Kyle Moats was working at Kentucky whenever the Wildcats needed a new scoreboard in the mid-1990s.
They looked around, noticing Missouri had just put a new one up. It was different. Not traditional at all, and the athletic director, Joe Castiglione, was there to help with any questions and influenced the decision of which direction Kentucky was heading for its new scoreboard.
Now Moats is at Missouri State as the Bears’ athletic director. Castiglione is at Oklahoma. Moats has called and checked in with the Sooners ever since he got the gig at Missouri State in 2009 for an opening to play a game.
And after a rollercoaster ride of the last six months, the two will meet again Saturday night at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
“I don’t think there was any concern, at least I didn’t feel it or sense it in the phone call that we were not going to have it,” Moats told SoonersWire during a phone interview this week about the first conversation between he and Castiglione this offseason. “I think we were very realistic in terms of we don’t know for sure that the virus will dictate what happens. But in light of that, the conversation was more about, ‘Hey, look, we Missouri State, we’ll do whatever we need to do to, to meet your criteria.’ And at the time, I don’t think Joe (Castiglione) knew exactly what all that criteria was.
“But certainly we had an easy agreement that we knew things were going to be different and change throughout the course of the summer and that we would have to adapt whatever that may be. So that was a lot of maybe more 10,000-foot type things, but we indicated all along that that we would do whatever Oklahoma needed us to do. We both wanted to play the game. There was never a question about not playing the game as long as the virus allows us to play the game.”
The two had talked at least four or five times over the course of the last six months. Each conversation was long and about where the status of the game was at and what needed to be done.
Moats and Castiglione agreed that if things weren’t going well, were not going right for the student-athlete or that the proper COVID-19 testing couldn’t take place, that the game wouldn’t be played and that decision would have happened a long time ago. But it never got to that point, nor was Oklahoma ever looking for a new opponent.
When rumor that the Sooners were looking for a new opponent, Castiglione called Moats immediately.
“Contractually, it was never an issue,” Moats said. “You know, it was never that Oklahoma was trying to figure out they were going to go play somebody else. Joe (Castiglione) made that clear early on that that was never his intent. That we were going to play the game. That was how we both believed in that.
“And I never thought that he brought that up. I never brought that up. I think the media or maybe somebody, you know, question was asked to him about that and and I think he felt compelled that he had to tell me about it. I never worried about it one bit, never ever entered my mind on the money part in the contract part. I know Joe and that would have never been the case.”
Moats and Castiglione then got to work together on a waiver request to the NCAA to move the game from Sept. 5 to Aug. 29. That started a chain reaction that allowed every athletic director to apply for the same waiver.
The two have worked in stride with each other every step of the way.
“In the case of the working relationship that we have, it’s really been everything one could hope for in the sense that we both understood our primary focus of safety, health, welfare of all of the people we serve,” Castiglione told SoonersWire during a phone interview on Wednesday.
The last six months haven’t been easy for either. Moats and Castiglione haven’t been able to meet with their staff in a natural setting. Everything has taken place over conference calls, phone calls or zoom calls. Neither, though, will take a compliment for themselves, but will each other and their staffs.
There’s a reason why Castiglione told SoonersWire he wasn’t getting any sleep this week during a phone interview on Wednesday. The game truly came down to the wire as late as Friday morning.
But that’s now over and when the ball is kicked Saturday night, Oklahoma’s athletic director will feel a weight lifted off his shoulder.
The finish line was crossed.
Football is being played, and Castiglione, as well as Moats, will be able to get some sleep Saturday night.
“I probably won’t feel (like we made it) specifically until we’re actually on the field kicking the ball go in the air,” Castiglione said. “I said we’re all where we are. And I think we got to accept and understand and appreciate the fact that when we do kick off on Saturday evening, that it has been a list of epic proportions to get to this point.”
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