As COVID rocks college football, Sooners navigate the dangers of another open date

With games and events being canceled or postponed around the country — in Oklahoma alone, high school football teams are advancing in the playoffs because of COVID forfeits — Lincoln Riley once again has to navigate the nuanced dangers of an open date.

LSU-Alabama is off for this weekend. Memphis-Navy is off. Signs are pointing to more in the coming days.

OU doesn’t play this week, but the 18th-ranked Sooners need to be at full strength when No. 14 Oklahoma State comes to Norman. In many areas nationwide, COVID cases are spiking.

“Yeah, they definitely worry you because it’s out there more and we’re trying to keep our guys sheltered as much as we can,” Riley said Tuesday. “The more it’s out there, the more risk there is. We can’t get around that.”

This is OU’s third and final open date of the regular season. If the Sooners make the Big 12 Championship Game — tentatively scheduled for either Dec. 12 or Dec. 19 — they could have an additional off week after hosting Baylor on Dec. 5.

“As far as the bye week, we’ve had to be careful about it,” Riley said. “We’ve had to certainly adjust how we go about it. The amount of time we give our guys away from here, it’s definitely changed the traditional schedule.”

On a typical open date, the Sooners practice and go through their usual routine up until Wednesday or sometimes Thursday, and then players are free Friday and Saturday before returning Sunday night. Players often go home if they can, and frequently take teammates with them. That’s not happening so much this year.

“The bye week schedule, I don’t know if we’re doing more than what we’ve done in the past,” Riley said, “but we’ve spread it out a little bit more just so that we’re here and seeing our guys and get them tested and keep everybody as close as we possibly can.”

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