Lincoln Riley…Come Back and Be Sooners’ Offensive Coordinator

Of course…as a Stage 4 cancer survivor– I’m not only going to see the plethora of silver linings and glass half-full takes for my Sooners, but I’m going to go full bore optimistic and suggest what to me seems an ironical move for all concerned.

Hire Lincoln Riley as offenssive coordinator as soon as he’s fired from USC later this football season. You OU fans claim to be Trump fake Christians…so the act of forgiving is one of the primary basics in Christianity. Lincoln…El Prez forgives you even if the fake Christians won’t. Come back and be our OC, buddy.

First off…OU’s five minutes of ‘offense’ on Saturday versus middle of the road South Carolina were perhaps the worst five minutes of football in OU’s storied football history. Worse than Landry Jones’ debaucle in the 2011 Bedlam game.

When your offense gives up 21 points in the first five minutes of a game against any foe and you can’t even make it to fourth down on any of the three posessions to punt the football…the offensive coordinator should be fired as Seth Littrell found out on Sunday.

I sat there numb watching these five minutes in surreal disbelief. You couldn’t do that even if you were the tanking OKC Thunder trying to lose games for three straight NBA basketball seasons.

Those five minutes were historically putrid.

So having written the above…the Sooners will now have Joe Jon Finley calling plays the remainder of this season. The first thing which needs to be addressed is the offensive line and their inability to block some people in front of them. And just so we’re clear that job is primarily in the hands of offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh who’s O-line so far this season has been putrid.

OU can’t even pass block long enough for ‘either’ quarterback to go beyond their first progression in the pocket… let alone open spaces in the run game for OU’s backs.

OU currently ranks near the bottom of DI schools in almost every offensive category.

And consider this…the school which was Quarterback U the previous two and a half decades reached 200 yards passing in a game for the time this season on Saturday in the 7th game of the season. I repeat…in the 7th GAME OF THE SEASON.

My 8-4 optimism is in serious peril regardless of my silver linings playbook. Other than the Maine game OU will probably be Vegas double digit underdogs for the remainder of the season. So for OU to become bowl eligible they’ll need to beat either Ole Miss, Missouri, Alabama, or LSU to escape a 5-7 season.

And to be brutally frank on my blog…5-7 at OU doesn’t cut it for Coach Venables in his third season at OU. I like Brent Venables. I want him to succeed. I love his human story and I’m praying for him.

But for me the story for OU’s offense right now is learning how to block and create some space and time for your playmakers like Deion Burks, this Jordan kid, and the other backs and receivers who need to collectively step up.

You’ll notice I haven’t even mentioned Jackson Arnold and Michael Hawkins because this has more to do to with all eleven offensive players on the field stepping up and doing their respective jobs.

Lincoln Riley coming back to OU?

I don’t think so but it just shows you how brutal the culture of college football has become for me to even mention it on my blog.

Have a beautiful Monday.

Mike J

Additional footnotes:

• I’ve been thinking about what I wrote earlier this morning on this blogpage and I feel I want to amend it somewhat because I don’t want to come across as unduly cold towards Seth Littrell. He is a valued member of the OU football community and maybe he should have just been reassigned to a different assignment for the remainder of this season instead of being summarily fired
• And I write this because this OU offense is as much on Brent Venables and O-line coach Bill Bedenbaugh as it is on Seth Littrell.
• Given the way this O-line blocks…I don’t think in reality just calling different plays will make a huge difference.
• And I want to close in wishing the very best to Seth Littrell and advise the OU Football NIL group to spend some money this off season looking for at the least three quality offensive linemen to add the mix for next season.
• MJ