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‘We took players from the transfer portal’: Lincoln Riley dismissed idea USC recruited Oklahoma’s players

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Lincoln Riley sure knows how to put a good spin on the situation. Even though he was able to bring some of Oklahoma’s top players with him to USC, the head coach doesn’t believe he took players from OU.

At least that’s what he’s saying publicly.

Tuesday, the new USC head coach made an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd to talk about his new job in California. Cowherd brought up the fact that the Trojans have landed several players out of the transfer portal — most notably former Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams.

But Riley dismissed the idea that USC took players from Oklahoma. Instead, he said he recruited players out of the transfer portal.

“We didn’t take players from Oklahoma. We took players from the transfer portal,” Riley said. “Those players and their families had to make a decision to either stay at that university — just like any other player has to make — or to enter the portal, where then they can be recruited by anybody in the country. And that’s up to those players and their families. We have nothing to do with that.

“Once a player gets into a portal where they’re open to any school in the country, we would be crazy not to take a look at that and try to help our football team.”

Technically, Riley isn’t wrong. However, there’s no question that his departure from Oklahoma to USC played a major role in the decision for multiple former players to follow him to Los Angeles.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB