SWD1

Living in Texas, I have a bit of a different take on Riley than many on the West Coast. Riley won a ton of games at Oklahoma at the perfect time (Texas, K-State and Tech were diminished during Riley's tenure), but was somewhat similar to Cristobal. Riley recruited top flight talent and yet barely won games against mediocre talent. Friends of mine who went to Oklahoma felt the program was slipping, despite the impressive win totals. Pull up Oklahoma's schedule over the past three years and look at the number of very close games against teams with mediocre or just above average recruiting classes. This is no Pete Carroll-not even close. He did not dominate the Conference the way Bob Stoops did, just beating the daylights out of everyone. Rather, he took the best talent in the Conference and frankly seemed to just get by against teams that were not even close to Oklahoma in talent.

Cristobol was given a golden opportunity by Oregon that no one else was going to provide him. He was an excellent recruiter and a below average game day coach, but the results were pretty impressive, including going undefeated against the Huskies and USC and getting that big win at Ohio State. I liked him as a person, but was personally pleased when he decided to move on. His offense was cringeworthy and he clearly underutilized Herbert and Brown, failing to take advantage of their skills. I hope he does well in Miami and am excited by what I am seeing from Lanning so far. He did a good job, going toe to toe with USC and won the recruiting battle for the kids out of high school.