If you really want to know things are back to normal, this is the week for you. No diminished capacity for the Red River Showdown between Oklahoma and Texas is going to be a welcomed sight for everybody involved.

Add in OU being undefeated and ranked No. 6 and Texas looking like a different team with Casey Thompson at quarterback and College Game Day at the Cotton Bowl, it’s shaping up to be a memorable weekend.

“We say it every year but I think it can’t go underappreciated,” said head coach Lincoln Riley during his weekly Tuesday press conference. “The best parts of this job is to get to coach, play and compete in this game. No question about it. It’s one anytime that you’re a player and you decide to come to Oklahoma, and if you’re a staff member and you’re lucky enough to get to come work here, it’s one of the first things to cross your mind.

“When Bob hired me seven years ago, when he called me and told me he was gonna offer me the job, one of the first things that crossed my mind was I get to coach in this game. Don’t take it for granted ever.”

All the pageantry aside, it should be one competitive football game with Texas – let’s not say is back – but let’s say the Longhorns look a lot different and improved with the one-two punch of Thompson and running back Bijan Robinson.

Thompson and the OU story are well-known at this point. Riley recruited Thompson heavily when Thompson was at Southmoore before the two sides went their separate ways.

No bad blood, but yea, no wishing success, either.

“Casey has done a great job. Obviously, we know that family very well, their history here, their history in this area,” Riley said. “Knew Casey pretty well growing up through high school. Had a great relationship, really enjoyed the kid. Really fun getting to know him.

“I don’t wish him success on Saturday. We’re going to get out there and compete against each other. But I’m happy for him. I’m glad he’s having success. And I’m not surprised.”

But maybe the key is Robinson. After being used in odd ways as a freshman, he is taking advantage of the numerous chances he has received in the first games.

As a runner, as a receiver coming out of the backfield, Robinson is asserting himself as one of the best backs in college football as just a sophomore.

“Bijan is a terrific player,” Riley said. “You watch him play and he does so many things well. He catches the ball well for them. He has big-play ability. He has really nice balance, acceleration and feel for the schemes they’re running. He’s a complete player and he’s playing at high level. They’re putting it in his hands a lot and he’s produced.”

‘Great groups don’t have those’

You can use the one-week evaluation of OU’s offensive line and come away very pleased with how the group fared at Kansas State.

That almost looked like a vintage OU offensive performance. But there’s still that hiccup or two. For this group? It was the penalties, seven penalties committed by the line. The offense managed to survive most of the damage, but it’s not something you want to try to duplicate down the road.

“It was good but great groups don’t have those,” Riley said. “We can play at a higher level. We can do it without the penalties. If we have an aggressive one here and there, we will. We’ve got to do a much better job with penalties. But as far as between the whistles, the way we played, physicality, guys doing their job, it was a much, much better effort against a good Kansas State group.”

OU played basically six guys in Manhattan, with Wanya Morris and Anton Harrison going back and forth at left tackle.

Injury update (sort of)

There are times when most feel Riley is being coy when it comes injury reports, but there are some guys where it legitimately feels like Tuesday afternoon is not going to be when it’s known whether they can play or not.

“We hope to get some guys back. But I don’t know that there’s anything definitive I can give you right now,” Riley said. “We’ve got a chance to. But we’re going to have to be ready. If it’s the unit we had for Kansas State, then that’s it. If we get some guys back, that’s great. Couple guys progressing but not ready to make any definitive announcements yet.”

SoonerScoop.com believes Woodi Washington will not be ready, but it is up in the air for safety Delarrin Turner-Yell, linebacker Danny Stutsman, defensive linemen Isaiah Coe and Jalen Redmond.

The Sooners would love to get all four back, but even getting one or two in the fold again would be huge on what should be another scorching hot day in Dallas.

Valuing practice again

If the first talk of OU’s win at KSU was the performance of quarterback Spencer Rattler, then not too far behind it was the frustration with the defensive outing.

It just wasn’t clean, and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch voiced his displeasure often in the postgame press conference.

Riley had no issues with it.

“I think our standards here are so, so high that when they’re not met, we’re going to point them out,” Riley said. “I think for us, specifically talking defensively, our expectations are to play at an elite level. To do that, I think you’ve got to constantly have an appreciation for how hard it is to play elite football. Even if you know the scheme and you’re a talented player and you’ve trained all summer and you’ve done the work and you’ve done this stunt or this pass coverage or this blitz a thousand times, if you don’t prepare at an elite level the days of that week and then play at an elite level on Saturday, it doesn’t matter. I mean it doesn’t matter.

“And you have to do all those things leading up to it just to give yourself a chance and then you have to put everything out there throughout the week to get ready to play at the level we expect. It can be just a little bit off, but a little bit off shows up against good opponents or big games or big moments. So going back and looking at it, did we prepare bad? No, I wouldn’t say we prepared bad. But was it at the level we expect defensively? No, it wasn’t. Did we play awful? We didn’t play awful. But did we play at the level we expect, certainly not.

“I think it’s just being real with our guys. If they do well, we’re going to tell them we did well. If they didn’t do well, if it wasn’t up to our standard, we believe in being very upfront and blunt and honest with our guys and I think that’s an example of coach Grinch doing that with our defensive players.”