What happened to Lincoln Riley? Inside record since leaving Oklahoma as USC struggles continue originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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There’s always a running list of college football head coaches not living up to expectations, and USC’s Lincoln Riley can definitely be included. Although Riley was expected to do quite well in Los Angeles, where he’s been coaching since 2022, his tenure hasn’t met expectations.
Riley left Oklahoma in late November 2021 to take the head coaching job at USC. The Trojans struggled to find success under the likes of previous hires in Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian and Clay Helton.
Let’s take a look at Riley’s struggles at USC, as well as his departure from Oklahoma.
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What happened to Lincoln Riley?
Lincoln Riley was considered one of the biggest names in the coaching carousel after achieving massive success at Oklahoma. From 2017-2019, he led the Sooners to three straight College Football Semifinal appearances. Oklahoma also had a New Year’s Six bowl game appearance vs. Florida in 2020, winning 55-20.
He had three straight 12-win seasons in Norman, and brought home four Big 12 titles for the Sooners.
But at USC, Riley hasn’t had anywhere close to the success he enjoyed at Oklahoma. His lone double-digit win season with the Trojans came in 2022, and since then he has a 19-12 record in the last three years. USC has won the Holiday and Las Vegas Bowls in 2023 and 2024. The Trojans have appeared in just one conference title game in 2022 and lost.
USC has had just one top-10 recruiting class under Riley, with his No. 5 ranked 2023 class per the 247Sports Composite. He currently has the top-ranked class for 2026, however.
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Why did Lincoln Riley leave Oklahoma?
Like a lot of college football head coaches, Lincoln Riley saw USC as a new opportunity and challenge. The Trojans have a storied history, featuring eight Heisman Trophy winners, 11 claimed national titles, and the program can boast eight perfect undefeated seasons.
In a wide-ranging interview with ESPN, Riley, a Texas native, explained his decision in 2022:
“It’s such a different opportunity than the one I had at OU,” Riley told ESPN’s Chris Low. “And I wouldn’t change anything about the one at OU, especially for a first-time head coach. There were some advantages of taking over one like that and some advantages of taking over one like this. But one of my biggest memories when I was younger, junior high and high school when I was already a big college football fan, was watching a game out here on a Saturday night in the Coliseum on a TV screen in Muleshoe, Texas.
I don’t know how to describe it, just the energy and getting the feeling that it was different than watching football anywhere else. There are a lot of other great places in our sport, but they’re all more similar than they are different. This one, there was something different about it, and that’s what captured people during their heyday. I know it did me.
“Most of college football fits into small market, average-to-good academics and then your varying degrees of different programs,” Riley continued. “The combination here of the elite academics and you’ve got a proven football history — it’s been done here — and then that big L.A. market, all of that … I just don’t know of anywhere else that has those three.”
Oklahoma fans were not happy with Riley’s exit. There was a “Traitor” sign spotted on OU’s campus shortly after the news of him leaving broke:
People are taking this well in Norman. Credit anonymous source via Instagram DMs. pic.twitter.com/Pm2owPPbWU
— Eddie Radosevich (@Eddie_Rado) November 29, 2021
Riley also told the media that his family received death threats amid his departure, although police later said in 2023 that they found no record of his family being threatened.
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Lincoln Riley record at USC
Over four seasons with the Trojans so far, Riley has a 30-15 overall record, good for a 66.7 win percentage. After the Trojans’ 11-3 season in 2022, USC has finished 8-5 and 7-6 in 2023 and 2024.
Currently, the Trojans are 4-1, with a road loss to Illinois on its record. Over his first three seasons at Oklahoma, Riley was 36-6, and started 1-2 in 2020 before Oklahoma finished the season on an eight-game win streak to go 9-2.
Here’s how his record compares with some of the other previous USC head coaches:
- Clay Helton, 2013-2021: 46-24
- Steve Sarkisian, 2014-2015: 18-12
- Lane Kiffin, 2010-2013: 43-28
As things stand now, Riley has a better win percentage than both Kiffin and Helton, whereas Sark’s win percentage was also 66.7.
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Lincoln Riley record vs. ranked opponents
Lincoln Riley compiled a 15-6 record against ranked opponents during his four seasons at Oklahoma. But since his arrival at USC, he has a 4-11 record in games vs. ranked opponents. Here’s a look at some of the most notable losses in his tenure in Los Angeles:
- Two losses to ranked Utah in 2022, falling 43-42 in the regular season and 47-24 in the Pac-12 title game.
- 46-45 loss to No. 16 Tulane in 2022 Cotton Bowl
- 48-20 loss to No. 21 Notre Dame in 2023
- 34-32 loss to No. 14 Utah in 2023, back-to-back losses to Washington and Oregon that same season
- 27-24 loss to No. 18 Michigan in 2024
- 49-35 loss vs. No. 5 Notre Dame in 2024
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Lincoln Riley contract
Riley signed a 10-year, $110 million contract with the Sooners in 2022. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Riley’s buyout at the beginning of the 2025 season was $80 million.
Per USA Today’scoach salary database, Riley’s annual salary is $11.537 million, the third-highest in the nation behind Georgia’s Kirby Smart and Ohio State’s Ryan Day.
Oklahoma record since Lincoln Riley left
In Norman, Oklahoma hired longtime Clemson assistant Brent Venables as its new head coach to replace Riley. Over his four seasons, the Sooners are 27-17. The Sooners reached a 10-3 season in 2023, and Oklahoma is sitting at 5-0 ranked sixth in the country early through the 2025 season.
