It's not even the end of September and we're already talking about fired coaches and the potential fallout of more decisions.

In other words, it's going to be a wild offseason.

(Though honestly, isn't it always a wild offseason for college football?)

Earlier this week, USC fired head coach Clay Helton.

That means one of the top jobs in college football is open.

Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt mentioned several potential candidates for USC in a recent tweet. One of the candidates he mentioned is Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley.

I doubt Riley would actually leave Oklahoma for the USC job.

For starters, he's from Texas, so it's not like he's a west coast guy. And he has the Sooners rolling — why leave to start over at a job where he'll have some work to do.

Plus, Oklahoma is on its way to the SEC in a couple of years. Isn't that where most college football coaches want to be? Why would Riley want to go to the Pac-12? It doesn't make much sense. But college football can be unpredictable, so it's still a possibility.

The more likely scenario is Riley leaving the Sooners for the NFL. If he decides he wants to try to the NFL, there's little that Oklahoma could offer (aside from more money, but Riley is already paid really well) to keep him from leaving.

If Riley leaves OU, where would the Sooners turn?

Vols Wire's Dan Haralson suggested that Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel — a former Oklahoma quarterback and Sooners offensive coordinator — could be an option.

From Vols Wire:

If that were to happen (Riley leaving), the Sooners almost certainly would consider Heupel as a successor. His Sooners ties run deep.

Maybe Heupel gets a call in that scenario, but I seriously doubt he'd leave.

Being the head coach at your alma mater isn't all it's cracked up to be. Scott Frost is learning that the hard way.

Heupel already had a tough departure from Oklahoma when he was fired by Bob Stoops as the program's offensive coordinator in early 2015.

Would Heupel want to go through that again?

Most head coaches that are hired in football will eventually be fired. It's just the nature of the sport in 2021.

A lot of Tennessee fans were underwhelmed by the Heupel hire last winter. But they should be glad that it seems unlikely he'd leave Rocky Top for Oklahoma.

One of the main reasons the Vols were able to hire Heupel was because of his connection to AD Danny White. If not for that connection, Tennessee would likely have a first-time head coach right now. Or a retread like Sonny Dykes.

Love Heupel or not, he's the best the Vols could get at the time. And if he leaves after one season, it's hard to imagine the next coaching search faring much better.

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