It scares me a bit that Riley hasn’t done better with the lack of any real Big12 competition. He does routinely win there, but then gets smacked in the CFP. And the talent disparity isn’t actually that great between his teams and the SEC. But man is he a QB whiz.
He just needs a defense. It’s extremely difficult to recruit good defensive talent to the Big 12, let alone Oklahoma. Maybe he has better luck in the SEC and Louisiana. He finds ways to win games. That’s what good coaches do. He just hasn’t found a way to win the big one. Only 5 current coaches actually have. Only 3 since the playoff era began.
The talent gap between OU and the SEC is a massive chasm. Massive. The guys that bump up their class rankings are all on offense. Coming here he would actually recruit better offensive recruits than he already does just in state here and he would have access to all the amazing DL here and in MS and Texas along with all the DBs we put out in the state. He'd just need a stud linebacker recruiter. He's already recruited offensive linemen with the best to do it in Saban and Georgia and ND and Ohio State.. It's like Les at LSU towards the end of his run he had highly rated classes but it was all skill position guys. He was doing terrible recruiting both lines. That's why you beat up on most teams but when you play teams with elite lines you get beat by Bama 7 straight times. It shows up when your skill guys are just as good as their skill guys. The lines are where your win titles. OU has been lacking in the trenches for ages. Right now they are struggling with RBs and WRs which is a new problem. Hence I think Lincoln listens.
I dunno, Riley strikes me as somewhat like Kitten. D be damned, we just gonna score last in a shootout. Are we really that far removed from the B12 only offense era? What we need is balance on both sides along with dynamic coaching. Hiring a successful P5 coach that has eyes on the next step doesnt really favor the long game. Thats why I think Napier is the right choice. He's basically sitting in our backyard and is eager, dynamic, fastidious, and cares about his program.
Dunno if you've watched OU much. He hired Grinch as DC which was a very good hire by him. He was destroyed by us in 2019, but that was entirely a product of being unable to cover any of our studs. He didn't even have a knife in the gun fight. Riley at least had a knife with Hurts and Ceedee on offense. Grinch has recruited fairly well. They've started to land some quality SEC type DL the past couple years and they're actually leaning heavily on winning with defense first this season. The offense has been a struggle bus. Riley is aware. I think Kiffin would field a better defense here as well compared to Ole Miss but it is a worry with any of these offensive coaches. I've just seen Riley make strides both in recruiting and coaching to address it. He's still in another world of talent compared to the SEC though. Think he'd do well here.
Big time coach if you could get him to leave Big 10, same issue with historically PAC 12 names. Anyone notice all the Boise State type stuff Auburn did?
While I have heard the talking heads over games state Grinch is making strides on D coaching and talent, I cant say the on-field eye-test passes muster. I will defer to you on recruiting as I can barely keep up with stuff in our own BY. Again, not discounting your info which is always insightful, just stating my opinion.
Ever since I was a little boy, I hated the mean Grinch. I hope he doesn't come our way, I’m too old to change now.
8-7 since Joey B. Someone can do better with this talent. Someone out there knows how to coach kids up.
