Lincoln Riley jetted for USC, and Oklahoma is left to furiously wonder why
NORMAN, Okla. — The price of oil was showing strength at over $100 per barrel, which created a hopeful mood as the University of Oklahoma board of regents met in June 2014.
Their beloved football program didn’t just spring up out of the dusty plains winning championships. The school had to invest in it, and, in the boom-or-bust economy of the Sooner State, that meant drilling for donations while the getting was good. The stadium, nicknamed the “Palace on the Prairie,” was in need of an upgrade. Plans were drawn up to improve the seating in the south end zone while at the same time adding a state-of-the-art, $160-million shrine to Oklahoma football history where Bob Stoops and his players could do their work with only the finest accommodation.
All of this had been put into motion years before anyone knew Lincoln Riley’s name.
Of course the regents approved the project. After 15 years atop the program, leading it back from the depressing drought of the 1990s to its rightful place among college football’s biggest winners, Stoops had earned it. Sure, one national championship wasn’t good enough, but this investment would help him win the next one, a bookend to an all-time great run.
Stoops would be hands-on, too, giving special attention to the design of his office. For a tough-minded football coach from Ohio’s Rust Belt, he showed surprising taste while imagining the 1,200 square foot room where one day he’d host America’s best young football players. His nine gothic windows would be the centerpiece of the building from the outside, tricking the eye into thinking this was actually a place of worship. Inside there would be cathedral ceilings and a chandelier straight out of medieval times, a sphere of candelabras lighting the space. Functionally, a full kitchen and a bathroom with a shower
