Don't blame Lincoln Riley's bolting to USC for all of Oklahoma's problems | Opinion
DALLAS — Deep into Saturday night, long after everyone in crimson or cream or any shade of either had written off the sport of shoulder pads and kicking tees, Caleb Williams threw a touchdown pass to Mario Williams.
The second Williams-to-Williams TD of the night. The former Sooners led Southern Cal to a 30-14 victory over Washington State.
And for any wayward OU fan who had stumbled upon the Fox broadcast, only to find the TV remote stuck, the horrific reality was settling in.
USC is having the kind of glorious season OU fans envisioned for the Sooners. The Sooners are having the kind of disastrous season OU fans envisioned for USC.
The Trojans are 6-0 and ranked seventh nationally. The Sooners are 3-3 and 10th in any reasonable ranking of the Big 12’s 10 teams.
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The last two Saturdays in the Metroplex — losses of 55-24 to Texas Christian over in Fort Worth and 49-0 to Texas in the Cotton Bowl — have laid bare the dismembered Sooner program. Losing is no cause for alarm. Losing big is a red alert, especially on back-to-back weeks against programs that OU had dominated (13-2) in the last seven calendar years.
Seems as good a time as any to curse Lincoln Riley and blame him for the stunning and speedy collapse of Oklahoma football.
Good time. But it wouldn’t be right.
Riley clearly shares some of the incrimination. Raiding the roster of a school that made Riley rich and famous has drawn most of the finger-pointing, though in truth Riley only absconded with the Williamses and nondescript defensive back Latrell McCutchin.
Those departures didn’t cripple the Sooners. Quality receivers fall out of trees, and when Caleb Williams entered the transfer portal in January, OU quickly moved to grab Dillon Gabriel, who is not in Williams’ class but is the least of the Sooners’ problems.
Blaming Riley should start not with that he left or how he left, but what he was doing before he left. Recruiting sub-standard ballplayers.
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After Caleb Williams exited and five quality Sooner defenders were taken in the NFL Draft, Brent Venables was left with a roster void of difference-makers. This might be the least-talented OU roster since the 1990s, and heck, maybe long before then. Talent wasn’t the primary issue in the bleak years just before the Bob Stoops era.
Maybe we should put that on the list of why Riley left.
➤ Seems likely that Riley found USC’s path to the College Football Playoff easier than OU’s, though that changed after Riley joined the Trojans and discovered they were Big Ten-bound.
➤ OU administration was slow to commit to some of the financial concessions Riley sought in terms of increased personnel. The pandemic stressed even the Sooners’ budget. Of course, OU has blown way past Riley’s demands, with what it’s giving to Venables. Twenty-nine new positions and a pending $180 million football complex.
Might have been easier just to give Riley what he wanted, then that Williams-to-Williams connection Saturday could have been at Texas’, not Washington State’s, expense.
➤ But now put the OU roster on the list. Maybe Riley realized his recruiting had produced a blah roster and the slippage in 2021 was about to hit overdrive. Maybe he figured Los Angeles was a lot better place to use the transfer portal, along with name, image and likeness inducements, to overhaul a football team.
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Riley’s motives are of no consequence to Venables, who is left with this roster and must make due. Venables and staff have not been all that spiffy coaching up these ragged Sooners.
Sure, Riley is to blame for some of OU’s plight. But not all. No one in the Big 12, with the possible exception of new BFF Texas, has any sympathy for the Sooners.
Iowa State wasn’t dripping with talent when it built the Big 12’s best defense a few years ago.
Same with Kansas State’s always-solid culture.
OSU a year ago had the best defense the Big 12 has seen in a decade, yet the Cowboys didn’t dominate the draft last spring.
The Kansas renaissance, which amazes every week, is the result of great program building and coaching by Lance Leipold and his staff.
The message for Venables the rest of this season is clear. Coach better. Figure out what these guys can do and get them to do it.
“We've got to do a better job of helping our guys,” Venables said. “That's what I know.”
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Then in the off-season, Venables must become a portal fiend. The Soul Mission is a high-ideal concept, but Venables is paid not to make better men, but to beat the Big 12’s purple-clad teams, much less the orange-jerseyed squads. Go find some ballplayers in the quickest method possible.
Minimize discontent so that the transfer portal doesn’t get jammed with bailing players who might make a difference next season and beyond. Prevent the current recruiting class from disintegration.
“The same things that it takes to be successful, you have to have those same qualities when things aren’t going well,” Venables said. “That’s courage, toughness, that’s belief … That’s what will sustain you to have that type of mindset. Not an easy thing to do.
“Adversity and the failure and the losing can divide a team quickly. You see it all the time.”
Avoiding such a fate is not easy in this transient football culture. But that’s why Venables is paid $7 million a year.
Blame Riley, blame Venables, blame the ghost of Howard Schnellenberger. But USC is having the season the Sooners wanted, and the Sooners are having the season OU fans wanted the Trojans to have. Keep the batteries up to date in your TV remotes.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: OU football: Blame Brent Venables, Lincoln Riley for Sooners' collapse
