No drama whatsoever. There are times when Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley is asked about the health status of a player, it’s a bit of reading between the lines.
With Bedlam vs. Oklahoma State happening Saturday and the way OU’s game ended vs. Kansas, you knew the health of quarterback Spencer Rattler was going to be addressed.
Riley wasn’t playing around. Rattler is healthy. After taking the shot in the hip on the touchdown run in the second quarter, there were questions.
“He’s a hundred percent,” said Riley during the Tuesday afternoon Zoom call.
He’s healthy, and Riley isn’t worried about how ready he is. It has been reiterated repeatedly throughout this season, and Riley said it again Tuesday about how each experience for Rattler is a new one and one to build upon.
It was that way for his first conference game, his first Red River Rivalry, bouncing back after a loss, all that. Each game presents its own challenge.
Bedlam won’t be any different in Riley’s eyes.
“I think he's learned, he'll get into some new situations, some different situations here Saturday night,” Riley said. “And hopefully the experience he's had through this year and some of the situations he's already been in.
“He can draw back, which, I think for him, is to continue to trust doing his job, to trust his teammates and not make any more of it than what it is. He's done a good job of that the last several weeks and we'll need that to continue here in this last stretch.”
Riley gave an update on tight end Austin Stogner on Monday, saying he was still sore and added the bye week should have definitely helped him.
Bridges can be a Wallace clone?
OSU presents a number of offensive challenges, when you start talking the trio of quarterback Spencer Sanders, running back Chuba Hubbard and wide receiver Tylan Wallace.
OU has been able to contain, not stop, but contain Hubbard so far. But Wallace? He’s just a different breed. For OU to get ready for him, the Sooners are turning toward a familiar name – Trejan Bridges.
With nothing cleared up about his suspension, it sounds like Bridges will be handling the role of Wallace for scout team this week.
“Can you carbon copy a guy? His strengths, weaknesses, all that... Tylan doesn’t have very many weaknesses,” Riley said. “As far as skill set, the guy we have that’s most like him, he and Trejan Bridges, their games are very, very similar, remarkably similar in my opinion.
“Our guys get to go up against good receivers, but Tylan is tremendous. He does some things very, very well that are difficult to defend. I’m glad our guys get to go up against good receivers, but it’s going to matter what they do on Saturday night. We’ve got a lot of respect for him. Tremendous player. Certainly, we have a lot of respect for the challenge of trying to contain him.”
OU feeling OK about COVID protocols
Everybody remembers the first game vs. Missouri State and not having a clue about whether it was actually going to happen.
COVID-19 had struck OU in a huge way. The virus and contact tracing had the Sooners on the border of having to cancel that one.
Ever since? Eh, not too shabby. OU has only really had two prominent players out because of COVID-related circumstances in the last month in wide receiver Charleston Rambo and safety Delarrin Turner-Yell and both were back for the KU game.
So as games get canceled across the country, Riley isn’t afraid to say he feels his program has done a lot of things right during this unprecedented uncertain time.
“We’ve done pretty good as a program. We have. I need to knock on wood,” Riley said. “Like I’ve said all year, you’re one test away from your perspective changing. But we’ve had a stretch here since the first three games that rocked us pretty good and since then, we’ve been able to steady the ship a little bit on the COVID side of it. That’s been a positive.
“It hasn’t -- for us in the last several weeks, has not had a huge impact. We’re kind of living day to day. We’ve got to keep our guard up and keep doing the best we can.”
In other words, get ready for Bedlam on Saturday night.
