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NORMAN, Okla. – The Sooners have won four back-to-back victories and continued to climb the national rankings. After climbing five spots a week ago, they move up to 18th place in the Associated Press and Amway Coaches polls.
This keeps them as the third highest ranked Big 12 team. Oklahoma State (# 14 AP, # 13 coaches) and Iowa State (# 17 AP, # 16 coaches) register before them. Texas are the only other Big 12 team in the Top 25, where they sit 21st and 24th in the PA and Coaches respectively.
As it suggests, OU starts rolling. FAfter a 1-2 start to the 2020 campaign, including losses in his first two conference tilts, he’s now firmly returned to the Big 12 championship race with Bedlam on the horizon.
“I’m trying to think of an area where we haven’t made much progress,” said the head coach Lincoln riley. “I mean, for the whole team, I think we’re becoming a much smarter football team. We’ve had a lot of really smart games on tape. We’ve really managed to take out the majority of what we classify as fair. a stupid or insane penalty So, in our turn, we played a fairly clean and quality ball.
“And I think it’s been all over the place. I think we’re just finishing more games, we’re making fewer mistakes right now, and because we’re doing that, we’ve been giving ourselves over the last few weeks a chance. to separate ourselves from the people, we were able to do that.
“So I would say all the parts are improving, and the guys are playing smarter and really understanding what we’re trying to do and understanding the game and the roles and what they can and can’t do, and have it. a better idea was probably one of the things that got me the most excited about this last race.
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Speaking of Bedlam, for the first time ever, the Sooners will welcome their rivals Oklahoma State Cowboys under the lights at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The Nov. 21 contest will begin at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC, the Big 12 conference announced on Monday.
This will mark the ninth time in the series’ history, OU and Oklahoma State have played in prime time, but never has this happened at Palace on the Prairie. The teams met at night seven times at Stillwater (1985, ’88, 2008, ’10, ’11, ’15, ’19) and once at Taft Stadium in Oklahoma City (1943), which happened to be the very first night game on the program.
In those previous eight, the Sooners have compiled a 7-1 record. Their only loss came in a 44-10 blowout in the 2011 season.
This one will be released for a week bye. For the third time this season, Crimson and Cream can benefit from an extra week of preparation.
“If we are going to be the team that we think we can be, we’re going to have to do it,” said the head coach Lincoln riley. “The last week was good. We were able to bring back other healthy guys, other guys available to play. We were able to do a really good job with COVID during that time. We were able to keep the guys on the go. terrain., and we have done quite well in practice.
“Yeah, I mean, I think we had some momentum with the Texas win at that point. I think we’re growing as a football team, and we’ve been really pushing this week off. We had a pretty aggressive schedule, and I give credit to the players, they handled it well and improved throughout the week.
“That’s how you always want to handle it. So we’ll have another pretty aggressive schedule here for our guys, and we expect that we can handle it and can really improve during that time.”
As for the series between state rivals, the Sooners will be looking for their 90th victory overall. They own an all-time 89-18-7 mark. This includes wins in the last five meetings.
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