Oregon State Still Committed to Being in Stillwater on Sept. 3 for Opener

Nobody knows for sure, but as of now Oklahoma State is hopeful of hosting and Oregon State is saying they intend to be there if the scheduled game is on for the season opener at Boone Pickens Stadium on Sept. 3.

STILLWATER -- Walk across the country, and make sure you have your mask on, but as you go from town to town, state to state, ask about the upcoming football season and see how many different answers you get on if it will take place, when it will take place, even the wheres that it will take place. Nobody knows for sure, but intent is often a decent predictor of reality. In Stillwater, the intent is known for sure from head football coach Mike Gundy. Gundy wants to get his players back on campus and work toward the season starting on time this fall. A season that for the Cowboys would start on Thursday night, Sept. 3, hosting Oregon State from the Pac-12.

110 days! Can’t wait for Cowboy Football! #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/QAmtOXx4KS

— Mike Gundy (@CoachGundy) May 16, 2020

How soon Gundy and other Big 12 coaches will be able to welcome their charges back may be answered on Monday (May 18). The Big 12 presidents are scheduled to zoom meet and discuss, even vote on whether to lift the ban on team activities, which right now runs through May 31. The choices are to lift the ban immediately allowing players back on campus June 1 or extend the ban for most likely two weeks or another month. The other Power Five conferences are also looking at similar options. 

It is uncertain how all of the presidents will vote, but our sources tell us that among coaches during the recent Big 12 head coach meetings that all were for moving forward with players reporting except for Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley. That was somewhat affirmed this week with Riley's comments to media about reporting now is "the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard". 

Mike Gundy is among the most gungho coaches along with TCU's Gary Patterson. Researching both coaches, Gundy and Patterson have been active since the beginning in making plans for whatever scenario their programs are presented with. Both would like to see their players on campus sooner in June rather than later in the summer. 

As for games, both the Cowboys and the Horned Frogs open with Pac-12 opponents, TCU on the road at California and Oklahoma State with a return game at home from their trip to Oregon State last season. This week it was reported that Alabama, scheduled to open in Arlington, Texas at AT&T Stadium against Southern Cal, reached out to TCU just in case the Pac-12 isn't playing then or chooses to play a conference only schedule. 

Mike Gundy isn't worried about his first opponent.

"Chad Weiberg (Oklahoma State deputy athletic director) told me that Oregon State's athletic director told him that if we're playing the game (Sept. 3) that they will be there," Gundy told Pokes Report. Weiberg had confirmed that earlier this spring. 

In what is actually a sea of uncertainty with college football and the COVID-19 pandemic, there seems to be more uncertainty in the Pac-12, but last week the conference did run a series of zoom conferences for the media with their football head coaches. While Oregon Gov. Kate Brown was on record from early May of saying that large gatherings of people early this fall in her state should be considered for canceling or modification, the two Pac-12 universities in the state including Oregon State seem more resolute on keeping the schedule intact.

“This game means a lot to me and Oregonians, Oregon State fans,” Oregon State head football coach Jonathan Smith said. "There is no question it is disappointing for this season to be affected. There’s a chance it’s going to look different. We don’t know. And so, yeah, this is something that I’m passionate about. I’m not laughing a lot about it. But I know we’re always learning more and more each week and we got some great people in this conference and leadership at Oregon State, that they’ll be the decision-makers as we to move forward in unison with health officials and our government leaders. I’m just confident we’re going to do what is best not only just for Oregonians but the Pac-12 Conference as we get to a point where we’re making decisions on what September, October and November look like.”    

While he was not as adamant in his statement on zoom to the media as Gundy was in his translation through Weiberg about the Beavers being in Stillwater for the season opener, Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes was positive in his own virtual media appearance last week.

“The one scenario that we are not working on is not playing football,” Barnes said in a story with the Corvallis Gazette-Times. “We are looking at some scenarios, including playing less games, playing some games with fewer fans… I think it’s obviously prudent and responsible of us to look at every option we can model at this point. As this evolves, we’ll narrow that down to what responsibility looks like.”

While Gundy and his staff will be back at work on June 1 in the West End Zone of Boone Pickens Stadium and hoping their players will soon join them, Barnes is hopeful that Oregon State will be on a similar schedule and hoping that decision is in the hands of local authorities. 

“The idea of returning to self-directed, voluntary workouts, as an example, with the facility opening soon, those are local decisions, in my mind,” Barnes said. “Because you’re being informed by your local health authorities and guided by your local health authorities… I would rather put my student athletes in a position to open the facilities in a controlled environment that is controlled by us than have them at a local fitness center where it is not controlled.”

Good sound thinking there because while all of these athletes are showing the determination and desire expected of them by working out on their own or in small groups, wouldn't the conditions be safer under the experience and organization of the football, strength, and support staffs at the schools. They have the knowledge and supplies to make it safer.