Oklahoma football: Nine Sooners test positive upon return to camp

LAWRENCE, KANSAS - OCTOBER 05: Head coach Lincoln Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners watches from the sidelines during the game against the Kansas Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
LAWRENCE, KANSAS - OCTOBER 05: Head coach Lincoln Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners watches from the sidelines during the game against the Kansas Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

The excellent record of Oklahoma football in preventing COVID-19 exposure during voluntary workouts and the start of training camp took a dive this past week.

Nine Sooners tested positive for the coronavirus after returning to campus after a week off, according to an ESPN report by Sam Khan, Jr. Head coach Lincoln Riley paused preseason training camp on Aug. 8, allowing the players to return home, when it became apparent that the Aug. 29 start of the season was being pushed back by a couple of weeks.

The Big 12 announced last week that it was pushing ahead with its plan to play football in the fall and released a revamped schedule, with the opening games on Sept. 12.

In addition to the nine players who tested positive, Riley said “a relatively small number” are also being isolated because of contact tracing.

“It’s extremely disappointing, Riley said. “We’ve done such a tremendous job really this entire time. Certainly you know when you give your players some time (off), there is a risk in that.”

The Sooner head coach did say that when they gave the players the time off, approximately 75 percent of the squad remained in Norman.

Oklahoma reported 14 positive tests when the players returned to campus on July 1 for voluntary workouts. The Sooners purposely delayed the start of voluntary workouts, even though a number of programs allowed players to return to campus three to four weeks earlier than OU. Only one Sooner player tested positive over the next five weeks of testing, indicating that the protocols put in place at Oklahoma to protect the players and staff from COVID exposure were working.

In retrospect, Riley may regret the decision to give the players the time off, but at the time he believed it was the right thing to do because he didn’t want training camp to go on that long after the schedule change.

This development underscores the high risk involved when college student athletes step outside of the controlled environment then are in during training camp. It also raises a flag of what might be expected with the entire student body back on campus.

“I think that is the concern of every single college football coach in the country right now,” Riley said. “How is that managed, because you know the numbers game becomes much more difficult.

“I think (this is) a sense of reality for us and what we’re going to be up against,” he said.

Riley emphasized that OU was going to continue to follow the health and safety protocols that are in place and working and the players would continue to practice in masks, as they have been doing all along. But he told reporters on Saturday, that being vigilant when not on campus will be a key to whether college football can get through a season without interruptions this fall.