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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 3, 2018

Lincoln Riley

Lubbock, Texas

Oklahoma - 51, Texas Tech - 46

LINCOLN RILEY: Great win. Just more than anything happy to get out of here with a win. We knew it was going to be a tough environment, they're very motivated, well coached team. And then on top of that we spot them two quick early ones with the two turnovers that were bad calls on my part. Kyler and I got to be better there early. But really proud of the way that we handled all the adversity. That place was rocking. Give Texas Tech credit, give Lubbock credit, give their fan base, it was an excellent atmosphere. And so for our guys to come back, get that done was big. Also for us to handle some of the adversity. We had some tough calls that didn't go our way. We also had some dumb, dumb penalties on our side that we got to do a lot better with. So we kind of continually put ourselves in a hole, but we just found a way and the team kind of willed themselves to it. Especially proud of some of our guys in the secondary. Playing without a couple guys that have played virtually every snap for us this season. And they were a little bit unexpected. I thought some guys stepped in and really did some nice things there, so. So much we got to get better at. But winning in November, winning on the road against a good football team, man, you take that any time you can get it. So proud of another huge road win for us.

Q. Usually your teams are a calm and cool team and tonight you had the personal fouls and unsportsmanlike penalties. Did you see that coming during the week or do you think the environment got to you or what do you think happened there?
LINCOLN RILEY: We'll go back and watch them. It was a chippy game. I thought it was fairly chippy on both sides. I just think that a few got called on us. That's part of the game, we play on the edge and that's important. If you come into these road environments, you come into an environment like we did tonight tentative, then you're going to get your brains beat in. But there is a line and I obviously, like I told them in there, we got to coach it better, you guys have got to do a better job with it because it very well -- even like that last one there I mean to give them field position when we got a guy that kicks it out virtually every time. I mean it's bad ball. So it's got to get corrected.

Q. Uncharacteristic of Kyler. He throws two picks early, you get down 14-0. What did you see from him and how did you kind of go about getting him turned back around?
LINCOLN RILEY: I didn't have to do anything. He was good. He's been in battles, he's a competitor, he's very confident in himself and when you really find out if somebody's confident in themselves is in an environment like this where everything's went wrong, place is rocking, and you got to find a way to get yourself back on track. I mean I just I knew he would. I could tell the look in his eye. He wasn't fazed a bit and I didn't have to say anything to him. I didn't help him much there early either. But I think he did a tremendous job, he fought for our team. Sometimes a guy can get a little gun shy when you have a start like that and he wasn't. He kept swinging, he ran the ball well, so he ran for 100 yards, threw it for 360, I mean he was awesome.

Q. How much did things change in the second half for you defensively with Bowman out of the game and Duffey in there?
LINCOLN RILEY: It definitely changed some. They're different guys. Kliff's such a good offensive mind that there's going to be things dialed up for both of them. So it was an adjustment, which we -- that seems to have been a theme for us the last couple years here is seeing somebody you didn't expect to see. Duffey came in and ran the ball well, hurt us on a couple of scrambles, but the guys were in constant communication, I thought they did a pretty good job on him.

Q. Was it tough keeping the guys focused there toward the end because it had been a long somewhat sloppy game at times and really if they get the onside kick or something really goes their way at the end, was that a challenge for you with your guys?
LINCOLN RILEY: It was. It shouldn't be. You score the last touchdown the game ain't over. The game's not over until it says 0:00, especially against a group like that. So it's bad football. It's coached bad, bad job by our players on it. And I don't want to sound too negative with it because this is a hell of a road win, but to do some of the things we did tonight, that's got to get corrected.

Q. Obviously Kyler's an elite player, two mistakes early, just having a guy like Tre back there how calming is that for you guys?
LINCOLN RILEY: He's steady, man. He gives us a lot. The combination of him and that offensive line you feel like you always got a chance to get the run game going. And it was important then but I would say even more important there in the fourth quarter. Those two drives we really leaned on Tre heavily and he tends to get better -- we have all seen that through his career, he tends to get better as the game goes on. He was pretty good the whole darn night here.

Q. As a committee, Brooks has emerged a little bit with Tre handling over 20 carries tonight, is that a reminder that he is that lead guy and how would you just sort of assess the situation behind him in the back field?
LINCOLN RILEY: Both those guys are playing good. Tre got hot, we rode Tre. Kennedy's had some games here in the past couple weeks where he's gotten hot. So I mean they're both really good players, we're going to try to get them both the ball a lot, wish we could have got Kennedy a few more honestly because I thought he was running well tonight too. But those kids are unselfish. They're just, it's our running back crew and they're going to produce, whoever is out there.

