Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley announced Saturday the team has nine positive COVID-19 tests after fully returning to campus Friday.

The Sooners went back to preseason camp Saturday, after taking nearly a week off and allowing players to go home or stay in Norman.

“We had nine players test positive for COVID. We had a couple of others, a relatively small number, that have been isolated due to the contact tracing,” said Riley in a Zoom call Saturday afternoon. “The contact tracing, like as we've explained to you guys, it's done by the state health department here in Oklahoma. So we're very aggressive about removing anybody that could have had any potential contact, we removed them from the team, put them in quarantine and then if the state health department deems that they weren't a high risk contact then we've been able to add them back in.

“So disappointed now by the news, obviously. We've done such a tremendous job really this entire time.”

Riley doesn’t regret sending the players home last weekend, but he understood there would be some risks in that. He said over 75 percent of the team didn’t leave Norman, but that all nine positives were tracked back to community-based infections.

Things were reaching a boiling point last weekend. Nobody quite sure about the practice schedule because of the coronavirus pandemic. Players not knowing if all their work would be for nothing because the season would be canceled.

Putting the players through six, seven weeks straight of camp wasn’t an ideal option, either, said Riley. Take your lumps now and move on and continue to try to adjust as well as possible. The goal continues to do whatever you can to educate everybody about the virus and how to move forward.

“That’s going to be the area where – not just our players, but players all over the country – are going to have to do a great job when they are out of these facilities,” Riley said. “I do think we and a number of other institutions are proving we can keep them healthy and really mitigate a lot of risks within these facilities.

“The key is going to be even when they aren’t here, how good a job can we all do. It’s up to all of us. It’s something for our program and our team that we have to do a better job of going forward. We fully expect that we will. With that, we’re excited to get back to ball and we can’t wait to get back onto the field. We will continue to make every adjustment needed like we always do.”

OU has had two instances with multiple number of positive COVID-19 cases and both were after OU brought players back to campus. The first time, it was for the original July 1 voluntary workout date. And now Friday after being off for nearly a week.

When on campus, OU football had only had one positive case out of more than 650 tests throughout the month of July and first week of August.

The Big 12 announced earlier this week that it was pushing forward toward having a 2020 football season, and Riley is in full support of that. You can’t eliminate the risks, he said, but it’s going to be about minimizing them. He remains confident in OU’s efforts.

“We don't have a bubble,” Riley said. “We get that we're all going to have to continue to work to do a better job on all accounts.”

“We're confident in our policies. We're confident in what we're doing. But we also understand that there's going to be curveballs, there's going to be things that come up where we have to adjust that we’ve, I think, shown a willingness to do that up to this point.”

Injury bug confirmed for Sooners

OU went back to work July 31 for preseason camp and only had five total practices before Saturday, but it was enough to do some considerable damage in the injury department.

Previous injuries reported by SoonerScoop.com to linebacker Caleb Kelly, defensive lineman Marcus Hicks and defensive back Justin Harrington were confirmed by Riley. He also added walk-on Cason Grant to that list.

“Those guys will all miss a substantial part of the season,” Riley said. “Harrington’s was one we knew about. It was something that he incurred before he got on campus. All those guys will be limited for an extended period.”

Riley deemed them as lower-extremity injuries, but SoonerScoop.com can confirm it was a torn ACL for Harrington and Kelly and a torn Achilles for Hicks. Kelly and Kelvin Hicks, Hicks’ father, posted on social media earlier this week confirming they’ve already had their respective surgeries.

No suspension updates

Now less than a month from OU’s opener against Missouri State, you’d think there would be something concrete regarding the suspensions of running back Rhamondre Stevenson, wide receiver Trejan Bridges and defensive end Ronnie Perkins.

But nope, nothing new, said Riley.

The trio missed OU’s loss in the Peach Bowl against LSU and have been expected to miss the first five games of the season because of NCAA rules.

However, because the regular season has been trimmed from 12 games to 10, there’s a strong feeling the suspension should go from five games to four.

“No clarification on that. It’s being discussed,” Riley said. “I understand why it’s been on the backburner a little bit with trying to figure out how the season is going to unfold. It’s being discussed because obviously that world has been changing and has changed in so many different ways. Really, kind of an archaic rule in college football.

“I know they’re working on it. I also know the reduction of the schedule is also being discussed and how it pertains. But I don’t have any answers for that right now.”

OU remains all-in

Following OU’s first day of camp, Riley said no players had opted out because of the coronavirus. The NCAA has ruled anybody who chooses to sit out the season would still keep their scholarship.

But July 31 feels like forever ago and a number of top players in the country have opted out. For now, though, everybody remains all-in with the Sooners.

“At this point we haven’t had any players that have decided to opt out,” Riley said. “Will it happen? It’s hard to say. It certainly could. If it does, we understand that and respect that and certainly have a plan for that. You get in a situation like this that everybody’s gotta make a decision based on them.”

Riley said they are constantly having meetings with players and their families to provide updates and to be as transparent as possible.

“That’s the one thing we’ve told our families, our players is listen: we’re not all in the same situation,” Riley said. “On the field, our family situations, our health situations, we all look at this through our own lens and how it directly relates to us. You can’t make a blanket decision for everybody.”