After a week off, Oklahoma went through mandatory COVID-19 testing before returning to the practice field.
The Sooners had a three-week stretch of working inside a bubble without any new positive cases and all players being able to workout and go through organized team activities. With the uncertainty of a season and longer time frame between beginning of practice and the first game, head coach Lincoln Riley gave his team the week off.
Upon Oklahoma’s return, the Sooners recorded nine new positive cases of COVID-19, Riley announced during a Zoom conference call on Saturday.
“I’m disappointed by the news,” Riley said. “Obviously we had done such a tremendous job really this entire time. Certainly, you know when you give your players some time that there is risk in that.”
Those nine players are in quarantine and a few others are isolating due to contact tracing.
“One, it’s disappointing and two, it’s an opportunity for us to continue to learn, and to continue to educate ourselves because the reality is, this isn’t the NBA,” he said. “This is college football. We can try to minimize these risks as much as we possibly want but we’re never going to be eliminate them 100 percent. We don’t have a bubble.
“This is new. We’re confident in our policies, we’re confident in what we’re doing and we’ also understand that there’s going to be curveballs.”
Despite the news, Oklahoma returned to the practice field on Saturday. The Sooners are scheduled to begin the 2020 season on Sept. 12 at home against Missouri State.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]