Mid-Sunday morning, Oklahoma got the official word.
The Sooners were officially the No. 4 team in the College Football Playoff and would be playing No. 1 LSU in Atlanta at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley was reportedly already out on the road recruiting, so he didn’t have much time to comment on his team making its destination. There was, however, a 20-minute teleconference with three Peach Bowl representatives and LSU head coach Ed Orgeron.
Here are Riley’s initial comments on making the College Football Playoff and playing LSU.
Opening comment on the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl:
“We’re certainly excited to get to Atlanta. Certainly an honor to come in there and compete once again in the College Football Playoff against a tremendous LSU team that’s played very well all season, beaten a lot of really good football teams.
“Obviously, have a ton of respect for Coach Orgeron, their staff, their players. What a great year that they’ve had. And the College Football Playoff is what it should be, the best teams in the country getting ready to go at it.
“Should be, certainly, an exciting time. I know our players, staff are excited to come to Atlanta, represent Oklahoma, and very excited to go compete.”
Improvements on defense and matchup with LSU’s offense:
“Defensively, no doubt we’ve played very well this year. Give Coach Grinch, our staff a lot of credit. And then our players, the guys have bought into a new system, a new coach, new mentality certainly on that side of the ball. While we’re still improving, we have done a lot of good things and, we think, made some good progress.
Obviously, LSU is tough to stop. They’ve done a great job all year. Joe Burrow’s had a great run, obviously played extremely well at the quarterback position. A lot of dynamic playmakers on the outside. And from what I’ve been able to see so far, their offensive line has done a great job as well.
So give them credit. They’re really good. They do a great job. It’s fortunate for us we do, through the years, get to see a bunch of really good offenses. This will certainly be as good as they face.”
On making the Playoff this year being important to maintain status:
“For us, right now, it’s just kind of we’re in the middle of it so I wouldn’t say there’s that big picture view of having the chance to make it several times over the last few years. I mean, that’s obviously a positive thing but, I mean, this is about this team and this match-up right now.
The thing in this playoff is you’re going to play great teams, and you’re going to have to play really well. Everybody here is going to have to play well to beat the other teams, and that’s how it should be.
So it’s certainly important. It’s a good accomplishment, but it’s not, certainly not our end goal. Our focus will be trying to play our very best here on the 28th.”
On Jalen Hurts playing at Mercedes Benz Stadium before:
“I mean, I don’t think it hurts. Does it make a huge difference? I don’t know. Probably having played in the playoffs and handling just all the hype and all the outside noise that comes along with this, I would think he’s going to be as prepared as anybody going into that.
But obviously, he’s doing it in a different place. This is a different LSU team. I mean, there’s so many different factors too. So if it is an advantage, that’s great, but we’ve got to go take it for what it is right now, and that’s just, again, kind of staying here in the present.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]