On one hand, it’s weird. It’s weird that Oklahoma fans would be so quick to say that they’re so much better off with Brent Venables and without Lincoln Riley. It’s weird because Riley made three College Football Playoff appearances, won four straight Big 12 championships as a head coach (six as a member of the Oklahoma staff), and generally kept Oklahoma very strong for several years. Brent Venables hasn’t won a conference title, hasn’t made a New Year’s Six bowl, and hasn’t made one playoff appearance as OU’s head coach. The facts don’t add up. However, when considering Floyd Boucard’s decision to go to Oklahoma instead of USC, one begins to realize why Sooner fans are still letting Riley have it.
Sooners Wire explains why Oklahoma is fundamentally hitting its targets as a program on the recruiting trail, in marked contrast to USC:
Oklahoma’s journey into the SEC is complete, and in less than two months, the Sooners will take the field as SEC members. To prepare for the challenges ahead, Oklahoma had to become a better defensive unit. The most important part of this process was improving how they recruited along the offensive and defensive lines.
Brent Venables and his defensive line coach, Todd Bates, have entirely different views of what their defensive lines need to look like, and their view matched up with the defensive lines you see littered across the SEC.
You need size up the middle at the point of attack so you can disrupt teams from running the ball and sitting there in the pocket to pick you apart in the passing game. The Sooners continue to recruit the types of defensive linemen necessary.
Oklahoma is doing what it takes to be successful in a new conference, at least on the trail. Brent Venables is recruiting at a higher level than Lincoln Riley has. The SEC isn’t hurting his ability to recruit at an elite level. OU fans reasonably see a positive trajectory for their program.
USC and Riley, meanwhile, continue to miss on big defensive line recruits and are not pulling in the super-duperstars they expected to land in Los Angeles at a place which is supposed to sell itself.
Lincoln Riley has done a lot more than Brent Venables as a head coach, but the past doesn’t count for much when the present moment paints such a different picture. It’s up to Riley and USC to change the conversation in this 2024 college football season.
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