USC job and other then going and grabbing dinner, I've been here all day. Radio, podcast, IT Show. And the rest of the time taking phone calls.
Here's what I know about how all this went down between Lincoln and OU.
Lincoln had been working on a new deal with OU. There were a number of demands in there. But everyone thought this was an LSU deal and LSU deal only they were working against. Kind of like Lincoln's answers after the game the other night, LSU was simply being used as misdirection. No one thought Lincoln would leave OU for LSU because the culture up there was more NFL than college. Win a national title, but have a bad year after that and you're gone.
So all this was going on and OU started feeling confident they were dealing with Riley in good faith and it would all get worked out. But coaches in the offices said Riley was acting different. He wasn't running practices the same. He was asking for more input on gameplans when he's never done that before.
They didn't know what was going on but they felt like something was. Meanwhile Joe Castiglione and Bob Stoops felt like things were progressing and they were close to having a new deal done with Riley. Bob was involved in all of this. President Harroz was involved in all of this. Joe was certainly involved in all of this.
I've heard varying accounts of what Lincoln Riley wanted changed.
But essentially it came down to the fact that OU was moving to the SEC and they needed to bolster some things in the athletic department. Again, what that means exactly, I can only speculate based on a lot of things that I've been told. Hard to know how accurate it all is.
But the key thing here is that USC was never mentioned in all of this. It was always about LSU. So as of Friday, I'm told everyone felt like things were good. Lincoln and OU were going to work out the issues and LSU would not be stealing their coach. Joe felt good. Bob felt good.
Then Saturday morning came and something happened that gave them concern. So Joe, Bob and President Harroz all met to determine what was happening.
The long and short is they found out about the USC situation. They were blindsided. Lincoln had already made the decision before they found out.
I've talked to a lot of people today surrounding this whole thing. People feel betrayed. They're hurt. And with a seemingly orchestrated decommitment parade happening tonight, now people associated with OU feel targeted. Like Lincoln is now trying to burn things down from the inside.
And the greatest fear is expected, that Caleb Williams will leave and join Riley at USC.
I know Joe C is working on his search. He's starting to gather names. He's hitting up a lot of heavy hitters and just getting names to look into.
I think Joe C expected the program would take a hit from this. But how much of a hit is still to be seen. I think every hit will hurt.
But it's telling that Lincoln really did keep this under wraps until it was too late. And I think people don't believe he was operating in good faith the last couple of weeks. He made up his mind weeks ago.
I texted Bob today and never heard back. I know people very close to Bob that have texted and still hadn't heard back tonight. I think he took this pretty hard regardless of the press releases.
I've heard Switzer is f'ing fuming over this too. haha.
It hurts anyone who has been devoted to this program. It's hurtful for former players, current assistants and administration. They talk about a lot of what we talked about in the emergency pod tonight. The culture, the production, the development. Some people choose to look at the bright side of this. That all the things Lincoln was not doing well could be fixed moving forward. But there is obviously a great amount of concern about where this program will be when it enters the SEC.
Riley's move has damaged Oklahoma football. Everyone realizes that. It's been a rough day for a lot of people.
My last conversation tonight almost has me convinced of one move. OU has to seriously consider bringing in Jeff Lebby as OC. If he comes in, he could bring in Dillon Gabriel from UCF who entered the transfer portal. Lebby recruited him to UCF and he would give OU a capable QB to replace what they are likely to lose with Williams. And I really like that kid's game.
The texts were because of Feldman and Thamel's reports that USC was targeting Lincoln Riley.
Then around 2:30 I got a call that let me know Lincoln was taking the USC job and other then going and grabbing dinner, I've been here all day. Radio, podcast, IT Show. And the rest of the time taking phone calls.
Here's what I know about how all this went down between Lincoln and OU.
Lincoln had been working on a new deal with OU. There were a number of demands in there. But everyone thought this was an LSU deal and LSU deal only they were working against. Kind of like Lincoln's answers after the game the other night, LSU was simply being used as misdirection. No one thought Lincoln would leave OU for LSU because the culture up there was more NFL than college. Win a national title, but have a bad year after that and you're gone.
So all this was going on and OU started feeling confident they were dealing with Riley in good faith and it would all get worked out. But coaches in the offices said Riley was acting different. He wasn't running practices the same. He was asking for more input on gameplans when he's never done that before.
They didn't know what was going on but they felt like something was. Meanwhile Joe Castiglione and Bob Stoops felt like things were progressing and they were close to having a new deal done with Riley. Bob was involved in all of this. President Harroz was involved in all of this. Joe was certainly involved in all of this.
I've heard varying accounts of what Lincoln Riley wanted changed.
But essentially it came down to the fact that OU was moving to the SEC and they needed to bolster some things in the athletic department. Again, what that means exactly, I can only speculate based on a lot of things that I've been told. Hard to know how accurate it all is.
But the key thing here is that USC was never mentioned in all of this. It was always about LSU. So as of Friday, I'm told everyone felt like things were good. Lincoln and OU were going to work out the issues and LSU would not be stealing their coach. Joe felt good. Bob felt good.
Then Saturday morning came and something happened that gave them concern. So Joe, Bob and President Harroz all met to determine what was happening.
The long and short is they found out about the USC situation. They were blindsided. Lincoln had already made the decision before they found out.
I've talked to a lot of people today surrounding this whole thing. People feel betrayed. They're hurt. And with a seemingly orchestrated decommitment parade happening tonight, now people associated with OU feel targeted. Like Lincoln is now trying to burn things down from the inside.
And the greatest fear is expected, that Caleb Williams will leave and join Riley at USC.
I know Joe C is working on his search. He's starting to gather names. He's hitting up a lot of heavy hitters and just getting names to look into.
I think Joe C expected the program would take a hit from this. But how much of a hit is still to be seen. I think every hit will hurt.
But it's telling that Lincoln really did keep this under wraps until it was too late. And I think people don't believe he was operating in good faith the last couple of weeks. He made up his mind weeks ago.
I texted Bob today and never heard back. I know people very close to Bob that have texted and still hadn't heard back tonight. I think he took this pretty hard regardless of the press releases.
I've heard Switzer is f'ing fuming over this too. haha.
It hurts anyone who has been devoted to this program. It's hurtful for former players, current assistants and administration. They talk about a lot of what we talked about in the emergency pod tonight. The culture, the production, the development. Some people choose to look at the bright side of this. That all the things Lincoln was not doing well could be fixed moving forward. But there is obviously a great amount of concern about where this program will be when it enters the SEC.
Riley's move has damaged Oklahoma football. Everyone realizes that. It's been a rough day for a lot of people.
My last conversation tonight almost has me convinced of one move. OU has to seriously consider bringing in Jeff Lebby as OC. If he comes in, he could bring in Dillon Gabriel from UCF who entered the transfer portal. Lebby recruited him to UCF and he would give OU a capable QB to replace what they are likely to lose with Williams. And I really like that kid's game.
