@UDontKnow
UDontknow: Do you or do you not think Riley will have a hard time recruiting the West Coast because of the presence of Oregon's bag game?
Emphatic, no. SC will out recruit Oregon, and the Trojan's will recruit at the level of Bama/Georgia/A&M. Riley was going to sign at top 5 class to come to Norman-F'in-Oklahoma, including several top 100 defensive players.SC's tradition equals OU's, and SC will pay for players, and SC's in LA. Riley will crush recruiting.
I think it's weird that you (collective) think Lanning's going to recruit that much better than Cristobal, who already had all the advantages that Lanning's going have and also the same negatives. I lived in Oregon for six years (Portland), and looked a job in Eugene. Norman is diverse compared to Eugene. The only Black people in the town are at UO and only 2.4% of the student population is Black. That's a big turn off for someone of color. Eugene is a good 2 hrs from Portland, so basically really far from most population centers. This means that it's too far for some family from the jump.
UDontknow: Also, please refresh us on the nature of Riley's complaints regarding OU compliance. I guess most of us on this board are still puzzled that OU even had a functional compliance department in the first place. The most recent example that supports the aforementioned view is Joe Mixon.
First, OU handled Mixon as a legal matter. The compliance I'm talking about is benefits to players.
When the Bomar situation occurred in 2006, OU was already dealing with a mess created by Kelvin Sampson. A few years later, Jeff Capel created another recruiting scandal.
OU outsourced compliance to a law firm, first, I think, after the combined Sampson/Bomar scandals. The law firm increased scrutiny of the athletics dept after the Capel issues. Good consultants know that you build job security by continuing to find errors in your client's practice.
OU's cheated to the level that UT, Michigan, etc, but not to he Ohio St, SEC, Clemson, Oregon level. OU's lost players to late in recruiting cycles to the aforementioned programs the other program has had little-to-no contact with the player for most of the cycle. I can't remember OU signing a player who was "openly" seeking bids. By no means do I think OU was clean, but I don't think they went as far as other schools or Riley would've liked.
UDontknow: And lastly, why do you think Riley left OU for USC? What was the bottom line there?
Everything I say is conjecture, but here's how I see it. Riley's a 38 yo guy who's never lived in a really desirable place. His current employer had taken a big step (moving to the SEC), without telling him. This employer had ignored some of his small requests (better training table, more analysts) and big requests (bag game, NIL) that would be needed to take this next step. Plus, expectations were really high. People were questioning his offense after consecutive years with freshmen QBs.
SC came and offered him a new place to live and tangible evidence that it would support him with whatever he wanted. He'll be the biggest dog for 1500 miles. He can recruit skill position talent from California and linemen from the islands. For the next 4 years, expections will be relatively low.
To me, seems reasonable that he'd go.