It’s not often you hear Lincoln Riley talk much about players that were with the program and suddenly off the roster. Generally, it’s a short and sweet, “he’s no longer with the program” before moving on.
That wasn’t the case on Tuesday as the typically reserved Lincoln Riley was in a mood to speak on all sorts of situations with the team. It was most notable that he shared his thoughts on the Tre Bradford saga. Though he didn’t have an answer as to why Bradford left the program, it was evident that Riley was disappointed in his decision to reenter the transfer portal after joining the Sooners this Spring.
While they’ve had a ton of success in the past adding talent through the portal, when speaking with the media on Tuesday, Riley admitted that they missed on the former LSU running back.
“On that one, we swung and we obviously missed and we made a mistake,” Riley said.
Bradford transferred from LSU after last season. It’s been reported that he was exploring rejoining the Tigers.
“You’re not going to hit on every single one,” Riley said. “We missed on that one. I mean, we just flat-out did. And so, you know, you’re going to continue to go back, learn, evolve your processes, keep trying to figure out like we would in any situation … why did we miss? What did we miss? Could we have seen that?” – Ryan Aber, The Oklahoman
The timing is certainly strange as Bradford was staring at an increased role with the news that Marcus Major would be academically ineligible for the 2021 season. Bradford, who at worst would have been sharing carries in a reserve role with Major, looked to be in line for more work behind Kennedy Brooks and Eric Gray.
Now, the Oklahoma Sooners will rely on walk-ons Todd Hudson and Jaden Knowles, each of whom had tremendous high school careers but haven’t been tested much at the collegiate level. Riley did mention in his press conference that the duo of Hudson and Knowles would have likely seen playing time before the attrition that hit the running back depth chart last week.
LSU looks to be Tre Bradford’s next destination as he enters the transfer portal, but who really knows where he’s headed at this point.