Big 12 Football: 5 best candidates to replace Lincoln Riley at OU

News that completely shocked the Big 12 football landscape, and the college football world as a whole, dropped on Nov. 28 with the hiring of the now-former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley to replace the departed Clay Helton with the USC Trojans. Riley bolted from Norman, OK, to become the first head coach to leave the Sooners for another college football program since the mid-1960s.

This is a move that was really jarring for not just the Sooners, but a number of different programs around the college football landscape. This move from Riley to leave from Oklahoma for the apparently greener pastures of USC is something that impacts the rest of the Big 12 and SEC largely.

Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for USC shakes up the Big 12 football landscape. Who could OU hire to replace him?

With their ties to Oklahoma in the move to leave the Big 12 for the SEC in the next few years, the Texas Longhorns will also be greatly impacted by this move.

It’s hard to think where the Sooners begin to pick up the pieces with their next coaching search. Riley had Oklahoma in a perennial Big 12 Title and College Football Playoff contender. He was one of the more successful coaches in program history in terms of overall winning percentage and conference titles.

Oklahoma won a conference title in each of the first four years with Riley as head coach. They also made it to the College Football Playoff twice in the previous four years during his time in Norman. Now, we are going to see one of the best offensive minds in college football assume the head coaching reigns with USC.

Here’s a look into five potential early ideas for coaching candidates that Oklahoma could hire to replace the departed Riley.