🏈 'The focus and edge wasn’t there'
🏈 'The focus and edge wasn’t there'
Lincoln Riley discusses OU's miserable second half against Tulane and more
✌🏽Happy Wednesday, friends. Let’s ride.
🤔 Trivia: When was the last time OU lost a game to a ranked opponent on the road?
[Answer in the footnotes]
🗣 Tuesday takeaways
If you missed OU coach Lincoln Riley’s Tuesday news conference, here are the highlights:
Lincoln Riley spoke at length about OU’s puzzling second-half performance against Tulane, stating their effort and focus were off.
He also talked specifically about quarterback Spencer Rattler’s shortcomings in the final two quarters, which didn’t produce any OU touchdowns. Riley’s words:[Rattler] just mentally wasn’t quite as sharp. The whole group was pretty symptomatic of the same thing. Just again, the focus and edge wasn’t there. And at times, I think for him, it turned into frustration, kinda wanting to will the guys and push them.
Riley on freshman receiver Mario Williams: “He’s got a confidence about himself. You can tell he knows that he belongs out there.” Williams caught Rattler’s lone touchdown pass against the Green Wave.
Running backs Eric Gray and Kennedy Brooks will continue to split time and serve as de facto co-starters. Gray only had 27 rushing yards to Brooks’ 87 against Tulane, but don’t expect OU, with two scholarship running backs, to heavily favor one back over the other. Load management is key here.
Offensive line talk! Riley thought OU’s pass protection was “excellent.” He called out right tackle Tyrese Robinson and center Robert Congel as OU’s two best performers along the offensive line. He also was complimentary of right guard Chris Murray, despite drawing two false-start penalties. One more thing, Riley said reserve tackle Wanya Morris is “on the edge” of becoming a guy that should see the field.
OU played 31 players on defense and that was the plan, according to Riley. The team had been preparing in practice to rotate often, but as the season goes on, expect the number of players in the rotation to decrease.
Extra point: OU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, who followed Riley at the podium, had this to say about Saturday’s 40-35 win:
I was disappointed in our effort. I thought it was OK. It’s not OK to be OK here. And we played 31 guys, which I like to be proud of, but we don’t play 31 guys so that you get more rest. We play 31 guys so we can get your absolute best. And I don’t think we got that across the board, which is a reflection of myself, in particular, and the defensive staff.
It’s clear OU’s coaches are trying to stay accountable and not shying from the fact that the Sooners did not play well.
🐍 About Rattler…
As I mentioned above, Riley talked a lot about Rattler, who’s been the subject of plenty of scrutiny from fans and sports media over the last few days.
While I think some of it is justified, it’s also OK to think Rattler will be just fine. It’s a long season, and he’s bounced back from a start like this before.
My column that attempts to put Rattler’s struggles into perspective and why it’s not quite time to hit the panic button. [👉🏽 Click here to read]
🤔 Missed call?
It was easy to miss watching on television, but it appears Saturday’s officials missed a targeting call on Tulane.
OU running back Eric Gray was on the receiving end of the questionable hit, which coach Lincoln Riley has requested clarification on.
👉🏽 Click here to watch the play.
Why this matters: It doesn’t change the result of the game (and OU obviously won), but it’s important the officials are kept accountable on targeting, because we are eight years into this rule, and it still feels unclear of when it will and won’t be enforced.
📉 OU falls to No. 4
The Sooners dropped from No. 2 to No. 4 in the latest Associated Press Top 25.
Ahead of OU: No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Georgia and No. 3 Ohio State. [👉🏽 Click here for the full poll]
Does this matter?: No.
So why did you tell us?: Because while OU is getting a lot of heat for its play on Saturday, it was a ROUGH week around college football
and I’m not shocked to see the voters went easy on OU.Anything else?: OU was ranked as high as No. 2 on two ballots and as low as No. 8 on one ballot.
👀 Eyes elsewhere
Just call him, First Ballot Bob. Legendary OU coach Bob Stoops has been selected to 2021's College Football Hall of Fame class. This is Stoops’ first year of eligibility to be inducted. [👉🏽 Click here to read more]
Mark Andrews got PAID. The former OU tight end
is set to make $56 million over the next four years. BaltimoreRavens.com’s Clifton Brown writes about Andrews’ plans to take another big step in 2021. [👉🏽 Click here to read.]
TCU in 2014. The Frogs were ranked No. 25 and beat the fourth-ranked Sooners 33-27. (I only thought of this because of LSU’s loss to UCLA in Pasadena, and I legitimately couldn’t for the life of me remember the last time OU went on the road and fell to a top-25 opponent.)
Not great!
One other thing: Riley made it clear OU’s offensive line is far from set in stone. That isn’t really all that revelatory but it’s nice that he said it.
Hopefully, I’m not writing this sentence in eight years.
SOUND THE ALARMS!
Looking at you Clemson, Iowa State, LSU and the entire Pac-12 North
I recently stumbled upon a photo in my camera roll that I tweeted back in 2017 of Mark Andrews and Grant Calcaterra in New York for Baker Mayfield’s Heisman Trophy ceremony. So odd to think four years later, Andrews is one of the highest paid tight ends in the NFL and Calcaterra is tearing it up at SMU.