Lincoln Riley faced more wrath from Oklahoma fans after leaving the job for USC than previously realized.
Riley detailed some of the threats to his family in an appearance on the syndicated interview program “In Depth with Graham Bensinger” this week.
Bensinger indicated that Riley’s wife, Caitlin, had told him that the family had to hire armed security after their home was broken into.
“Yeah, I had multiple … had a lot of different people trying to break into the house the days after it happened. And 95% of the fans and people out there at Oklahoma or anybody else are great,” Lincoln Riley affirmed.
“You typically always have that percentage that at times take it too far. Obviously, this was one of those instances.”
Riley left Oklahoma for USC late in the 2021 season, right after the Sooners lost to their rivals at Oklahoma State.
Bensinger followed up, saying that he’d heard Riley’s family received suspicious packages and that crazed fans obtained the phone number of the coach’s nine-year-old child.
“I didn’t care about the house. I didn’t care about anything else, just their safety,” Riley said, when asked about the scariest aspect of the threats to his family.
“We wanted the girls to be able to finish out school because the semester was almost over. And as that stuff transpired we said, ‘No, we gotta get them the hell out of here as fast as we can.'”
Riley coached the Sooners from 2017-21, winning four consecutive Big 12 championships and reaching the College Football Playoff three straight years, albeit going 0-3 in those games.
His quarterbacks on the Sooners included future NFL starters Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts.
USC went 11-3 in Riley’s first season last year and is off to a 3-0 start this season.