Q. The pick two there on the conversion how, big of a momentum shift was that for you guys --
LINCOLN RILEY: Huge.

Q. And when was the last time you saw something like that happen?
LINCOLN RILEY: It's been awhile. You see it every now and again. It was a huge play, just then you look there at the end, stopping that and then stopping the other two point play, those were huge. That's something we worked on a lot. So our guys were prepared, our defensive staff was very organized and prepared, already knew what calls that we were going to use in those situations, so good job by our staff and kids. Because sometimes defensively you're down after a team scores a touchdown, you kind of let that get to you and you give up an easy one on a two point play and we didn't do it and it obviously ended up being crucial points.

Q. You talked about Tre and Kennedy. Can you address Sutton's status?
LINCOLN RILEY: Yeah, I hate to, it's Wednesday in practice suffered a broken leg. Freak play. Tough, man. It was a tough blow for him, a senior here that's fought his tail off, it was tough. I've seen that kid since he was a sophomore in high school at James Kenan in North Carolina, a little school about the size of this room here. And for that kid to be here, getting ready to get his degree, do all he's done is a miracle. He's great kid, it killed the team. I mean it just, it was tough. You see a guy go down like that and it just guts you man. So we're certainly disappointed, but he was on our minds before, during, and then even after there in the post-game locker room.

Q. It looked like your offensive line had a great day. Especially the way Sermon took control of the game late in the game.
LINCOLN RILEY: Yeah, they did well. I thought Humphrey handled the road atmosphere, some challenges that they throw at you schematically, he did a great job. Guys played well. Other than the penalties, we were fantastic. But we can't have other than the penalties, we need to just play fantastic.

Q. Overall what do you take out of this defensive performance tonight? What do you -- how do you move forward with it and how are you looking at it?
LINCOLN RILEY: Yeah, it's a little strange to assess. You spot them, you go stop them the first drive, got momentum and then you spot them 14. We spotted them field position there after the penalty there at the end, I mean they were put in some bad situations. And I thought our several tough calls honestly that a couple just didn't go our way that our guys, I mean Motley's interception was a great play. What a shame to have taken that away. Couple tough ones that didn't go our way. So I thought, honestly I thought this is probably better than what the scoreboard ended up. We gave up 470 yards. It had a different feel out there on the field to me. They got some things, Kliff's a great mind play caller. They had some really good stuff that gave us trouble, especially in the screen game that we got to be better with. But I thought we zeroed in and obviously played better than the score looks.

Q. How much do you think ended up getting taken away when it's 35-31 there and you're down inside the five and then you get 30 yards and that drive blows up when you would have taken a commanding lead?
LINCOLN RILEY: We had a few chances to separate, that one and I think it's the very next drive that CeeDee pops the screen and we get a 15-yard holding penalty there. I mean that, those two penalties there that ended up being a 40 or 50 yard penalty on CeeDee's, we had opportunities to get it to double digits when we were playing well defensively at that point, thinking man if we can just get one more, put them on the ropes, you got a chance to really separate here. But the penalties, by themselves, kept us from doing it.

Q. You were in this game a couple years ago as the offensive coordinator and now you're the head coach and it was a tight one. Very much back and forth until the end. Did that ever come up tonight? Did that ever cross your mind and then what did you take away from that?
LINCOLN RILEY: Not during the game. I know this place pretty well. We won a lot of games here several years back. I know the type atmosphere it is, I know what a coach or a player from Texas Tech is thinking when you play a team like Oklahoma. I've been on the other side of it. So you know what the challenge is going to be. And I knew it was a great chance this was going to be a four quarter game and we were going to have to fight and we were going to have to face some adversity. And so all that happened and we found a way to respond and get it done.

Q. Did you guys have any idea that Bowman wasn't coming out? You weren't able to make any adjustments for the change of quarterback?
LINCOLN RILEY: No, no clue. I knew he got hit a little bit down on our sideline there toward the end of the half on the little quarterback run. We got the pretty good shot on him. I could tell he was hurting. But then I honestly I don't even know what happened. I know they said something potentially about a potential concussion. We had no clue. Now Duffey going out there was a surprise to us so we didn't have the halftime to make the adjustments. But we knew there was a chance they would play him some, didn't think to that, it would get to that point. But on the fly I thought our guys continued to make some good adjustments especially against the quarterback running game.

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