Mike Holder Talks Determination to Play and Hints that Even Alabama is a Possibility for the Opener

Mike Holder is realistic, but definitely an optimistic realist in planning and hoping for 11 football games this season. The opener could be a surprise as Holder hinted they've at least thought about Alabama.

STILLWATER -- While the COVID-19 spikes in Oklahoma and throughout some of the major Big 12 states including south in Texas, Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder is hopeful, even optimistic, with his attitude about Oklahoma State and the rest of the Big 12 Conference playing football this fall, even playing a full regular season of 12 games. 

For Holder his views start with his satisfaction and confidence that his head football coach in Mike Gundy is in a better place with his football team after the events of last month and that the team is weathering the coronavirus well in their summer preparation for the season. 

"I'll pay a compliment to our head football coach. He's backed up everything he said he was going to do," Holder said of Mike Gundy, who was under fire and the subject of an internal investigation that showed he had not built as strong a personal relationships with players. "I think he has met with every single player by now and I think he will continue to do that on a daily basis.

"I think the summer conditioning is going as well as can be expected," Holder added. "We've had some positive tests, but we've dealt with those according to the protocols we have set up. I think we're very fortunate to have our task force led by Chad Weiberg and our internal team, Dr. Iven on our staff and then Oklahoma Health Sciences in Tulsa and Dr. Kayse Schrum."

Matching the local and state spikes with the virus, Oklahoma State had the most positive tests so far within the athletic department on Monday, but it was still a manageable number. Today the Oklahoma State football team was going through the mandatory conditioning this morning and lift groups were going throughout the day. I saw a group of offensive linemen and some of the receivers, including newly named Biletnikoff Award watch list member Tylan Wallace walk in the West End Zone facility preparing to lift weights. 

"It prepared us to deal with those positive tests, which we knew there would be some," added Holder. "The transition into the mandatory workouts has been a positive. Everything is trending positive on our campus and our commitment is that we want to play every single game in every single sport in 2020-2021."

Holder said he is not alone. He was part of the Big 12 athletic directors Zoom meeting on Tuesday and he summed that up in similar fashion.

"Our (Big 12) intent is to play football and our focus is on playing 12 games (full regular season)," Holder said of the attitude in Tuesday's meeting. "Until we're told by the health experts out there and forced to do something different, our focus is on playing 12, getting ready to play 12. That's our goal and I have my fingers crossed that we won't have to fall off on that commitment."

That is as optimistic a viewpoint as I've read from that particular meeting. The Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby simply said it was too early to make a decision, but Bowlsby is in a situation where he has to make sure he says what will make 12 different schools happy, or at least not unhappy. 

Holder was quick to mention that Oklahoma State currently only has 11 games scheduled after the action of the Pac-12 Conference to eliminate non conference games in all fall sports, including football, caused Oregon State to opt out of the return game in the series on Sept. 3. The Beavers will come back to Stillwater in the future, but Holder and Weiberg, who heads up the football scheduling efforts, are looking. I mentioned BYU, a very good possibility and then Holder took over asking the questions.

"Who do you want to play," the athletic director asked me.

After saying I thought BYU would be solid, I said my preference was to find out if ESPN needed someone to come down and replace USC at AT&T Stadium to open against Alabama? 

"You think we've thought about that? We all have the same interest and priorities and I would say all options are on the table," Holder added. 

Holder kind of asked himself if all non conference games are the same or not during the pandemic. He even kind of openly questioned how a conference would want to let go of non conference games between Power Five or as he said A-5 opponents, teams that you can be confident test their players and do things similar to each other in regard to health and routine including charter flights to road games. 

"I'm hopeful that our conference will play all 12 games and all the non conference games," he added. "I hope the SEC will do the same and the ACC, but you just don't know."

Meanwhile, Oklahoma State continues to put the work in. The football program continues to build and improve off the field following an eye opening June and push through a season threatening spike of COVID-19 in July. 

"It's going to be around for awhile and we have to learn to live with it," Holder said of the virus. "We need to do our part, put a mask on in respect for those around you, socially distance, wash our hands and we can get back to closer to normalcy. I went to watch, and our football team conditioning this morning sure looked to me like they were preparing to play football."