Could Lincoln Riley End Up Coaching in the Big12 Again?

After the wholesome family Thanksgiving weekend of food, fellowship, and football, this is definitely the wildest rumor to wake up to on a Tuesday morning.

Ex-OU Sooner football coach Lincoln Riley could feasibly be headed back to Oklahoma to again coach a team in the Big12 conference... Get a load of this.

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If you're not familiar, the moment OU announced their intentions to make a move to the SEC, the winningest coach in Sooners history - Lincoln Riley - up and left town in the middle of the night.

Gone baby gone.

While there were a lot of rumors surrounding the move, all of the experts typically agreed that Riley didn't want to play SEC football. Instead, he wanted to continue running his preferred offense and landed in a cushy job at the University of Southern California.

Here we are just a few years later, and the rumor is Riley is likely out of a job at USC. Just like most college football powerhouse schools, if you don't win, you lose your job, and 2024 was bad enough USC couldn't even fill the small stadium with fans by the time Thanksgiving weekend arrived.

While the internet continues to talk about why he'll be out of a job, the big question might swings wildly to where he'll end up. After all, he has proven he's a good coach, but his success has always been in the Big12, and that's where the internet thinks he's headed.

But what school?

After experiencing the worst season of his career, beloved Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy could actually find himself on the chopping block this year. Not for OSU's awful performance in 2024, but because Gundy managed to irk the wrong people around him.

We all know, Gundy has to have an enemy. In most years of his tenure, his enemy has been the press and media, but after some very pointed choice words at OSU boosters and season ticket holders a few weeks ago, the tide has apparently turned on the one coach who can do no wrong.

While still acknowledging Gundy's contributions to OSU Cowboys football over the years, making them a real powerhouse team with an overwhelming winning record, it appears he has fallen from the pedestal he's been kept upon since first proclaiming he was a 40-year-old man.

Gundy out, Riley in?

This is the wild swing. OSU alums are looking for a winner to replace Gundy, and Riley has proven his leadership can dominate the Big12. The rumor, or more than likely wishful thinking is Lincoln Riley could be first in line to relieve Mike Gundy.

Of course, Gundy is doing the OSU Cowboy back peddle and shuffle at the moment, trying to smooth things over after realizing he was biting the hand that feeds. Lincoln Riley has nothing to say on the matter either, but he denied he was leaving OU until the day he signed on at USC.

Even you have to admit, as wild as it sounds, it's not the strangest theory you've heard.