Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley was back addressing the media following the bye week. Here are the biggest takeaways from the 30-minute press conference.
Game No. 9: vs. Iowa State (7 p.m., FOX)
Take No. 1: No playoff talk… for now
It’s November. It’s championship November, and it also means it’s time for the college football playoff rankings to make their debut.
They will do just that Tuesday evening. OU has never been undefeated when the initial rankings have been released, so clearly the Sooners know what will need to be done.
But that’s not their concern.
“Zero. Just win,” said Riley about how much attention he’ll pay. “You win games, you get a chance to win your league, you win this league then things take care of themselves. We’ve seen that as much as anybody over the last few years. We’ve got a lot of great opportunities coming up.
“We’ve got to take care of ourselves right now and try to win every single game we possibly can. After that, it’s out of our control. We’ve got just got to go win.”
It will be interesting just to gauge how the committee views OU among the many Power 5 one-loss teams at this juncture.
Take No. 2: Fresh running backs to pay off?
We all know Trey Sermon and Kennedy Brooks only had a combined six carries in OU’s loss at Kansas State. No point in harping on that. But could you perhaps twist that narrative to say this group will be ready for the November gauntlet that’s about to go down.
“It's a deep group, and now having T.J. back – we've been able to stay pretty healthy in there, too,” Riley said. “Like we've said, those guys are probably the freshest group of backs in the country going into this Championship November. And that's when you typically need those guys the most.”
The debate will keep going between the carries for the backs compared to the number for quarterback Jalen Hurts.
It’s tough to find the balance, and it’s tough for Riley to fault what Hurts has done so far.
“He’s done pretty well with it,” Riley said. “If he wasn’t, we wouldn’t keep giving him that option. There’s no doubt we want to give all of these skill players involved. I get that. But we are averaging almost 10 yards a play, so we’re doing some decent things too.”
Take No. 3: Takeaways have to happen
Switching to defense, and the emphasis goes back to takeaways. Or the lack of them when it comes to the Sooners.
OU has six in eight games and only one in five conference games. You’re just asking yourself to be too perfect too many times when you can’t figure that out.
They’re happening in practice, and yea, there are chances out there for big plays to be made. Just time to make them.
“I think that’s fair to say,” Riley said. “We take away the ball in practice, we do. I know it’s emphasized like crazy. We’ve got to settle in and be confident and go make those plays in the games. We’re giving ourselves opportunities. And I mean we’ve got to create more opportunities too, that’s coaching, playing, everything. We certainly have to create more opportunities. We’ve had guys play extremely well against us.
“I thought the Kansas State quarterback played a really, really good game. But even as good as he played he gave us some golden opportunities. You play good teams, especially teams at OU, you’re gonna get everybody’s best. You better be ready to make plays when you can.”
Plus one: Injury report
Bye week meant recovery week for guys like Grant Calcaterra and Delarrin Turner-Yell and a chance to gauge where guys like Caleb Kelly and Jordan Kelley stand as they continue to recover from ACL injuries suffered in the spring.
“Jordan and Caleb, they're both practicing full-go with us now,” Riley said. “It'll be just a week-to-week determination and kinda looking at it from two points of view. One, getting them ready to play. I said last week, being cleared and then being ready to play a lot of times are two different things, especially when you're coming off significant injuries like those two were. They've made a lot of progress. It's nice to know that they're available to help us and if we get to a point where they can step out on the field and make a difference, then we're certainly gonna play them.
“We know that we have the redshirt deal to play around with with Caleb. But we've gotta get to a point where he's confident, we're confident in him, but it's something we're aware of and having ongoing conversations about.
“Calcaterra, honestly, along with the other injured guys that we talked about last week, we're still in wait and see mode with those guys. I mean, the bye week, like any injured player, the bye week was good for them. There was some added time to rest, recover, rehab, all that for all of those guys, but we're gonna get all of them back this week, see how much they're progressed here through the weekend and make a determination later in the week.”
