Oklahoma is set to begin voluntary workouts in preparation for the 2020 season on July 1, but that hasn’t stopped COVID-19 from making its way into the program.
Head coach Lincoln Riley has been adamant about waiting as long as possible to have players return to campus for workouts in order to be the most educated and make the best decisions ahead of the 2020 season. Other schools around the country are seeing many players test positive for COVID-19, and even Houston has already shut down voluntary workouts in fear of community spread in the program.
The Sooners, though, have already had players test positive or be exposed to the virus.
“We’ve had a player or two that has been either exposed or has tested positive for this thing just like everybody else has,” Riley told Mike Golic and Trey Wingo on their radio show. “The difference for us is our players aren’t all here together so they haven’t exposed or potentially infected a bunch of other players here.”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Oklahoma has already set guidelines for how it will deal with positive COVID-19 tests once players return to campus. Riley said that players would start a quarantine in mid-June during his last zoom conference call.
The Sooners are prepared and ready for when players return to campus in two weeks.
“Like we all said, eventually to make this thing work, we’ve got to all get them back together and our guys are due in town here in about two weeks,” Riley said. “I do feel like we’re more educated had we brought our guys on June 1 or even as little as a week ago, there’s less that we would’ve known. So I do feel like we’re more educated. Does that mean that it’s going to be 100 percent? … We obviously made this decision to help prepare for the pandemic and all that’s going on and I do feel like that’s going to be a positive.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]