Lincoln Log: Other highlights from Riley's press conference

Good to go

It wasn’t unexpected that Oklahoma Spencer Rattler has no issues for this week’s game against Oklahoma State. After getting dinged up on a short touchdown run two weeks ago versus Kansas, Rattler returned to play two series in the second half before retiring to the sideline with a big lead.

Still, it’s always worth asking the head coach how his star quarterback has been since the injury and if he’s 100 percent for the upcoming rivalry game, isn’t it?

“He’s a hundred percent,” OU coach Lincoln Riley said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Riley did say Monday that tight end Austin Stogner was still “sore last week, but making improvements” after taking a hit to the knees against KU.

Building Bridges

Riley was asked Tuesday if OU’s defensive backs can prepare for the likes of All-American candidate Tylan Wallace by working against the Sooner receivers. His answer was blunt on several fronts.

“Our players are used to going against good receivers,” Riley said. “I don’t know that anybody is exactly like (Wallace) … Can you carbon copy a guy? His strengths, weaknesses, all that? Tylan doesn’t have very many weaknesses.”

Wallace caught 10 passes for 220 yards and two touchdowns against the Sooners in 2018.

“As far as skill set, the guy we have that’s most like him, he and Trejan Bridges — their games are very, 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.”

OSU Triplets

Wallace may be the most dynamic Cowboy on offense — or, maybe he’s tied. OSU also brings to Norman 2,000-yard rusher Chuba Hubbard and dual-threat quarterback Spencer Sanders. Riley knows Oklahoma’s defense needs to be sharp.

“Those guys are really, really good players. They are all dynamic,” Riley said. “I think where they present problems is all those three guys can all win. The only way you can get a lot of people around all of them is have 13-14 players out there, and I don’t think they will let us do that.

“It’s tough. It’s a tough matchup. Tylan coming back (from an ACL injury last year), is obviously one of the best receivers in the country. Chuba, making the decision to come back (rather than leave for the NFL Draft), is absolutely one of the best running backs in the country. The talent that Spencer Sanders is and how he’s matured and grown, he’s made a lot of big plays in big games for them.

“That trio is as talented and as good as anybody in the country. It will be a big challenge for us. It’s not atypical of this game. There are certainly a lot of challenges and you are going to go and get in one-on-one situations with all three of them at some point in the game and you have to win those. That’s the situation that they put you in.”

Receiver "core"

In recent history, Oklahoma’s best receivers don’t always make big plays against the Cowboys. It didn’t happen last year (CeeDee Lamb caught only four passes for 36 yards in the Bedlam game).

In 2018, Marquise Brown caught eight for 142 with a 51-yard touchdown, and the year before that, Brown caught nine for 265 and two scores, including an 84-yarder.

In 2016, Dede Westbrook caught four for 111 with a 69-yard TD.

Sterling Shepard led OU with 10 catches in 2015, but for only 87 yards as Baker Mayfield’s longest pass covered just 26 yards.

So far this year, OU has been largely receiver-by-committee. Theo Wease heads the team with 26 catches for 361 yards but hasn’t scored. Marvin Mims leads the team with 418 yards on 25 catches with seven TDs. Austin Stogner also has 25 catches for 410 yards and three TDs. And Charleston Rambo has 19 catches for 236 yards and two scores.

Who will lead the Sooners in the 2020 Bedlam game? And will it be just another decent performance, or will somebody blow up with a monster effort?

“I feel good about the guys we have,” Riley said. “They’ve made a lot of plays. I think we’re getting better quickly, those guys included. You’d like to line up with 11 hall of famers, but the nature of the beast is each year, you have what you have. I like what we have. I think we’re in the process of turning a lot of that talent — a lot of guys that are flashing and doing a lot of good things — turning into consistent and really elite players. So I like the progression we’re on, like the guys we have. I think they’ll be ready for their opportunity Saturday night.”

Bedlam history

Lincoln Riley has been head coach for three Bedlam showdowns, and was offensive coordinator for two. He’s 5-0, and the average score in those five games: 48-32.

Four of Riley’s five Bedlam games, both teams were ranked. This year makes five out of six. OU was the higher-ranked team all four times. This year, the Sooners are ranked 18th, while the Cowboys are 14th.

Oklahoma is on a five-year Big 12 championship streak, of course. But three of those years, the Bedlam winner either won the league title or got the inside track.

“This game has always been competitive, it’s always been important, throughout every single one that I’ve been involved in — maybe the most influential game in the Big 12 those seasons, just about every one of them,” Riley said. “The quality of ball’s been good, been a lot of great players, a lot of them that are making plays on Sundays — from both sides — that have been part of it. It’s been fun.

“I think Oklahoma State, in my earlier years in the Big 12, when I was at Texas Tech, was really starting to take off, really starting to get better, really improve. They’ve got the — obviously, the different financial gifts that made a huge difference in their facilities and started to get some really good players.

“And then my years at East Carolina were some of their best years. And obviously, I kept up with them more throughout that time, even though we weren’t competing against them, with Dana being over there (in 2011) and a couple other guys that I’m good friends with in the coaching fraternity.

“So yeah, I think as far as the rivalry itself, I think I obviously studied it, watched it all those years that I was in the Big 12 and you could see — you obviously knew the power that OU was, and you could see Oklahoma State was really up and coming.

“Feel fortunate that we’ve been able to come out on the upper hand. But that’s not going to mean anything at 6:30 Saturday. It’s going to take all we’ve got to play at the level we expect to play.”

COVID update

OU announced its latest COVID-19 testing data on Monday, and among student-athletes and staff for the past week, 576 tests were administered, and 10 results came back positive. There are curly 20 active cases among student-athletes and three among staff. After climbing from 1 percent positivity rate to 4 percent the week before, last week’s number dipped to 2 percent.

Riley said Monday this thing was far from over and expressed concerns about delaying the postseason.

“We’ve done pretty good as a program. We have,” he said Monday. “I need to knock on wood. 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.”

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