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Oklahoma football: Sooners and their fans should plan for something different

By Chip Rouse

STILLWATER, OK - NOVEMBER 30: Athletic director Joe Castiglione stands with head coach Lincoln Riley and his wife Caitlin Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners after defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys in their Bedlam game on November 30, 2019 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. OU won 34-16. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
STILLWATER, OK - NOVEMBER 30: Athletic director Joe Castiglione stands with head coach Lincoln Riley and his wife Caitlin Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners after defeating the Oklahoma State Cowboys in their Bedlam game on November 30, 2019 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. OU won 34-16. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images) /
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We’re almost a month into the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, and we don’t really know much more than we did a month ago about when, and even if, Oklahoma football activities will resume this year.

What we do know is things will be different from the way they were prior to the coronavirus outbreak, and it will probably be quite a while, if ever, before everything gets back to what we used to call normal.

We also know everyone, in every walk of life, is being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and, sadly, some much worse than others.

OU athletic director Joe Castiglione, like every other AD around the country, is hoping we can get on the other side of this major public health crisis as quickly and as safely as possible, but the latter is the most important concern.

“I think this is a time to keep the main priorities in order,” Castiglione said in a recent interview with Toby Rowland, the radio voice of the Sooners. “First and foremost get through this, however that’s going to happen, (and) get through it healthy.

“We don’t know what the world is going to look like exactly…It might be tough, it might be unlike anything we could have expected. We’ll figure it out, whatever it is.

“We want to be ready to (move forward) when it’s right,” the Oklahoma AD said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to be ready.”

Unlike some in the world of college football, head coach Lincoln Riley is a strong believer that there will be a 2020 college football season in some shape or form, but acknowledges thar it probably won’t be business as usual.

“I think it’s impossible to predict when we’ll have a season, but I’m extremely confident we will have a season at some point,” Riley said on Monday in an interview on ESPN’s “First Take” program and reported in the Norman Transcript.

The schedule may look different. Fans in the stands may look different, starting times may be different. We don’t know,” he said.. “We have to be ready to adjust.”

Everything is still very much a moving target. All we can so now is practice patience and do our individual part to be safe and stay healthy and care about one another. Together, we will ALL get through this.

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