No. 10 Oklahoma (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) lost its final regular season game to Oklahoma State (11-1, 8-1) 37-33 on Saturday night in Stillwater.
Here’s what head coach Lincoln Riley said after the loss:
Opening statement:
“It’s a gut wrenching loss, no other way to describe it. I’m heartbroken for our players. It’s a horrible feeling, that’s the only way I can describe it. We've had a chance to win this league six years in a row, and we're not gonna have a chance to do that this year. It's a gut punch. I hate it for our players. They fought their (expletive) off tonight, they really did. We had guys laying it on the line, we had guys playing hurt, we had a couple guys that had the flu and probably shouldn't even have been out there. They just found a way. We had a ton of big plays on all sides, and we came up one play away. We were agonizingly close on that last drive.
“For all the guys in the locker room, there's two sets of players in there right now. You got guys that have been through it, been with us and won championships, won games like this, and went on to win championships. Then you got guys that are in that locker room for the first time that haven't been a part of this ride and what it feels like.
"I think for everybody, what this does is it makes you appreciate it. What this program has been able to do here over the last seven years is pretty amazing, and it makes you appreciate how hard winning is, how hard winning championships are, and how hard winning against good football teams on the road are. That was the year of the Big 12. If you look at the top three teams, the home team won every single one of those games. We had our chances.
“I’ll give credit to Oklahoma State. They played well. They're a good football team, and a very experienced football team. They did a nice job. It was a great fight, it could’ve went either direction. I'm just heartbroken for the players. So many guys laid it on the line. They wanted it more than anybody and I’m proud of the way we fought. It just is what it is.”
On coaching rumors:
“I’m not gonna be the next head coach at LSU. I have no concerns about our administration, our (athletic director), or our president. We've been through a lot together. This isn't our first rodeo together. We always have conversations about the future. With all that’s changing right now in the college landscape, all that's getting ready to change for us as at some point here.
"When we transition into a new conference, those are always conversations that we're going to have and we'll be having those yearly, no matter. All of us are trying to make this place better and make this program better. You don't do that without working together and conversing with each other. We're going to continue to do that. We work well together and we're going to keep working well together.”
On second-half shortcomings:
“I would say the penalties were probably the No. 1 thing in the second half that hurt us. We had the crazy backwards pass that we ended up kicking out of bounds that put us way back. Against a good defense like that, you got to play clean football. In the first half, we didn't really have penalties. We didn't have too many negative yardage plays, and then we gave ourselves opportunities to get in good position to make plays, and we did quite a bit the first half. That was probably the biggest thing I saw.
“We did not play as clean. We had the penalties, we had the fumble, and we had the backwards pass. Those were huge plays in the game. We had drives go on and several penalties negated big plays. I’m disappointed to have the errors there in the second half against a good defense. It just puts you in a bad position. We had too many unforced errors in the second half.”
On the special teams:
“There were a lot of huge plays. I thought the kickoff return was probably as big as any of them because I thought we were starting to settle down a little bit there. I felt like there in the second quarter, we had the chance to separate us a little bit, so that was a huge play. We made some big ones too. The muffed punt we got was off the charts good. Obviously, what (Eric Gray) did, we want that back. That's not what cost us the game, there were a lot of other opportunities to separate and put that one away. We emphasized special teams coming into the game. We knew historically in this game, there's been a lot of very significant special teams plays, and there were tonight. Both teams were hurt by it and both teams were aided by it."
On Caleb Williams’ performance:
“He fought his guts out, man. I thought he did a lot of really good things. He gave us a lot of chances, he made a lot of plays, and he made a lot of great throws. He had that run at the end too. This whole stretch will be a very valuable stretch for him going forward. He'll learn so much, and he was not afraid in the moment and made a ton of big plays. I'm proud of the way he played. You always have some things leaving any game that you want back. But, like a lot of our guys, he was a warrior.”
