Sooners adjust back to ‘normal’ football
Kenneth Murray fell right to sleep as soon as he got home Saturday night from Oklahoma’s 28-21 overtime win against Army.
The Sooners’ sophomore middle linebacker had just set an NCAA record with 28 tackles — the ledger goes back to just 2000 in the category — and was worn out.
Two days later, Murray was still feeling those effects.
On the other side, running back Trey Sermon had to keep himself loose during Army’s long, methodical drives that he had to jump on a stationary bike multiple times to stay stretched out.
Oklahoma survived the challenge of the Black Knights’ unique triple-option offense, but now the Sooners must return to Big 12 football at home against Baylor on Saturday.
Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said the defensive practice plan will be altered a bit early in the week to help give OU’s front seven a bit of a lighter workload so they can fully recover.
“We talked about it after the game and talked about it yesterday,” Riley said Monday. “We have a good plan going forward to get ready for Baylor, but we also have to make sure our bodies are as fresh as they can be.”
That hasn’t been an issue on the other side of the ball after Oklahoma had possession for just more than 15 minutes in Saturday’s game.
“It felt like five,” wide receiver CeeDee Lamb said.
For the Sooners’ offensive players, Saturday’s game will be more about finding a rhythm after they ran just 40 plays a week ago.
But Oklahoma will definitely be well rested.
“I definitely think we’ll be fresh,” running back Trey Sermon said. “I felt great today. I just want to go back out there on the field and show what we can do.”
The game will also give the Sooners’ defense a chance to prove what happened two weeks earlier against Iowa State — where Hakeem Butler had five catches for 174 yards and a pair of touchdowns — was not indicative of what this defense will become.
Army didn’t much test the secondary, but Baylor certainly will.
“Obviously pass rush is gonna be a critical factor in that,” Riley said. “That’s an area where we feel like we’re gonna have some advantages here going forward. It takes everybody. No doubt the big receivers like that who can win their majority of 50-50 balls are always a tough matchup. But we’re used to that in this league. We’re gonna have to defend it well and have to do a better job than we did on Butler.”
