Coaching Carousel

drayer54

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Will Oklahoma go after Lane? Already in the sec so....

Lane’s building a decent thing in Ole MIss and may be able to work under realistic expectations, so if he can win 10 in the SEC and take an annual shot at Nick without dealing the Baton Rouge drama, why go?
 

Sea Turtle

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Nobody mentioned Riley to USC until it happened, so why does the narrative around theoretical coaching searches for theoretical times BK left matter? FO

I just can't see ND ever being able to pull off a splashy hire like this, that's all.

And I would never tell you to FO.
 

NDRock

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I just can't see ND ever being able to pull off a splashy hire like this, that's all.

And I would never tell you to FO.

I think a guy like Riley goes to SC because he sees an easier path. Notre Dame isn’t easy, so I do think it would be tougher for us to convince a guy like Riley to come here. Who knows though.
 

Irish2155

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New rumor is that Oklahoma is hiring Venables.

I would be more worried about Venables at USC than Riley.

If OU can pull this off then Riley leaving will be to their benefit I think, especially in the SEC. Didn’t realize that Venables had OU ties too until just now.
 

FWIrish4

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Is this an actual opening that may come hard after Brian Kelly? Completely different situation than taking over a complete rebuild at your rival USC.

I absolutely don’t think he would leave but I’m guessing he may be one of the few on their short lists.
 

Dizzyphil

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SC takes plenty of JUCOs so I doubt Riley is worried about “academics”.

SC recruits itself when the right guy as at the helm and even starts attracting kids from the east of the Mississippi.

The Pac12 is the a less path of resistance to a championship both in conference & the CFP.

Being at SC, if he can get his offense rolling, it should buy him some time while the defense get built up. That’s easier to do in LA County vs having to hit multiple states for recruits.

USC was 55th in recruiting in 2020 and in the 60ish rankings now..... Lincoln Riley just left a goldmine in talent... his QBs had issues. BTW, let me know the last time the Pac 12 outside of Oregon was in the playoffs since the BCS..... since 'poodle' USuck has had Lane Kiffin, Ed Orgeron, Clay Helton, Sark, Donte Williams and now Riley.... Who the hell thinks Riley is going to make Usuck relevant again????
 

NewBrunswickIrish

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USC was 55th in recruiting in 2020 and in the 60ish rankings now..... Lincoln Riley just left a goldmine in talent... his QBs had issues. BTW, let me know the last time the Pac 12 outside of Oregon was in the playoffs since the BCS..... since 'poodle' USuck has had Lane Kiffin, Ed Orgeron, Clay Helton, Sark, Donte Williams and now Riley.... Who the hell thinks Riley is going to make Usuck relevant again????

USC was top ten last year in recruiting with lame duck Helton. Sure they probably won’t be able to cobble together a top 10 class at this point but to think that California kids would rather go to Oregon over staying at USC under a coach that has gone to the playoffs before is crazy.

Oregon lost two games to PAC 12 teams this year. USC should not be scared of them.
 

Irishokie

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CJ Williams find his reason to stay close to home with Riley’s high octane offense coming to town?
 

Dizzyphil

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USC was top ten last year in recruiting with lame duck Helton. Sure they probably won’t be able to cobble together a top 10 class at this point but to think that California kids would rather go to Oregon over staying at USC under a coach that has gone to the playoffs before is crazy.

Oregon lost two games to PAC 12 teams this year. USC should not be scared of them.

USC got desperate and Riley was under fire... this is a desperation move and if nobody can see that... go buy a cane with red paint at the end... this is a 'Kiffin' move at best. Also, I didn't mention 2021 in my post - USC was ranked top 10 because of Foreman... take him out and they drop out of the top 20...
 

Ndaccountant

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100%. Riley is likely to just make SC a better version of what it already is.

I hope that happens. USC being good, or at least better, is something ND needs. With ND tied to the ACC for as many games as they play, they need to have the opportunity for big wins since there is no assurance that the ACC will provide that opportunity. ND had 1 chance this year and blew it against Cincy. Having 2-3 games of that caliber will only help, assuming ND wins some of them.
 

Irishize

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USC was 55th in recruiting in 2020 and in the 60ish rankings now..... Lincoln Riley just left a goldmine in talent... his QBs had issues. BTW, let me know the last time the Pac 12 outside of Oregon was in the playoffs since the BCS..... since 'poodle' USuck has had Lane Kiffin, Ed Orgeron, Clay Helton, Sark, Donte Williams and now Riley.... Who the hell thinks Riley is going to make Usuck relevant again????

University of Washington was the #4 seed in 2016

Do you remember when SC announced Carroll as their new HC to replace Hackett? The fanbase was apoplectic. He was their 3rd to 5th choice depending on who you believe.

ND fans were not worried at the time. They (& the college football world) were wrong.

It won’t happen overnight, but Riley should be able to compete for P12 championships fairly soon. Even w/ the talent disparity compared to OU, he still has an easier route to CFP.
 
