Musings from Arledge: Caleb Williams, Oklahoma Meltdown, and The Market
Caleb Williams to UCLA!? No! And we’ve already lost Jaxson Dart!
Okay, people. I’m going to stage an intervention here. No, I’m not a psychologist. I’m not a psychiatrist or a therapist. I’m not even an avid reader of psychological thrillers. But I can recognize PTSD in a fan base, and I’m worried about my fellow Trojans.
When Lincoln Riley took the job, we were excited for the first time in years. The prevailing view was that USC football was dead, that so long as Coach Game Ball continued to call his superiors “Coach” and avoid felony charges, we would be stuck with him and his brand of Warrior Ball for years to come.
Then when he was let go, the prevailing view was that USC couldn’t hire a top coach – Why would anybody want to come here? – and even if they could, that they wouldn’t – USC is always cheap and will never pay for a top coach.
Then when Lincoln Riley was hired, USC fans had hope for the first time in years. Sun, sun, sun, here it comes. Only it still requires but a little nudge to send us over the edge again. One rumor of something bad, and we lose it. Half of you want to replace Traveler with Eeyore.
Things got so bad over the last week that I saw USC football fans anxiety-ridden over the possibility that Caleb Williams might go to UCLA. Come on, people! UCLA? This is not healthy. Caleb Williams isn’t going to UCLA. I think he’s more likely to go play in Kazakhstan. Whatever package Borat puts together is likely to be more enticing than what Chip Kelly is selling.
I don’t care what rumors were circulating, the UCLA story never made any sense. If Caleb Williams publicly announced on Instagram that he was going to UCLA, I still wouldn’t believe it. I’d know that his account was hacked or he was playing an early April Fool’s joke. If I actually went to UCLA’s opening game at the Rose Bowl and saw Caleb Williams in a UCLA uniform warming up, I still wouldn’t believe that Caleb Williams was going to play for UCLA.
UCLA!?
We need to get a grip, Trojans. Clay Helton is gone. Steve Sarkisian is gone. Pat Haden and Lynn Swann are gone. It’s like we’ve lived in a house without a roof for many years, and now that we finally have one, we spend every minute or every day fretting that it’s going to cave in.
Let me tell you what’s going to happen. Caleb Williams is going to sign with USC. No, I don’t have any inside information, but of course he’s going to. What did you think was going to happen? And even apart from Williams, USC is going to recruit very well. No, the Trojans won’t win every recruiting battle. Even Pete Carroll and Nick Saban couldn’t claim that. But they’ll win a bunch. Before long, USC will have the most talented team in the Pac 12 and one of the most talented teams in the country. Lincoln Riley will continue to be an offensive savant. Those two facts alone get you to an average annual record of 11-2 and annual, realistic shots at playoff berths. We can live with that, no? After what we’ve been through, couldn’t you handle some seasons like that? And if the defense comes along really well – that’s a big if, I grant that – things might get really interesting.
So stop saying crazy things. Caleb Williams is not going to UCLA. Stop saying that USC won’t participate in the new NIL world. Of course they will. You think Lincoln Riley left OU to go to a program that won’t compete for recruits? We heard for a long time that USC is cheap and never pays big bucks to land a top coach. That used to be true. It’s clearly not true now. All that you believed is outdated. Just wait and see what happens. It’s going to be far, far better than the long-time grease fire that put you into this mindset in the first place.
So do what you must. Talk to a therapist. Have a drink. Try some yoga. I don’t know. Do something. But it’s time to snap out of it. This pessimism is too much even for Musings.
Oh, yeah, a word to the wise: remember that college football writers are looking for clicks and traffic. That’s why you see stories about how Caleb Williams is considering four teams and none of them is USC. Did that ever make any sense? These guys know who their audience is. There are college football fans on the west coast. But not nearly as many as in the south and in Big 10 country. The media goes where the clicks are. That doesn’t mean we should be so gullible as to believe that Caleb Williams is potentially picking Auburn. Foolishness.
About that continuing meltdown in Oklahoma … everybody enjoying it?
