Open Post | Tuesday, May 5th
Posted on: May 5, 2020
4-star DL Kelvin Gilliam | Initial Post Visit Update
– Super K
This past weekend, I spoke with 2021 4-star DL, Kelvin Gilliam (Highland Springs, VA).
Here are some initial notes from that conversation.
***First, I continue to feel like the Sooners have a real shot here. Keep in mind that Gilliam planned to take an unofficial visit to OU but that visit was canceled due to the shutdown. So, the interest has been there for a while.
***It’s clear this virtual visit was really big for both Kelvin and his parents. He said it gave him a clearer sense of what OU is. He was able to see the campus and how close things are…
***He got to see the dorms, the workout facilities, etc.
***As I said, you could tell that it made a huge difference in terms of his ability to visualize himself there.
***What struck me was how excited he was by the way the Sooners personalized the visit. He said multiple times that he doesn’t think anyone will be able to match the creativity of the OU visit.
***Kelvin is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and he said that Lincoln Riley wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey on the visit.
***Kelvin has always wanted to wear number four on his jersey in college so the Sooners put that number up on the jumbo board in the stadium for Kelvin.
***They killed the visit and you could hear the excitement in Kelvin’s voice.
***Next up for him, this week, are virtual visits with Florida and Texas
Quick-Hitters | Coaches Off & Donovan McMillon
– Super K
***As you know, last week the Sooners conducted a number of virtual visits.
I’m told there won’t be any visits this week. It sounds like the staff has this week off for finals week. Then, they’ll begin some form of summer work with the players here shortly (if off campus then that’ll likely mean film study via video conferencing).
***Also, a quick note on 2021 DB, Donovan McMillon (Canonsburg, PA). McMillon is a big safety prospect who did a virtual visit with the Sooners last week.
Spoke with a source and was told that McMillon is this cycle’s Bryson Washington. Meaning he’s one of the guys that Grinch has really focused in on and recruiting very hard. Won’t be easy to steal him from that area but in due time OU will likely get some recruiting help from that region.
Snippet from: Monday Notebook | More From Joe C on 2020 Season, 2021 Draft Possibilities & More
– James Hale
More from Joe C…
Last week Iowa President Bruce Harreld made national when he said that he anticipates that the school’s football team would resume activities on June 1st. The Big Ten, in late March, announced a suspension of all team activities through May 4th and President Harreld said that his program would resume football activities as soon as the league’s moratorium expires on June 1st.
“We’re ever so hopeful that this virus will be behind us at that point, and we’ll be able to get back into what we normally do,” said President Harrell. “We’ve missed spring practice and right now June 1st is the date we are going to get back to practice and here we go.”
When President Harreld made that statement you know that every coach at every other program in the country called their school’s president and asked if they could open practice on June 1st? At OU they had announced that they were going back to an in-person academic calendar in the fall of 2020 and Lincoln Riley has said that his team needed to get back to practice on campus for organized conditioning and workouts no later than July 1st.
So, is what President Harreld announced a game-changer, a pipe dream, wishful thinking, or reality?
“He also walked it back a little after that comment came out,” said OU VP for Intercollegiate Athletes Joe Castiglione with Toby Rowland on Sportstalk 1400 KREF Radio. “Really, that remains a possibility of course. We have set our current uniform standards through May 31st. That doesn’t automatically mean that we will have student-athletes back or when we will have student-athletes back. We will stay hopeful and optimistic that it will be in the best time frame possible.”
“We certainly want them back as soon as we can. Until we have the ample opportunity to test, and we are getting better there, every week is better as testing kits are getting produced, at more and more places all over the country are making them available. Obviously, we’re going to have to facilitate our own with all of our student/athletes and perhaps even our staff. Then to have our own way to take care of the other protocols, tracking and who knows what isolation and methods of treatment if one was to contract the virus once we are back on campus.”
“We have to play it through all of those contingencies and we are. For the moment we will just keep saying hopefully and I think that’s the view to have.”
Later in the week, Big 12 Commissioner Bill Bowlsby said that in this COVID-19 pandemic that the perfect incubator for the spread of the disease would be the annual OU vs Texas game in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas where over 300,000 OU and Texas fans first gather in the State Fair of Texas before 92,100 fans sit shoulder to shoulder in the Cotton Bowl for a little over three hours for the game. Commissioner Bowlsby said that right now he didn’t think that game could be played in that environment in Dallas, Texas.
“We have given that game a lot of thought,” said Mr. Castiglione. “We have had several staff members working through the various scenarios. We have been looking at if we start the season on time and having a 12 game schedule but what would it look like with a shortened season? Would that mean we would just play conference games in leading to a championship?
What would be the timing of that schedule?
“The OU-Texas game is obviously played in the Cotton Bowl, but it is a conference game so at the moment that would be played. I believe that it could still be played in the Cotton bowl but whether that means that the state fair is going on at the same time we don’t have control of that. Would that mean we can fill the stands with as many people as we normally do? I can’t say that right now.
“We are modeling everything right now including something that would resemble a seating arraignment with social distancing in place. If you let your mind play through that you realize that the stadium will not be at full capacity if we are having to create a season model with fans having to sit a certain distance from each other. We have looked at that for our own stadium as well.
“I know people can hear all these scenarios and a million things can race through their minds. They may even go numb when they hear them, but that’s the job that we have to try to prepare for a season. I’m spending a lot of time preparing and very little time predicting.”
So, the obvious question is could the OU-Texas game be at one of the campuses this year? Or maybe at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.?
“The first preference would be to continue to have the game in Dallas,” said Mr. Castiglione. “Notably at the Cotton Bowl. That’s the tradition for 90 years and I don’t see that changing. Plus, we have a contract there through 2025. If the situation was such that we couldn’t have the game there and we had to move it somewhere else then all other options are on the table.”
“I know some people may not know this or some maybe weren’t around to see this, but in 1941 The Rose Bowl was moved out of Pasadena. It was moved to the East Coast on a campus of a University. So, these kinds of things have happened to games before and we have always had to adjust but our plan is to continue to move forward with the plan that it’s going to be played there, and if we have to adjust we will adjust accordingly.”
We all need to get through May still practicing our social distancing rules to keep COVID-19 in check and if we can do that there is a good chance we’ll have football in the fall. It may not be with a full stadium like we like but it would be on television with games counting towards a championship.
