As of last night around midnight, Notre Dame and Oklahoma didn't have a head coach, and Miami is looking for a new athletic director.
Lincoln Riley has been named the new head coach at USC, for a reported $12 million a year. At Oklahoma he won 12 games four times in four seasons, winning the Big-12 Championship each time, with three college football playoff appearances.
He's bringing defensive coordinator Alex Grinch with him, along with strength coach Bennie Wylie and receivers coach Dennis Simmons.
What's this got to do with the Ducks? Everything. The competitive and recruiting landscape are undergoing a seismic shift. The market for coaches is going crypto currency crazy.
Riley's last three quarterbacks, Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts, are all starting in the NFL. Mayfield and Murray won back-to-back Heismans. From 2017 through 2020, his offenses ranked 1st, 3rd, 6th and 6th in the nation in scoring.
It's good for the conference for SC to be relevant again, but recruiting players in Southern California may be a bit harder. Other than Donte Williams, the Helton staff wasn't much competition. Oregon's owned SoCal for several cycles.
Brian Kelly is bolting Notre Dame, a possible playoff team, to become the new coach at LSU, for a salary nearing $15 million a year, according to Dennis Dodd of cbs.com.
The last three coaches at LSU, Nick Saban, Les Miles and Ed Orgeron, have all won a national championship. Of course, two of them wound up getting fired.
Early Signing Day is in just two weeks. On his first night as Trojan coach, Riley visited former Sooner commit Raleek Brown
Six players have decommitted from OU since Sunday, including 5-star quarterback Malachi Nelson. Several of those are expected or rumored to follow Riley and his staff to Troy.
Meanwhile, Fresno State head coach Kalen DeBoer has just been named the new coach at Washington, and Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead is in line to take over as the new head coach at Akron, where he worked five years as an assistant. Former Cal and SMU coach Sonny Dykes is the new head man at TCU, replacing Gary Patterson. The Florida Gators plucked Billy Napier from Louisiana.
Still other coaches elected to stay at their current jobs, lured by big, market-changing raises. Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated summarizes:
Mel Tucker (36), career record of 17–14, just got 10 years and $95 million. Jimbo Fisher (37) got a 10–year, $94 million deal from Texas A&M before he flopped this season, going 8–4. James Franklin (38), coming off a 7–5 season, just got a raise to $7 million a year from Penn State.
After being stung by big-buck defections by Riley and Kelly, the pressure will be on the Sooners and the Irish to make a hire with a big impact, meaning more crazy money. Mario Cristobal's deal at Oregon pays him around $5 million a season. He's an extremely loyal and focused guy, but bet his agent will field some eyebrow-raising calls.
Some think ND will focus on current defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, who's dynamic and extremely popular with players. Cincinnati's Luke Fickell and even Urban Meyer have also been mentioned.
Coaching moves lead to player moves. Already there are some big names in the transfer portal, and hundreds more will follow in the next month.
Brian Kelly was on a recruiting home visit for the Irish when news broke that he was leaving for Baton Rouge, visiting Tobias Merriweather, a player the Ducks recruited. In all there are six Notre Dame commits that Oregon offered and pursued:
LB Jaylen Sneed
LB Niuafe Tuihalamaka
CB Benjamin Morrison
CB Jaden Mickey
WR Tobias Merriweather
WR CJ Williams
Saturday afternoon for the Civil War, Oregon entertained some high-profile visitors, including Darrius Clemons, Josh Conerly, Sir Mells, Cyrus Moss and 2023 quarterback JaVance Johnson.
Several of the Oregon commits are getting heavy pressure to flip, but so far Tetairoa McMillan, Kelvin Banks and Jalil Florence and Jahlil Tucker say they are solid to the Ducks.
Conerly told national writers he was intrigued by Riley's move, more interested. He already had a visit planned to the Trojans later this month.
On Sunday receiver Armani Winfield decommitted from Texas and quickly picked up an Oregon offer:
Washington and USC fans expect a quick return to dominance after picking their new coaches, but it isn't always that easy. Over the last 30 years, here's how the conference's schools stack up in overall record:
Past 30 years of college football, PAC-12 schools:
Top 8 for winning in all of CFB
Oregon 261-111
Top 20
Utah 241-122
SC 240-116
Top 45
UW 201-161
ASU 200-159
Stanford 198-158
UCLA 197-166
This year, Washington and USC were two of the four schools ranked in the preseason Top 25 that failed to make a bowl. The other two were Texas and Indiana.
Riley may create some excitement and new energy in Los Angeles, but he has a lot of work to do. He has to create renewed fan interest, and he has to rebuild the Trojan tradition on the offensive line, where the quality of play is nowhere near what it was. Mario Cristobal and Alex Mirabal have dominated offensive line recruiting in the West while sending Penei Sewell, Calvin Throckmorton and Shane Lemieux to the NFL.
