Lincoln Riley is a Seasoned Pro at Handling Oklahoma's Expectations

Pressure is a privilege.

At least that’s what the Oklahoma Sooners have preached for years.

Every single year the expectations at OU are massive, as they should be.

As one of college football’s blue bloods, the Sooners have all the resources to compete for National Championships every year, between the game day atmosphere, history of success, recruiting budgets and of course quality coaching.

But managing those lofty expectations isn’t always a walk in the park — just as the 2011 Sooners.

Heading into the 2021 season, the Sooners are again the talk of the town. Minted the No. 2-ranked in the AP Poll, OU’s highest preseason ranking by the AP since that 2011 season, Oklahoma is not only expected to make it back to the College Football Playoff, but truly contend to win the National Championship.

Head coach Lincoln Riley seems unfazed by the preseason accolades and expectations, however, insisting that it hasn’t changed the way the coaching staff deals with the players.

“It really hasn’t,” Riley said during a press conference on Thursday. “Whatever they say in preseason, we all know it’s a bunch of garbage. It doesn’t matter until we can (stop) reading and talking and actually play.

“Go look at preseason rankings through the years and then go look at postseason. It’s just a guess.”

Riley also pointed to the fact that lofty expectations are placed at the feet of OU every year as a reason why dealing with the hype this year isn’t any different that his prior four seasons as the head coach.

“I can’t ever remember a year coming in where people thought we were just going to be horrible,” he said. “More importantly for us, our expectations haven’t changed. They’re the same every single year.

“Part of our expectation is to be able to block out any outside noise and remain focused on us being at our best. I don’t care what team what year, win, loss, whatever… When we’ve played at a high level and when we’ve controlled the things we can control, we’ve won just about all of them. I can’t think of one that I feel like we had just no shot.”

Spencer Rattler, who is entering his second year as the starting quarterback at Oklahoma, echoed his coach’s sentiment, pointing to worries of outside pressure as a reason the Sooners had a slow start in 2020.

“There’s no pressure at all,” Rattler said during a Zoom press conference on Wednesday. “That’s what we worried too much on last year was pressure and expectations and all that stuff. We just gotta go out, play ball and do our job. That’s really what it comes down to.”

Even though the expectations at Oklahoma are known, they’re still a different animal when actually presented with them every day. It’s a process that Riley admitted he had to learn how to tackle. But thankfully, Riley said he’s had some great mentors to help show him the ropes.

“I have learned a lot on that, having been at other good programs but not a program like this in my career,” Riley said. “Coming in from the outside, you knew the expectations were going to be different. But seeing it from the outside and actually living it are two different things. I learned a lot in the first couple of years with Coach (Bob) Stoops here and how he handled it and how it just became the norm.

“Like, of course, we have high expectations. This is Oklahoma, what do you expect? I think that, in a way, has helped. Throughout conversations with him, Coach (Barry) Switzer, Donnie Duncan, other people in my life that know this place like that, that would be the one common theme. You expect it. You don’t shy away from it. It’s part of it, the way you want it. Embrace it as an opportunity.”

The opportunity the Sooners have is massive this season.

Looking around at the typical National Championship contenders, Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson all have to break in new quarterbacks. Georgia returns J.T. Daniels, but has to navigate a few key injuries that have hampered their depth a bit.

Not only does Oklahoma return an early Heisman Trophy favorite in Rattler, there could be a legitimate discussion about which side of the ball is better in Norman this year.

Alex Grinch has been worth every penny, taking statistically the worst defense in school history and turning it into a strength of the team.

OU’s defensive line is tipped as one of the elite units in the country, a phrase which would have seen you laughed out of any room no more than four years ago.

The 2021 Sooners can be Riley’s Oklahoma fully realized, they just have to take care of what they’re capable of each Saturday.

“Immediately, my mind goes to what are all the things we need to be doing to become that or to reach our potential as a team,” Riley said. “I just feel that so much more. The pressure to me is to make sure I’m doing right by every person within these walls and helping set the direction and doing my part to set up with that.

“That’s the pressure I feel.”

Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the AllSooners message board community today!

Sign up for your premium membership to AllSooners.com today, and get access to the entire Fan Nation premium network!

Follow AllSooners on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest OU news.