Lincoln Riley voices regrets over leaving Oklahoma
Former Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley admitted he should have done things differently in the way he left the Sooners for USC.
Lincoln Riley is a few wins away from putting USC in the College Football Playoff in his first season in Los Angeles. But with the one-year anniversary of his departure from Oklahoma coming up, he’s also introspective about the way it all went down.
It wasn’t long after a loss to Oklahoma State in the regular-season finale that Riley jumped on a plane to accept the USC job. The fact that he had just denied links to the LSU football job irked people.
On College GameDay, Riley admitted that he messed up.
Lincoln Riley on leaving Oklahoma: “There are things I would change”
“I know I hurt people there. I live with that, and I have got to own that. There are things I would change. I absolutely did not handle the situation perfectly,” Riley said via 247Sports. “I let my emotions get ahold of me at times too. At times I felt some of the backlash and got out of character. I’m disappointed about that because I did not do a good job with that. I wish I could get it back, but I can’t. It will never change my opinion of the place.”
Riley may not change his opinion of Oklahoma, the Sooners have certainly changed their opinion of him. He’s been persona non grata in the entire state since the moment he took USC’s call.
Whatever regrets Riley has won’t make him any more welcome in Norman than he already was.
The fact is, both sides need to move on. Riley is building something new in Los Angeles while Oklahoma is looking to find its way with Brent Venables.
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