While Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy will have his staff back in their campus office, Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley is taking a more conservative approach to heading back to campus.
The coronavirus has the college football world turned upside down as players, coaches and administrators try to figure out how to salvage the upcoming season.
Big 12 presidents will meet to see if they are ready to lift the ban on team activities that is set to expire on May 31.
Gundy wants to host Oregon State from the Pac-12 on Thursday night, September 3.
Sports Illustrated reported that Alabama, who is supposed to open against Southern California at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, has contacted TCU about a possible game should the Pac-12 delay the start of their season. TCU is supposed to open on the road at California.
“Chad Weiberg (Oklahoma State deputy athletic director) told me that Oregon State’s athletic director told him that if we’re playing the game (Sept. 3) that they will be there,” Gundy told Pokes Report.
Weiberg had previously confirmed that.
Oregon State athletic director Barnes hopes Oregon State will be on a similar schedule despite a possible override from state officials in Oregon.
“This game means a lot to me and Oregonians, Oregon State fans,” Oregon State head football coach Jonathan Smith said. “There is no question it is disappointing for this season to be affected. There’s a chance it’s going to look different. We don’t know.”
In an interview posted on Youtube by John Hoover, Riley disagreed with the idea of players being back on campus June 1.
“I do believe if we do it right, and if we are patient enough on some key areas like when we bring our players back on campus – all this talk about school wanting to bring players back on June 1 is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard,” Riley said.
Riley and his staff won’t be on campus June 1.
“We definitely won’t be in until June 1 at the earliest,” Riley said. “I think for two reasons. One, the safety and health of our staff is critically important and we are not going to jeopardize that in any way. And then we are able to get a lot done. I don’t know if there’s honestly any – you go back in the office now with all the social distancing and regulations, and all that’s going on, for us, even if you felt like it was safe. I don’t know if we could get as much done right now with all hoops you have to jump through to be able to do it.”
Riley favors a slower approach to the preseason.
“We are going to be on the slower end of that,” Riley said. “To me, why would you bring your staff in right now when you could wait two, three or four weeks and hopefully learn more advancements, more tests. I just don’t think we can be in a rush.
“I’m not in different schools and I’m not saying what they are doing is wrong, for us, talking to Joe Castiglione and our group, our mentality is let’s give as much time and a chance to progress as we possibly can. This thing changes.”
As unpredictable as the coronavirus is, some think that college football could be canceled in 2020, just as the college basketball playoffs were dropped.
“I definitely think we will play,” Riley said. “When we play, I think everybody, whether it’s our decisionmakers, our coaches, our players, fans – I think everybody’s got to have a very open mind about this.”
The National Football League as made some minor adjustments but released a full schedule for the fall season.
“We’re not the NFL,” Riley said. “There are some huge, huge differences in us being able to put on a successful season versus a professional league. We’re not the NBA. We don’t just have 15 players. This is totally different deal.”
Riley is trying to keep an open mind about adjusting to this new environment.
“ We’ll have to have an open mind and we will probably have to make some adjustments on the way,” Riley said. “But I have a high, high confidence that we are going to play football this year.”
OU and OSU had to cut short spring practice and cancel spring games. Players went home after classes were shifted from the campus to online.
For the fourth year in a row Riley will have a new starting quarterback. Baker Mayfield was the starter in 2017. Kyler Murray started in 2018 and Jalen Hurts started last season.
OU has redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler, redshirt sophomore Tanner Mordecai, redshirt senior Tanner Schafer, redshirt junior Colt Atkinson and incoming freshman Chandler Morris as candidates to start.
Fortunately, OU coaches have been allowed eight hours a week to visit with players online.
“We are constantly in their ear,” Riley said of his quarterbacks. “There’s not very much mentally that you can’t do with them. Honestly, this is a time when typically we’ve had no hours with them during the month of May. This part has actually been kinda cool. We continue the learning from the spring even though it wasn’t on the field.”
“I would anticipate that we will be able to continue that into June as well depending when we get these guys back on campus. From a mental standpoint, they are in a great place. They’ve all done a good job of finding places to throw the ball and places to continue to work on and people to work with this time and to keep me updated on it.
“I can’t wait to see them with my own eyes. I am excited about where they are and I am confident about where they will be.”
Off-season training and rehabilitation of injuries are crucial in football and it has been out of the ordinary.
“We have two groups of guys,” Riley said. “We have a number of our players who are in Norman or in the general area that still come into our facility and do their rehab and do their treatment. It’s pretty limited in how they do it. Our group has done a good job keeping it very regulated.
“A lot of our guys have been able to continue rehab or therapy at home. So they are in regular contact with our medical staff. We are able to provide the things that they need to do for that. And we’ve got some of our guys that still need that physical therapist there and need that medical personnel next to them. They are at their homes and we have set them up at various facilities across the country where we have contacts or where we have been able to visit with their people and get on the same page.”
