Lincoln Riley has been one of the hottest names tossed around the coaching rumor mill this college football season. Despite his continued success at Oklahoma, the offensive mastermind is generating plenty of buzz and had been named in conjunction with one of the sport’s biggest vacancies at LSU.
But not everyone is buying into the idea of Riley moving from Norman to Baton Rouge.
Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt is among the skeptics that the Oklahoma head coach would entertain leaving the Sooners for another college program. He pointed out that Riley is a fiercely loyal individual, who still feels like he has something to prove in Norman.
“I don’t buy [the rumors] either,” Klatt told Colin Cowherd when asked about the Sooners head coach on “The Herd” Wednesday. “I know Lincoln fairly well in terms of broadcaster-coach relationship, I’ve done a lot of his games. He is a loyal guy. He’s a guy who understand this opportunity was given to him… I think that he feels an obligation to get them back to a point where they’re winning National Championships.
“I think Bob [Stoops] is still one of his great mentors and Bob turned down opportunity after opportunity when he was Oklahoma. And I think Lincoln will probably do the same… At Oklahoma, this is a program where you can win a national title and you can be there for 20 years…”
“Lincoln is a loyal guy. He’s a guy who understands this opportunity was given to him… I think he feels an obligation to get them back to a point where they’re winning National Championships.”
— @joelklatt pic.twitter.com/GXOGPSb8mN
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) November 17, 2021
Riley himself did his best to quiet the rumors earlier this week. After a Sooners loss likely knocked them out of the College Football Playoff picture, the program’s head coach was asked about the rumors connecting him and LSU.
“I coach at the University of Oklahoma,” Riley said in response. “You know how I feel about this place and this program. We’ve all been down this road many times before. You guys know where I stand and that hasn’t changed.”
Despite the comments from Klatt and Riley himself, there’s still too much smoke surrounding the Sooners head coach and the LSU vacancy to definitely say that he’s not entertaining a move.
Suffice it to say, this situation bears watching over the next few weeks.
The post Joel Klatt Responds To The Lincoln Riley Rumors appeared first on The Spun.
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