OU-Kansas: One Big Thing
Oklahoma is a 37-point favorite Saturday against Kansas. The Sooners haven’t lost to the Jayhawks in 23 years. Nine times in the last 15 meetings, KU has scored but one touchdown (or less). The average score of the 15 games since 2000: 43-13.
Sure, this game will be another OU-Kansas wipeout.
But that’s the new challenge for this Oklahoma team: when the opponent is inferior, don’t play the opponent, play your own standards.
To that end, OU coach Lincoln Riley says maybe his favorite thing about this year’s team is watching the week-to-week improvements they’ve made.
“We’re just trying to get better,” Riley said after the Texas Tech game. “And if you do that, things work out the way they’re supposed to. We’re getting better as a team. I’m most excited about that; improvements we’ve made.”
A cursory glance at the last five results — close loss at home to Kansas State, close loss on the road at Iowa State, close win over Texas, easy win at TCU, blowout win at Texas Tech — shows the incremental forward movements this team is making.
“I think you can really, really mark several games in a row right now where there’s been very, very clear steps taken in a positive direction — and I still don’t feel like we’re at our best,” Riley said. “I mean, there’s still so much to continue to improve on, and that’s exciting. And that’s what’s driven this team.”
Stricken with youth in 2020, Riley and his coaching staff have had to show patience and perhaps spend more time teaching this year than ever before. The payoff is obvious: every position group is playing better heading into what the Sooners call “Championship November” than they were at any point in September or October.
“We’ve gelled really well and we just feel like we’re taking those steps we need to,” said quarterback Spencer Rattler. “Nowhere near where we need to be, but we’re getting there. And every week of practice, every game we have, is helping us a lot with our confidence and just our efficiency, consistency on both sides of the ball. We’re gonna keep it rolling and hopefully keep this thing going.”
Riley has never lost in November, and he’s never lost to any of the teams ahead on the schedule. It won’t happen Saturday, but after an open date, No. 14-ranked Oklahoma State comes to Norman with visions of a Bedlam victory and a Big 12 championship. For OU to avoid that, they’ll need to focus on what’s important this week against Kansas: just keep getting better.
“The key for us,” Riley said, “is we’ve got to have the same hunger and fight we did after a couple of those early setbacks that got us playing the way we are and have as of late. We’ve got to keep that and just stay on our climb, man. Just continue grind and stay on our climb.”
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