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T-Boone

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I’ll look into it.

On other forums there is more to the "like" option. Eg you can "thumb up" or you can "laugh" or you can "thumb down" etc.
The like button here is a good addition but it is vague as to exactly what one means.
 

Whiskeyjack

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I hope that happens. USC being good, or at least better, is something ND needs. With ND tied to the ACC for as many games as they play, they need to have the opportunity for big wins since there is no assurance that the ACC will provide that opportunity. ND had 1 chance this year and blew it against Cincy. Having 2-3 games of that caliber will only help, assuming ND wins some of them.

Agreed, and I do think this benefits us. Genuine props to SC for making a real splash with this hire. A guy like Campbell wasn't going to move the needle, and if not him, they were in serious danger of being left without a chair when the music stops.

We're assuming that Riley can replicate OU's recent "success" at SC. If he can, then great. Those teams were also soft; just better at playing air raid in a conference without defense.

But Riley, like Ryan Day, inherited a strong program from a title- winning coach, and has never had to rebuild on his own before. It's far from guaranteed that he's going to just immediately upgrade the QB play to Heisman-caliber and start bullying the rest of the PAC-12. Part of me hopes he does, but this can go wrong in a lot of ways.
 

Rockin’Irish

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I’m sure Lincoln Riley will give USC a lift but I’m also confident that ND is still on an upward trajectory that USC will continue to be envious of………I also don’t believe Riley is the wonderkind of a program builder that USC actually needs to for a complete revamp.
 

Ndaccountant

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Agreed, and I do think this benefits us. Genuine props to SC for making a real splash with this hire. A guy like Campbell wasn't going to move the needle, and if not him, they were in serious danger of being left without a chair when the music stops.

We're assuming that Riley can replicate OU's recent "success" at SC. If he can, then great. Those teams were also soft; just better at playing air raid in a conference without defense.

But Riley, like Ryan Day, inherited a strong program from a title- winning coach, and has never had to rebuild on his own before. It's far from guaranteed that he's going to just immediately upgrade the QB play to Heisman-caliber and start bullying the rest of the PAC-12. Part of me hopes he does, but this can go wrong in a lot of ways.

Yep. USC has always had the fertile ground for WR's and QB's. This just extends that. I will wait and see what happens on the OL coach and DC spot. If he makes great hires there, it could be different. But what made USC so good under Pete wasn't the offense, it was the defense. USC has always had offensive fire power. When they have a top defense is when they are a real juggernaut.
 

Pops Freshenmeyer

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Yep. USC has always had the fertile ground for WR's and QB's. This just extends that. I will wait and see what happens on the OL coach and DC spot. If he makes great hires there, it could be different. But what made USC so good under Pete wasn't the offense, it was the defense. USC has always had offensive fire power. When they have a top defense is when they are a real juggernaut.

And every hire since Carroll has been trying to recapture the magic of Leinart and Bush because they were the names in the headlines.
 

IrishLax

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Yep. USC has always had the fertile ground for WR's and QB's. This just extends that. I will wait and see what happens on the OL coach and DC spot. If he makes great hires there, it could be different. But what made USC so good under Pete wasn't the offense, it was the defense. USC has always had offensive fire power. When they have a top defense is when they are a real juggernaut.

Yup. I think they are a 9- or 10- win floor team with Riley. They will smack most soft PAC12 teams with their offense and defense won’t matter. And they’ll get plenty of talented defenders who will make enough plays on that side of the ball to be decent.

But the *best* Riley teams were getting demolished by playoff competition worse than ND and were also routinely dropping about ~1 game a year to awful Big 12 teams. With Heisman QBs. I fully expect USC to be very good but unless he does a full culture change to something other than what he had at Oklahoma this is not the game changer some are pretending it is. I was much more scared of a team builder… a Matt Rhule, Matt Campbell, or equivalent… but we’ll see. Maybe Riley will build a world beater over night with transfers. Who knows.
 

Dizzyphil

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University of Washington was the #4 seed in 2016

Do you remember when SC announced Carroll as their new HC to replace Hackett? The fanbase was apoplectic. He was their 3rd to 5th choice depending on who you believe.

ND fans were not worried at the time. They (& the college football world) were wrong.

It won’t happen overnight, but Riley should be able to compete for P12 championships fairly soon. Even w/ the talent disparity compared to OU, he still has an easier route to CFP.

I'm sorry, you are right.... since 2014, Washington and Oregon have both been in the CFP playoffs... so I was wrong,,not one.... but two teams from the PAC 12
 

Dizzyphil

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They’ve gotta go with Mark Stoops, right?

Said that earlier in a different post... the only other person that I see possible are Tony Elliott and our own Freeman.... hate to throw him out there but.....
 

Sea Turtle

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Said that earlier in a different post... the only other person that I see possible are Tony Elliott and our own Freeman.... hate to throw him out there but.....

If that happens this year or next, Matt Campbell will be our next head coach. It's the job he's waiting for according to those close to him.
 
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