HOLLYWOOD, FLA -- A second straight season. A second straight loss to an SEC power in the College Football Playoff National Semifinal.
While some fans look at the last two seasons as the Sooners blowing their best chances to win a national title behind two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks, Lincoln Riley looks at the last two seasons as the beginning of something even bigger to come.
“If anything, last night just makes me hungrier,” said Riley Sunday morning. “We've gotten a lot done here. You don't sit there and say we didn't get done. We got a lot done but we know there's a little more left to get done. I feel like we're about to do it. It just makes me even hungrier to keep going what we've got going here.”
Even before the Sooners took on Georgia in the Rose Bowl a season ago, he’d already reinvigorated OU’s recruiting efforts. Bob Stoops handed over the keys of a multi-million dollar office renovation to Riley and he hasn’t slowed down and the OU program hasn’t taken a step back.
You can argue the past two seasons have only made the Crimson and Cream an even bluer blueblood.
“Right now, you've been consistently here for the last four years one of the top three programs, consistently,” said Riley of his program’s status. “We'll probably finish in the top-three here again. You're right there, and we've been right there in these last two playoff games. It really felt like in that third quarter, like one more play and we were gonna bust it open. That's how it felt to me there at the end of the third quarter. I thought once Rambo scored that, I was pretty sure we were gonna win the game.”
The Sooners didn’t. And now they must rebuild the defensive side of the football
But make no mistake, this Sooner train isn’t slowing down.
Riley might be a few days away from raking in a record haul of five star recruits next season.
Just as Clemson had to fight its way through the best in the country to become the only other program on par with Alabama, the Sooners are in the process of doing that now.
Riley says he’ll be along for the ride back to the top for the Sooners, regardless of any overtures being made by the NFL.
“I don't see that as a step up, not in this profession,” Riley said. “It's not a burning desire of mine by any stretch right now. Not even close. It doesn't even compare to my burning desire to win a national championship here.”
How will Riley get that done? By continuing to build on what the athletic department has been doing. Improving facilities, celebrating their partnership with Jordan Brand, continuing to recruit at this level on a consistent basis.
“I just think the brand is good. I feel like we've started to… we kinda started out a few years ago saying, hey, we've gotta be more current. We've got to evolve. And I feel like a lot of that has happened. There's still more to happen, but it's now, to me, OU has become that historically great spot with all the tradition, all that, but it's also one of the pretty cool spots right now,” said Riley. “Which is a good mix. I think that's why we're recruiting the way we are and that's obviously I think one of the first places that you see it. A lot of people have invested to help get that done.”
Riley has plenty on his plate in fixing his defense. But he’s always a coach working on multiple things at any one time.
Right now the Sooners are on an upward climb in their perception. They’ve made the College Football Playoff 3 of the last 4 seasons. So they are having success on the field. They are recruiting better than they have since the mid 2000s. And they are not getting stale.
That’s a key for Riley moving forward.
“I think the biggest key is you just can’t get stagnant,” said Riley. “As long as we, like you said, you named all the things (facilities and Jordan Brown affiliation) that happened here in the last three or four years. Some of those things don’t just happen overnight. But you’ve got to keep doing that. You’ve got to keep evolving, you’ve got to keep pushing the envelope, and that’s a big part of my job, that’s a big part of Joe (Castiglione’s) job to continue to do that. And we’re both committed to doing it. We keep doing that I just don’t — it’s hard to do, but I don’t know what’s going to stop us.
You can’t deny the moves OU has made off the football field are paying dividends on the field.
Riley doesn’t think it will be long before this team takes the next step. He doesn’t see this team as hitting a wall. He’s sees them as ready to break through.
That was never more clear than moments after he lost to Alabama Saturday night.
“We're going to -- we've still got a bunch of Big 12 trophies,” Riley started in his postgame opening comments. “We're going to hold that tall skinny (national championship) one here in a couple years and we're going to hold it in a large part because of the fight from these seniors in this program, all the players, the staff.
“We've had some really good teams here the last four years, but I don't know that we've ever had a team, and I just told them that in the locker room, that has had the fight in them that this team has, and that's going to do wonders for our program. That's going to make us a better program, what this team this did year. “
