COLUMN: USC AD Mike Bohn wins the coaching carousel with Lincoln Riley hire
USC athletic director Mike Bohn and senior associate AD Brandon Sosna pledged to conduct this extended coaching search with no leaks, no hints of what was coming for as long as they could keep every detail in-house.
And they just about got to the finish line, leaving everyone across college football -- but especially this Trojans fan base -- absolutely stunned when the reports came pouring out Sunday, first from The Athletic's Bruce Feldman and the L.A. Times' Ryan Kartje, that USC is indeed hiring away Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma.
Riley was hardly ever mentioned in the two and a half months of banter, forecasting and conjecture throughout this search -- which started back in mid-September with the firing of Clay Helton -- mainly because he wasn't perceived as a gettable target.
RELATED: More on Lincoln Riley's background and what his hire means for USC
No, it was Cincinnati's Luke Fickell until that seemed unlikely due to the Bearcats' push toward a College Football Playoff berth. At that point, USC fans would have been thrilled if the Trojans could just hire Dave Aranda, who is in only his second year as a head coach at Baylor.
That was the bar for excitement within the fan base -- take a shot on a young up-and-comer like Aranda and hope that one great season (and a 12-9 career record) portended more success ahead.
And when reports circulated that Aranda was likely to sign a contract extension with Baylor, all hope was directed toward enigmatic Iowa State coach Matt Campbell. The buzz, wherever it came from, had USC trending toward a Campbell hire Friday -- and then suddenly not ...
Message boards were aflame, the worst fears of a scarred fan base that has lived through the failed nepotistic hires of Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian and Clay Helton -- all from within the USC well and all made by unqualified athletic directors who were themselves also pulled from that Trojans well -- boiled to the surface.
Who was USC going to possibly land now?! Utah's Kyle Whittingham at 62 years old? Alabama offensive coordinator and former Penn State/Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien, who had inspired little excitement from the fan base? Or worse, someone from that same old USC well that had seemingly long ago run dry?
Maybe if this was still a program run by Pat Haden or Lynn Swann ...
Instead, this is the payoff for those who had patience and at least cautious optimism that Bohn and Sosna had a plan and -- just as importantly -- the ability to execute it. (Credit also to USC President Carol Folt for foremost understanding the need to bring in an actual experienced AD two years ago).
But let's be honest, even those of us in that category didn't expect this. Nobody did.
Fickell, Campbell and Aranda would have been intriguing what-ifs for the program, but as the Lincoln Riley news sets in, it's hard not to see it as the best of all possible -- or seemingly impossible -- outcomes.
Consider ... USC ultimately wants to get to the College Football Playoff -- a hallowed destination the Trojans haven't reached in the time the CFP has been in place since 2015.
Well, Riley got Oklahoma there in three of his five seasons as head coach.
Consider ... the Trojans' strength in terms of the talent it has accrued over recent years is on the offensive side, and although the results haven't quite met expectations on that side of the ball, maximizing the offense seems like the quickest path to elevating this team and program.
Well, Riley might be the best offensive coach in the country. Starting with his two years as Oklahoma's offensive coordinator in 2015-16 and extending through his head coaching tenure, his Sooners offenses have ranked -- drumroll, please -- 4th (43.5 points per game), 3rd (33.9), 3rd (45.1), 1st (48.4), 6th (42.1), 6th (43.0) and 11th (38.4) nationally in scoring, and 7th (530.2 yards per game), 2nd (544.8), 1st (579.6), 1st (570.3), 3rd (537.6), 11th (494.7) and 31st (440.6) nationally in total offense.
Consider ... as much as anything, USC needs to get back to consistently pulling in top national recruiting classes and keeping its best local talent home if it's going to again become what it once was.
Well, Riley's Oklahoma program has been one of the biggest obstacles for the Trojans as he's consistently plundered top Southern California prospects that USC had invested significant time in prioritizing. Oklahoma's No. 8-ranked 2022 recruiting class includes commitments from five-star Mater Dei HS RB Raleek Brown, who has been a top target of the Trojans for years, as well as other former top USC targets from here to Texas like four-star CB Gentry Williams (Tulsa, Okla.), four-star OT Jake Taylor (Las Vegas, Nev.), four-star RB Gavin Sawchuk (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) and three-star WR Nicholas Anderson (Katy, Texas).
Brown tweeted his reaction almost immediately Sunday in saying, "Staying home?"
Meanwhile, the Sooners' 2023 recruiting class includes commitments from five-star Los Alamitos HS QB Malachi Nelson -- the Trojans' top priority at the position for a long time -- and his two four-star WR teammates Makai Lemon and Deandre Moore, who were also top USC targets.
Ultimately, the fans just want USC football to resemble USC football again.
The program that would be tied for the most Heisman Trophies in college football history if Reggie Bush's Heisman was deservedly reinstated. The program that claims 11 national championships but has seemed about as far away from another one as any team in the country. The program that should be the class of the Pac-12 and west coast football in general every year -- not failing to qualify for bowl games in two of the last four seasons.
Well, Riley hasn't won a national championship yet, but again, he's been in the mix three times and he's won 12, 12, 12, 9 and 10 games (never losing more than 2 in a season) across his Oklahoma tenure. He has produced back-to-back Heisman winners in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. And with him now recruiting for and not against USC, well, it's suddenly much easier to see a path back to that prestigious perch at the top of the sport.
Yes, just consider the possibilities.
And in the meantime give Bohn and Sosna credit.
It will take time to fully resurrect USC football, make no mistake. And Riley has to now prove that he can not only keep a highly-successful program humming like he did in replacing Bob Stoops at Oklahoma but that he can now rebuild one pretty much from the bottom up.
Nothing is guaranteed.
But even the most cynical and beleaguered USC fan has to feel good today.
For whatever criticism has been directed at Bohn for waiting so long to fire Helton -- not even getting into the complexity of circumstances that influenced that timeline -- he now deserves acknowledgement for executing the outcome of this search to the best of expectations. (Who even knows if USC could have hired a coach of Riley's caliber last offseason or the one prior?)
Bohn can be judged anew on how this plays out, but for now, he did his job -- there is hope for Troy yet again.
Just consider what the Coliseum is going to look like next September.
Just consider the potential the future of USC football now holds again.