Lincoln Riley says changes are coming to OU this week — but that's to be expected
Lincoln Riley expects changes to Oklahoma’s football practices this week.
And that, he said, would be perfectly normal.
The Sooners’ missed tackles last week in a 37-30 loss at Iowa State piled up so high, they have to be addressed in practice. Presumably, that means more live tackling this week going into Saturday’s showdown with Texas.
“We’ve always adjusted our practices to things we need to work on,” Riley said on Monday. “Does it mean there’s a whole different practice schedule? No. But certainly, yeah, if you’re having trouble picking up blitzes, then every team in the country is gonna work on blitz pickup. If you’re having trouble tackling, then every team in the country is gonna tackle more. We’re certainly not different from that. We’ll certainly adjust to the areas that we need it.
“But is there gonna be some wholesale change to what we do or the way we go about our business? No. We know what we do works. We’re not gonna let the results of a few games change an overall philosophy here that’s been wildly successful.”
OU suffered fourth-quarter meltdowns in each of its first two Big 12 Conference games, and thus started 0-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since 1998.
If the Sooners are going to avoid their first 1-3 start since 1965, they’re going to have to tackle much better against Texas.
“We’ve just got to all do a better job of doing what we do,” Riley said, “and I think that’s the bottom line.”
Riley said there were easy-to-find common threads in both the loss to Kansas State and the loss to Iowa State.
But he cautioned against oversimplifying things. Football is a complex game and should be regarded as such.
“I think the majority of it for us is, I don’t want to say simple things, because nothing is completely simple in this game,” he said. “But I just think it’s a lot of things we have to improve on as a team. It’s like we told our guys, for the issues that we’ve had, there’s no magic pill. … There’s no this or that. It’s just about work. It’s about finding the issues that we have, things that have held us back, address them within your work and off you go.”
“I think the one common thread, we played just an overall poor fourth quarter against Kansas State; we played the second half of the fourth quarter poorly against Iowa State. But obviously we made some mistakes in the fourth that we haven’t made the rest of these games. And so that’s got to get adjusted, and that’s something that I’ve got to do a better job with, and will.
“And I think a lot of it, looking at it, is guys trying to do a little too much and wanting to win so bad that they feel like they’ve got to do something super human as opposed to just doing your job, keep trusting what you’ve been coached to do and that’ll make the difference in the end.”
Riley said it’s to be expected when young players make mistakes. But the fan base’s frustration is mounting as older, more experienced players are struggling mightily.
“We’ve got some young guys in key positions that have made a few of those mistakes, and then frankly, we’ve had a couple of older guys that have played a lot of ball for us that have made some of the same mistakes, too,” Riley said. “You halfway understand it with the young guys. Our guys that have played a lot of ball and have been in a lot of big moments and championship games and big fourth quarters and (made) plays with games on the line and all that, those are the guys, especially, that we need to lead the way and kind of set the tone with this team as far as our players are concerned.”
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