Lincoln Riley calls landing USC job ‘surreal,’ says leaving Oklahoma was tough but ‘right thing’

All Lincoln Riley had to do was say yes, take a three-hour flight, change the shade on his red tie — from crimson to cardinal — and he was suddenly in sunny, 75-degree late November weather, standing inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Monday afternoon being introduced as the 18th head coach in USC football history.

“Wow, is this real? Unbelievable,” Riley said, turning around to take in the Los Angeles skyline on one side, the Hollywood sign on the other. “It’s a surreal moment, to be honest.”

The overnight hire of Riley away from Oklahoma that reverberated throughout the sport gave way to a celebratory shock Monday. While Riley pinched himself, USC’s administrators and power brokers basked in the glory of a statement hire while remaining surprised they found themselves here in the first place.

“It was never our goal to change the landscape of college football with one of the biggest moves in the history of the game,” USC athletic director Mike Bohn said. “But we did exactly that.”

Bohn’s confidence was palpable throughout the ceremony and afterward too. He called USC the “sleeping giant” that had been awakened.

At Oklahoma the last five seasons, Riley has helmed a team that’s had three College Football Playoff appearances, four Big-12 titles and four 10-win seasons, while developing two Heisman-winning quarterbacks in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. USC, meanwhile, has failed to make the College Football Playoff, won only one Pac-12 title and gone 33-23 in that span.

“We felt pressure,” Bohn said, noting that his peers are often telling him that “when USC is good, it’s good for college football.”

USC had been linked to several candidates since they fired Clay Helton back in October. But not once had Riley’s name come up. On Saturday night, Riley was asked about his name coming up in LSU coaching rumors. “I will not be the next head coach of LSU,” he said. USC, however, was a different story.

“It was tough to leave the place…