Confident, Not Content

In his three seasons as head coach, Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley has yet to lose a regular-season non-conference game.

OU upped Riley's record to 9-0 outside the Big 12 Conference in the regular season with a methodical 48-14 victory over UCLA before a crowd of 52,578 at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.

For the No. 5/4-ranked Sooners, it was mission accomplished – again – but there's still plenty of room for improvement in Riley's eyes.

"Still not anywhere where it needs to be, but it's steps," Riley said afterward. "It's baby steps, but it's steps in the right direction. We've still got to keep taking those and be mature enough as a team to be able to handle that because we do some good things, but we're still so far away from where we can be... I thought we grew some here this week. Our mentality, playing all three sides of the ball, I think we continue to get better."

"Still could be better, but we've taken positive steps."
- Jalen Hurts

OU (3-0) won its 21st consecutive true road game, tying Alabama (1970-75) for the second-longest road winning streak in modern history (after World War II). The longest streak in history came when the Sooners won 25 consecutive true road games from 1953-58 under coach Bud Wilkinson.

UCLA, which lost 49-21 to OU in Norman last season, dropped to 0-3 for the second straight year.

In just three career games with the program, senior quarterback Jalen Hurts continues his relentless assault on the OU records book

The graduate transfer from Alabama accumulated 439 scrimmage yards for the game and became the first OU quarterback ever to pass for 200 yards and rush for 100 more in the first half.
He rushed for 99 yards on four carries during the opening drive. According to ESPN Stats and Info, that's the ?rst time an FBS player has accomplished the feat in 15 years.
With 206 passing yards (for two touchdowns) and 141 rushing yards (one touchdown), he became the first Sooner ever to throw for at least 200 yards and rush for at least 100 in the first half of a game.
His 141 rushing yards in the first half were the most ever by an OU quarterback in the opening half of a game, topping the previous record of 128 (Sept. 1 vs. Houston) he shared with Jamelle Holieway (vs. Kansas in 1985).

Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns and ran 14 times for 150 yards (10.7 per attempt) and one more TD.

As has been the case after every game so far this season, Hurts' performance was met with tempered enthusiasm from his head coach and Hurts himself.

"He played pretty good," Riley said. "He made the majority of plays that he was supposed to make and then made a couple there that were off script that were important plays. I mean, he threw the ball well. He took some steps from the last couple of weeks. There's still a laundry list of things to get better at, and that is how I'll approach it with him and everybody else."

With his usual, matter-of-fact demeanor, Hurts said simply, "We'll continue to get better – all of us. Still could be better, but we've taken positive steps... We trust our preparation, but sometimes you'll never know what you'll get when the game comes. We've had some situations like that thus far this year, and it's about how you respond to the curve balls a team can throw at you."

Defensively, the Sooners have yet to be scored upon in the first quarter this season. Meanwhile, offensively OU has gained at least 600 total yards while rushing for at least 300 yards and passing for at least 300 yards in all three games.

Despite an average victory margin of 36 points (55.7-19.7), gaining 676.7 yards-per game and 10.5 yards-per-play, Hurts insists the OU offense has more to offer. There's much more inside the playbook.

"The stuff that we've displayed, that's not complete football," Hurts said. "That's not what we want to do. We can be better."

The Sooners scored on all six first-half possessions to take a 34-7 lead at intermission. Hurts set the tone with a 52-yard run around left end on the game's first play and capped the drive with a 30-yard sprint up the middle on a fourth-and-3 play.

"He (Hurts) got loose on a couple of scrambles and that's the thing," Riley said. "We have got some good wideouts and some playmakers, some guys who are making some plays right now. And when you do cover us up, he's a threat to run. He's a good athlete. That's why you recruit good athletes and let them go play because occasionally when it's not there, they can hurt you even worse."

OU gained at least 15 yards on 14 of its 36 first-half plays and at least 30 yards on five plays. OU's 258 yards in the first quarter were the second most in school history for an opening quarter (274 at Iowa State in 2014) and their 434 yards in the first half were fifth most in the opening half of a true road game in program history.

"You feel this team kind of feed off each other... I'm excited about that."
- Lincoln Riley

The Sooners have an open date this week before starting their quest for a fifth straight Big 12 title by hosting Texas Tech on Sept. 28. Ever the perfectionist, Riley awaits bigger accomplishments from his unbeaten team.

"There are still a ton of things that we have to get better at and learn a lot from tonight," Riley said. "You feel this team kind of feed off each other, and that's such a difficult thing to simulate as you go through spring and camp, and then all of a sudden you are playing on the same team and there is a feel and a flow of the game. You build off each other's momentum, and you could feel that on the sideline tonight, I thought more than the first two games. I'm excited about that."

Riley also made a point to thank the throng of OU fans who invaded the Rose Bowl.

"Wow. How many fans came out here to California to watch us play?" Riley said. "It meant a lot to our team. Our guys noticed it. They helped to create a really nice atmosphere in there for us. It was loud, which is something to say when you're that far from home. It's another example of how we're different."

Players Mentioned

Jalen Hurts

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