Lincoln Riley has yet to deliver the level of success Southern California fans hoped for when he made a shocking move west from Oklahoma after the 2021 regular season.
USC is better than it was when Riley arrived but as the Trojans’ loss at No. 18 Michigan suggests, they are not entering the Big Ten as serious contenders to win their new conference. It’s fair to say, more was expected of Riley than 21-9 after 30 games.
The school Riley left behind also played its first game in a new league Saturday night, and No. 15 Oklahoma made it clear it will not be challenging for the Southeastern Conference championship. The Sooners were smothered by No. 6 Tennessee in Volunteers coach Josh Huepel’s return to Norman.
Riley has become a pariah in Oklahoma. Sooners fans have reveled in his struggles at USC and are convinced OU is better off without him. But Brent Venables, Riley’s replacement, is 19-11 at Oklahoma.
Venables’ Oklahoma is most definitely different from Riley’s.
Even while Riley was going 55-10 with two Heisman Trophy winners in five years at OU, his teams played little defense and never felt like a threat to win a national title as they stacked up Big 12 titles.
Riley’s Oklahoma program appeared to be slipping and the way he constructed a roster certainly didn’t seem like a recipe for success in the SEC. In fact, some of his detractors suggested Riley fled OU because he feared leading the transition into the toughest conference in the country.
Venables, the former defensive coordinator at Clemson, has taken a different approach. He has stressed building up the lines and playing salty defense. The problem is now the offense is a mess.
Oklahoma came into the Tennessee game averaging less than 5.0 yards per play under new coordinator Seth Littrell and then was held to 3.3 by coach Josh Heupel’s Volunteers, who — to be fair — are nasty up front.
So who is better off, USC or Oklahoma?
Riley tried to address the defensive issues in the offseason with a staff overhaul, starting with luring D’Anton Lynn from UCLA to be defensive coordinator.
The Trojans have been better defensively. Of course, the bar set by former defensive coordinator Alex Grinch was really low. Still, there is work to be done after allowing 290 yards rushing to a Michigan team without a functional passing game.
“It’d be interesting to go back and look at it, but I mean we probably played – probably won – 80-85% of the defensive snaps,” Riley said. “But we lost some of them big.”
Three long runs accounted for 154 yards for Michigan.
USC is also not where it needs to be on the offensive line, which is going to hold back the side of the ball where Riley thrives, especially in the Big Ten.
Meanwhile, at Oklahoma, Venables benched highly touted second-year quarterback Jackson Arnold during the Tennessee game for freshman Michael Hawkins Jr.
“He’s a tough young man and he knows he has to be better,” Venables said of Arnold.
Not including sacks, Oklahoma averaged 2.0 yards per carry.
Oklahoma fans have swapped lamenting what their team could be with a competent defense to longing for a solid offense to support an ascending defense.
After more than a decade of dysfunction at USC following the Pete Carroll era, there are more positive signs now under Riley than with any of his predecessors. But, again, that’s not saying much.
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