Lincoln Riley: ‘The journey is just getting started’

Through six games, head coach Lincoln Riley has been steadfastly consistent in his assessment of his team’s 2019 performance.

ESPN college football studio analyst Jesse Palmer said this week he believed that OU’s win over Texas proved that the Sooner defense is legit. “All of a sudden Oklahoma is looking like a complete team,” he added.

During the same program segment, fellow ESPN college football analyst Joey Galloway offered, if OU keeps playing defense like it did against Texas, “that’s a Playoff team.”

By the way, both Palmer and Galloway had Oklahoma at No. 5 in their weekly ranking of the top College Football Playoff contenders through Week 7 of the 2019 season.

“We’ve still got steps to take, and we’re going to get better.” — OU quarterback Jalen Hurts

Most college football followers gave the Sooners so-called street credit for being a good team with an exceptional offense, but they weren’t convinced of Oklahoma legitimate claim as a Playoff contender because of questions that still surrounded the defense and the fact that OU hadn’t really been challenged by anybody before the Red River Showdown last weekend with archrival Texas.

I think we can all agree that the Sooners met that challenge with both style and substance.

While Sooner head coach Lincoln Riley is happy, however, with direction his team is headed and readily acknowledges the season success in terms of the undefeated record at the season’s midpoint, he cautions his players and the fans to be careful of placing too much emphasis on one game.

"“It (Texas) was a great win, and we did some great things, and I definitely think we’ve improved in some areas without a doubt,” Riley said in his regular Monday press conference this week, adding “It’s a process.”“We’ve improved (followed by a short pause and shake of the head)…(but) we’re still not operating anywhere near the way we’re capable,” he said, “We’ve got to continue to get better because we’re going to continue to get tested.”"

The OU head coach refuses to allow his team to become complacent and buy in to the “rat poison” — as Alabama transfer Jalen Hurts reminds everyone his former head coach, Nick Saban begrudgingly referred to all the media hype touting the greatest of his team — with half a season still to be played.

Hurts, the third different Oklahoma starting quarterback in as many seasons, and someone who has been — three straight years, no less — where the Sooners want to go (a national championship game), is the biggest champion of his coach’s message. Despite the glimpses of greatness OU has showcased on the field this season, seemingly every week Hurts is quick to qualify the Sooners’ performance, earnestly suggesting that there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“We’re going to learn from our mistakes,” Hurts said to reporters after the win over Texas. “We still haven’t played a complete game. We’ve still got steps to take, and we’re going to get better.”

So here’s the tale of the tape at the midpoint of the 2019 college season: Oklahoma is 6-0 and ranked No. 5 in both of the major national polls. All of the Sooners’ season goals are still right out in front of them.

The last time I checked one big win in one giant game — or even six straight wins — doesn’t win a championship, not a conference title and certainly not one at the national level.

There’s work still to do, and plenty of land mines out there over the second half of the season that could easily derail the process.

Riley knows it won’t be easy. Nothing worthwhile and that you work hard for ever is. That’s why he wants us all to know, “The journey is just getting started.” That’s what he told defensive coordinator Alex Grinch as they both walked up the tunnel to the roar of Sooner fans still very much present South end zone stands at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.

The next stop in that journey is Saturday, at home at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, for yet another 11 a.m. kickoff, this week against visiting West Virginia.