Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley takes a dig at the Georgia Bulldogs defense

On New Year’s Day, Lincoln Riley’s Oklahoma Sooners faced off with the Georgia Bulldogs in a Rose Bowl game that few on either side will soon forget. Six months later, the Sooners head coach seemed to take a shot at his team’s College Football Playoff opponent.

Riley appeared on ESPNU on Sirius XM with Danny Kanell and Taylor Zarzour on Tuesday and discussed how difficult it is to play defense in the Big 12. To illustrate that point, Riley brought up the Bulldogs’ defense, which was consistently successful in the Southeastern Conference in 2017.

"If you throw Georgia in the Big 12 every year, there is no way they are a top five defense in the country,” Riley said on the radio show.

Georgia ranked sixth in the nation in scoring defense (16.4) and sixth in total defense (294.9) in 2017. Against Oklahoma, however, the Bulldogs defense gave up 48 points and 531 yards in a 54-48 double-overtime victory.

By comparison, the Big 12 member Sooners were 68th in scoring defense (27.1) and 67th in total defense (394.9) in 2017.

This story was originally published July 3, 2018 at 11:53 AM.