College Football Fans Lost Their Collective Mind After Lincoln Riley Reportedly Accepts USC Job

Lincoln Riley USC Internet Reaction

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On Saturday night, after losing to Oklahoma State, Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley said definitively that he was not taking the LSU job. He did not lie.

Less than 24 hours after his fifth regular season with the Sooners came to a close, he is reportedly headed to Los Angeles. Per multiple reports, Riley accepted the head coaching position at the University of Southern California.

Terms are not yet released, but they are set to be pretty substantial. Riley’s annual salary in Norman stood at $7.672 million.

Riley was the fifth-highest paid coach in college football in October, and based on the current climate, Riley is in a position to negotiate significantly more than $8 million per year to coach the Trojans. He could very easily become the second-highest paid coach in the nation if his representation does their job well.

Finances aside, one of the best offensive minds in college football is headed West. Although it is important not to declare a hire a guaranteed home run right away, should this not work out, coaches should just be hired through a lottery system.

As the news broke on Sunday afternoon, the internet collectively had its head explode.

At first, it was just speculation. And then boom. It was done. Riley to USC.

Reactions to the news were all across the board. Some people were thrilled, others were furious, most were baffled.

Here is some of what college football fans and analysts were thinking after the news broke:

What a hire! USC needed to make a big splash after years of complacency and irrelevance, and boom— Lincoln Riley.

Athletic director Mike Bohn, who decided to keep Clay Helton a year ago, understood the assignment. Wow. What a day.