Lessons learned from past losses can help Sooners

NORMAN—Losing a game is never easy, but a loss at Oklahoma is different.

“Remember this ,” Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley said Tuesday. “Every loss at OU is shocking.”

Riley said former Sooners coach Bob Stoops told him that the other day. Riley added it' s rare for the Sooner stop lay a game

they aren't favored in; OU was favored by 23.5 points against Kansas State on Saturday, and the upset was so shocking that Wildcats

fans stormed the field.

The Sooners have had other big mid season losses in recent years, though, and they' ve come back to make it to the College Football Playoff. Those past losses contain some lessons for this year's team.

Former Oklahoma defensive back Will Johnson said a 2017 loss to Iowa State was very similar to the Kansas State setback.

“It just kind of showed us that even a team that's not as good as you could hang around with you,

or better yet beat you if you' re not on your game,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that loss in to the Cyclones helped the Sooners. Losses force a team to tighten up its schemes and techniques.

“It kind of puts you on edge every game ,” Johnson said.

“It doesn't allow you to sleep on anyone. It just shows you how hard winning is.”

Another important lesson, Johnson said, is to not think another team will lose. What other teams do doesn't matter if the Sooners don't win out anyway.

“I think we kind of come together as a unit when we lose because of how many people start to

root against us,” Johnson said.

Even though the Sooners have the lessons of those losses to look back on, Riley said it is more about the approach of the individual team that shows how they will recover from the loss.

“Games like that, they either rip you apart or bring you closer together,” Riley said. “A lot of times there' s no middle ground. It's one of those deals where everyone — coaches, players, everyone involved — has got to look in the mirror and ask, `What do I need to do better for this team for it to play at its elite level?'”

Riley said everyone needs to take consistent action, not just this week or in the next game, but for the rest of the season. One big takeaway from the K-State loss for Riley was how many plays the Sooners didn't make that would have been game changers.

Just because it's happened before, doesn't mean it will happen again. Center Creed Humphrey said the leaders needed top reach after the loss that it is not the end of the season. The Sooners still have opportunities in front of them.

“This is a new team. This is a new year ,” Humphrey said .“You can't really look back in the past and say this is what's going to happen.”