Okla.

When Lincoln Riley was hired by USC in the fall of 2021, he brought four staffers with him on the plane from Norman, Okla. Among them was Bennie Wylie, who’d spent the previous four years as Riley’s strength and conditioning coach at Oklahoma.

Givens grew up in a Protestant household in Tulsa, Okla. His mom listened to Beethoven.

Natural and man-made disasters have devastated Black communities in places like New Orleans and Tulsa, Okla. Decades or even a century later, historic Black neighborhoods still struggle to return to their former glory, and survivors struggle to get the support they deserve.

His six-season odyssey has been long and arduous, crossing the Pacific Ocean and spanning coast to coast — stretching from his home state of Hawaii to Orlando, Fla., to Norman, Okla., and finally to Eugene, Ore.

Gardner’s arm-waving impression paired with strange stories about McEntire’s hometown of McAlester, Okla., where, “If you think the milk is spoiled, give it another sip.”