Ok I understand . Hope all of you are right and I am wrong It will how many years to rebuild ? Seems like each of you think 1 to 2 years . I think longer look at Tenneessee. We need more than 3 or 4 players . LOL I think a head coach is worth a hundred thousand dollars a year.
This isn't a rebuild. The program isn't decimated at least not yet. Depending on how well he can salvage this class will go a long way to helping write the story.
Here's what I find interesting and would like to hear any thoughts on what happened. This past weekend we saw on Twitter Will Wade and Jay Johnson follow Lincoln Riley as well as current football recruits and players. That may be innocuous. On the other hand when compared to other schools and coaching changes it could as easily tell a story. These people decided to follow Riley because they were being told he's the next head coach. I lean towards the later largely based on the two coaches as well as how quickly that happened. Wade's account really caught my attention due to who Wade follows: it's not football or football coaches (other than a handful with LSU ties.)
Who knows, we might never and just be left to speculate. Something doesn't make sense however. It was "said" all along that SW had his guy fairly early in the process. If that were true then it wouldn't make any sense at all for him to be pursuing other options, he had his guy after all. Yes there was the "report" about the offer to Riley but no one I have run into knows who that publication is nor have they ever heard of the reporter that broke that story. I can tell you the people here in Ok were never worried about Riley to LSU but they were absolutely blindsided by Riley to USC
I can tell you I thought Lincoln Riley was coming, based on all of that. But then Brody Miller reported that Brian Kelly was one of the first people contacted, over a month ago. Then the day after the Lincoln Riley news broke, Brian Kelly was coming to LSU and scheduling a meeting at the crack of dawn the next morning with his players. No way that all happened in that 24 hours.
As @shane0911 said we may never know. Was it misdirection the whole time? Did it fall apart at the last minute? We just don't know and because no one else knew except Scott and one or two other people he could trust, it can never be said with certainty. I am not upset about the hire because I think he is solid. We have some talent and we should be back at least mid tier next year. We won some games with the talent we have and almost took down some others that are still playing. After what I have seen I am no longer in the same mindset about Riley. I think he is afraid of competition and did not want the SEC. His offense struggles against good defense and his team has no defense to stop anyone. Bedlam opened my eyes to some nicks in his armor and I think he did the right thing going west. I think its time for a guy like Kelly to clean up our program and get it back on the right footing. It has been in the hands of these buffoons' too long. @TerryP I wouldn't gloat you were a couple plays away from being a 3 loss team this year.
Realistically, where would he go from here? At most, there are maybe 5 programs around the country where a coach might leave us for. And those 5 are a maybe. It might only be 1 or 2. Nah, I think the man knows he hit the ceiling in South Bend. He is looking to break the glass here and he was more than willing to come into the Tiger’s Den to get there.
I think the ass-whipping we put on OU 2 years ago opened my eyes to what Riley can bring. If Riley showed up here, much like Kiffin, he would need a serious DC because there is nothing there that he would bring himself. Riley is the sexy hire. Kelly is blue-collar work horse that will better position us in the short-term to fight the arms race that is the SEC West.
