Spot on with your assessment. As an Oklahoman and a Sooner fan I was heartbroken when I heard Stincoln Riley was leaving. I grew up about 30-45 minutes from the campus of OU and had season tickets as a 20 year old when Stoops took them to the promised land in the year 2000 with a 13-0 season. Since then they had amassed the best home record of all time, multiple Heisman winners, many NFL players developed.
Our beloved Quarterback Whisperer had betrayed us. Then the rumors started coming out as to why. First it was infidelity. He was porking a hot little student assistant and his wife reportedly gave him an ultimatum to move from OU or she would, from him.
Another rumor was that USC paid off his two houses in Oklahoma, gave him a mansion in LA, and gave him an insane amount of money. This is true but was money the sole reason? Was the marital problem fixable with more money and a fresh start?
Then the real reason surfaced. The move to the Southeast Conference. Riley's plan going forward at OU was not defense focused. He was going to do what he had always relied on, throwing the ball to beat defenses and ignoring a defense that could stop scoring. The OU brass which include Bob Stoops, a defense first guy, hated this philosophy. They had grown tired of dominating the defense week Big XII with this philosophy only to go to bowl games and get beat by SEC teams. All of Riley's proposals for strengthening the program were shot down. This upset Riley to the point of leaving. To the credit of the OU Athletic Department they simply starved him out. That was the plan. Get with Defense First or not get your wishlist.
OU decided to hire Brett Venables away from Clemson but he was someone they already knew. Venables was with Stoops as a defensive assistant when Stoops was DC under Bill Snyder at K-State. Venables then came to Oklahoma to be DC under Bob Stoops. Even before OU landed on Brett Venables they had already started accepting bids to build out an SEC caliber training and player development complex. The Sooners are going to go into the SEC with a Defense First philosophy and that would not have happened with Stincoln Riley. He had to go. Whatever the reason for him leaving it is for the better and was part of the OU plan all along.
It really did hurt that Stincoln Riley took a lot of top players with him, not so much Alex Grinch the DC though. The player theft hurt us to the magnitude of 2 years worth of recruiting. In the end, we're better off. It was expected that the Sooners would have a down year. Truth be told, it's been a horrendous year. Losing to Texas like that ...... that hurts worse than anything that has ever happened regarding OU in my life. Still, it's worth it to go to the SEC without Sticoln Riley.
