Lincoln Riley: COVID affecting 'all parts of our program;' preparation and planning are more challenging than ever
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley does not have Coronavirus.
He attested as much on Tuesday during his weekly press conference: he’s on campus — which means he’s still testing negative for COVID-19 ahead of Saturday night's home finale with Baylor.
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anxiety every time that nasal swab goes in.
“I do,” Riley said. “I do more as of late.”
The same can’t be said of his assistants and his support staff. Players testing positive and being quarantined is one thing. But coaches — that’s new. Without giving away details or medical histories, Riley described the challenges of coaching in a pandemic when staffers are testing positive and can’t be on site.
On Tuesday, Riley revealed he’s even enlisted the help of Bob Stoops to get through practice.
“He didn’t jump in and try to take over or anything like that,” said safety Delarrin Turner-Yell, “but he did play his role.”
After shutting things down last week due to an outbreak in the athletic department, the Sooners had to postpone last Saturday’s Big 12 Conference game at West Virginia. On Monday, OU announced its latest testing data, and the athletic department — athletes and staff in all sports — came back with a 9 percent positivity rate. That’s way up from 2 percent the week before, and matches the highest return so far (OU tested at 9 percent on its first test at the start of September).
In all, 13 OU staff members — again, among the entire athletic department — tested positive. Riley’s staff apparently was hit particularly hard.
“I would say it’s affected all parts of our program,” Riley said. “Staff, support staff — we have one branch of our support staff that’s pretty much been wiped out. We had to bring in some outside help. The players, obviously. It’s hit us all a little bit. Whether it’s an equipment manager, a trainer, a coach, you have to have plans, you have to have backup plans in case those things happen. We’ve had those.
“We had one staff member that was positive in August and then up until 7-8-9 days ago, we hadn’t had one the entire time. It’s quite a few people. I don’t know if I had as much anxiety when we were having all of that success (of testing negative), but now seeing all the coaches across the country test positive – several that I know and have talked to – and I think several of them are like I’ve tried to do. The only time I don’t have a mask on is when I’m eating or when I go to sleep. I know a lot of these other guys have done the same thing and still gotten the virus. Do I have anxiety when I take it? Yeah. Absolutely.”
Riley’s diligence with wearing a mask and in other areas may be keeping him safe for now. But try to imagine an OU gameday without him. Ohio State’s Ryan Day tested positive. So did Alabama’s Nick Saban. A few other head coaches have been sent to quarantine.
But things are a little different at Oklahoma. Day is involved in play-calling but essentially the offensive operation runs through Kevin Wilson on gameday. Saban doesn’t call plays on offense or defense, but does make certain decisions.
At OU, Riley is THE offensive play-caller. His little 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper is created and executed by him. The Sooners’ offensive identity is Riley’s identity, because this is his offense.
“It’s our offense,” he clarified. “I think it would create some changes for our guys, but those are changes that we’ve rehearsed. Again, the hard thing in this is it’s simple to go write on a piece of paper that if I get COVID and I’m out, then this person is going to do this and moving this person to that and this person to that and here we go. The hard thing is a situation where you have multiple out. What’s the plan if you’re out AND this person is out AND this person is out, too? It’s almost a little maddening to plan for.
“We have a set of plans that we would work our way down. But it’s just so difficult to say because to me, you have to look at the whole puzzle. These couple of pieces are out, how do you put it back together? That’s what we’ve attempted to do. We’ve had a lot of conversations. I think we have contingencies built up quite a bit. This year it’s just so difficult to predict what combination of guys are in or out and what are your answers or tweaks to offset that. I am confident with our plan. But at the same time, it’s certainly day-to-day.”
Riley said the matrix of figuring out who’s available, who can do what and who else can pitch in either at practice or on gameday is complex.
“As far as the minimum number of coaches, we do have a lot of contingencies,” he said. “But I do think there’s a point where it becomes unreasonable. I do know that there have been several throughout the year, including a couple in this league, where that’s been the case, that there really wasn’t a staff to do it. What’s the minimum? Probably depends a little bit on who it is and just the combination of guys. Obviously, it’s going to be hard to play a football game if you can’t have a full-functioning staff.
“As far as contingency plans, I think some of them have come into play, both with players and staff — and again, staff, not just coaching staff, staff everywhere. It takes so many people to make this thing run. Try having a football practice without any equipment managers. It’s a big operation.
“People here work their tail off and do a lot, so when you do miss some people, you feel it and there are major adjustments that have to happen. I think we've been able to adjust on and off the field. Can you ever anticipate exactly what's gonna happen? … I don’t know that you can hit all of it, but I think some of the general prep that we’ve done has helped us have some direction when things have come up.
“As far as gameday, we’ll just have to see how the week plays out and what’s available as far as the current normal staff.”
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