With National Signing Day here, Lincoln Riley reflects on OU's new class: 'You're trying to recreate experiences ... It's weird'
Lincoln Riley hasn't ever had to formulate a game plan for a conference championship game and deal with National Signing Day in the same week.
But in 2020, the unprecedented is simply par for the course.
In his Tuesday media availability, Riley fielded plenty of questions about the Sooners' pending grudge match with Iowa State. However, Oklahoma's 37-year-old head coach also received a smattering of questions about the age of Zoom recruitment, and the various ways that COVID-19 has impacted the process throughout the year.
As he ruminated on the most difficult recruiting season of his career, what first occurred to Riley was that he hasn't physically interacted with the prospects in months.
This year has certainly been unique in that we were talking to all of our signees and their parents last night via Zoom. It’s hard to believe I haven’t seen these guys’ faces in so long. Now they’re signing tomorrow. And I think it’ll be interesting as we watch across the country just how teams approach this. So much has changed. You haven’t been able to go out and evaluate these guys in a long, long time. Close to a year now. You’ve got the transfer portal open, which is going nuts. You’ve got the prospect of immediate eligibility coming up. It’ll be interesting.
Riley also touched on the way that the NCAA's eligibility freeze will affect depth charts next season. With all players granted an extra year of eligibility, many schools will no doubt have a surplus of scholarship players in 2021. Seniors returning for an additional season may lose their roster spots to incoming freshmen, or vice versa.
I don’t want to speculate too much right now, but schools are going to have more options after Signing Day than they’ve ever had. So it’ll be interesting to see how everybody fills their rosters and how everybody approaches it. Normally in a year like this, you might have two or three guys at the end that maybe haven’t committed or maybe that have popped up to recruit as of late that you’ve signed. We’ve been no different than a lot of people in that way. You may not see as much of that this year. Just with not having the chance to go out and evaluate guys.
And indeed, film evaluation has been the meat and potatoes of recruiting in a pandemic, as coaches haven't been able to scout players in person at all. However, what the film doesn't show is character and work ethic, which Riley views as paramount qualities in any potential signee.
Some of the guys have popped up late, you’re having to make decisions totally based on, with some guys, guys you’ve never even met. It’s hard for a player as far as maybe schools they haven’t seen or having the chance to build a relationship with. ... It’s hard for us on the other side in that we’re making decisions for the future of our program, and it’s difficult to do that with people you’ve never seen play live or never met or all that as well. It’ll be an interesting, exciting signing day, and the next couple months after for sure.
Finally, Riley gave credit to the prospects and their families for their adaptability amidst constantly shifting circumstances throughout the recruitment process. Though he acknowledged that the intimacy and personalization of traditional recruiting is irreplaceable over Zoom, Skype or FaceTime, Riley also stated that he believes the age of COVID-19 has galvanized recruiting relationships in a unique manner.
It certainly hasn’t been easy for us or for those players. Just because when guys come here and they see our place and they get around our people, it does nothing but help. So not having that has been difficult. You’re trying to create things that normally happen in person. You’re trying to recreate experiences. You’re trying to recreate building — not really recreate, but build relationships in a different way. I don’t know. It’s weird. It’s almost like the deal with the team right now: everything’s so different, and it’s so different in recruiting, that it, in a way, with your bond with the parents and the players, you know, in a weird way — it’s almost closer? In that it’s like, ‘Man, we’re kind of going through this together a little bit. We’re both agonizing on you not being able to be here and us not being able to be there.' ... And we’ve been lucky. I’ll be honest. The class that we’re signing, these guys that are committed, these parents that have been a part of this process as well, have been unbelievable. I couldn’t ask more of how good those people have been to work with, how understanding and flexible and open-minded they’ve been. Because they’ve certainly made it a lot easier, and they’ve made this class already very memorable.
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