Lincoln Log: Other notes from Riley’s presser
Good perspective
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley is squirming over last week’s loss to Kansas State. That doesn’t mean he’s going to pound the table or shake his fist or groan about it. Or even raise his voice.
In fact, his body language at Tuesday’s press conference is a strong indicator that he’s trying to lead his team out of their K-State doldrums by example.
“You guys just bring that out in me,” he said with a smirk. “No, it’s been a hard week. These aren’t ever easy. They test you. I look forward to the challenge. Each deal is a challenge in it’s own way. I’d rather not have this challenge. But I look forward to it, our team looks forward to it, our players look forward to it. It’s what it is. It’s our reality right now. We have to deal with it. So no, it’s not all fun and smiles. It’s not fun at all.
“But the climb back up can be fun if we do it the right way. But we’re gonna have to really, really push and really grind, each and every one of us, to get that done.”
Getting defensive
After a year of remarkable improvement in 2019, the Oklahoma defense on Saturday looked a lot more like a pre-Alex Grinch version — 2017, say, or even 2018.
It’s nothing that can’t be “easily corrected,” Riley said.
“Our scheme, our coaches do a great job of making it simple to understand, even if it looks complex,” Riley said. “Most great schemes have that in common. We had a couple of mental errors.
“Now, listen, there are times you have mental errors that the guy doesn’t get there. We bust a coverage, but the quarterback doesn’t see it. Protection is not there to get to it or whatever. Obviously, it is more glaring on the outside when you get exposed. We have not been mistake-free. We’ve made some mistakes. Kansas State did a great job in the second half of making us pay. We didn’t make that many, but the ones we made were big one and they made us pay for it.”
Best in the Big 12
For most of the last three years, Iowa State has been the Big 12’s best defense — certainly the league’s most sound defense, the defense with the fewest missed tackles, the defense with the fewest coverage busts.
“They’ve done a great job defensively in this league for a long time,” Riley said. “They’ve got really gifted defensive coordinator (Jon Heacock) who does a great job. They’ve done a great job of adapting to the talent that they have.
“They’ve played in this three-man front with a lot of different drop-eight (into pass coverage) schemes for a long time. They’re really the standard in the country for teams that have done that. A lot of what you see in the Big 12, you’re starting to see leaking into other conferences. I’ve even started to see it a little bit more at the pro level. I think that stems from some of the things these guys are doing. They do a tremendous job.”
“They’re well coached,” said OU H-back Jeremiah Hall. “You guys see them. They play 3-3-5, very different compared to a traditional defense — and I’m not just speaking just for Iowa State or the conference, but I’m speaking just in college football or any type of football in general. They’re well coached, they know their defense and they stick to what their coaches tell them. They fly to the football and they’re pretty good at it.”
Setting the standard
It seems some teams — programs, coaches, what have you — don’t waiver from their principles, and so their results don’t vary much. Iowa State’s defense is one. TCU’s defense under Gary Patterson has historically been another. Like Lincoln Riley is always going to produce a prolific offense, those coaches are just always going to have a fearsome defenses.
It’s teams like that who keep a defensive standard, rather than just accepting the notion that Big 12 offenses are ahead in coaching, scheme and recruiting.
To say the standards of what should be considered good defense can change, Riley said, is “a little bit of an easy out for the defenses. I think there’s a lot of defenses in this league, including ours over the last couple years, that have played some really really good ball against some really good offenses. I’ve seen a lot of games where we’ve shut people down.
“And I’ve seen a lot of games where the TCUs and the Iowa States and the Kansas States, I mean, you name it — I think Baylor last year was tremendous defensively. So no, I think you’ve had a run where there’s been a lot of great players, a lot of great quarterbacks, great skill guys kind of across the board offensively, but no, I still see no reason why great defense can’t be played in the Big 12, and I think you see it.
“Now, on the flip side of it is, you know, I do see offensively in this league — and have for a long time — there’s there’s not any easy outs, maybe as much as there is in some other leagues. So you gotta bring it every week in this league or you will get exposed.”
O-line wasn’t a disaster
Upon further review, Riley said the Oklahoma run game wasn’t as bad as it looked on Saturday. And, he said, it wasn’t as bad as it was two weeks earlier.
“I thought we fit the run game much better than we did in the first game against Missouri State,” he said. “I thought that was a big key. I thought several of the guys individually played quite a bit better than what they did (in the opener). As far as the negative, I think the penalties. A couple of times, we got out of the pocket and put our guys in tough positions, but we got a couple of just unnecessary holding penalties that all seemed to be on pretty big plays, especially on Spencer’s long scramble there at the end.
“And then a couple of times, we got beat in one-on-one pass pro there in the last couple of drives where we absolutely expect to be better. So I thought improved. It was good to play a couple of other guys that I think are going to be contributors for us as the year goes on, and I think we’ve got more competition in that room. You know us. We’ve got a pretty high expectation of that group. They were good but we need them to be better.”
On Rhamondre Stevenson
Junior T.J. Pledger was asked how fellow running back Rhamondre Stevenson is handling his ongoing suspension.
“You know, me and Rhamondre have become very close,” Pledger said. “He does his best to stay motivated. He comes out to practice every day, working hard, and he understands that his time will come. And he’s being patient, keeping the faith. I can’t wait for him to come back. He’ll be ready.”
Chiral opposites
After starting the opener at left tackle, Adrian Ealy was back at his usual right tackle spot Saturday. O-line coach Bill Bedenbaugh said Ealy is more natural on the right side, but Ealy switching is no big deal.
“I don’t look at left and right being so different,” he said. “It’s just opposite. All I have to do is it’s a different way I sit. I enjoyed it. I enjoy playing left. I enjoy playing right. I enjoy being able to play two different positions to help this team out. Any way I can help this team out, I’m glad for it.
“Was I happy to go back to right? Yes, I was, because I was so used to playing that last year. I just feel comfortable. Whatever Coach B, Coach Riley, this team needs me to play, that’s what I’m going to do.”
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