Why Oklahoma fans (and fans of elite entertainment) should be rooting for Lincoln Riley’s USC this week
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Hear me out, Oklahoma fans.
If and when you finish watching the No. 8 Sooners take care of No. 22 Mizzou to preserve a clear path to the Playoff, flip on CBS. At 3:30 p.m. ET, Lincoln Riley will lead No. 15 USC in the biggest game of his post-OU tenure at No. 7 Oregon. Oklahoma fans, and really anyone who just enjoys elite, made-for-the-silver-screen entertainment, I’m gonna ask you to do something that might seem so heinous that you’ll be tempted to close this column the second that you read this words. Ready for it?
Root for USC on Saturday.
Why?!? How could someone possibly do such a thing? You don’t go watch Batman and root for The Joker. How in the world could one justify rooting for Riley and his torched brisket?
Rooting for USC means you’re in favor of potentially setting up the juiciest Playoff matchup to date. It might even be the juiciest postseason matchup of the 21st century if it comes to fruition.
There’s a world in which a USC win on Saturday at Oregon sets up a first-round Playoff game at Oklahoma. Yes, the return of the prodigal, uh … enemy? Riley returning to Norman after he bolted west for Los Angeles and his 12 bathrooms would be the stuff of legend. It would be the type of Playoff matchup that would even have the “bring back the BCS” crowd chomping at the bit.
Chomping at the bit is exactly how Oklahoma fans would feel to see this Brent Venables defense face what would be Riley’s best USC team
That’s a dream chaos scenario for all parties except Riley, who would have to have his lifetime ban of stepping foot in the Sooner State lifted for 1 day. What a glorious day that would be.
Again, this is specific to 2025. If you had told Oklahoma fans that they were going to get USC in a Holiday Bowl matchup last year, they would’ve dry-heaved. Last year’s team wasn’t the ideal showcase of the Brent Venables era, AKA the post-Riley era.
This year? That’s a different story.
This is the exact vision of what Venables hoped to create in Norman. A loaded, versatile defense is finally coupled with a gritty quarterback and an innovative offensive mind. Complementary football? Oklahoma finally has it. Is it a Riley-like offense? Not at all. That was never the plan. But John Mateer, who was the leader in the Heisman Trophy odds before his midseason thumb surgery, is averaging 268.4 yards of offense per game and led OU to 4 wins in which it scored 23-26 points.
But tell me that you wouldn’t want to see this Venables defense against Riley’s offense. As in, the defense that just cost Ty Simpson a shot at the Heisman Trophy and did so without its best player, R Mason Thomas. Like, the defense that hasn’t allowed 4.0 yards per carry since Week 2 vs. Michigan (the Wolverines only reached 4.6 yards per carry thanks to a 75-yard touchdown run when OU allowed 32 carries for 71 yards outside of that). You know, the defense that ranks No. 2 in America in sacks who forced 3 turnovers in each of the last 2 games, both of which were true road wins vs. AP Top 25 wins.
Before this 2-game stretch, OU was in search of its first true road win vs. a ranked foe since 2019. That’s right. Jalen Hurts was responsible for the last such victory.
In the 4 years that Riley has been at USC, he’s 1-6 in those contests with the lone win being back in Year 1 when he led the Trojans to a 48-45 win at No. 16 UCLA. Perhaps that’s all the more reason why winning at No. 7 Oregon, where Riley is 0-1, is a bit of a pipe dream and throwing out history to root for Riley will end in more disappointment. After all, it wasn’t long ago that the Ducks boasted the nation’s longest home winning streak. Indiana came into Eugene and ended that in emphatic fashion, which is why Saturday’s showdown between 1-loss Oregon and 2-loss USC feels like a Playoff elimination game. With a win, USC would inevitably slide into the top 12 ahead of what would be a 2-loss Oregon team.
Ahead of a home matchup vs. 3-win UCLA and an interim coaching staff to close the regular season, USC winning on Saturday at Oregon would make a Playoff berth feel imminent for Riley and Co. Ahead of a home matchup vs. LSU and an interim coaching staff to close the regular season, Oklahoma winning on Saturday vs. Mizzou would make a Playoff berth feel imminent for Venables and Co.
So let’s paint the picture of this for Selection Sunday
Oklahoma fans, if you know USC is making the Playoff, you’re mapping out those scenarios for Selection Sunday. You can assume that if both Oklahoma and USC have 2 losses, OU is getting the higher ranking. Why? Winning at Alabama, where no SEC team had won since 2019, will carry more weight than winning at Oregon. After all, Oklahoma is the highest-ranked 2-loss team. Even selection committee darling Notre Dame isn’t ahead of the Sooners.
Whether it’s an 8-9 or a 7-10 matchup, both would yield the same result. Perhaps some would accuse the selection committee of chasing ratings by setting up that matchup.
And the problem with that would be … ?
If we do indeed get Oklahoma hosting USC in Round 1, it would be a showdown that would blow the Josh Heupel return to Norman out of the water. Heupel wasn’t hated by OU in the way that Riley forever will be. The vitriol would be oozing out of Memorial Stadium in ways that we’ve perhaps never seen for 1 specific person. There are hostile atmospheres, and then there’s whatever a Riley return to Norman would yield.
Epic? Beyond. Diabolical? Absolutely.
As natural as it’s become for Oklahoma fans to root for Riley to crash and burn on a national stage, Saturday is worth flipping the script for.
This time, pull for The Joker.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
