Oklahoma does sense when home crowd thins out, per Lincoln Riley

As the time started to wane in Oklahoma’s game against Iowa State, the crowd was thin—something OU can sense, according to Lincoln Riley.

Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley didn’t call out Oklahoma fans … until he did.

The Sooners’ head football coach is as calculated in terms of relaying a message as it gets. When asked about the crowd thinning out after halftime of Saturday’s game, Riley didn’t initially touch it.

After halftime, Oklahoma was in control or up by three touchdowns for most of the second-half.

 

“It’s our job as coaches and players that we gotta play to our level no matter what,” he said at his press conference Monday. “That is certainly our job, and I would never put that on our fans or anybody else’s fans or any atmosphere or any stadium.”

Then the crowd thinned out, and it’s clear he noticed it.

“Now, the flipside of that, like I’ve said up here many times, we have one of the great stadiums in America, we have one of the great fan bases in America, and when it’s rocking in there, does our team feel that? Hell yeah, they do,” Riley said. “And when it’s not, do they feel that? Hell yeah, they do. Yup.”

With a win this week against Baylor, the Sooners may be in play for another night game in its final home game against TCU on Nov. 23 as the Big 12 conference

So … Yup.