So now we learn that Oklahoma fans hated Lincoln Riley’s program and how soft it was? Fascinating. I know a lot of OU fans, and I don’t recall these efforts to replace Lincoln Riley with Brent Venables or anybody else prior to Lincoln deciding to leave. That must have flown under the radar. Very soon we’ll hear from Sooner fans about how Caleb Williams is overrated and the QB they wanted all along is Dillon Gabriel, who is head and shoulders above Williams.
Since I’m in the intervention business today, you Sooners fans also need to get some help. I get it. It hurts to be the ugly girl. Lincoln Riley saw a more attractive option and decided to jump on it. He left you in the lurch. All those old insecurities are back. You feel hurt, betrayed, worthless. You feel an overwhelming psychological need to pretend that you hated the old boyfriend anyway. He was the worst! He never picked up after himself! He played video games all the time! Lincoln leaving is the best thing that ever happened to me!
This is embarrassing, Oklahoma. Have some pride. You guys are still one of the top programs in college football. A cut below USC, apparently, according to your own former head coach. But just because Lincoln Riley sees USC as better – way better, I might add; so much better that he was willing to risk his entire career on a move to USC when USC was at its absolute worst – doesn’t mean you guys need to feel bad about yourselves. Save that for a couple of years from now when you lose to Ole Miss and finish 5th in the SEC West. Then you can feel bad about yourselves. But right now, keep those double chins up. America hates to see you guys this way.
Speaking of Oklahoma, for those still interested in The Ardmore Arab Gold Caper – I think that was the fifth Hardy Boys book – I have some disappointing, some might say shocking, news: the gold I acquired at night in a rural Oklahoma gas station parking lot from a complete stranger is – brace yourself – inauthentic. Fake. A rip-off.
Now, I’m obviously not telling you to avoid buying gold in gas station parking lots, and I’m certainly not trying to scare any of you away from the burgeoning precious metals markets now thriving near gas pumps outside Ardmore, Oklahoma. I’m just telling you my story. You can do with it what you will.
Still, I love helping people, so I’ll always consider myself fortunate that I was able to help just one Beemer-driving con man and his two accomplices. I hope they spend my $120 wisely.
As for that analogy I drew last week, forget about that. I’m sure what USC got in Oklahoma is better than what I got. So don’t panic. Remember, Musings is to be used solely for entertainment purposes and not for any actual information.
Besides, I now have my new game-day bling:
I’m not going to ask you to read Milton Friedman or Friedrich Hayek (it’s not a terrible idea, but I’m not asking), but I do want to know this: why is everybody so afraid of the market now?
Yes, once it became clear that the NCAA’s rules were illegal, college sports changed in dramatic ways, and players now have the ability to chase after their market value. So what? This means that college football players will do what virtually every plumber, doctor, actor and drug dealer do throughout the free world; they will try to capitalize on their market value. Caleb Williams is worth a lot of money on the open market. USC’s backup tight ends are worth less. When I was playing (small-time) college football, I would have been worth exactly nothing.
When people have marketable skills or personalities, they will make more money than people who are less marketable.
And so what?
Markets work. They’re good enough for the price of milk and cars, for pop stars and accountants, but not college football players?
Practically speaking, players will go where they can get paid. That’s what most of us do, isn’t it? That won’t be the only consideration. Most of us wouldn’t change jobs just because the firm down the street would give us a few dollars more. Most people make their work decisions based on any number of factors, including lifestyle, comfort, the ability to progress in their professions, how much they like their co-workers, what they think about the mission of the company, and, yes, money. This is how it is in a free country.
Lincoln Riley is rewarded by the market. USC football is rewarded (or, more recently, punished) by the market when it sells tickets and merchandise. Professors come and go based, at least in part, on money considerations. Most of us try to benefit from our skills and experience. Why is this freedom good for us but bad for college football players?
The market here is new. In the old days, it was a black market, in existence yet hidden from view. Transparency is good. The ability of players to capitalize on their worth and play for programs that take the rules seriously is good. Because this market is new, it may be out-of-whack for a little while. But things will sort themselves out with time, as they always do in a free market. And what’s left over will be rational and far more fair to these kids than what came before. Don’t fear the market.
