Sooners rise to No. 2 in AP poll
After Oklahoma trounced Ohio State 31-16 on Saturday night, the team leapfrogged the Buckeyes again Sunday afternoon, this time in the Associated Press poll.
The Sooners supplanted Ohio State as the No. 2 team, moving up three spots for the program’s highest ranking since 2011. The Buckeyes slid to No. 8 and are the highest ranked team with a loss.
Oklahoma picked up a pair of first-place votes from
Kellis Robinett of the Wichita Eagle and Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News.
So why did Robinett and Wilner put Oklahoma ahead of Alabama?
Robinett, who covers Kansas State, explained it in a blog post.
“Winning at Ohio State is the most impressive win any team has pulled off two weeks into this young college football season,” he wrote. “For that, Oklahoma deserves to move up in the national polls.”
The Sooners, preceded by only No. 1 Alabama, are followed by Clemson, USC, and Penn State in the top five.
With its win against South Alabama, Oklahoma State moved up two spots to No. 9 in the poll while Kansas State came in at No. 18 and TCU at No. 20.
In the coaches' poll, the Sooners are No. 3 and the Cowboys are No. 8.
Is Morris the next walk-on to earn a scholarship?
To say wide receiver
Lee Morris is efficient might be a pretty sizable understatement.
The walk-on made his second career catch for his second-ever collegiate touchdown on Saturday night, following up his 43-yard touchdown reception in the season-opener.
Against Ohio State, it was the redshirt sophomore’s 18-yard catch that put the Sooners ahead for good late in the third quarter.
“He probably won’t be a walk-on much longer,” coach Lincoln Riley said with a knowing laugh after the win.
With Riley’s sly hint, it appears Morris is well on his way to following the path his dad made as a walk-onturned-scholarship wide receiver in the early 1980s.
Riley first mentioned Morris earlier in the season as a potential replacement for Nick Basquine when the inside receiver went down with a season-ending injury in the preseason.
Morris hasn’t had many targets through the first two games, but he’s making the most of his limited playmaking opportunities. With the two scores, he leads the Sooners in touchdown receptions this season.
Riley looks for somebody to hug
After he finished his on-field interview, Riley danced around the field, looking for somebody to hug. It almost evoked the spirit of former N.C. State basketball coach Jim Valvano after winning the 1983 national championship.
“It’s special,” Riley said. “Wins like this on the road are the most special to me. There’s no doubt about that. I love playing on the road, competing in venues like this.
“Ohio State, their fan base is to be applauded. It was a great atmosphere, great college football setting. To be able to come in here and win is very special.”
Of course, Riley, who was the first OU head coach since Chuck Fairbanks to defeat a top-5 opponent in his debut season, found plenty of people to hug, including former head coach Bob Stoops.
It was undoubtedly a huge win for Riley, coaching his second game as a head coach, just days after his 34th birthday. But he was quick to point out that he shouldn’t be the focal point of the win.
“There’s no ‘me’ in this team,” he said. “It’s what did we prove as a team? We proved when we are focused and have a great mentality and play together, we can beat a lot of people.”
OU win gives Big 12 a big boost
Beating Ohio State not only boosted Oklahoma’s resume for the College Football Playoff, it also raised the profile of the Big 12.
The win against a powerful Big Ten program bucked the narrative that has persisted about the maligned conference recently, especially as other conference teams like Texas and Baylor struggled mightily earlier in the season.
“Look,” Okoronkwo said, “the Big 12, well, really OU, is a physical team and we can play with anybody on any given day. Don’t count us out. We are not underdogs.”
Riley didn’t necessarily take pride in helping the conference’s reputation, but admitted that OU’s win was good for the Big 12.
“I think we’ve shown we can have the success out of conference,” Riley said. “We’ve done pretty good against the SEC the last few years. Another big one here tonight. I’ve always voiced pretty strongly my opinion about this league, and tonight was a positive step for us.”
Okoronkwo: Ohio State atmosphere exceeded Tennessee
While Neyland Stadium was deafening as Oklahoma defeated Tennessee in double overtime two years ago, there might be an even louder venue than the Rocky Top mecca.
Though the crowd was silent by the fourth quarter as OU stunned the Buckeyes, for a time, its energy and volume surpassed the rowdiness of Knoxville.
“I think it was even louder, to be honest,” Okoronkwo said. “It was louder. We couldn’t hear somebody right next to you. That was crazy. I loved it.”
It's not too surprising it felt louder. The crowd of 109,088 was the largest ever to watch an OU football game.
Sooners cycle through defensive backs
Once safety Will Johnson went down with an injury in the second quarter, a revolving door of defensive backs checked into the game.
After the game, defensive coordinator Mike Stoops estimated the Sooners used eight defensive backs.
“I couldn’t keep track of all the guys,” Stoops said. "It was like the Texas game all over.” Against Texas last season, Oklahoma had to switch its plans when thencornerback Michiah Quick went down with a knee injury and was replaced by Jordan Parker. This time around, Johnson’s injury forced Stoops to make adjustments on the fly, shelving some packages the Sooners had worked on earlier in the week when true freshman Robert Barnes entered the game for Johnson.
OU also used safeties Kahlil Haughton and Chanse Sylvie.
Even with the personnel changes, OU’s secondary held up, and kept Ohio State from scoring a passing touchdown.
“They’re all kind of interchangeable guys,” Stoops said. “The scheme doesn’t get too different at either of the safety positions. They kind of mirror each other in a lot of ways. A lot of schemes kind of do that so guys can be interchangeable.”
Quotables
Coach Lincoln Riley, on OU's receivers:
“Bake deserves a lot of credit. He’s a great player and he played extremely well tonight, especially against a defense as good as theirs.
But he’s not doing it with a bunch of Rudys out there. We’ve got a bunch of good players. Dimitri Flowers has played a lot of ball for us. Jeff Badet is a really good player that keeps getting better. We have some talented young guys. It shows his trust level in them. It’s higher than it’s been with our other teams early in the season.”
Redshirt senior linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, on being a perceived underdog:
“We’re all just trying to play for each other. We felt like everybody was against us, nobody picked us to win, everybody was calling us the underdogs. My family was calling us the underdogs. That’s funny. We went out there and we played as hard as we could and we left it all out there and we liked our results.”
Former OU kicker Uwe von Schamann, tweeting during the game:
“Feels like 1977 all over again!! Boomer Sooner!”
Extra points
OU-Ohio State posted a 5.3 overnight rating on ABC, up 33 percent from the 2016 game on FOX and the highest rating for a non-opening week September game since 2011 … Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles was on hand to watch Saturday’s game.