As USC football prepares to play Penn State, we are reminded that the man who will coach against Lincoln Riley this Saturday almost became the Trojans' head coach. Matt Campbell versus USC is one of the many amazing storylines attached to this Week 6 clash in Happy Valley.
It was Thanksgiving Friday of 2021. Iowa State played TCU on a Friday. Because coaches can't interview for other open jobs until their 12-game regular seasons end, Matt Campbell had a leg up on the rest of the field because his 12th and final game of the 2021 regular season was on a Friday. Lincoln Riley's 12th regular season game was on Saturday that weekend. Moreover, if Riley's Oklahoma Sooners defeated Oklahoma State on that Saturday night, the Sooners would have advanced
to the Big 12 Championship Game, preventing Riley from interviewing with USC or anyone else.
On that Friday, Matt Campbell was viewed as the man with the inside track to the USC head coaching job. He was the person most prominently and regularly attached to the coaching carousel rumor mill and the industry chatter behind the scenes. Being able to finish his game Friday gave him the opportunity to interview on Saturday morning or at lunchtime while his colleagues, including Riley, couldn't do anything.
However, as we now know, USC's Brandon Sosna - the right-hand man to then-athletic director Mike Bohn - had carved out a line of communication with Riley's representation. The hope from USC's end was that Oklahoma would lose to Oklahoma State so that direct communication with Riley could take place right after the Sooners played the Cowboys. OU did lose to Oklahoma State. Sosna and Bohn had their chance. They pounced. The rest is history.
Matt Campbell never did become USC's next head coach. Now he coaches against USC in the Big Ten as Penn State's new boss. Campbell and Riley coached against each other often in the Big 12. Now they carry their coaching clash to the Big Ten. It is wild these two coaches are meeting under these circumstances, with Riley's USC tenure hanging in the balance as an added plot point in Happy Valley on Saturday.
You couldn't make up any of this stuff if you tried.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Matt Campbell nearly became USC football coach five years ago
