Oklahoma football coach Lincoln Riley has serious concerns about players being back on campus.
The young coaching superstar already said bringing players back by June 1 wasn’t a great idea and now he’s telling people it’ll be borderline impossible to supervise players. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Lincoln Riley is adamant that they shouldn’t rush players back to campus. He said that schools talking about getting players back on June 1 is “one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.” #Sooners
— Jason Kersey (@jasonkersey) May 14, 2020
Riley said the following in part during a recent ESPN appearance:
The point is if we have them for two hours a day in a work out facility, what are they doing for the other 22 hours a day? You know, we can not control hundreds of guys, over a hundred players for that amount of time and know exactly what they’re going to do.
You can listen to his full comments below.
Lincoln Riley was on @GetUpESPN Friday morning to talk about his comments on the need to be patient with players returning to campus.
“We’re constantly learning more and more about this virus, and why we would not advantage our time is beyond me.”#OUDNA | #BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/w8rvX8Diep
— Sooner Gridiron (@soonergridiron) May 15, 2020
This is the discussion I’ve had with a lot of people. One of the ideas that I think is a good one is bringing players back and then keeping them in an isolated area.
Riley is more or less bringing up the counterpoint to that. How do you control more than 100 guys? Keep in mind, you also have the entire coaching staff to worry about.
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What’s the solution to the problem? I’m honestly not sure I have an answer and I’m not sure anyone else does either.
You could tell players who leave a supervised area that they can lose their scholarship, but I’m not sure that’s realistic or a good idea.
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All I know for sure is that we have to have football in the fall. However that happens, we need to figure it out.
Riley has raised a few great points, and we need to figure out a way to address them. However, simply shelving the sport until further notice isn’t going to fly.
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Let’s figure out a way to safely get the job done and then let’s get to work making sure it does.
Health experts: college football might be canceled this season because of coronavirus.
Football fans around America: pic.twitter.com/0XatouOtfV
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) April 9, 2020