Lincoln Riley has yet to deliver the level of success Southern California fans hoped for when he made a shocking move west from Oklahoma after the 2021 regular season.
USC is better than it was when Riley arrived but as the No. 11 Trojans' loss at No. 18 Michigan suggests, they are not entering the Big Ten as serious contenders to win their new conference. It's fair to say, more was expected of Riley than 21-9 after 30 games.
The school Riley left behind also played its first game in a new league Saturday night, and No. 15 Oklahoma made it clear it will not be challenging for the Southeastern Conference championship. The Sooners were smothered by No. 6 Tennessee in Volunteers coach Josh Huepel's return to Norman.
Riley has become a pariah in Oklahoma. Sooners fans have reveled in his struggles at USC and are convinced OU is better off without him. But Brent Venables, Riley's replacement, is 19-11 at Oklahoma.
Venables' Oklahoma is most definitely different from Riley's.
Even while Riley was going 55-10 with two Heisman Trophy winners in five years at OU, his teams played little defense and never felt like a threat to win a national title as they stacked up Big 12 titles.
Riley's Oklahoma program appeared to be slipping and the way he constructed a roster certainly didn't seem like a recipe for success in the SEC. In fact, some of his detractors suggested Riley fled OU because he feared leading the transition into the toughest conference in the country.
Venables, the former defensive coordinator at Clemson, has taken a different approach. He has stressed building up the lines and playing salty defense. The problem is that now the offense is a mess.