Oklahoma message boards still blaming Lincoln Riley for disastrous start
By John Buhler
Oklahoma fans are still pointing the finger at Lincoln Riley for their unmitigated disaster.
The Oklahoma Sooners are 3-3 and 0-3 in Big 12 play in their first full season since Lincoln Riley left them for USC.
While he did leave Norman like a bad dad would his kids for a pack of Camels, this is Oklahoma! OU is one of the three best programs in the history of college football. The Sooners have dominated the Big 12 since its creation a quarter century ago and the old Big Eight before that. Now, they are about to be below .500 when 5-1 Kansas comes to town on Saturday. Sad times are to be had.
Why would Sooner fans blame current head coach Brent Venables and his staff for being completely over its skis when they can point the finger at Riley and say it’s all his fault?
Lincoln Riley destroyed #Oklahoma’s heart and demoralized the poor kids who had hopes of playing for a legendary program. #BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/9VwajTwgkr
— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) October 10, 2022
Oklahoma would rather blame Lincoln Riley than face the truth about Brent Venables
Look. A regression to the mean was expected when TBOW went Hollywood. Oklahoma had been an elite program since Bob Stoops took over for an ineffective John Blake in the late 1990s. That run of success continued under Riley after Stoops retired in 2017. However, it is not like Venables doesn’t know how to coach. He was Clemson’s elite defensive coordinator for an entire decade!
Even if this is a new role for him, why is his defense hot garbage? The Sooners got absolutely embarrassed at Red River, getting shut out by arch rival Texas, 49-0. To make matters even worse, the offense, which had been a pillar of this team, looks worse by the week. It’s not like quarterback Dillon Gabriel and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby are awful at what they do. They’ve had success!
To make matters even worse, 3-3 OU still has to play the likes of Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas and massive in-state rival Oklahoma State before season’s end. Venables will be at a head-coaching disadvantage in all four of those games vs. Dave Aranda, Matt Campbell, Lance Leipold and Mike Gundy. Even Joey McGuire has Texas Tech trending in the right direction. At least there’s still WVU…
Ultimately, not everyone wins in a divorce. Things may smooth out over time, but Riley is running train with his trophy wife program over in Los Angeles now. As a result, the entire Pac-12, outside of Arizona State, Colorado and Stanford, seems to have improved overnight. In the meantime, we need to prepare ourselves to live in a world where Oklahoma might not even get to a bowl game…
This year was never going to be easy for Oklahoma or Venables, but this is as bad as it gets, man.
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