Oklahoma football: Sooners fans suddenly thrilled Lincoln Riley left

Oklahoma football fans took their Alamo Bowl rout over the Oregon Ducks as a sign that Lincoln Riley was the problem all along.

It’s funny how quickly perspectives can change in college football.

One minute, Oklahoma football fans were furious with Lincoln Riley for abandoning them to take the USC coaching job.

The next minute, the Sooners decided that they’re better off without Riley. Beating up on Oregon in the Alamo Bowl was proof that Oklahoma’s struggles this year were Riley’s fault.

Oklahoma football fans roasted Lincoln Riley during the Alamo Bowl

Meanwhile, USC football fans came to the exact opposite interpretation. They watched the Alamo Bowl and imagined what life would be like watching Riley’s offense and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch’s defense match up with the Ducks in Pac-12 play.

https://twitter.com/KennethMartin7/status/1476401100576100356

Now is a good time to remind everyone involved in this discussion that bowl games, especially ones between teams that have experienced coaching changes, don’t actually mean anything. Half of the battle is motivation. The other half is availability. It’s why doing college football bowl pick ’em pools are such a crapshoot. Bowl games are a toss of the coin without even taking injuries and opt-outs into account.

So Oklahoma gets to feel good about this one and convince themselves they’re better off. Oregon gets to write it off as a nothing game played by a team decimated by injuries. USC fans get to act like they’re getting exactly what the Sooners were cooking.

The truth is, by August all three of those teams will be what they are regardless of what happened in San Antonio.

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