I wrote on Monday about Lincoln Riley’s ascension from the pressbox to playcaller as a 26-year old offensive assistant at Texas Tech. Monday I asked Riley whether he still employs that same structure with his offensive staff and who performs that role for him.

“It’s a big role,” answered Riley. “Cale (Gundy’s) done that the last two years. He’ll continue to do so. It’s a critical role. To be on the field and call it, you’ve got to have somebody up there you really trust and can understand what you want to see.”

It probably hasn’t been talked about enough, but Gundy really has played a much bigger role for this offense over the past two seasons.

Gundy told me a couple of years ago, after taking over this new role for Riley, that he does have aspirations of being a head coach. This position really could help Gundy move up in the coaching ranks, either at OU if Riley wants to hand over the keys to the offense, or another Power 5 school.

“Yeah, it (has),” answered Riley when asked if Gundy’s position has helped coaches move on in the profession. “(It's) something Dana (Holgorsen) did for years at Tech, then when he left I did that. No doubt, it’s a difficult thing to do. It’s a critical role.”

What makes Gundy’s job so critical and why does it produce offensive coordinators?

“You don’t get do-overs up there. You sit in the film room and watch it and miss something, you rewind it and watch something again. You don’t get that when you’re up there,” said Riley. “They’ve got to be on top of their stuff. They’ve got to have a good overall understanding of what we’re seeing defensively and relay the information quickly.”

It's safe to say Gundy hasn't gotten enough credit for his contributions to the offense and how good it's been over the past two seasons.

GUNDY’S EYES ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES FOR THE OFFENSE

Lincoln Riley isn’t the only one getting feedback from the pressbox on gamedays. Bill Bedenbaugh holds the official title of co-offensive coordinator. And he also has his own set of eyes to help him make offensive line calls during a game.

Talking with Bedenbaugh, it’s sounds like quite a delicate ballet in the middle of football chaos.

“I have a guy, an assistant with me that’s up there telling me what’s going on. I’m not even on there with Cale and them,” explained Bedenbaugh. “I’m on my own stuff.”

Bedenbaugh’s guy in the pressbox is offensive graduate assistant Brian Lepak. Before that, Bedenbaugh used graduate assistants Ryan Allgood and Jon Cooper.

“I’m on with him, obviously getting the play and what the play is and then we’re talking fronts and all that stuff,” said Bedenbaugh of his gameday communications work. “I talk to Lincoln and we may flip over every now and then but I talk to Lincoln in between series. If it’s a long drive then I may go say something to him: Hey, let’s do this. But other than that, he’s calling plays and talking to Cale.

NO OFFICIAL SCRIMMAGE JUST YET IN PRESEASON CAMP

Lincoln Riley’s first question Monday following practice was how his scrimmage went Saturday. The Sooners practiced indoors due to rain throughout most of the weekend.

“Well, we haven’t scrimmaged yet. Sorry,” answered Riley. “We got in there, we did a little bit more ‘team’ than we normally do, but we didn’t go live yet. In the indoor, we try to keep ‘em up. So we’ll save that for the grass.”

As for Saturday’s non-scrimmage, Riley gave his take on what he saw and what the team got accomplished.

“We didn’t do much individual, didn’t do much drill work, we got to ‘team’ pretty quick,” he said. “We did a lot of ‘team’ snaps. Had some Big 12 officials in here, which was good, but it’s obviously different when you go live.

“It was good, we worked good. The defense easily had the upper-hand that day, but it’s been a lot of back-and-forth other than that.”