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Big 12 Media Day

Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley was back addressing the media Monday afternoon at Big 12 media days in Arlington, Texas.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from his 20-minute session.

Take No. 1: Brooks is back

Right off the bat, Riley let everybody know redshirt sophomore running back Kennedy Brooks was reinstated with the team last week and is back to being full-go in Norman.

Brooks has been involved in a Title IX investigation the last couple of months. Although he hadn’t been practicing with the team, Brooks was doing individual workouts. The investigation ruled in Brooks’ favor when the decision was announced last week.

Riley made it clear this was not a football decision. This was a university decision in which Riley had zero say in how it went down and was not updated at all about how things were progressing.

“During the process, I was not involved at all,” Riley said. “That’s a process that our school takes very seriously. We leave that to the people that their job is to handle that and when they do we take it from there.

Take No. 2: No plans on offensive regression

There are two trains of thought. No. 1, the OU defense can’t get much worse than what it has been in the last couple of seasons. With someone like Alex Grinch leading the charge, there will be improvements.

No. 2, though, is that there is no way the Sooners offense can keep clicking on all cylinders. Losing Kyler Murray, losing four offensive linemen drafted in the first four rounds, it’s not realistic to believe that will be sustainable.

Or is it?

“We don’t plan on our offense dipping,” Riley said. “We definitely expect our defense to be better. What we’ve been able to see behind the scenes up to this point gets you encouraged and excited.

“The expectations are very high on both sides of the ball and we feel like we've got the right people in place to meet those expectations.”

With production like running backs Trey Sermon and Brooks returning and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to go with a slew of young skilled players, the potential is there for something special. It just feels like it could be tough to duplicate what fans have seen in the Baker Mayfield and Murray years.

Take No. 3: Hurts continues to fit in

Grinch is the story defensively, then no doubt quarterback Jalen Hurts is the main topic of discussion for the offense.

Following the unprecedented success of Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, it’s going to be hard for OU fans to accept anything less than what they’ve seen the last four seasons.

“It's certainly been different,” Riley said. “He brings game experience that Baker and Kyler did not have when they got here, but also doesn't have as much experience in the system. It has been quicker but it's been fun.

“He's been eager. There have been things that we do that he's been able to trace back kind of the roots to different things that he's done at Alabama or even in high school. So it's not like you're starting from scratch. It's a fun process.”

Plus one: Grinch show rolling on

Spring in the books means the first phase of the Grinch plan is done. The spring was about an attitude and mentality the defense is going to need moving forward.

The coaches can’t do too much the players in the summer, but the strength and conditioning should have them ready to roll when camp starts in a few weeks.

“I think it’s a process. I think it’s a hungry group,” Riley said. “There are a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball and they’re eager to play their very best ball.”

You’re playing with fire the way OU has been able to succeed the last two seasons, based primarily on the big-time offensive success. Defense isn’t an afterthought. It wasn’t back then, and it sure as heck isn’t now.

If the Sooners are going to win a fifth consecutive Big 12 title, defense is going to mean something.

“It's a huge part of your football team,” Riley said. “We haven't played our best defensively consistently through the years, but in a lot of big games including the last won in here, we've played pretty darn good. We've got to do that more consistently to make ourselves a better team and we feel like we've taken the steps to do that.”


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