Dec. 30, 2016
By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
NEW ORLEANS - Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley has produced one of the most prolific offenses in the country this year, but that doesn't mean he's taking anything for granted against Auburn in the Sugar Bowl.
The offensive coordinator complimented the Tigers' defense and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele during a press conference Friday on the way to Monday's game.
"Kevin Steele is as good as it gets," Riley said. "We'll see a lot of different looks I'm sure. We'll have to be able to do a lot of things well to be able to play the way we want to play."
Oklahoma, winners of nine straight, is averaging 44.7 points per game. And, oh, yeah, the Sooners had two of the Heisman Trophy five finalists in quarterback Baker Mayfield and receiver Dede Westbrook.
Riley said Auburn has some heavyweights as well, and when asked to describe the Tigers' defensive line, he responded with "how long do you have?"
"They're really good," Riley said. "I would say the thing that stands out to me, again you've got a lot of these teams we play when we play a good D-Line there may be one great player and a bunch of other solid players. They've got two or three great players up front. The thing that makes them tough to me is that if you've got one guy that's only great at rushing the passer, maybe you can do some things against that. Or if you've got one guy that is only great at stopping the run you can maybe scheme some things around them or try to get help in certain situations."
Riley said the Sooners should keep an eye on defensive lineman Montravius Adams and Carl Lawson.
"These guys are really good at both and that makes it a lot tougher to scheme and game plan for and makes it a lot tougher to play against," Riley said. "And they are surrounded by other really good players on that D-line as well. They play hard. They're really, really good at what they do. They're both very versatile players. Both are guys that, in my opinion, will play for a while on the next level. We've played some good D-linemen here in the last few years, but they stack up really well with any of them."
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine