Lincoln Riley had his haters in mind after pulling off the first big win of his head coaching career.
Riley’s Oklahoma Sooners beat Ohio State on the road Saturday night 31-16. After the game, Riley was interviewed by ESPN and alluded to the Sooners’ detractors.
“We just fought. We played well the whole first half, and our guys just kept believing … we’re just a bunch of pretenders that are trying to win some games,” Riley said in his interview.
What makes that a shot at his haters? Well before the season began, ESPN’s college football team was doing a studio show and discussed which team was most likely to disappoint this season. Desmond Howard picked Oklahoma. Lee Corso agreed and called Oklahoma “pretenders.”
It's Oklahoma vs. The World this season.
"They're pretenders." — Lee Corso#Sooners pic.twitter.com/OKMuqiwHae
— Sooner Gridiron (@soonergridiron) August 26, 2017
It sure seems like Riley saw or heard about that clip, because he was pretty quick to make a “pretenders” reference.
After pulling off a big win like that and proving teams wrong, Riley felt comfortable boasting. He should probably wait until he’s coached more than two games before responding to trash talkers.
