The Oklahoma Sooners are 4-0 on the season, but three of their wins are one-score games. The Sooners survived an upset scare for the second week during a row by defeating West Virginia by a score of 16-13 Saturday. Quarterback Spencer Rattler has struggled sometimes , throwing three interceptions through the primary four games. This has led to some Sooners fans calling for Rattler’s backup, five-star true freshman Caleb Williams. During Saturday’s post-game news conference, head coach Lincoln Riley addressed fans calling for Rattler to be benched.
“That’s college football, man. once you have the expectations that we’ve here during this program and therefore the expectations offensively, it’s a part of it,” Riley said. “It’s out of our control. Of course, it always helps us tons more when our fan base supports us. I’ll begin and say that. i would like to play better offensively quite anybody out there, but them being behind us is what helps. Spencer handled it. It didn’t bother him in the least. And honestly, as I used to be evaluating it through the sport, we’ve gotta play tons better around him. He can do some things better. He hung in there and really trusted it. the sole pick he threw, we totally busted a route. That was probably his best throw of the night.
“So i do know how it’s to the casual fan, and I am never saying that Spencer can’t play better. He can, he will. But we have got to play better around him too. we have got to teach better around him. We get it. When offensive football doesn’t work, they’re gonna check out the coach and they are gonna check out the quarterback. That’s since the start of mankind. So we understand that they are big-boy roles, but we do appreciate the support of the fan base. it had been a great atmosphere in there tonight, and I’ll tell you what — Spencer and, again, the entire offense, we’ll own what we didn’t have best. We’re not getting to recoil from that. I’ll tell you what, it takes tons of balls to try to do what we did there at the top. People better see that too.” On the season, Rattler has completed 74.1% of his passes for 1,017 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions. He has also rushed for 71 yards and two touchdowns.
Overall, Riley was pleased with the way his team responded vs. Wes Virginia. However, he admitted they’re not where they need to be offensive. “It’s fun to ascertain us respond. We’re not playing excellent offensively immediately. we all know we need to recover. I feel we’ll,” Riley told ESPN’s Holly Rowe after the sport.
