Juggling rotations a balancing act for OU
NORMAN — Three weeks into the season, OU coach Lincoln Riley is still trying to find a balance.
With a daunting schedule to start the season — nine consecutive Saturdays worth of games before the first bye week — managing workload has become a bigger topic than ever for the Sooners.
“There’s not an exact answer,” Riley said Tuesday when asked about balancing immediate needs with the big picture of the season. “Every position’s different. If you’ve got a clear cut (No.) 1, how dominant is that (No.) 1? How much further ahead are they than maybe the 2 or the 3? How many guys do you rotate and feel like are ready to play and compete, no matter who we’re playing?”
The Sooners’ rotations tightened up significantly, especially on the defensive side of the ball, in last weekend’s 23-16 win over Nebraska.
After playing more than 30 players on defense in each of the first two
games, including 39 against Western Carolina, OU played just 25 against the Cornhuskers.
While some of that was due to injury — Woodi Washington, Billy Bowman, Danny Stutsman were all out — there were also a handful of players who had seen action earlier in the season who didn't play at all on defense against Nebraska.
Among those were defensive lineman LaRon Stokes, linebackers Clayton Smith and Bryan Mead and defensive backs Justin Harrington and Bryson Washington.
On the offensive side, the Sooners have used an average of 19 players in each of their two games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents.
Both Riley and defensive coordinator Alex Grinch would like to have healthy rotations at pretty much every spot on the field, but if the reserves can't perform at a high level when their chance comes, those opportunities figure to start going away regardless of how daunting the schedule is.
The biggest area where that's weighed, though, is in the preparation leading up to the game — especially during the Tuesday and Wednesday practices, which are the Sooners' most strenuous of the week.
“Obviously, your chief focus is on that particular week,” Grinch said. “Being good in Week 9 but not in Week 4 doesn't do you any good. It's something to be conscious of, really pin-pointing who gets those reps on Tuesday and Wednesday is a critical aspect of it, which then means the mental reps become that much paramount for those guys to take advantage of it.”
The Sooners' nine-week stretch of games to start the season without a bye is their longest since 1997 — when they played 10 consecutive weeks.
Since that 1997 season, just once have the Sooners started the season with more than six consecutive games without a bye. The 2007 season started with eight consecutive games.
This is the fourth season in the last 20 where OU has had a stretch of nine consecutive games.
But relief for these Sooners is still quite a ways off. Saturday's home game against West Virginia (6:30 p.m., ABC) is the fourth of those nine consecutive. OU's lone bye week of the season doesn't come until Nov. 6. Then the Sooners get a breather before finishing the regular season at Baylor, home against Iowa State and finally in Stillwater.
The depth, particularly on the defensive side, will continue to get tested over the next month-and-a-half.
“There's a lot of positions where there's some tough decisions,” Riley said. “There really is. What we've told our guys is, don't leave it up to us. Make it so clear that any Joe Schmo in the stands could figure out who needs to be the starter. If you do that, you're probably going to be on the field. If it's 50-50, then sometimes it's going to go your way with the reps and sometimes it's not.
“We're just at the beginning of this thing. It's a long season. There's going to be a lot of twists and turns.”
Riley pointed out Marquise Brown's rise in the 2017 season, when he didn't play at all in the Week 2 win at Ohio State before seeing his role expand and finishing the season as the Sooners' top receiver.
“Opportunities can come up,” Riley said. “They're going to fluctuate when you've got a talented team like we do. We need guys that continue to compete and we're going to continue to evaluate. I think those reps will continue to fluctuate as time goes on and the different circumstances do come up.”