LSU never made an attempt at Riley

rumor is there were a couple of phone calls but never any offer.

My guess would be that we at least put a feeler out. Again, just a guess.

This whole thing should be a cautionary tale (but it won't be). None of us know shite. The only way these things generally play out to the public is through anonymous sources and media speculation. This allows everyone to fill in their own blanks and come with their own idea of how a coaching search is "going", and are ready to make up their mind that we are getting played by so-and-so, etc. before we even make a hire. You saw it with the baseball hire as well. I'm thinking from here on out, at least with Woodward at the helm, we should err on the side of "everything's going to be fine".

I disagree. We talked numbers with Lincoln and thought he would bite until USC swooped in. We knew USC swooped in before everybody else did, so we went full steam at Kelly.

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They didn’t want him. All my opinion

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Your opinion on the matter is worth zero

Riley knew Okie wasn't going to be the top dog in the SEC. He was leaving at the end of the season anyway. The lost Saturday was just an earlier exit. He can/will likely dominate west coast football.

Agreed. They had Kelly for some time.

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I disagree. We talked numbers with Lincoln and thought he would bite until USC swooped in. We knew USC swooped in before everybody else did, so we went full steam at Kelly.

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I disagree with you. They both had the same agent who basically knew for MONTHS that LR was headed to USC so it wasn’t a “bidding war” scenario. He knew Riley didn’t want to play in the SEC and his stock was at an all time high. OU and Ut could move in in 2023.

Go back and read my threads on the coaching changes board about shut the board down, compete, etc. As I said MULTIPLE times, people don’t leave their current employer for money most of the time. It is about opportunity and in this case both are exactly going to get that. It is reasonable to believe that Saban shuts it down in a few years and Kelly has a good 10 left. He sees a window to win a championship at this level. He has won at other levels.

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He knew Riley didn’t want to play in the SEC

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This. There’s no way this wasn’t common knowledge in AD/coach world.

Saying the same thing I said on the CCB

Kelly was his first choice. The LSU jet was up there in October. He’s been working this for months

The ND AD even basically hinted at this today in his own PC

LSU probably didn’t even speak with Riley or his agent (about Riley). His agent just used LSU to force usc’s to up the offer which is why he got that extra stuff like the house and private jet. USC panicked because they thought he my go to LSU instead (the agent and Riley) but in reality they played usc

The fact that Riley and Kelly have the same agent is key here. The agent knew Kelly was going to LSU it was known for months. So he used the uncertainty to his advantage for Riley.

Another indication is Kelly’s contact. The $ doesn’t scream panic. He got basically the same as freaking Mel Tucker. This tells me two things

1. Kelly is a man of his word. He agreed to a number and terms in October and kept to it despite others getting what I’d consider asinine contracts (ie Tucker)

2. Kelly really wants to be here and coach in the sec