✌🏽 Happy Wednesday, friends. Let’s ride.

🤔 Trivia: What was the final score of Oklahoma's 2017 game against Kansas, which included Baker Mayfield grabbing his crotch while yelling at the KU sideline? [Answer in footnotes]

😴 No rest for Sooners

Oklahoma has played seven consecutive weekends to open the 2021 season and will play two more contest before enjoying its first off week of the season on Nov. 6.

Post-2000, the Sooners’ nine-game gauntlet is the longest stretch OU has played consecutively to start a season. So, what are OU’s coaches doing to combat this huge span with no breaks?

Riley’s words: “A ton. Yeah, a lot. … A lot of people think the plan is just what plays or what defenses or what special teams calls that you make during a game. It’s just doing everything you can to get a team as possibly ready to play, and so we’ve tried to be aware of that.

“There’s always a fine line between the reps you need on the field, but also they need to be fresh and ready to go on Saturday, and especially this week with an early kick. So, we definitely talk about it. It’s kind of all part of the bigger plan that we lay out at the beginning of the week and stick to it, adjust as if needed and just trust our feel. … The guys have got to take it and run with it. That’s the only way they work.”

Injuries have caught up to the Sooners, who are without receiver Theo Wease, cornerback Woodi Washington, safety Delarrin Turner-Yell and defensive lineman Jalen Redmond to name a few.

Riley didn’t give anything specific on when they’d all be back, but he offered this today: “There’s going to be a lot of kind of maybes, kind of wait-and-see right now throughout this week. We’ll see who all’s available for the end of the week. Hope to have a few guys that got nicked up during the game, and then certainly hope to have potentially a few guys back that haven’t been able to play for us here for a while.”

🌴 Secondary issues

Oklahoma’s defensive backs have been challenged plenty the last few weeks.

Skylar Thompson, Casey Thompson and Max Duggan have put up big numbers against an inexperienced OU secondary. The Sooners are hoping to eventually get starting cornerbacks Woodi Washington and DJ Graham, as well as safety Delarrin Turner-Yell, back from injury.

Oklahoma ranks last in the Big 12 in pass defense, allowing a league-high 277.3 yards passing per game and 16 passing touchdowns.

Kansas shouldn’t be able to throw the ball well enough to actually make Saturday a competitive game. But here’s Riley on a young OU secondary that’s trying to figure everything out before a tough November arrives.

Riley’s words: “I think they’ve held the fort down quite [well], especially considering those guys that are playing right now are also pretty involved on our special teams. And so, we’ll obviously hope to supplement them as we go on, but they’ve done a pretty nice job with the inexperience and just all these reps being thrown on them.”

🏆 OL honors

Oklahoma’s offensive line was named to the Joe Moore Award’s midseason honor roll.

The Joe Moore Award is annually presented to the team with the country’s best offensive line. The Sooners won the honor in 2018.

Perhaps Oklahoma’s 2021 offensive line isn’t as bad as its perception this season would indicate?

There’s no denying the Sooners’ offensive line has struggled this season, but it’s a group that’s gotten better week-by-week and has found a groove since October started.

OU’s offense is running the ball better than they were a month ago, and Caleb Williams’ athleticism has eased some of the load on OU’s pass-blocking.

The other schools up for the award: Air Force, Alabama, Appalachian State, Arkansas, Baylor, BYU, Coastal Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Oregon State, San Diego State, Tennessee and UCLA. 

Riley on the OU offensive line’s performance against TCU: “Probably the best game we’ve played and did it with a few different lineups, which was really good. Especially [Erik] Swenson, who came in and played fantastic.”

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⏰ On this day

Thirty-seven years ago today, No. 2 Oklahoma escaped Ames with a 12-10 win over Iowa State. The Sooners, coming off of a 15-15 tie against Texas the week prior, scored a touchdown with less than four minutes remaining to secure the win over the Cyclones.