Oklahoma football: Cancelled media availability no big deal

Social media and the press were all over the story that Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley had cancelled all media availability following the team’s regularly scheduled practice on Wednesday.

According to KOCO-TV sports anchor Carson Cunningham in Oklahoma City, no OU football personnel will be made available to  media until after the game with TCU on Saturday night.

There was no immediate explanation provided as to why this action had been taken, but it is widely speculated the Sooners do not want to tip their hand regarding who will start at quarterback for OU in the game against TCU on Saturday night.

It could also be that Riley and his assistant coaches want to avoid any questions about the quarterback situation and any unnecessary disruption or distraction as a result of it as Oklahoma prepares to play TCU.

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, the OU Daily, the Oklahoma student newspaper, reported that Spencer Rattler was seen taking snaps with the Sooners’ second-team offensive unit.

Most of the media types who closely follow Oklahoma football believe true freshman Caleb Williams will be the starting quarterback when the Sooners take the field on Saturday night. It wouldn’t be that surprising, though, to see Spencer Rattler get the call.

It shouldn’t be that big a deal that Riley and the Sooners don’t want to keep answering questions about the elephant in the room regarding the quarterback situation. They clearly have their reasons and besides, it’s totally their prerogative to cancel all engagement with the press.

The problem in doing so is, in the absence of information, it opens the door for the media and others to fuel public opinion by speculating and offering their own answers on what’s really behind the action that’s been taken.

At his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Riley said — to the surprise of absolutely no one — that he would not be naming the starting QB for the game with TCU until later than the week. That’s pretty straight forward.

Riley actually may not have known or decided at that time which QB he was going to go with. Even if he had a pretty good idea, however, there was good reason not to want to tip his hand this early for competitive reasons. It’s always better, though, as the popular expression goes, to get it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Closed practices are not atypical in college football. That’s why media availability afterwards is such a valuable information channel and source for the media. When that access is taken away, it obviously raises questions, but it’s really not as big a deal as some would like to make it, because the media always have other sources available to them

It’s no secret that the quarterback issue is the driving force behind Riley’s action to avoid media questions, whether he came out and said as much or not. He could come out and fool everybody by playing both quarterbacks, although he has said that isn’t something, at his core, that he is a big believer in.

If you ask me, Riley’s actions and reactions this week have made this a much bigger issue than it needs to be, especially if it is all designed to delay confirming what most of us already believe to be true: that Caleb Williams will start against TCU.

Let’s just hope this controversy doesn’t grow into an even bigger one after Saturday

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