Lincoln Riley: ‘We’re all still learning about our team’

While there has been a lot to like about Oklahoma so far this football season, on Saturday at Baylor, there was a lot not to like, and no one was more aware of that than head coach Lincoln Riley.

“We’ve got to do a lot of things better,” the first-year OU head coach told members of the media during his postgame interview session after the Baylor game in Saturday. “We’ve got to coach better, and we’ve got to play better…on all three sides of the ball (offense, defense and special teams).

“You’ve got to have perseverance,” Riley continued. “You can’t expect that every game is going to be a blowout. You’re going to have tight games like (this). This is a good conference and a good opponent.”

Riley said he knew that Baylor was going to be a tough game, despite its 0-3 start coming in. He wasn’t wrong, but there was no question in my view that the Sooner players took this game somewhat for granted and weren’t prepared for Baylor to respond and bounce back the way it did after Oklahoma’s opening offensive salvo.

Baylor failed to wilt and fought back from an 18-point deficit relatively early in the game with 21 unanswered points of its own to take a brief three-point lead in the third quarter.

“Winning is hard. You can’t take it for granted.” –OU head coach Lincoln Riley after Oklahoma’s surprisingly close win over Baylor

There was some question when Baylor took the lead whether the stunned Sooners might be down for the count. It was extremely warm and humid on the field (92 degrees at Kickoff), and the Oklahoma defense had been on the field for long periods and was beginning to show visible signs of fatigue.

“We were very excited about the win. That was probably the biggest message to our guys in the locker room (after the game),” Riley said. “Winning is hard. You can’t take it for granted, and we’re damn sure not too good to appreciate it.

“We’re still learning about our team. (We’re) playing a lot of new guys, a lot of different guys and coaching-wise trying to do a great job of putting them in the best position to make plays. So we’re a work in progress.”

They say if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. And the big takeaway from Saturday is that the Sooners have some work to do if they want to play better and avoid the mistakes that almost cost them the game against the struggling Baylor Bears.

“We’ve shown the ability around here to improve a lot as the seasons go on, and we’re confident we’re going to do that again,” Riley said.