A flight left Norman for Baton Rouge on Wednesday morning.
LSU football may be the top coaching opening in the sport as Ed Orgeron is set to depart at the end of the 2021 season. On Wednesday, fans began tracking a plane coming from Oklahoma, which led some to think Lincoln Riley was heading to Baton Rouge for an interview.
When the coaching carousel starts spinning, fans begin checking in on various flight tracking websites and apps to try and glean clues as to the coaches that are coming to town for interviews.
LSU fans thought they hit the jackpot. Riley has fielded one of the best offenses in college football at OU, since joining Bob Stoops's staff in 2015. If LSU is to replicate the '19 Joe Burrow–led season, there would be fewer coaches better situated to do it. At the same time, he already has one of the top jobs in the sport, a dynamic freshman quarterback in Caleb Williams and his program will be joining the SEC in a few years.
That did not stop some from speculating that Riley could be on a plane that departed Norman, Okla. for Baton Rouge just before 9 a.m. CT on Wednesday.
The rumor was debunked hours later.
Gabe Ikard, a former Oklahoma offensive lineman turned local Sooners media personality, sent a tongue-in-cheek tweet indicating that Riley was at Oklahoma practice at the same time as that flight from Norman to Baton Rouge.
Riley is 54–8 since taking over the Sooners in 2017, with four straight Big 12 titles and three College Football Playoff appearances.
The LSU job would be attractive to just about any coach, but it may be very difficult to pry him away from Oklahoma.
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For more news on the Oklahoma Sooners, head over to All Sooners.