On Saturday afternoons and evenings, a popular pastime for students alike is watching college football. With there being no professional football teams in Oklahoma, the interest of the people is largely placed in the amateur levels, in both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. Following the 116th edition of the bedlam series between the two universities, a game in which Oklahoma State won, headlines were still dominated by the leader of the series, Oklahoma.
On the heels of heavily disputed rumors of a potential move to Louisiana State University, it was reported by Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel, and later confirmed by On3Sports’ Matt Zenitz, that former OU head coach Lincoln Riley had instead made a move to the University of Southern California.

Lincoln Riley just informed his staff at Oklahoma that he’s taking the head coaching job at USC, a source tells @On3sports

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) November 28, 2021

The move was largely unexpected and has since gathered many mixed opinions throughout the community, many of which were negative.
Junior Nick Proctor has been a loyal fan of the OU football team and says the move has left him very upset.
“Bob Stoops basically left him the keys to the program, and he completely disrespected him by following the money,” Proctor said. “I am extremely disappointed in Lincoln and I feel like he totally let down the program.”
Alongside Proctor, many other Sooners fans remain very upset, junior Harrison Hines says the move left the team in shambles before he even left.
“I feel like Lincoln made the wrong move,” Hines said. “What makes it even worse is that he became a liar towards the end of the year and didn’t even try in those last couple of games.”
One of the most common words being used to describe Riley’s move is liar. This word has been completely warranted from Riley’s words himself as he shot down a question about how he was handling program change rumors during a Nov. 16 press conference.
“It’s nothing to handle. It’s pretty easy. I coach the University of Oklahoma football team,” Riley said. “You guys know how I feel about this place and this program. We’ve all been down this road many times before. You guys know where I stand on that and that hasn’t changed.”

In another press conference, Riley did not technically lie, but instead kept absent from the truth while talking about the rumors of a move to LSU.
“I’m not going to be the next head coach at LSU…next question,” Riley said after the loss to Oklahoma State.
While it is easy to be frustrated over Riley and easy to point out his blatant lies, deceiving attitude and negative effect on the program, OU fans need to remember that Riley is human. We are allowed to be mad at Riley for leaving and remain angered over his repercussions on the program, however, we must remember that Riley does have a family and a life outside of football. The move will long go down as one of the most hated moves in the history of college football, however, OU fans must not take the move to a personal level.
OU fans need to realize that, as in the words of former head coach and current interim head coach Bob Stoops, the program will be fine, and no one is more important than the players.
“There’s not one guy, one person, in the history of the program that’s bigger than the program,” Stoops said. “Coach Switzer, myself, or Lincoln Riley. What I told the players is, they are the program. Players throughout these decades, they are OU football.”