Oklahoma football fans took their Alamo Bowl rout over the Oregon Ducks as a sign that Lincoln Riley was the problem all along.
Itโs 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 theyโre better off without Riley. Beating up on Oregon in the Alamo Bowl was proof that Oklahomaโs struggles this year were Rileyโs fault.
Oklahoma football fans roasted Lincoln Riley during the Alamo Bowl
This is the best OU has looked all year, ESPECIALLY on offense.
โ Sooner Recruiting (@OU_RecruitingHQ) December 30, 2021
Lincoln Riley needs to pay back every cent the University of Oklahoma paid him this year.
Oklahoma DT says Lincoln Riley was the issue for the Sooners https://t.co/jDX97llVMb
โ RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 30, 2021
OU is more prepared for this game than they were for the entire season. I'll forever believe that Lincoln Riley was checked out the entire season.
โ ๐๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ . ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ (@AddamFrancisco) December 30, 2021
Which is why I have 0 respect for Lincoln. That's cheating kids. Can't fugg with it.
Bob Stoops > Lincoln Riley
โ Big Game Boomer (@BigGameBoomer) December 30, 2021
Meanwhile, USC football fans came to the exact opposite interpretation. They watched the Alamo Bowl and imagined what life would be like watching Rileyโs offense and defensive coordinator Alex Grinchโs defense match up with the Ducks in Pac-12 play.
USC fans watching Lincoln Riley's offense tear Oregon apart: pic.twitter.com/ubjsv7pIVS
โ Ryan Phillips (@RumorsandRants) December 30, 2021
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, donโt actually mean anything. Half of the battle is motivation. The other half is availability. Itโs why doing college football bowl pick โem 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 theyโre 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 theyโre 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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