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Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley on comments from Florida's Dan Mullen: 'To each his own'

After Florida's coach laments not having all his players in the Cotton Bowl, Oklahoma's coach said that was easy to say after the fact, then refrained from saying more
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley on comments from Florida's Dan Mullen: 'To each his own'
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley on comments from Florida's Dan Mullen: 'To each his own'

Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley saw what Florida coach Dan Mullen said after the Sooners’ 55-20 wipeout of Mullen’s Florida Gators in the Cotton Bowl.

“To each his own,” Riley said.

Among other things, Mullen said the Gators’ scout team wanted to play, so he let them, and that’s why the score got so out of hand.

Florida was missing four starters on offense and four on defense who either opted out, transferred or tested positive for COVID-19 between the SEC title game and the Cotton Bowl.

Mullen mentioned the Florida scout team repeatedly in his postgame press conference, and reiterated his SEC title game postgame comments.

“The last game this 2020 team played was 11 days ago,” Mullen said. “ … We didn’t have to play.”

Riley measured his comments during a 40-minute Zoom call Friday to wrap up the Sooners season — to a point.

“I think that’s pretty easy to say after the fact and after what happened,” Riley said.

“I do have feelings on it, but I just don’t know what I have to gain, really, with sharing those, honestly. I don’t think I have a whole lot to gain.

“We’re going to try to appreciate the opportunities that we have here, the opportunities that we have to play. We’ve been in situations this year and in years past where we didn’t have all of our bullets either. Everybody has to make a decision on how they are going to handle that within their programs.”

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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