Reports: USC to hire coach Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma

Southern California is finalizing a deal for Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley to be its next coach in a stunning and rare move of one traditional college football powerhouse swiping another’s highly accomplished head coach, according to multiple reports.

Riley is 55-10 in five seasons leading the Sooners, winning four Big 12 titles and making three College Football Playoff appearances. The 38-year-old native Texan is widely considered one of the top offensive minds in the college game, and the 11-time national champion Trojans appear to have managed to sell him on the Trojans’ potential to return to their glory days as a championship contender and the West Coast’s premier program.

The Athletic, the Los Angeles Times and Yahoo were among the first to report Riley’s decision Sunday.

USC fired Clay Helton in September early in his seventh season in charge, and the school has been searching for a head coach to revive a program that has had meager success since a dominant run through the 2000s under Pete Carroll that included two national titles.

Since Carroll left for the Seattle Seahawks in late 2009, the Trojans have struggled under three former Carroll assistants and Helton, who brought stability and professionalism to USC, but not nearly enough on-the-field success while going 46-24. The Trojans have been a sleeping giant on the college football landscape for over a decade — and Riley is expected to wake them up.

After being connected to several top candidates for jobs in this hiring cycle, USC athletic director Mike Bohn managed to land an even bigger name than all but his most starry-eyed fans imagined.