Riley: ‘I’m not going to be the next head coach at LSU'
It was the elephant in the room all weekend long for Oklahoma with head coach Lincoln Riley and the persistent rumors about him either already accepting the LSU head coaching position or about to be offered and accepting the spot.
Just minutes after a gut-wrenching 37-33 loss to Bedlam rival Oklahoma State on Saturday night, Riley didn’t even allow SoonerScoop.com’s Carey Murdock to finish the question.
“Hold up, hold up, hold up, Carey,” Riley said. “I’m not going to be the next head coach at LSU. Next question.”
In recent weeks, there has been rampant speculation about LSU having Riley as its No. 1 choice to take over for the departing Ed Orgeron. Numbers like an eight-year deal for $100 million have been thrown out there.
It was dismissed for the most part until the last 24-48 hours where the rumor took on a life of its own and was gaining headway. Not through anything concrete, just speculation where dots appeared to be connected and a lot of people felt it was a countdown to when Riley would be leaving Norman.
Is it about money? Is it about security? Is it about what the University of Oklahoma is going to be as it eventually moves into the SEC? All valid questions, but Riley did his best to clear the air Saturday night.
“No concerns about our administration, our AD,. our president. We’ve been through a lot together,” Riley said. “This isn’t our first rodeo together. We always have conversations about the future and certainly with all that’s getting ready to… that’s changing right now in the college landscape, all that’s getting ready to change for us as at some point here we transition into a new conference, those are always conversations that we’re going to have and we would be having those yearly no matter what.
“All of us are trying to make this place better and make this program better. You don’t do that without working together, conversing with each other, so of course we’re going to continue to do that. We work well together and we’re going to continue to work well together.”
The LSU situation could have been a distraction, but in talking to the players after Bedlam, they said Riley never let it get to that point.
Were they aware of the reports? Yes, it’s unavoidable. But it was about just going to work.
“We don’t even talk about that at all,” captain Isaiah Thomas said. “In all honesty, it hasn’t been brought up one time. If we see it, it’s on social media. You can’t avoid it. It’s inevitable that you’re gonna see it. But in all honesty, Lincoln doesn’t make it a distraction, so why should we?”
The Sooners loss to OSU means OU will not get a chance to win its seventh consecutive Big 12 championship. Instead, it will be OSU and Baylor meeting for the title next weekend in Arlington. OU finishes the regular season 10-2 overall and 7-2 in conference play.