Riley said it’s hard to plan because of the unpredictably of the pandemic.
“You’ve got to be careful in the sense of over-preparing as far as worrying about whether it’s this day or that day,” Riley said. “It’s more having your priorities in order. Having an idea on some of these potential time lines on what that could look like. But it’s so unpredictable now, it’s difficult to sit down and put it on a calendar. That’s probably one of the hardest things when you are used to having it very regulated and very structured.”
Riley is concerned about the safety of his players in light of the coronavirus and the apparent need for social distancing.
“I think our job as football coaches is that we have to look at this way, way beyond what’s competitively the best thing for our own team,” Riley said. “For a lot of coaches, that’s hard. We’re wired to try to do everything we can to help our teams win. This is different. This is totally different.
“We as coaches and university administrators, ADs, the NCAA, the conference level – people making decisions have got to make that the No. 1 priority.”
Timing is important.
“ In my opinion, we need to bring them in as late as we possibly can before we play a season,” Riley said. “Every day early that we bring them in is a day we could have gotten better, it’s a day we could have learned more about the virus. It’s a day maybe PPE gets better. It’s a day closer to a vaccine. It’s a day that our testing equipment and our testing capabilities get better. And it’s just not worth it. We’ve got to be patient. We get one shot at this. And we’ve got to do it right.
“There’s differing accounts right now. Do you need four weeks, do you need six weeks? Do you need eight weeks? Whatever that is, a lot of those are very feasible. I think six weeks is very doable.”
Around the country, some colleges and some leagues are quicker to start training than others. Some colleges may be restrained in states like California and New York that were particularly hard hit by the coronavirus.
Could the Big 12 start if the Pac-12 was delayed?
“I’m sure you can,” Riley said. “You probably don’t want to. If it comes down to either that or no season, would you play? My opinion would be yes. Any kind of college football is better than none. But certainly I think you have to exhaust every possible scenario again, including potentially playing not in a traditional season like a club season or playing in the spring or whatever.”
Some health officials don’t want any groups to be larger than 50 people at one time.
“I think one of the biggest differences that we are all going to have to deal with at some point is that we are not going to be able to have them all together at once,” Riley said. “It’s crazy. You might have a team meeting in the stands. We will figure it out. We will make it work. It’s definitely different.”
Recruiting has changed as potential recruits can’t visit a campus and contact has to be made by telephone or online.
“Our whole staff has been involved in it,” Riley said. “We’ve worked hard on it and it’s gone good. So, there’s a lot competition in that right now and I don’t want to get too in-depth for those reasons. It’s been fun to connect that way. We’ve got a really good, creative staff. We try not to look at what we can’t do – we try to embrace what we can do.
“That’s what the rules are right now. I know they extended it through June 30th. I think we all believe that it’s a virtual certainty that it’s going to be extended beyond that. That’s what we have to get used to right now.”
“You’ve been able to connect with a lot of players even though it hasn’t been in person,” Riley said of recruiting. “I think I have been able to connect with players even more than ever before because of the amount of time – not only for you but it’s just so rare for these guys aren’t in school from 7:30 to 3:30 and then practice. “Everybody’s home virtually all the time so there’s really no time that you can’t connect. It’s been fun to get to know them on that level. I certainly hate to not have some of the in-person things but there have been some advantages, too. I’m excited about the direction it’s going.”
According to Rivals.com, OU has seven commitments for 2021.
Five stars – WR Mario Williams, Plant City, Florida
Four stars – LB Clayton Smith, Texarkana, Texas; WR Cody Jackson, Richmond, Texas
Three stars – LB Danny Stutsman, Winter Garden, Florida; DB Jordan Mukes, Choctaw, Oklahoma; OL Cullen Montgomery, Houston; DE Ethan Downs, Weatherford, Oklahoma
Another troubling aspect is the financial impact on college football. Will OU be able to sell 85,000 tickets to home games if fans have to practice social distancing? Already, some college football coaches have taken pay cuts in anticipation of lost revenue.
“It’s a little hard to say right now,” Riley said. “I think we are all preparing for potentially some changes there. It’s probably a bit too early to say just because you don’t know exactly how that looks like – what the season will look like and the financial impact of that.
“I think like anything you try to be search for extra money. I think there’s a perception out there – and I’ve got to be honest, I’m one of those guys before I got to a place like OU – that places like OU get whatever they want, they spend money recklessly, and money is not an issue.
“That’s not the case. The dollars that we have available to us, every dollar that we spend in the football department is accounted for and we try to spend it by thinking it through and making sure it is something that is going to make a difference in our program. We respect where it came from.
“If we’ve got to make it work from a smaller chunk, then we’ll find a way.”