Report: Additional Oklahoma coaching staff set to join Lincoln Riley at USC

As the fallout continues from Lincoln Riley’s switch to coaching USC instead of Oklahoma, reports indicate that more former staff will be coming with. Riley announced shortly after accepting the USC position that he was bringing multiple members of his staff with him, and now it appears that cornerbacks coach Roy Manning will be joining him as well.

Lincoln Riley taking more Oklahoma staff

“I’m told Roy Manning resigned from Sooners staff,” stated Ryan Aber of The Oklahoman on Sunday. “We’ll see how many of the others ultimately remain on staff.”

It would appear now that Manning’s reason for resigning was his intent to join Riley at USC. When Riley took over the USC program after a surprise exit from Oklahoma, one of his first announcements was that he was bringing some of his coaching staff along.

Riley previously announced that he was bringing Alex Grinch with him to be the new defensive coordinator at USC, as well as Dennis Simmons as wide receivers coach and Benny Wylie as strength coach. Now, cornerbacks coach of the Trojans appears to be Manning’s next job.

“SOURCE: OU assistant coach Roy Manning is expected to join the USC coaching staff,” reported The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman on Monday.

Manning’s controversial exit

As a unique and controversial twist to the new hiring, Manning appears to have been pulling double-duty before making his departure from Oklahoma official.

Five-star Plus+ cornerback Domani Jackson previously narrowed down his list to two schools in USC and Alabama. In the process, he appeared to have suggested a previously unreported name will be leaving Oklahoma and joining Lincoln Riley’s staff at USC: cornerbacks coach Roy Manning.

Manning, hired in January 2019 as Oklahoma’s cornerbacks coach, was on the recruiting trail with interim head coach Bob Stoops as of Tuesday afternoon, representing Oklahoma — not USC. After a visit to three-star wide receiver recruit Xavion Brice, Brice thanked Manning and the rest of Oklahoma’s visiting staff on Twitter.

The problem with that is, Domani Jackson had told 247 Sports in an interview just before Brice’s visit that part of Jackson’s interest in USC was their cornerbacks coach — Roy Manning. After Jackson met with Riley, he was told that he would be sending a few more members of his USC staff to meet with the recruit, including Manning.

“He said he wants send in (defensive coordinator Alex) Grinch first and then he’ll come in later. I’ve heard from coach Grinch too and also Roy Manning, who was the DB coach at OU,” Jackson said, via 247 Sports. “I’ve been texting back and forth with coach Manning and looking forward to meeting those guys in person.

“He talked about their track record at Oklahoma for getting DBs drafted,” Jackson said of Manning. “He said they put three in the Draft the last three years with two starting in the League (NFL) right now. He said to give them a chance and said they’re about to do something special so I’m going to give them a shot for sure.”

On3’s Simon Gibbs contributed to this article.