To see what school football is, pay attention to what Lincoln Riley faced last week.
Oklahoma coach Sooners was put in position one night to practice the next day, a morning scrum there, when he was given the effects of another COVID-19 test. The Sooners ran out of positive controls after players returned to campus in June, and then saw an increase a few weeks ago after the program suspended educational sessions because the opening was delayed. Nine players tested positive for his return.
Then, that night, we learned that others had tested positive.
Bad boy.
These effects necessarily result in a total organization of positions.
Too bad.
“I’m not going to say what post, yetArray … we all lose a user in one position,” Riley said. “I mean, a primary position organization on the ground. We have to practice that day with a position where we have multiple players in the area at once, and we have one player.
He ruined the scrum the next morning. What if it happened the night before the game?
As we get closer and closer to the beginners of the season, it turns out that doubts arise about whether school football can take place in the midst of this pandemic. Universities across the country welcomed academics back to campus and began learning as a user only in front of the course in a matter of days, moving all categories online and even sending some academics home.
Some schools have reported many cases among the general student population, adding Alabama, North Carolina and the state of Missouri, whose football team is meant to open in opposition to the Sooners.
There is little explanation for why similar spikes will not occur on other campuses. Why would the OU, the state of Oklahoma, or any other university that conducts face-to-face courses be immune? It’s only a matter of time before the numbers go up, up, to Norman.
“It’s a valid concern,” Riley said in a Zoom call with reporters on Tuesday, “and that’s been for us in the last few weeks because our academics have come back for some time. The only genuine thing that has replaced now is that they continue.
“We have a policy that other people have to wear a mask when they are in elegance on campus, and we want to enforce it. I mean, it has to happen. And if that’s the case, you shouldn’t provide any more instances of that view.
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Of course, we know that academics do much more than move to class. That doesn’t seem to be changing, even in the middle of this pandemic. If you’re on campus, you move on to parties and bars, places and conditions that can leave you with a rash, even in the case.
I would have liked everyone to stay in their rooms and be limited to meetings of less than 10 people, but that doesn’t seem likely.
What does this do to the confidence of a school football coach next season?
Did I ask Riley?
“I have more confidence in what we can here,” he said as he sat on the football field. “I know it works. I’ve noticed this job. And that’s why I’m convinced it’s possible.”
For a shipment as narrow as Riley and the Sooners this summer, the last few weeks are evidence of how temporarily you can start drinking water, how quickly you can start the directory and wonder if it’s going to fall.
A few weeks ago, OR had performed several cycles of verification of a positive case of singles.
As of Monday night, the Sooners had 17 active player instances.
Yes, 17.
Riley said Tuesday that eight or nine of them should return to practice after giving negative, but the last few weeks have been difficult. Plans were made, then discarded, then re-committed and then discarded again.
“At all times you have contingency plans, if the worst of the worst happened,” Riley said. “Now, the difference here is Array … probably more imaginable than ever – not probably , it is – and then I think the other component of that is your procedure of thinking about how far you could go.”
Riley used to worry about what would happen if some deep one was injured in a week or if some runners were injured in a game and suddenly had no smart functions in a certain position.
Last week is evidence that you want to think about what might happen if you don’t have players in a position organization.
“Worst-case scenario,” he says, “it’s worse now.”
College football is walking the tightrope. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen from the other side. That doesn’t mean I can’t spend a season.
But a lot of things can go wrong.
It’s probably not easy.
Follow Jenni Carlson of Oklahoman on Twitter @JenniCarlson_OK.