Will Lincoln Riley's Play Calling Be Even More Conservative This Year for OU?
A disturbing trend continued for the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday.
The most popular criticism about Lincoln Riley throughout his time in Norman has been that his teams take their foot off the gas too soon, and that he becomes too conservative a play caller in the second half.
Those concerns reared their ugly head once again in OU’s season opener against Tulane, where the No. 2-ranked Sooners held on for dear life to escape 40-35 victors in a game that Oklahoma led 37-14 at the half.
Only putting three points on the board over the final 30 minutes, Riley’s offense looked disjointed throughout the second half as the Green Wave staged their comeback.
Spencer Rattler could only muster 118 yards of total offense in the second half on Saturday, as OU struggled to move the ball on the ground.
Unfortunately, for those who feel Riley has been too conservative in the second half over the years, 2021 may skew Riley’s decision making even further to playing things on the safe side.
Last year Riley proved he was more than happy at times to play field position once the Sooner defense proved they could hold their own.
If the defense can learn from their errors in Game 1 and play up to the levels expected of them this season, there is no reason why Riley wouldn’t continue to put his faith in them and play field position.
In fact, the Sooners actually upgraded one of their biggest weapons in the field position battle when they acquired punter Michael Turk from Arizona State out of the transfer portal. OU can do an even better job of flipping the field with Turk punting the football — all the more reason for Riley to lean on his defense when the game is on the line.
But even if the Oklahoma offense crosses the 50-yard-line, the Sooners have a very different weapon at their disposal.
Gabe Brkic might be the best college kicker in the country, and he put on a show against the Tulane Green Wave. Knocking through three field goals from greater than 50 yards, Brkic tied an NCAA record for kicks from beyond 50 in a single game.
“(Brkic is) a great weapon,” sophomore wide receiver Marvin Mims said after the game on Saturday. “We've just gotta cross the 40-yard line and he can put it in there for us, which is a huge, huge weapon and he'll be good for us all year.”
As a result, it’s less likely Riley will ask his offense to force the issue, relying on the kicking game to continue to tack points on the board.
OU only kept Rattler and the offense on the field on a fourth down three times against Tulane, but the one time the Sooners failed to convert for the first down, Riley second guessed himself immediately after the game was over.
“We had some opportunities to make some plays and didn’t make enough of them there to separate,” Riley said after the game. “Had some dumb coaching decisions, especially mine to go for it there when we were backed up on that fourth-and-1.
“Just a really poor decision by me.”
And if all of that wasn’t enough for Riley to recede back into his shell, the Sooners have virtually no running back depth.
Behind Eric Gray and Kennedy Brooks are a pair of walk-ons who Riley didn’t trust enough to give a single carry in the the season opener.
All year long, Riley will have to balance the needs of the offense with risking injuries to either of his star running backs, which led to OU trying various different ways to manufacture rushing yards on Saturday.
The best that the offense looked on the ground all day ended up being across the final two drives when Riley was forced into bringing Brooks back into the fray to kill off the game. Time will tell if Riley is willing to give Brooks a more normal work load this season, but it’s unlikely the risk-averse head coach will call on Brooks to be a true bell cow outside of the handful of big-time matchups on Oklahoma’s schedule.
While one lackluster performance won’t disqualify the Sooners from the National Championship hunt, it could have tipped fans off that Riley could be as conservative as ever calling plays in 2021.
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